Founder
ABOUT THE FOUNDER
Alhaji Ayo Adeyemi was born to a Christian family, until, after the death of his father in 1947, when he got converted to Islam.
The Christians those days claimed to be monotheistic, yet, they ascribed partners to God. The Christianity where they see nothing wrong combining the worship of idols with the worship of God. Many church elders belonged to many cult groups, such as the Ogboni fraternity, the Osugbo, the Awo Opa cults, etc, and they were permitted to adorn the paraphernalia of those cults to the church, while, many of them occupied the front row in the church. That was the type of our family’s Christianity, they worshipped both God and idols. Alhaji Ayo Adeyemi’s father was a civil servant and a native medicine practitioner, who was always consulted by many Church elders and even some clergy for spiritual deliverance.
Apart, from this double-dealing, the implication of which did not dawn on Alhaji Ayo Adeyemi, until, several years later as a Muslim, the Christians, he observed, maintained a perfect system of inculcating Christian teachings into their members, especially, the children. They were also more passionate and devoted to the church service.
Alhaji Ayo Adeyemi joined Zumratul Islamiyyah Society to further his religious zeal which had been fired back at Ilase. That was 1957 at age 23. He belonged to division “B” under the chairmanship of Alhaji D.A. Salu who was also the Vice President of the Society.
Zumratul Islamiyyah was divided into two divisions A&B. Division A, was headed by Alhaji L.M. Alayaki. Alayaki who was also the second Vice President. The President was Pa Oseni T. Gbajumo. Alhaji Ayo Adeyemi loved the society and participated in many programmes. He paid his dues regularly, and later joined the youth group.
It was not too long before his enthusiasm and organizational abilities were recognized. He was assigned to serve in many committees, where he proved his mettle. It was great fun listening to the likes of ( T.A.O Sha ), the Agbalaya’s , the Odunsi’s, Akintoye, the Bawalas, The Soetans, R.A.K Azeez, Mosunmola Lawal, and many young men and women that formed the youth wing of Zumratul Islamiyyah in those days.
Somewhere along the line, these vibrant youths, including Alhaji Ayo Adeyemi, stopped attending Zumratul Islamiyyah out of frustration. He looked elsewhere, to sustain his religions interest. It was during this period, that Alhaji Ayo Adeyemi met Alfa Hussain Muhammed, whom he teamed up with to form Islamic Preaching Society in 1962. Alhaji Ayo Adeyemi was the founding General Secretary of the organization, while, Alfa Hussain Muhammed was the chief Imam. Both of them searched for and eventually got two eminent elders for the position of chairman and President A.A. Abayomi and Pa Ashimi respectively. The effort to bring in the then President of Ansar-udeen Pa Baruwa Etti proved abortive.
THE ISLAMIC PREACHING SOCIETY.
Islamic Preaching Society was a preaching organization, and that was precisely what Alhaji Ayo Adeyemi and his team were promoting in the streets of Lagos every evening. As a result of the evangelism, they won many Christian converts to Islam, because, Alhaji Ayo Adeyemi and his colleagues were young, educated, and enterprising. They attracted people of like minds both male and female.
Among the cream of young men and women in their midst were the Adetoro’s, Mufu ( Murphy) who later became chairman of Eti-Osa Local Government Area, his brothers, the late Monsuru, formerly of Central Bank, the Professor, S.A. Adetoro, the Akesode’s, the Professor and his wife Alhaja Risikat, the late Professor Agbalajobi, the Olasanya, Muri Badmus, Ademola Yusuf, Lateef Salami, Muritala Akorede, I.A.Salau, S.L. Afolabi, Yahya Dosunmu, and many others.
It was during this period that Nigerian Muslim leaders decided to form the All Nigeria Muslims Council, and other society. Islamic Preaching Society having become a household name, was invited to send three representatives. Three of us, Alhaji Hussain Muhammad, Muritala Akorede, and Alhaji Ayo Adeyemi were sent. Alhaji Ayo Adeyemi was elected the second assistant general secretary of the All Nigeria Muslims Council.
