About ten years ago (barely a year after I embraced Islam), I saw Jamiu Adegunwa for the first time in Awe, Oyo town, Oyo State. The Muslim community of that area invited him for comparative da’wah. During the lecture, he mentioned that Jesus (AS) died (in contrast to Qur’an 4:157-159) and gave birth to two children with reference to Qur’an 13:38.
I climbed the stage to ask him questions about these fallacies. We went back and forth for some minutes and I turned to the audience and directed my speech to the Alfas and Imams saying, “Why are you silent? Is this man speaking the truth? If you do not agree with him, please challenge him so he doesn’t mislead the audience”. Sadly, no one did.
Over the years, I have heard him utter even more grievous statements like the permissibility of eating dogs, the rejection of hadith, the Qur’an referring to Felix of Nola as being in the Cave, and now, he claims to have an understanding of some Qur’an verses than the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him).
The followers and supporters of Adegunwa give him the benefit of the doubt saying that people deliberately misunderstand him. However, this is not the case. The problem with Adegunwa is Orientalism. Orientalism has nothing to do with misinterpretation, Jamiu meant exactly what he said. For example, according to Sa’d al-Marsafi, some Orientalists have skeptic views about the existence and authenticity of hadith of the Prophet (al-Mursafi, 2004: 19). You can read more about orientalists and Islam: https://hrmars.com/papers_submitted/6677/Orientalists_Perspectives_on_Hadith.pdf
In an attempt to understand Adegunwa’s statement, I gave him the benefit of the doubt that he meant to say given modern sciences and technologies, we now understand the Qur’an even better than we used to but that is not the case. Let me cite an example.
The late Professor Maurice Bucaiile wrote the book, “The Bible, Qur’an and Science – The Holy Scriptures Examined in the Light of Modern Knowledge”. Bucaille in his book promoted the idea that the Quran is of divine origin, arguing that it contains scientifically and historically correct facts. This he did without making statements like the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) did not understand or grasp some verses but he Bucaiile has the understanding. This is where Adegunwa erred.
Any critical thinker knows Adegunwa made no mistake and he couldn’t have chosen his words more carefully. He had said he knew more than the scholars, then the Sahabas, and now, the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him). How many more mistakes will Adegunwa make before his followers stop the suspension of disbelief and see him in his true colour.
Adegunwa either needs medical and spiritual intervention like ruqya or a joint decision by those in authority in the Nigerian Islamic community which may mean banning him from public speaking or any other means that stops his spread of misguidance.
Adegunwa is not a Sunni/Salafi problem, it is the Muslim ‘Ummah problem. We should not wait until he announces himself as a Prophet. If Jamiu discovered crude oil, he would claim to know more than Allah because Allah never mentioned crude oil and now he knows.
Bashir Lucas Samson Lukman
English 