The Ignorant People in Hausaland

Transcription

1 Source Material Journal of Asian and African Studies, No.92, 2016 The Ignorant People in Hausaland Uthmān bn Fūdī s Ḥukm juhhāl balad Ḥawsa KARIYA, Kota In the history of successive jihads launched in West Africa from the eighteenth century onward, Uthmān bn Fūdī (d. 1817), a Fulani Muslim intellectual, is well known as the leader of a large-scale jihad in Hausaland (a region approximately corresponding to present-day northern Nigeria and southern Niger) in the early nineteenth century. As a result of this jihad, a state commonly known as the Sokoto Caliphate, which adopted Islamic law as one of its governing principles, was built, and Uthmān became its first caliph. According to Islamic law, attacking Muslims during jihad is not permitted in principle, and legal treatment of a person in everyday life depends on his/ her religious affiliation: whether or not he/she is a Muslim, and, if not, what kind of unbeliever (kāfir) he/she is. Therefore, in order to wage a correct jihad and establish a correct polity in accordance with Islamic law, it was necessary for Uthmān to elaborate in his writings a classification of the people living in Hausaland or Sūdān according to their beliefs. While this classification is principally based on the distinction between Muslims and unbelievers, each category is further ramified. For instance, unbelievers fall into further categories, such as born unbeliever (kāfir bi-al-aṣāla), apostate (murtadd) or syncretist (mukhalliṭ). However, he also enumerated several categories of people who could not be unequivocally categorized as either Muslims or unbelievers. One of such categories is ignorant people (juhhāl, sn. jāhil), appearing in the title of one of his Arabic works, Ḥukm juhhāl balad Ḥawsa (The Legal Provision on the Ignorant People of Hausaland). The core of Uthmān s discussion in this small treatise is the matter of takfīr (branding someone as an unbeliever). He divides the ignorant people into two groups: the people of the first group are Muslims, and those of the second group are unbelievers. The criterion for this judgment is the person s exterior attributes, such as their speech and actions. According to Uthmān, as far as a person s status in this life is concerned, only their outer behavior can be used as evidence to determine whether they are a Muslim or not. In other words, he argues that, unless it manifests itself outwardly, a person s inner state is irrelevant to takfīr. This idea, presented in his other works as well, constitutes an indispensable feature of his thinking. Keywords: Islam, West Africa, Hausaland, Uthmān bn Fūdī (Usman dan Fodio), Ignorant people This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 15K16578.

2 208 Journal of Asian and African Studies No 92 In this paper, I have edited Ḥukm juhhāl balad Ḥawsa on the basis of four manuscripts in the possession of the National Archives of Nigeria, Kaduna (NAK). Also, I have provided a short analysis and a translation. 1. Uthmān bn Fūdī and His Classification of People According to Their Beliefs 2. The Ignorant People in Uthmān s Works 3. Manuscripts of Ḥukm juhhāl balad Ḥawsa Text Translation 1. Uthmān bn Fūdī and His Classification of People According to Their Beliefs In the second half of the eighteenth century, Uthmān bn Fūdī (d. 1817), a Fulani Muslim intellectual from Hausaland (a region approximately corresponding to present-day northern Nigeria and southern Niger), launched a religious and social reform campaign chiefly consisting of writing, preaching and educational activities. This campaign turned into armed jihad in 1804 and soon spread through vast areas of Hausaland. After swiftly overpowering the Hausa kingdoms, Uthmān s community (jamā a) began building a state commonly known as the Sokoto Caliphate which adopted Islamic law as one of its governing principles. In principle, Islamic law does not allow Muslims to attack anyone except for non- Muslims during jihad. Additionally, in states and societies where Islamic law is enforced, legal treatment of a person in everyday life depends on his/her religious affiliation: whether or not he/she is a Muslim, and, if not, what kind of unbeliever (kāfir) is he/she? Therefore, to justify his jihad and establish a religiously correct polity based on Islamic law, it was necessary for Uthmān to elaborate in his Arabic works the classification of the people living in Hausaland or Sūdān according to their beliefs. In his comprehensive study on the pilgrimage tradition in West Africa, Umar al-naqar writes about the nature of the work written by Muḥammad Bello (d. 1837), the second caliph of the Sokoto Caliphate: The fact that Bello was not simply a Muslim scholar but was also, at the time, the leader and the Amīr al-mu minīn of a vast empire makes of the Tanbīh both a personal document and an official statement of policy. (al-naqar 1972: 60) This analysis applies to not only Muḥammad Bello but also to the ruling class of the Sokoto Caliphate in general. In other words, the writings of the Sokoto political authorities, who gained power through waging jihad and establishing a strong polity, served as regulations, determining the activities of the people living in Hausaland and the surrounding regions. Considering this, along with Islamic law s often harsh treatment of unbelievers, including killing, enslavement and plundering, it is evident that Uthmān s classification of people

