Malam Muhyideen Akande is the coordinator of Al-Ummah Cemetery and Islamic Inheritance Affairs Foundation, a body with focus on the administration of the burial and inheritance affairs of Muslims in the South West. He speaks with SAHEED SALAWU on how to safeguard Muslim cemeteries from ritualists who scavenge for dead human remains at graveyards, among other issues.
How far has your foundation gone in realising its set objectives?
All thanks are due to Almighty Allah. It is the goal of our foundation to ensure that there are standard cemeteries for Muslims, especially in the south-western part of Nigeria and to ensure that deceased Muslims are buried in such cemeteries, in accordance with the Qur’an and the Sunnah. This would guarantee a stop to the long-standing un-Islamic tradition of burying deceased Muslims at home.
Imams and scholars in the six states of South West are perceived as critical stakeholders in the project and are being carried along accordingly. They have embraced the project as a necessary initiative to protect the dignity of Muslims, living or dead.
The cooperation of the president-general of the League of Imams and Alfas in Yorubaland, Sheikh Jamiu Bello Kewulere; the secretary, Dr Ahmad Aladesewa; the Chief Imam of Ibadanland, Alhaji Abubakri Abdul-Ganiy Agbotomokekere; the Muslim Ummah of South West Nigeria (MUSWEN) and the Federation of Muslim Women’s Associations in Nigeria (FOMWAN) has been particularly outstanding.
The foundation has also been involved in series of activities in the media that are aimed at enlightening Muslims on the need to be ambassadors of this project.
We are working hard to facilitate the establishment of 20 more world-class cemeteries across Yorubaland within a short time. These cemeteries will be strategically located in such a way that two or more neighbouring towns or cities will have access to each of them. The foundation will soon announce the fund-raising for this project and we hereby appeal to all Muslims to contribute their quota to making this a reality.
We appreciate some individual Muslims and mosques whose generous contributions have sustained the activities of the foundation. May Almighty Allah reward them.
What is your take on the increase in the activities of ritualists who visit graveyards to exhume corpses?
The alarming increase in the demand for human parts for different types of rituals in Nigeria calls for the attention of every individual, religious body and particularly the government. This is a wake-up alert, especially to the security operatives, on the dangers of this satanic act in the society.
This act was not as popular as it is now. A Yoruba occultist said that most money-making rituals in the past were limited to the parts of the body of the person who had gone for the ritual or those of wild animals. Nowadays, ritualists do not only demand for the fresh parts of the bodies of kidnapped people for the purpose but they also look for the corpses of Muslims buried in Muslim cemeteries in Yorubaland. Within the last five months, six persons were arrested for raiding Muslim cemeteries in Iseyin and Alaagba in Oyo Sate; Ikorodu, Lagos Sate and Abeokuta, Ogun State. Various human parts were found with them.
What is the Islamic ruling on the body of a deceased Muslim?
The remains of a deceased Muslim must be treated with high level of sacredness. That is, the dignity of the deceased must not be violated. It is forbidden to remove any part of the deceased’s body and the body must not be cremated or left to rot. It must be buried following the guidelines of the Holy Prophet (SAW), who was reported to have said in a tradition narrated by Muslim that “breaking the bone of the deceased is like breaking the bone of the living human being.”
Almighty Allah says: “Would one of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? You would hate it.” (Qur’an 49 verse 12). On no account must the corpse of a deceased Muslim be tampered with. Anyone who does so is a sinner. One of the arrested criminals who severed different parts of some corpses in a cemetery pleaded that the parts he cut were meant for rituals to revitalise a person that was on the verge of death. He added that since the corpse was a ‘waste’, it could be used to prevent the living from destruction. This argument is baseless.
What do you think are the causes of this despicable act?
The first problem is a constant reduction in people’s faith and religious understanding. The larger percentage of Nigerians who visit religious centres do not actually understand what the religion is all about. The rapid increase in the number of worship centres is business-oriented. At present, the level of faith of the people cannot be determined by their outward appearances. Thus, peoples’ quest for quick wealth makes them seek assistance from ungodly sources that would eventually request for human heads, private parts and so on.
