Sultan: Almajiri system not Islamic… it represents poverty
Sa’ad Abubakar III, sultan of Sokoto, says the Almajiri system largely practised in northern Nigeria is not Islamic as it represents hunger and poverty.
The Almajiri system has children sent to distant places by their parents to learn the Qur’an but many of them end up as beggars.
Speaking at a pre-Ramadan meeting on Sunday in Kaduna, the sultan said Islam frowns at laziness but encourages scholarship and entrepreneurship.
He stressed that attempts must be made to stop the practice and its association with the Islam faith.
The sultan appealed to the government, particularly at the state level to prioritise welfare of their citizens in the bid to address hunger and poverty.
“Almajiri does not represent Islam, but hunger and poverty. Almajiri system of begging is not representing Islam and must therefore be distinguished from Islam,” the sultan said.
“Islam encourages scholarship and entrepreneurship and frowns at laziness and idleness as exemplified by itinerant Almajiri. Therefore attempt must be made to stop the practice Almajiri system of begging among Muslim faithful.”
He further called on state governments to strengthen the institution of ‘Zakkat’ – almsgiving – to address poverty.
Certainly His Eminence is correct in his position on almajiri which has been a menace of enormous magnitude for many years in northern Nigeria. Many erroneously believe that almajiri is part of Islam while the actual truth is that the all pervading poverty which is a result of gross social inequities facing the region, is the main reason. Most families have large number of children and sending young children as young as 3 years are sent away to ‘study’ under a Mallam far away from home. In the past , the Mallam is supported by the community, which is not the case today. Thus the only way out for the Mallam and the Talibs is to get on the streets to beg for sustenance.
We have been trying to find solutions over the years , but the poverty factor still an impediment.
My take on this is the need to for the northern Nigerians especially the political leadership to put in place sustainable strategies and ensuring adequate funding of quranic education system. Current models aren’t working,so there is a need to initiate reforms that will establish and support community based 6- year basic education quranic schools funded by the governments of the region. Hand in hand with reforms at the educational level, we also need to find ways of tackling poverty. The social safety net programmes of this administration such as school feeding and conditional cash transfer programmes are a good beginning.
I sincerely pray that all northerners will work towards finding a lasting solution to this distruction of the future generations .