By Ibrahim Usman
During the first day of the Muharram mourning session (Majalis) on Friday (25/10/2014), which also coincided with the first day in the Islamic calendar, (Hijrah), Leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria His Eminence Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky spoke on significance of Hijrah,
necessity for Islamic and how the process of establishing an Islamic government is now being ridiculed.
Sheikh Zakzaky who was speaking before thousands of people at the Hussainiyyah Baqiyyatullah, Zaria explained that, Hijrah was a turning point in the history of Islam by which the process of establishing a just system started.
He congratulated the Muslim Ummah for witnessing yet another year, saying for Allah to spare one’s life to witness a new day is worthy of thanks-giving.
He cited a Hadith from Imam Ja’afar al-Sadiq (AS) that says a day is worth celebrating to a servant if he did not commit a sin during the day. “It is a day worthy of celebrating for who did not commit a sin in the day, for many were given the opportunity but did not take good advantage of it”.
Sheikh Zakzaky pointed out that, the Hijra calendar consisted of 12 months right from creation as stated in the holy Qur’an, from which the Gregorian derived the idea of dedicating 12 months to its calendar.
According to the Leader, four months in the Hijrah calendar, Zul Qa’adah, Zul Hijjah, Rajab and Muharram are sacred in which war is prohibited, but that the month of Muharram is singled out as the month of grief and calamity in which the blood of Pious Ones (Household of the Holy Prophet) was spilled in the most crude manner in the plain of Karbala.
On Hijrah (Migration), he explained that the Holy Prophet migrated with his Household and companions not as a refugee, but as an invited guest by the people, and he later established an Islamic government. ”The lamented Holy Prophet established a government in Madinah not by force, but by good conduct and based on their support and allegiance to him”.
Sheikh Zakzaky lamented the manner at which the Islamic state exemplified by the Holy Prophet is now being ridiculed to means terrorism and violence. “Because they do not like a genuine Islamic state, they formed a terror cell with the name of an Islamic State. They want to show world that forming an Islamic state means bloodshed and terrorism”, he added.
Nigeria in which they created another terror cell called Boko Haram. “There is nothing like Boko Haram but the government itself, with the country’s Commander-in-Chief at the helm of affairs, the Nigerian military the members. They assign a section of the military to be the insurgents in disguise, while the other gullible and unsuspecting military fighting the insurgents. They are daily killing their colleagues and colleagues in the name of Boko Haram insurgency”.
The remark by the Leader ushered the beginning of Muharram.