This piece may be a bit late. But corrections to blunders are better late than not.
When a couple of months ago Alhaji Buhari omo Musa extended his talk-exploits to the church, instant criticisms trailed the action from different muslim clerics. Alhaji Buhari’s fanatical fans raised the dust in defence of their beloved celebrity. They loosely lampooned those who deemed the unprecedented action of their man criticizable. They never bothered giving listening ears to the angle from which the clerics viewed the issue.
Alhaji Buhari entered the church. Soooo! What’s the big deal? No scholarly cleric will hit any muslim preacher for entering the church, provided that what he goes in for is still within the ambit of the Islamic laws.
A muslim can consider appearing in church to preach the gospel of Islam. Alhaji Buhari claimed to have done that exploit to call the christians therein to Islam. But was his message really soul-winning? Was it conviction-driven? Whoever watched the video or listened to the audio would see crystally that the man only succeeded in ridiculing the religion he was invited to representatively preach its gospel. He jestingly talked of the muslims as against what he was supposed to do. He portrayed muslims as unorganised, unrespectful of God etc.
The church would never have invited a serious muslim preacher to stand on the pulpit for a soul-winning lecture. That would be suicidal. They knew Alhaji Buhari was nowhere near the standard of a serious muslim that would render their action a suicide. They knew he would only make them laugh and giggle out their jaws, which he did as though he was Ali Baba. Mission accomplished.
Entering the church is no big deal, of course. The church should have rather called on a soul inspirer and winner, such as Mallam Yusuf Adepoju of the Academy of Islamic Propagation (ACADIP). This is a muslim scholar of the christian Bible. He understands it inside-out, and incalculably, many christians have found Islam worthy of being practised through his intellectual dialogues with them. A few years ago, ACADIP showcased and celebrated hundreds of christians who had embraced Islam. If that church had considered the aforementioned Bible guru for an invite rather than the entertainer-spitter, muslims all over would have applauded the courage by the church and possibly accompanied him down to the venue, for it is certain that there would be innumerable reverts at the end of the preaching.
Alhaji Buhari apparently fell for the euphoria of the unprecedented invite. He satisfied his audience at the expense of Islam. “In the name of Jesus you will be blessed…” “Jesu a se iyanu ninu aye yin…” (Jesus will perform wonders in your lives). He blabbered. This is nothing but shirk – ascribing Allah’s attribute to a human being, even though he was a miraculously born prophet and messenger like Adam was wondrously created from clay. Any muslim who fathoms the tenets of Islam would never attribute Allah’s unequalled quality(ies) to a human, in fact, not even Prophet Muhammad (صلي الله عليه وسلم), our model.
Alhaji Buhari loquaciously uttered too many trash that are enough to make a treatise. This piece, however, is just to give a synoptic account of the exploit and educate muslims and non-muslims alike.
By
Sanni K. Yusuf (Abu Royyan)
English 