By Aliyu Smith Almusawi
The soul of a martyr, according to Ahmadinajad of Iran, awakens the souls of more than a thousand living persons. The martyrdom of my affable brother-in-faith, an elder brother to one of my closest friends, Khalid Idris Doya, was one of the worst moments in my life.
His martyrdom together with more than a thousand members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, who were massacred by the Nigerian Army in Zaria, was an engineered massacre that exposed the country’s continued subservience to the Zionist agendas.
Born on 23rd August 1990, Ukasha Idris attended Fudiyya Nursery and Primary School from 1996 to 2002. He went ahead to the Government Day Secondary School, Kofar Wambai, Bauchi, from 2002 to 2008. It was from that school he proceeded to attend the famous Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnics where he obtained a national diploma in Accountancy. Having completed the high school, Ukasha Idris devoted his entire life and energy to the cause of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria under the spiritual stewardship of Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky. His Arabic fluency as well as his mastery of English was what made him stand out among his peers. His strong interest in Islamic education was what propelled him to be at the forefront of youths whose intellectual prowess became a force to reckon with. I first met him in person after I was referred to him by a friend who believed Shahid Ukasha had what it took to teach me Arabic. His sense of humour was awe-inspiring, his lilting voice and his adroit style of imparting knowledge to his students had made him one of the most revered members of the movement in Bauchi.
Throughout the transient time I had been with Ukasha, I had never seen him once quelling or snarling at anybody let alone engaging anyone in religious arguments. His sense of religious conviction and his mystic style of living inspired me to commit more to the cause of Ahlul Bayt.
Ukasha Idris whose birthday we celebrated recently last met me at Hussainiyya Baqiyatullah, Zaria shortly after the completion of the annual Arba’een Symbolic Trek. He decided to stay in Zaria and celebrate the holy month in which our Prophet was born. During our last rendezvous, he confided in me that it was his wish to attain martyrdom and he prayed to reunite with the commander of martyrs, Imam Hussain (as) soon.
Unknown to him, his martyrdom was over the horizon. The 13th December, 2015 will forever be the saddest moment in my life because it was the day I lost my fiancée, Zainab, it was the day I lost my closest friend Bukhari M. Bello Jega, it was the day I lost Sheikh Turi, one of the highest profile clerics I admire. It was the day I lost hundreds of brothers, sisters and infants whose only reason given for their massacre was they blocked a road. Shahid Ukasha Idris was martyred together with hundreds of his brothers in Darur Rahmah, the graveyards of our martyrs in the suburb of Zaria.
May his gentle soul and that of our martyrs continue to wallow in the mercy of Allah, and may the wrath of Allah descend on whoever is complicit in the massacre of our members in Zaria, you can kill our members but you cannot put out our swelling popularity.
