Clerics tasked to stimulate excellence among Muslims at UI Muslim community Ramadan lecture

THE Chief Imam of the University of Lagos, Professor Ismail Musa, has called on Muslim clerics and preachers to focus their sermons on awakening Muslims to the practice of pristine Islam and the pursuit of excellence in all aspects of life.

Professor Musa, who is also the Head of the Department of Religious Studies, University of Lagos, made this call on Saturday at the 30th Ramadan lecture of the University of Ibadan Muslim Community.

Musa speaking on the theme of the lecture, ‘Envisioning the Ummah of the Future: Excellence or Mediocrity?’ advised clerics and preachers to use their sermons to correct wrong impressions about the practice of Islam.

The don lamented that Muslims were lagging in the areas of education, research and technology and implored the clerics to address the anomaly through their sermons and programmes.

The university teacher said Muslims should not sit back and lament but they should take individual and collective actions to address illiteracy and poverty among them.

He also said it was important to create awareness about early childhood education to address the challenge of out-of-school children in the country.

He described the lecture as a wake-up call for the entire Muslim community that the resources which God has placed in the Qur’an and the Hadith have not been utilised.

According to him, there is the need to utilise the resources whose purpose “is for us to achieve excellence in all aspects of life.”

Professor Musa said: “We should not just sit down and start lamenting. We have to take individual and collective actions to ensure that we keep the single, Muslim community which Allah says is single.

“Development is a product of quality of education and research. We have a large population of Muslims here and there but the population is not bringing the dividends that should accrue to such a population.

“So, we should focus on quality education and research that will be beneficial, not research that will have side effects.

“We in this part of the world are in dire need of development. We are backward scientifically and technologically. The intellect that God has given us is the same intellect God has given to people in the developed world but we have refused to use our own.”

The event was attended by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Alhaji Ahmed Raji, who was represented by Alhaji Saheed Alaran; Executive Secretary of the Muslim Ummah of South West Nigeria (MUSWEN), Professor Muslih Yahya; Resident Electoral Commissioner in Oyo state, Dr Adeniran Tella; wife of a former deputy governor of Oyo State, Professor Hamdalat Olaniyan; Mrs Romoke Ayinde and the Chief Imam of the University of Ibadan, Professor AbdurRahman Oloyede.