Then, there is the poor economic situation of the country. Economic hardship breeds crimes of different forms, with cases being reported every time in the media, a human head sold for N5,000 or the whole body sold for N50,000. Criminals have seen this as a lucrative business.
The poor attitude of the government is not helping matters. The key arm and agency of the government that determine the level of criminal activities in a nation are the judiciary and the police. These two institutions need to do more to curb criminality in this country, and the constitution of the country should be reviewed along this line. There are lawyers whose job is to defend criminals in courts, facilitate bails for them and tactically prolong court hearings for many years so that the complainants will lose interest in the case and then have the case struck out by the court on presumption of innocence. Even if the defendant is proven guilty, there are no penalties stiff enough to make him repentant. The contribution of the police to the high rate of crime in the country is not strange to anyone. There are cases of top-ranking police officers who are accomplices to various crimes in the country.
Why are some Muslim cemeteries vulnerable to burgling for human parts?
Most cemeteries are not properly financed, which makes them substandard. Some Muslims dislike the development of Muslim cemeteries and always go against it openly or secretly. This is common among the so-called ‘alfas’ in some Muslim communities in Yorubaland.
Secondly, many Muslims show little or no commitment to the development of Muslim cemeteries in their communities. They do not contribute in any way to the establishment or sustenance of Muslim cemeteries in their areas.
There is also the proliferation of Muslim cemeteries. It must be understood that a cemetery project is capital-intensive. Under normal condition, it is supposed to be financed by the government as it is done in the advanced nations. A standard cemetery project that will withstand different challenges for a long time goes beyond the financial capacity of a single Muslim community. Indeed, findings have revealed that the proliferation of Muslim cemeteries has led to the establishment of numerous substandard Muslim cemeteries, generated clash of interests among Muslims and resulted in wastage of resources.
What are the effects of grave robbery in the society?
Firstly, this satanic act creates fear and sadness in the minds of Muslims who have their loved ones buried in the cemeteries. It is also a serious embarrassment to Islam and the entire Muslims, because a cemetery is one of the important assets of Islam just like the mosque. This act also leads to wastage of time and other resources in prosecuting criminals.
What are the solutions to this problem?
We must all join hands to ensure the standardisation of the Muslim cemetery system. This calls for the fortification of the internal security mechanism of the existing Muslim cemeteries with modern security systems like Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV), security lights and proper fencing. The security personnel and other workers in each cemetery should be seen as doing risky and sensitive jobs and should be well paid. This will go a long way to stop them from conniving with criminals to rob cemeteries.
There should also be deliberate actions against arrested criminals. It is high time Muslims committed more resources to legally fighting this menace in our society.
Finally, there must be continuous campaign against the act. Sermons and advertisements pointing to the dangers of this act must be intensified for us to win the battle.
YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
How Workplace Sexual Harassment Forces Many Out Of Their Dream Jobs
Despite several laws prohibiting sexual harassment in Nigeria, many victims are forced to quit their dream jobs while others suffer depression as a result of unsolicited sexual advances from colleagues. FAITH ADEOYE reports.Why many Muslim cemeteries Why many Muslim cemeteries
If you want to keep your job and excel in your career, you need to do as I say,” Janet Abegunde’s boss said to her one fateful day. Miss Abegunde, a 24-year-old accountant who had just gotten her first job in one of the new generation banks, said she fell into depression after her boss sexually harassed her.Why many Muslim cemeteries Why many Muslim cemeteries
ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
- Hoodlums Attack Lagos Governor’s Press Crew Bus In Tinubu’s Convoy, Two Injured
- [BREAKING] #EkitiDecides2022: INEC Declares APC’s Biodun Oyebanji Winner Of Guber Poll
Top 10 Business Ideas In Nigeria You Can Start With 100,000 Naira
and then