Nigeria former Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Muhammed has urged Muslim leaders and communities across the nation to ensure compliance with Islamic injunctions in conducting funeral rites.
Muhammed also underscored the need to educate Muslims about the implications of a deliberate violation of the injunctions of Allah.
The former minister said this while attending the Sa’adatul Abadiyya Organisation of Nigeria Mass Asalatu Prayers and Launching of N500million CASOB Muslim Cemetery, National Secretariat and Halal Event Centre, to be located in Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital.
Muhammed, who is the Grand Patron of the Islamic Organisation , stressed the need to educate Muslims about the implications of deliberate violation of the injunctions of Allah, adding that cultures and traditions should never be placed above the dictates of religious guides.
“The Shari’ah (Islamic religious law) calls for burial of the deceased body, which should be preceded by a simple ritual of bathing and shrouding the body, followed by Salatul Janazah (funeral prayer),” he said.
Muhammed described Muslim funeral exercises as a means of seeking Allah’s forgiveness for the deceased.
He, therefore, advised that such funeral services should be modest and not turned into a jamboree in order to avoid the wrath of the creator
” It is the way, not only for the successful attainment of our community objectives of having the forgiveness of our Lord on our deceased persons but also to save them from the agony of unnecessary or destructive practices.
“There is, therefore, the need to educate Muslims, particularly, across the Western part of Nigeria, about the wisdom of Islam in its injunctions, to encourage them to invest in their hereafter and inform them of the imperative of building burial grounds for their communities.
“One cannot think of an enterprise worthy of investing in our lives, now, better than getting our final abode ready and comfortable.
“This is done only by ensuring that we have our own separate Muslim burial grounds during our own lifetimes on earth.
“Thus, all Muslims must come back to the guidance of Islam, especially the funeral/burial exercise,” he said
The former minister urged Islamic communities and organisations across the nation to build permanent Muslim burial grounds for their members.
He pledged to stand by the Islamic Organisation in ensuring the successful completion of the projects.
In a lecture entitled, “Islamic Perspective to nation building “the Chief Imam and National Missioner of the Sa’adatu Abadiyya Organisation, Alhaji Ismail Abdul-Lateef advised the Nigerian government to step up measures at nation building.
Abdul-Lateef noted that if Nigeria must fast-track the process of nation-building, the leaders must build patriotic citizens and ensure justice and equitable distribution of commonwealth.
The National Secretariat would house ICT and vocational centres for youth training with a guest Chalet to accommodate Muslims that might be stranded.
The Halal event center, which is to be situated behind the mosque would accommodate 1, 800 people at a go, while practices that are not permitted by Islam, such as smoking, and drinking alcohol, would not be allowed in the centre.
The cemetery will be situated at the Idi-Ori area of Abeokuta in AbeokutaNorth Local Government Area.
Dominica Nwabufo
