Almighty Allah declares in the Holy Qur’an, An-Nur, 24:55-57 thus, “God has promised, to those Among you who believe And work righteous deeds, that He Will, of a surety, grant them In the land, inheritance (Of power), as He granted it To those before them ; that He will establish in authority Their religion—the one Which He has chosen for them ; And that He will change (Their state), after the fear In which they (lived), to one Of security and peace : ‘ They will worship Me (alone) And not associate aught with Me.’ If any do reject Faith After this, they are Rebellious and wicked. So establish regular Prayer And give regular Charity ; And obey the Apostle; That ye may receive mercy.Never think thou That the Unbelievers Are going to frustrate (God’s Plan) on earth : Their abode is the Fire,— And it is indeed An evil refuge!”
Between February 23 and February 26, 2006, the Islamic Research Centre for Africa (IRCA) of the Islamic Mission for Africa (IMA), Abeokuta, hosted the annual national conference and seminar for the Association of Model Islamic Schools (AMIS) in Nigeria which was the association of private Arabic and Islamic nursery/primary and secondary schools in the country.
The theme of the conference was ‘Designing New Path for Educating Nigerian Muslims’, and the national president was Alhaja Sekinat Olapeju Adekola, JP, the proprietress of Adeen International Nursery/Primary School and Adeen College in Ibadan, Oyo State, and the Iya Adinni of Yorubaland.
The four-day seminar witnessed the presentation of papers to the participants from the Muslim model schools in the country, which had its base at the Sheikh Ahmed Lemu’s Islamic Education Trust (IET) and model schools in Minna, Niger State.
AMIS was established in 1994 at the IET, Minna, with the national conference themed ‘Successful Extracurricular Activities in Islamic Model Schools’.
The branches of AMIS are in Adamawa, Abuja, Bauchi, Delta, Kogi, Sokoto, Kwara, Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Ekiti, Ondo, Kwara, Kaduna, Kano, Plateau, Borno, Osun, and Plateau States. They are also in Niger, Rivers, Edo, Akwa-Ibom, Katsina, Gombe, Zamfara, Kebbi, Jigawa, Nassarawa, Zamfara and other states of the Federation.
The annual conferences of AMIS were held in 1994, 1995 and 1997 (Minna, Niger State), 2006 (IMA Centre, Abeokuta), 2008 (Murtala Muhammad Library, Kano), and 2013 (Ijebu-Ode Stadium with the theme ‘Education as a Trust: Collective Responsibility’, March 7-10).
Meanwhile, beyond the weekly marriage ceremonies, birthdays, lectures, seminars and others at the IMA Multipurpose Hall to serve the community, the IMA Digest monthly magazine debuted in 2006.
It featured the essentials of Islam as cover story, including iman (faith), salat (five daily prayers and other prayers), zakat (or alms to the poor), annual Ramadan fast and other fasting in Islam, Hajj (pilgrimage) and others.
The monthly journal featured ‘From the Minbar’, ‘Points to Ponder’, ‘Essential Prayers’, ‘Pictorials’, ‘Editorial’, ‘Life and Living’, ‘Holy Qur’an’, ‘Hadith’, ‘Tit-bits’, ‘Wise Counsel’, ‘Admonition’, among others.
However, in the establishment of Crescent University, Abeokuta, Ogun State, I came up with a proposal to the president of IMA, Judge Bola Ajibola, SAN, as the Secretary-General of IMA in January 2003 for the organisation of IMA Intellectual Summit.
This was based on the requirements received from the National Universities Commission (NUC), Abuja, which are five, viz: 100 hectares of land, academic brief, university law, four bank guarantee of N500 million, and university master plan. This followed the recommendation of the Education Board of Islamic Mission for Africa (IMA) with Professor Hussein Abdul-Kareem of Lagos State University as chairman, and Alhaji Sulaiman Osho as the secretary for the establishment of the university in 2002.
On the approval of the IMA Intellectual Summit by Judge Bola Ajibola, SAN, we appointed Professor Nurudeen Adedipe pioneer vice-chancellor of the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, as the chairman of the Academic Brief Committee. I served as his secretary for the convening of the summit.
But before agreeing to serve as the Chairman of the IMA Intellectual Summit, Professor Adedipe asked me to give him a brief on IMA, and what we have achieved so far in the area of education since the establishment in January 1996.
The meeting with him at his home at the University of Ibadan was fruitful, as he was gladdened by our achievements with the IMA Nursery/Primary School, IMA Model College, IMA Library and Audio-Visual Centre, IMA Multipurpose Hall, IMA Guest House, IMA Mosque, IMA Hospital, IMA Hostels, Imam’s Lodge and others.
According to him, earlier proposals put to him for the establishment of Muslim universities were turned down by him because those personalities didn’t have anything to show in the areas of education, before proposing to start Muslim universities. Professor Adedipe then asked me to go ahead with the invitation of scholars as arranged for the IMA Intellectual Summit, with the invitation of 10 Muslim professors each from the universities in the South-West, as faith-based university.
The guests were invited from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Federal College of Education (FCE), Osiele, Abeokuta, University of Ibadan, University of Ilorin and Lagos State University. Others were University of Lagos, Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife and Nasrul-Lahi-il Fathi Society of Nigeria (NASFAT), Lagos.
Judge Bola Ajibola, SAN, as the convener of the IMA Intellectual Summit in Abeokuta, delivered the opening speech and expressed the need to establish the Muslim university, to meet up with the deficiencies of the Muslim community in the education sector, especially with the deregulation of education by the government of General Ibrahim Babangida.
He then challenged the Muslim intellectuals for the setting up of the Muslim university in Abeokuta, and to come up with one, name of the university without his name as depicted by Islam; two, academic brief; three, University Law and four, University Master Plan.
Judge Ajibola, SAN, emphasised that the IMA would come up with the 100 hectares of land for the university and the N500 million bank guarantee as required by the NUC for approval.
In his response, the chairman of the summit, Professor Nurudeen Adedipe, commended the efforts of Judge Bola Ajibola, SAN, on his determination to sow the seed of everlasting greatness for the future of Muslims in Nigeria and beyond with the establishment of the citadel of learning.
More so, Islam as a religion is built on knowledge with the first five verses of the Holy Qur’an revealed thus, in Iqraa, 96:1-5, “Proclaim (or Read!) in the name Of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created—Created man out of A (mere) clot Of congealed blood: Proclaim ! And thy Lord Is Most Bountiful,—He Who taught (The use of) the Pen,—Taught man that Which he knew not.”
Professor Adedipe then assured that the team of Muslim intellectuals would come up with the academic brief that will be unique in incorporating Islamic content in every programme at the university to sustain intellectualism with Islamic morality among the graduands of the Muslim university.
May Almighty Allah accept our acts of da’wah as a form of worship, Ameen.
and then