DISINTEGRATION AND COLLAPSE OF ISLAMIC PREACHING SOCIETY.
After the initial period of formation, Alhaji Ayo Adeyemi and the Exco’s held their first election where, he was elected as General Secretary to serve for two years unopposed. He served for two terms and stepped aside. In the wisdom of the Exco, the new regime decided to suspend the two yearly election of officers and remained in office indefinitely. Meanwhile, many things happened and the beloved Islamic Preaching Society collapsed.
THE NIGERIA MUSLIM MISSION.
Alhaji Ayo Adeyemi’s activities at Zumratul Islamiyyah Society, Islamic Preaching Society, and the All Nigeria Muslims Council, had projected his fame as an active Muslim practitioner to many Muslim leaders.
One day Alhaji A.K. Laguda, a former President of Jamat-ul-islamiyyah who was also the general secretary of Nigeria Muslims Council invited Alhaji Ayo Adeyemi to his office at 48, Odunlami, Street, Lagos. He introduced Alhaji Ayo Adeyemi to eminent Islamic scholar Mallam Ahmad Minto who arrived Nigeria from Pakistan to establish a mission. The scholar was a retired Rector of a University in Pakistan. He explained his mission to Alhaji Ayo Adeyemi and showed him many books, among them was Muhammad Ali’s English translation of the holy Qu’ran.
The scholar sought for Alhaji Ayo Adeyemi’s assistance and cooperation. That marked the beginning of another phase in the life of Alhaji Ayo Adeyemi. He worked together with the scholar until, the scholar was replaced with Alhaji Qazy Abdur Rashid, whom Alhaji Adeyemi worked with for three years as a secretary. It was from the new scholar that Alhaji Ayo Adeyemi learnt the rudiments of missionary work. The Alhaji Qazy Abdur Rashid left for Pakistan, the Head office in Pakistan appointed Alhaji Ayo Adeyemi as the new successor. They operated under the name Nigeria Muslim Mission ( N.M M ).
Contribution of yoruba muslim elites to islam.
An eminent Muslim historian Dr, Siyan Oyeweso succinctly details in his book, ” Eminent Yoruba Muslim of the 19th and early 20th century “, the gallant contributions of some prominent Yoruba Muslim families of the south west in the promotion of Islam in Nigeria. Such early muslims include: Muhammad Shitta Bay, Alfa Idris A.O Animashaun, EL-Hajj Saka Tinubu, Imam Mahammad Lawal Basil Agusto and EL-Hajj Jubril Martins all from Lagos, Timi Abibu Lagunju of Ede. Oluwo Momodu Lamuye of Iwo, Balogun Kuku from Ijebu Ode, Baale Buraimoh Edu from Epe and many others.
Many of these families are still recognized as Muslims today, though, based on the history of their forebears, we believe that the involvement and commitment of their succeeding generations in contributing to the development of Islam could have been better and more rewarding if the process of learning the religion had been made easier and more friendly to them. It is not a cheering news to be told that prominent leaders of some hitherto Muslim families in Yoruba land have renounced Islam for Christianity and this trend has been going on for some time now, not only in the southwest, but, even in some part of Nothern Nigeria. Many of them now lead churches as Pastors or Reverends, while, still retaining their Muslim family names either for easy identification or merely to ridicule us.
It is very sad and painful indeed for those of us still alive, who enjoyed the rare privilege of serving under those great servants of Allah of yesteryears, not to see their offspring stepping into their shoes. It is equally regrettable that the Muslim educated elite do not find it compelling to face the implications of this problem with a view to evolving a meaningful remedial approach to them.
Rather, many of them advance such puerile and infantile argument that the practice of Islam cannot be complete without the knowledge of Arabic. In other words, the status quo should continue. Alhaji M. K. Ekemode of Idita, Olowogbowo Lagos Island was not only the first chief Imam of Ansarudeen Society Of Nigeria, he was also the first head of Muslim Religious Broadcast at Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation. My big brother, the amiable Alhaji Egberongbe, an Egba man was his assistant then.
