COVID-19: Sultan berates Muslim clerics for misleading followers

The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar lll, has berated Muslim clerics for misleading their followers over the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country.

Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar lll, who also doubles as the President General, Jama’atu Nasril Islam was angered that in most cases, the clerics make their followers believe that COVID-19 is not real.

Speaking through the JNI Secretary General, Dr Abubakar Khalid-Aliyu, in a statement on Monday, the Sultan said that it was sheer ignorance for any Islamic cleric to claim there was nothing like coronavirus currently ravaging the entire world.

The statement by the Sultan read in part, “Jama’atu Nasril Islam under the leadership of His Eminence, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto and President-General, JNI, is once again saddened with the recent unfortunate developments of misleading the Muslim Ummah (Community) by some sections of ‘Ulama (preachers) over the coronavirus prevalence.P

“We must as an Ummah avoid a repeat of the current trend in Italy, which was partly due to non-adherence to expert advice over the pandemic. Allah, the most wise says “…So ask those who know if you know not” Q16:43. Therefore, we should all bear in mind that knowledge is an amanah (trust) and must be safeguarded and delivered as such, thus the need for this statement.

“One may not be wrong to conclude that the action of some of the ‘Ulama clearly depicts sheer whims and caprices of their myopic worldview, stark ignorance of reality based on genuine knowledge and medical scholarship.

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“It is, however, regrettable that as the negative actions of such preachers incite innocent Muslims, who are unaware of the serious health implications of adhering to such empty dispositions that invariably endanger humanity. Nonetheless, it should be noted that the issue of plague and/or pandemic is not new throughout human history, either at various times or places, the Muslim world inclusive.

“It is thus sheer monumental ignorance to falsely claim that the pandemic of the coronavirus does not exist and that it is a lie and a shadow of a ghost. Such lamentable utterances leave much to be desired by any scholar that is worth being called a scholar. Moreover, the matter is a documented fact whose medical precedents have been set in curbing its tide in human history.

“Therefore, the current position of government is not a new standpoint to curtail the spread of the infection. Rather, new methods of mitigating it and nipping it in the bud emerged in this contemporary world we live in, as a result of scholarly findings,” he added.

The comments by the Sultan of Sokoto comes a day after the Emir of Gwandu, Alhaji Muhammad Illiyasu-Bashar, declared that the outbreak of the new COVID-19 virus may be a divine punishment on mankind from God because of its sins.

Alhaji Muhammad Illiyasu-Bashar made the assertion on Monday while warning citizens not to patronise native doctors who claim to have a cure for the virus which first broke out in Wuhan, China.

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