“1 Timothy 6:10: For the love of money is the root of all of evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”
Our attention has been brought to a now-viral doulogy where one Former Pastor Matthew Oyewole claimed to have converted back to Christianity after reverting to Islam from the same some years ago. Questions and controversies have followed the release of the video.
Forasmuch as many have taken to speech to set forth in proclamations of what they would that we believe, it seemed good to us having had perfect understanding of the matter from the very first, solving paradoxes and connecting contradictions, to set forth these declarations that thou mayest know the certainty of those things that have been aired.
To Your Choice Be True
Firstly, it should be understood that whoever leaves a religion for another has acted within his right as a human being to practice freely whatever he wishes, have his conviction which is subject to change as he deems fit, and conduct himself in ways that may not violate the laws of humans and in another sense, the laws of the Almighty.
15th Century Italian Renaissance Scholar, Philosopher, proto-Protestant, and founder of the Christian Kabbalah, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, had argued in his, “An Oration on the Dignity of Man”, that man, by nature, is special in that he, unlike other creatures, he can change his programming given his intellect, reason and the freedom of choice. Consequent to Mirandola’s view, one wonders if a man is dignified when his convictions or rather, what he professes to be true is motivated by something other than reason, pure conviction, and the search for the truth.
Once Upon A Lie
In the scripted duology, the two men who interviewed Pastor Oyewole focused on making him deny all that he had said in previous years, especially his travails and sermons. Amazingly, a 74-year-old man with his shrunk shank and big manly voice, with pipes and whistles in his sound depicting a near-end, starts to give an account of how he had told lies for about the last 29 years of his life. Ironically, at this age, a man seeks dignity, reputation, and looks towards his end, but for Oyewole, it was a time for inglorious lowliness. The attempt by the interviewers to make Oyewole allege that he cooked up his stories to ‘deceive’ people with the knowledge of a Muslim or Islamic organization turned fruitless.
On seeing the pitiable account of Oyewole’s self-indictment, the KnowIslam Project set out to unravel whatever mystery could be lurking around. We sought to know if Oyewole had collaborators within the Islamic fold who had planned with him, stage-managed him, and had knowledge of his self-professed inglorious mannerism; perhaps, if we found, we would expose.
We started by making calls to the Islamic organizations he had relations with, seeking to know if anyone had knowledge of his self-professed lies but the responses were in the negative. On the other hand, what we got were allegations of hedonism, self-indulgence, and fraud that we will not lay emphasis on for we do not seek to add more to the dishonour he has brought to his own self with his own mouth.
We spoke to his wives who informed us that they have no knowledge of the script he claimed to have been playing. In fact, his wife who is a Christian, and had known him for over 20 years asked that we dismiss his claim of self-indictment. Not only did she confirm his so-called travails, seeing Oyewole indicting himself on air also flabbergasted her.
Consequent to these, we conclude that Oyewole’s claim of seeing someone in a dream asking that he goes back to Christianity is nothing but a smokescreen and is far from the reality. For whatever other reason he might have, your guess may be right.
Revert For Money
The fruitless attempt by the two men who interviewed Oyewole to make him allege that he had collaborators in fabricating lies in the name of Islam travestizes the reality of their faith. It is unreasonable that an individual or Islamic Organization will pay someone whether a pittance or a fortune to stage-manage in the way of asking a Muslim to pretend like a revert or buy someone with money to be a Muslim.
Islam does not have the concept of tithing and mostly, Masjids are not personalized. The record we have in history and our contemporary times is some others who present Muslim children with the option of either their Islamic Identity or education. It is Muslim children who were made to change their names to have access. In some other faiths, a convert is a potential tithe payer, unlike Islam where the revert does not have to pray in your Masjid and there is no form of personalization.
That said, we wonder what was Oyewole’s motivation for lying through a period of 29 years. Also note that, according to Oyewole, he did not convert from Islam to Christianity, rather he was ‘repenting’ from his lies which would mean that, if we take his account seriously, he never embraced Islam in the first place.
More amazing is the fact that a repentant person would, unlike Oyewole’s fragrant boast of how ‘Muslims are fools’, wear a solemn, gloomy, and pitiable face. For Oyewole, he is a champ who maintained the same script for 29 years. When you sum everything up, you get to realize Oyewole might not have lied after all during these years, rather, he is a man blown away by the wind of fate, ambition, and desires.
Reverts Challenges
When someone reverts to Islam, the Muslim community tends to surround and support them given the challenges they face.
While in theory, some other faiths claim to be tolerant, peaceful, and understanding but in reality, the reverse is the case. New reverts who embrace Islam are faced with spiritual, psychological, and financial challenges (the financial challenge is prevalent in Africa). It is on this note that Muslims would freely give their money with no strings attached but for the sake of Allah, so these reverts could overcome some of these challenges.
Consequent to the above, it becomes very important to know that when and where Muslims raise funds or donate money for reverts, it has nothing to do with buying them.
Of Plutus and Mammon
Though arguable, the Bible passage that reads, “For the love of money is the root of all of evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”, applies to some reverts when Muslims start to gather around them. Greed may start to rear its ugly head and they derail.
Following our careful investigation of Oyewole’s case, we have discovered some unscrupulous elements amongst some former Pastors who have not totally been free from old habits from whence they came. Also, Oyewole did not convert under normal circumstances (conviction), a game is played somewhere, and indeed, Allah will expose all crooked things with time.
It is on this account that the KnowIslam Project will not be raising funds nor giving any form of financial support to any Pastor that has embraced Islam for more than a year until we unravel some mysteries on this matter. We assure that they will continue to enjoy spiritual and psychological support to understand and practice Islam effectively. In due course, the hypocrites who cannot bear will leave, the schemes will be exposed, and those who want to be true Muslims will remain as one.
Allah says,
“Miserable is the price they have sold their souls for—denying Allah’s revelation and resenting Allah for granting His grace to whoever He wills of His servants! They have earned wrath upon wrath. And such disbelievers will suffer a humiliating punishment.” – Qur’an 2:90
Bashir Lucas Samson Lukman – Convener, KnowIslam Project
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