His counterpart was Reverend Sope Johnson who headed the Christain Religous Broadcast. Alhaji Ashafa Tijani and later Alhaji Akodu of Idunganran Street, Isale Eko help sway as chief Imams one after the other, in Ahmadiyyah Movement in Islam (Anwarul Islam) before the position passed on to another Lagosian, the present holder, another big brother of mine Alhaji Yusuf. In Zumratul-Islamiyyah Society, we had at one time Alhaji Ganiyu Lawal and Alhaji Bawala, both of Oluwole, Alhaji R.O. Alayaki, and later Captain Rilwan as our Imam one time or the other. The people mentioned above were eminent moderate Scholars in both western and Islamic Education as well as being civil servants in government. These were the days when Islam was the reigning and most popular religion at least in Lagos and many parts of the southwest. Our leaders (Imams) were Local people like us, who came down to our level. They did not force us to abandon our culture, such as the way we dress, eat, and talk, in order to become a good Muslim. We did not understand much of Arabic language but we understood Islam, cherished, loved it and were proud to say it so loud anywhere with our families. The orientation was geared towards moral development more than ritual observances. Egungun or Eyo masquerades would never force an Alhaji to remove his cap. It was the same thing with court judges. An Alhaji as a Muslim priest enjoyed very high regard in government circles in those days.
In those cherished days. Arabic language was not the issue, but, moral lessons from the religion which our native Imams imparted. Based upon the above, why should anyone say in the twenty first century that no one can successfully practice Islam without understanding Arabic language? That is a pity. However, I am not saying that those who have opportunity to study Arabic should not, but, the moral teaching of the religion are the most important.
Jesus Christ did not speak English or any of the European languages to preach when he was alive. Today, out of over 7 million people that populate the world according to information by the United Nation Organization, close to 2.5 billion practice Christianity and do so in their different local tongues.
What is more, the Christian world is even more united than the Muslim world. And when there is unity there is bound to be progress. Who says there is no unity in diversity? We need to observe the following scenario: affluent Muslims don’t usually build mosques and when they do, they always firm them out to young employee-Imams to whom they pay meager salary, many of whom lack life’s critical experience to run, while, Christain build churches and pastor them by themselves or pass them to their children to pastor. Is that not shameful enough? We all know Chief Ebenezer Obey Fabiyi as a very successful juju musician. He nursed the ambition to serve God as a Christian missionary, went to study theology and today, he is equally a successful Evangelist, alongside, his musical engagements, some of his children have followed after his footsteps.
There are thousands of Muslim elites who nursed similar ambition of becoming clerics particularly after retirement but find the fulfilment of their dream impeded due to lack of opportunity to learn necessary ingredients of Islamic knowledge. The Islamic foundation for beginners series will hopefully remove that impediment at least, to a reasonable extent. Still, on the problem of communication as a deterrent to the spread and understanding of islam, one recalls sometimes in the late fifties, before independence, when some Muslim leaders from Lagos notably, Alhaji L.B. Agusto, A.K. Laguda both of jamat ul-Islammiyyah society and a few others from other society ventured into a glorious attempt to introduce Islam to the Eastern part of the country. I am in no way asserting here that the people named above were the first and only group of Muslims to embark on such an expedition, but, the truth is that I was not only a witness to this particular epoch, I was a participant on the sideline, being the assistant secretary general of All Nigeria Muslim Council at the time. The Eastern Region as it was known then provided a fertile soil for planting the seed of Islam. The program which received overwhelming support of the then premier of Nothern Nigeria, Alhaji (Sir) Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto produced many notable Igbo Muslims among who was the popular Sheikh Ibraheem Nwagwu, Orlu which falls in the present Imo state, was more less a religious capital of Islam in the then Eastern Nigeria.
If that program had been sustained in a way whereby the average Igbo was allowed to integrate Islam into his culture, such as having the holy Qur’an and many other Islamic literatures massively produced in igbo and other Eastern Languages, maybe we might have escaped the ugly situation we are facing today. Political, Cultural and ideological differences might probably have been separated from the religion of Islam. Unfortunately, we lost that golden opportunity, yet, understanding remains the key to unity.