3 Kariya, Kota: The Ignorant People in Hausaland 209 according to their religious beliefs critically influenced the political and social circumstances at the time. While this classification is principally based on the distinction between Muslims and unbelievers, each category is further ramified. For instance, unbelievers fall into further categories, such as born unbeliever (kāfir bi-al-aṣāla), apostate (murtadd) or syncretist (mukhalliṭ). Notably, these categories themselves, as well as the legal treatments of the people belonging to them, are not static: Uthmān repeatedly altered them over the course of the expansion and development of his campaign. Moreover, he also enumerated several categories of people who could not be unequivocally categorized as either Muslims or unbelievers. One of such category is ignorant people (juhhāl, sn. jāhil), appearing in the title of Uthmān s small treatise, Ḥukm juhhāl balad Ḥawsa (The Legal Provision on the Ignorant People of Hausaland), which I edit and translate in this paper. 2. The Ignorant People in Uthmān s Works From the eighteenth century onward, many jihads were launched chiefly by Fulani scholars, and Sufi orders became more active in large areas of West Africa. Generally speaking, these activities prompted the spread of Islam in this region (Robinson 2000: 131). In Hausaland or Sūdān during the days of Uthmān, however, there were many people who, despite claiming to be Muslims, were not recognized as Muslims or who could not be unequivocally categorized as Muslims from the viewpoint of Muslim scholars or reformists: those who continued to worship trees and rocks, to have faith in the words of soothsayers and to practice various kinds of sorcery, or those who were ill-informed about basic doctrines of Islam as well as its religious obligations (Muḥammad Bello 1951; Uthmān bn Fūdī 1898; 1961; 1967b; 1978; n. d.-a; n. d.-b; n. d.-c; n. d.-d; n. d.-e; n. d.-f). As for the former, Uthmān s works refer to them as syncretists (mukhalliṭ) and affirm that these individuals are definitely to be categorized as unbelievers (Muḥammad Bello 1951; Uthmān bn Fūdī 1898; 1961; n. d.-a; n. d.-c; n. d.-d; n. d.-e). On the other hand, the categorization of the latter, the ignorant people, is more complex: some of them are Muslims, but others are unbelievers. In one of his writings, Tamyīz al-muslimīn min al-kāfirīn (Distinguishing Muslims from Unbelievers), Uthmān classifies the people living in Sūdān into eight categories: (1) scholars ( ulamā ); (2) students (ṭalaba); (3) those who approvingly listen to what the scholars say; (4) born unbelievers; (5) syncretists in deed; (6) syncretists in speech; (7) people of innovation (ahl al-ḥadath) 1) ; (8) ignorant people. Although (1), (2) and (3) are defined as Muslims and (4), (5) and (6) as unbelievers, the definitions of (7) and (8) are less clear, because Muslim scholars expressed diverse views on these categories. Illustrating the characteristics of each category, Uthmān devotes the most space to his comments on the ignorant people, whom he defines as follows: 1) According to Uthmān, although they accepted Islam and their creeds are correct, they pray without obligatory ablution. However, they show no signs of unbelief in deed and speech.

