Sheikh Sani Yahaya Jingir yesterday emerged as the national leader of the unified Izala movement, after days of consultations that culminated in the unification of the sect's two factions at a meeting in Kaduna.
Until yesterday, Jingir was the leader of the Jos faction of the Jama'atu Izalatil Bid'ah Wa Iqamatus Sunnah (JIBWIS), which had been split for about 20 years, with the other group headquartered in Kaduna.
Announcing the decision to collapse the two groups, Chief Imam of the Abuja Central mosque, Ustaz Musa Muhammad, said the unification was long overdue in view of the challenges facing the Muslim community in the country.
In his acceptance speech, Jingir described the unification of the two factions as the best thing to happen to the Izala movement since its inception in the 1970s.
"I therefore accept to serve you in this course of propagating the teaching of Islam according to the Holy Qur'an and the Sunna of his Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)," he said.
"I promise to be consulting my advisers in all I am going do. I promise to lead you according to the teachings of the Qur'an and Sunna. I am therefore requesting for your support in this important course. We want to call on all other Islamic sects to copy this example for us to come together and work in the course of Allah according to the teachings of his Prophet (PBUH)," Jingir said.
In his remarks, the new national administrative leader of the group, Sheikh Abdullahi Bala Lau, said the unification of the Izala movement into one group was an act of Allah, urging the members of the two former factions to forgive and forget the past.
"Now it is time to work for the course of Allah. No politician or any important personality called us to merge; it is Allah who made it possible for us to merge. We are members of the same family. Sheikh Abubakar Mahmud Gumi gave birth to all of us and we are happy that we are all back to our father's house," he said.
The meeting, attended by hundreds of Izala followers, saw Sheikh Yusuf Sambo Rigachikun emerging as deputy national leader (Ulama) while Alhaji Ibrahim Na Alhaji Azare emerged deputy national leader (Administration).
Other officers announced by Ustaz Musa Muhammad included Alhaji Isa Waziri, Chairman First Aid Group, while Alhaji Mustapha Imam was announced as his deputy. Malam Muhammad Kabiru Gombe was named as the Secretary General with Alhaji Adamu Musa as his deputy.
Some members of the group interviewed by Daily Trust expressed happiness about the development.
"We have been clamouring for this unity for quite some time but we thank Allah that our dream has finally matured to reality. I formerly belonged to the Jos faction but there is nothing like Jos or Kaduna faction anymore," Malam Alfa Gimba of the ABU, Zaria, said.
A scholar in the former Kaduna faction and Chief Imam of the Tudun Jukun Juma'at mosque, Zaria, Sheikh Aliyu Abdullahi Telex, also said; "We would carry the unity message to the grassroots as we are hundred percent in support of what our leaders achieved today (yesterday)."
Problem set in among the Izala leaders by the early 1990s, and the group became factionalised into two: the Kaduna faction and the Jos faction. They remain fiercely divided until recently when the talks for unity gained acceptance.
JIBWIS was established in 1977 in Nigeria, with Alhaji Musa Maigandu Muhammad as its pioneering chairman and Late Sheikh Abubakar Mahmud Gumi as its first grand patron. The late Sheikh Isma'il Idris bn Zakariyya served as its first National Chairman Ulama'u Council.
The organisation being the first of its kind in the history of Islamic propagation, scholarship, and championing the cause of Islamic religion gained reputation of being fearless and unambiguous in attaining its targeted goals.
The aims and objectives of the organisation are:
- Eradicating and eliminating ignorance from the society in general.
- Unity and brotherhood of the Muslim Ummah.
- Sensitizing and orienting Muslim Ummah on Islamic religion in relation to their developmental activities in their lives here and hereafter.
- Discarding, rejecting and throwing away of various unislamic beliefs in publications and in whatever form.
- Assuring, and affirming to the Muslim Ummah, that the holy prophet has accomplished and completed his mission fully, judiciously and diligently without leaving any matter unattended.
- Anybody claiming to be a prophet, or claiming that the prophet visits him, should be considered as a great original liar.
- Propagating Islam in Nigeria, right from the grass root (villages) level to international level.
- Acting vigorously and actively towards acknowledging the saying of the holy prophet (PBUH), specifically where he says: "whoever sees a negative thing, he has to change it with his hand, if he can't do that, then with his tongue, and if he can't do that, by his heart, and that is the weakest form of faith."
- Maintaining that a proof must be from the book of Allah and Hadith of the holy prophet, and that proof should not be concealed under any circumstance.
DailyTrust