Brethren in the Deen, As-salaam ‘alaykum warahmatuLlahi wabarakaatuhu,
There is this annoying trend ongoing in Ibadan now which I’m sure the story is the same in other South-Western States too. This trend has obviously been going on for a while but it is only pathetic that we are not able to stop it and it’s rather waxing stronger! We ask Allah for safety.
These gospel preachers are recruiting a large number of our women folks from various local radio programs that are laced with empty promises of breakthrough, healing and miracles. There is this church, in particular, that is trending now and I can confidently tell you that over 35% of the congregants are Muslims and Muslimahs(niqobites inclusive😭)
What do they want? They want;
- Financial breakthrough
- Healing
- Deliverance
- Child bearing etc…
And these gospellers have seen those keywords as a very strong selling point and they are nicely dishing it out to them even though all of them are either faked or are aided by jinn and sihr
Their hook formula :
Just like a digital marketer, we don’t capture our leads and sell to them at the first point of interraction, it is rather a progressive formula which involves appearing like you sincerely want to help and giving them a lot of freebies just to capture their emails and thereafter sell to them after they might have had some degree of confidence in you.
This is exactly their strategy. They organize a lot of radio programs in Yoruba and they constantly tell their audience “this is not about religion but rather about deliverance (igbala) we do not discriminate, whether you are a Muslim or Christian, the most important is for you to get deliverance and be free from the shackles of bondage bla bla bla.
They thereafter proceed to offer free telephone consultation, free On-radio prayer session (asking them to put water in front of the radio) and they will thereafter arrange for fake callers to call and appear like a random caller to give testimonies. Something like “I called you last week and you prayed for me on so so matter, I witnessed the hand of God in my life after the prayer session and I’m calling to give testimonies sir.”
It is after all these they will stage one big revival (isoji alagbara) of three days or five days etc. The kind of turn-out that will be witnessed in such a revival will be really amazing and you’ll see a lot of Muslims running down there seeking for miracles that were never lost.
I actually witnessed one at Samonda a couple of weeks ago (precisely inside Emmanuel College beside University of Ibadan) the kind of turn-out I witnessed that on day, I was forced to ask if president Buhari is staging a campaign there but I was disappointed when I heard it was a pastor that is coming to perform “miracles”
Wallahi, I saw lots of Muslims in hijab running seriously to secure front seat at the event and I saw a lot of Alhajas and Alhajis running shamelessly to enter into the venue before the field got filled up. Don’t mind me , I was kuku waiting for my Orider to come pick me.
I am very sure these people are mothers, sisters and even wives to some of us. How are we so negligent in the first place to allow these evils to penetrate in our household? Are these not the people we would be questioned about if they eventually end up a Kaafir?
What are we doing to curb this menace?
My wife was somewhere yesterday, an area in Ibadan that is predominantly dominated by Muslims. You hardly can count ten houses in this area except that 8 out of the 10 houses are Muslims households. But what is going on there? A church popularly called “se bi oba ” is their savior, their rescuer and their disposal of affairs. The pastor’s name is “ mustapha se bi oba”
She entered into an argument with one “Ummu Samad “ that was coming from the church and before she could say Jack Robbinson “ the whole of the street almost wanted to roast her alive. Telling her she should stop thinking that way, “oto ni esin, oto ni igbala “ ( religion is different while deliverance is also different) and lots of pathetic and annoying excuses that shouldn’t be heard even from a teenager. But these are married women, mothers and grandmothers and even fathers ignorantly spewing up these annoying excuses. And the funniest of it all is that, every single one among them has the church’s emblem on her body or vicinity.
Some would wear a pendant that has the pastor’s head engraved on it, or they wear an handband of the church or they have the church’s poster all pasted on the four corners of their shops or homes (these to them will serve as protection from evil or increase their sales )
When they dragged it further, they boldly told her that “ even people like you are so many in the church “ and even went ahead to mention some names ( Ummu lagbaja, Ummuh tamedun) who wears Niqab just like you will never miss any of the church’s programs (SubhanaLlah!)
This is the pathetic situation we have found ourselves but I think there is still a lot we can do to curb this menace. We shouldn’t watch this evil to continue to spread else our children will grow up to see it as normal when the society has embraced it
The solution I have been able to think of so far is to increase our dawah with our mothers, sisters, aunts and relatives. This should, however, be done in the best of manners and we shouldn’t allow their excuses to flare us up and thus talk to them rudely. Remember those that are recruiting them are doing so with the best of manners and they already know where they are heading to, so they can never get angry. You too shouldn’t be angry.
Another way I thought of, is to secure an anti-virus to combat these viruses as they are coming to them. Since we obviously can not be with them all the time to monitor what radio program they listen to and which they didn’t , I believe getting them an MP3 radio player with a memory card loaded with the lectures of reputable Sunni lecturers will go a long way to combat these viruses in sha Allah. It is now left upon each of us to device a means by which we will make them to enjoy these lectures and constantly listen to it .
This can be achieved by constantly putting a call to them and gist them about one of the lectures loaded in the memory card. Interact with them and joke with them about it.
Some of these women will fall in love with the lectures of the likes of Dr Sharof and Sheikh Amubieya and some other reliable scholars too numerous to mention.
In short, let us try to work on these people, these are people we will be questioned about on the day of qiyaamah. They will hold us accountable for them and we should ensure we are not negligent about them. Remember Allah told his prophet sallalahu alaehi wasalam;
وأنذر عشيرتك الأقربين
And warn your tribe (O Muhammad ) of near kindred.
English 