4 210 Journal of Asian and African Studies No 92 Those who entered into Islam but did not understand the things whose understanding the soundness of true faith depended upon and have never smelled the fragrance of following qualified legal opinions (taqlīd), let alone the proof (dalīl). However, they utter the two phrases of the Muslim profession of faith (kalimatay al-shahāda) without having true belief. ( Uthmān bn Fūdī n. d.-e: 14) They are ignorant, Uthmān explains, because they neither seek knowledge about Islam nor ask scholars about it nor attend scholars meeting. However, he rules that they are unbelievers only in terms of their relationships with Allah. Therefore, unless speech or actions are observed that clearly demonstrate unbelief (kufr), they cannot be branded as unbelievers as far as their status in this life is concerned. Uthmān argues by quoting preceding Muslim intellectuals works that branding these people as unbelievers (takfīr) on the basis of inner matters can only be done by Allah during the Last Judgment, because human beings have no way of precisely knowing another person s inner state of being: takfīr in the physical world, in principle, must be based only on exterior attributes such as speech and actions. This idea constitutes an indispensable part of Uthmān s thoughts 2) and also forms the basis for the classification of the ignorant people in Ḥukm juhhāl. At the heart of Uthmān s discussion in Ḥukm juhhāl is the matter of takfīr. He divides the ignorant people into two categories: the people of the first category are absolute Muslims to whom the provisions of Islamic law are applied; they exhibit the following exterior attributes: (1) They purify themselves from major impurity. (2) They perform ablution for prayer. (3) They do not perform dry ablution unless they have a legal excuse. (4) Women in this category avoid foreign men. (5) They respect scholars. (6) They ask the scholars about religious matters that are legally ambiguous to them. (7) They do not mock Allah s religion. (8) The denial of what is known to Muslims by rational necessity about the religion is not heard from them. According to Uthmān, judging from their outer behavior, they are definitely Muslims because they can be deemed not to invalidate shahada (the Muslim profession of faith). As for the people of the second category, however, Uthmān argues that they are definitely unbelievers to whom the provisions of Islamic law are not applied; he characterizes them in terms of the following exterior attributes: 2) Also in Uthmān s work, Nūr al-albāb (The Light of Hearts), the same idea is concisely presented: As for one who performs practices of Islam (a māl al-islām) and from whom practices of unbelief (a māl al-kufr) never appeared and what is contradictory to Islam was never heard in the least, it is not permitted to anyone to say that he is an unbeliever. Because, even if he says that he is an unbeliever because he believes infidel religion (kufr) in his heart, we have no way of knowing it. ( Uthmān bn Fūdī 1898: 60)

5 Kariya, Kota: The Ignorant People in Hausaland 211 (1) They do not purify themselves from major impurity. (2) They do not perform ablution for prayer. (3) Women in this category do not avoid foreign men. (4) They do not respect scholars. (5) They do not ask the scholars about religious matters. (6) They mock Allah s religion. (7) They deny the resurrection of the dead. Uthmān writes that, even if these people utter the profession of Muslim faith and show the outward form of prayer, they are definitely unbelievers because they invalidate their profession by mocking Allah s religion and denying the resurrection of the dead. This category almost corresponds to the sixth category presented in Tamyīz al-muslimīn (i.e., syncretists in speech). The dates of composition of Ḥukm juhhāl and Tamyīz al-muslimīn are unknown, and Uthmān does not mention in the former the matter of the ignorant people s unbelief in terms of their relationships with Allah. However, as far as their status in this life is concerned, his view is essentially consistent: only their exterior attributes (i.e., words and deeds) can be used as evidence to determine whether they are Muslims or not. In this sense, Uthmān finds that, unless it manifests itself outwardly, the person s inner state is irrelevant to takfīr. Moreover, the penultimate paragraph of Ḥukm juhhāl is also significant when considering Uthmān s thoughts on unbelief. He writes, As for every one whom we judged to be an unbeliever among these ignorant people, we judged him to be an unbeliever because he caused what is contradictory to Islam, not mere sins. As multiple scholars have mentioned (El Masri 1978; Hiskett 1994; Last and Al-Hajj 1965), the idea that a Muslim cannot become an unbeliever even if he commits a grave sin constitutes a basic component of Uthmān s thoughts (Muḥammad Bello 1951; Uthmān bn Fūdī 1898; 1967b; 1991; n. d.-b; n. d.-c; n. d.-d). That is to say, his judgment in Ḥukm juhhāl is that, among the abovementioned behaviors that the ignorant people of the second category exhibit, the mockery of Allah s religion and the denial of the resurrection of the dead are critical expressions of unbelief that invalidate the profession of Muslim faith and necessitate takfīr. The existence of the works, such as Ḥukm juhhāl and Tamyīz al-muslimīn, indicates one aspect of social circumstances in Husaland and its surrounding regions at the time: there were people claiming to be Muslims whose status was questioned by Muslim intellectuals or reformists due to their lack of basic religious knowledge and some behavioral attributes that were deemed indicative of their unbelief, and these people accounted for no small proportion of the population. This is evident from the fact that Uthmān could not disregard these people s existence in society and thus had to discuss their status in his works so as to wage correct jihad and establish a correct regime in accordance with Islamic law.

6 212 Journal of Asian and African Studies No Manuscripts of Ḥukm juhhāl balad Ḥawsa To reconstruct the original text of Ḥukm juhhāl in this paper, I have referred to four manuscripts, all of which are in the possession of the National Archives of Nigeria, Kaduna (NAK) and are written in the Maghribi script. Uthmān does not indicate when the original text was completed, nor do the transcribers of the manuscripts specify when the transcriptions were made. Below is a basic description of each manuscript: NAK. A/AR21/5, :أ (1) lines, 3 pages. The transcriber writes his name as Muḥābī(?) bn Abū Bakr manuscript. Vowel marks are used throughout the.(محابى ابن أبو بكر) NAK. A/AR22/38, :ب (2) 16 lines, 4 pages. Red ink is used for writing some words. Vowel marks are also used in this manuscript. NAK. A/AR26/13, :ت (3) 8 10 lines, 8 pages. The transcriber writes his name as Ādil.(عادل) In this manuscript also, red ink is used in places and vowel marks are used throughout the entire text. NAK. D/AR7/7, :ث (4) 13 lines, 3 pages. The transcriber writes his name as Ādam.(آدم) Although red ink is used for some words in this manuscript, there are no vowel marks. From a grammatical standpoint, there are many errors in vowelizing in manuscripts ب,أ and Instead, Therefore, my reading essentially overlooks the vowel marks in those versions..ت judging from the context and based on my own reading, I vowelize some words at my own discretion in the following text. Furthermore, to preserve the readability of the text, I do not indicate simple transcribing errors or grammatical mistakes obviously made by the ب ٣ example, transcribers. The head of a page of each manuscript is indicated with. For.ب means the head of the page 3 from manuscript

7 Kariya, Kota: The Ignorant People in Hausaland 213 Text

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9 Kariya, Kota: The Ignorant People in Hausaland 215

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11 Kariya, Kota: The Ignorant People in Hausaland 217

12 218 Journal of Asian and African Studies No 92 Translation The Legal Provision on the Ignorant People of Hausaland In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. May Allah bless our master Muḥammad, his family and companions, and grant them salvation. Says the poor servant who is in need of his Lord s mercy, Uthmān bn Muḥammad bn Uthmān bn Ṣāliḥ known as Ibn Fūdī may Allah encompass him with His mercy, amen: Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. May the best blessing and the most perfect salvation be upon our master Muḥammad and upon all his family and companions. May Allah may He be exalted be pleased with the followers, the practicing scholars, the four imams who exercised independent judgments and those who follow their opinions to the Day of Judgment. Now then, this is the book [called] The Legal Provision on the Ignorant People of Hausaland (Ḥukm juhhāl balad Ḥawsa). And I say success is from Allah : know that the ignorant people of Hausaland are composed of two groups. The [first] group of them are: [those who] purify themselves from major impurity (janāba), perform ablution (yatawaḍḍa ūna) for prayer, do not perform dry ablution (lā yatayammamūna) unless [they have] a legal excuse ( udhr) and whose women avoid foreign men. And they (the people of the first group) respect scholars ( ulamā ), ask them about religious matters that are [legally] ambiguous to them and do not mock (lā yastahzi ūna) Allah s religion. And the denial (takdhīb) of what is known [to Muslims] by [rational] necessity about the religion is not heard from them. These [people] are definitely Muslims to whom the legal provisions of Islam are applied, because they do not invalidate the phrase, There is no god except Allah, [and] Muḥammad is Allah s Messenger may Allah bless him and grant him salvation which arises upon their mouths in accordance with what the custom of the country conformed to. [Allah] may He be exalted says, Do not say to anyone who gives you the greeting of peace, You are not a believer. 1) The [second] group of them are: [those who] neither purify themselves from major impurity nor perform ablution for prayer and whose women do not avoid foreign men. And they (the people of the second group) do not respect scholars nor ask them about religious matters in the least, but they mock Allah s religion and deny the resurrection of the dead. These [people] are definitely unbelievers to whom the legal provisions of Islam are not applied, even if they utter, There is no god except Allah, [and] Muḥammad is Allah s Messenger may Allah bless him and grant him salvation, in accordance with what the custom of the country conformed to and show the outward form of prayer. Because they invalidated the phrase, There is no god except Allah, [and] Muḥammad is Allah s Messenger may Allah bless him and grant him salvation, by their mockery of Allah s religion and their denial of the resurrection of the dead. 1) Q4: 94

13 Kariya, Kota: The Ignorant People in Hausaland 219 The mockery of Allah s religion was a fruit in their mouths and the mocker of Allah s religion is definitely an unbeliever. [Allah] may He be exalted says, Say, Was it Allah, His proofs (āyāt) and His Messenger that you were mocking? Do not make excuses; you already became unbelievers. 2) The denial of the resurrection of the dead, which is unbelief (kufr), is known to be among them. [Allah] may He be exalted says, The unbelievers say, This is a strange thing. When we die and become dust, [shall we return to life]? That is an unlikely return. 3) As for the outward form of prayer that is observed among them, 4) it is neither regarded [as prayer] nor called prayer because of the lack of its requirement, which is purification. That is because what is nonexistent in terms of Islamic law is the same as what is nonexistent in terms of the senses. Rather, the prayer that they pray is forbidden by the consensus of the Islamic community (ijmā ), so that some scholars have said that performing prayer without purification belongs to apostasy. However, what the majority of them (the scholars) are in agreement with is [the view] that performing it (prayer) without ablution is a sin, and the person who does so sins. In al-kharāshī s large commentary, 5) it is said on the subject of ablution after long discussion: Then, the ablution is divided into four divisions: it is obligatory for every worshipping act in which purification is required, such as circumambulating the Kaaba (ṭawāf) and prayer whether obligatory or supererogatory, and whether individually or collectively obligatory and [it is obligatory] even if [it is for] the prostration of reciting the Qur an. The person who does even a little of that without purification is [regarded to be] committing a sin by [common] agreement, rather by the consensus of the Islamic community, as al-nawawī related. He then said, al-sa d al-taftāzānī has reckoned in his commentary on The Creeds (al- Aqā id) 6) that performing prayer without purification belongs to apostasy. [The quotation] has ended. The person who understands this book shall know that, as for every one whom we judged to be an unbeliever among these ignorant people, we judged him to be an unbeliever because he caused what is contradictory to Islam, not mere sins. Here ends [this book] with praise to Allah and by His good help. 2) Q9: ) Q50: ) Almost the same contents as this paragraph are seen in the chapter 8 of Uthmān s representative work, Iḥyā al-sunna wa-ikhmād al-bid a (The Revival of the Way of the Prophet Muḥammad and the Destruction of Innovation). Although the date of completion of Ḥukm juhhāl is unknown, it is highly likely that this part is quoted from Iḥyā al-sunna because this work, composed in 1793, is one of his earliest works. 5) Commentary by Muḥammad bn Abd Allāh al-kharāshī (or al-kharashī, d. 1689/90) on Mukhtaṣar (Summary) by Khalīl bn Isḥāq (d. 1365/67/74). 6) Commentary by Sa d al-dīn Mas ūd al-taftāzānī (d. 1389/90) on Aqā id by Abū Ḥafṣ Umar al-nasafī (d. 1142).

14 220 Journal of Asian and African Studies No 92 References Arabic Muḥammad Bello Infāq al-maysūr fī ta rīkh bilād al-takrūr. In Infaku l Maisuri (C. E. J. Whitting, ed.). London: Luzac & Co. Uthmān bn Fūdī Nūr al-albāb. In Nour-el-eulbab (Lumière des cœurs) de Cheïkh Otmane ben Mohammed ben Otmane dit Ibn-Foudiou (Ismaël Hamet). Revue africaine, 42: Wathīqa (ilā jamī ) ahl al-sūdān. In The Wathīqat Ahl al-sūdān: A Manifesto of the Fulani Jihād (A. D. H. Bivar). The Journal of African History, 2(2): a. Iḥyā al-sunna wa-ikhmād al-bid a. In A Critical Edition of the Iḥyā al-sunna wa-ikhmād al-bid a of Uthmān b. Fūdī, Popularly Known as Usumanu Ḍan Fodio (I. A. B. Balogun). Ph. D. Thesis, University of London b. Ta līm al-ikhwān bi-al-umūr allatī kaffarnā bi-hā mulūk al-sūdān alladhīna kānū min ahl hādhihi al-buldān. In Unbelief in the Western Sudan: Uthmān dan Fodio s Ta līm al-ikhwān (B. G. Martin). Middle Eastern Studies, 4(1): Bayān wujūb al-hijra alā al- ibād wa-bayān wujūb naṣb al-imām wa-iqāma al-jihād. In Bayān Wujūb al-hijra ala l- Ibād (F. H. El Masri). Khartoum: Khartoum University Press Shifā al-ghalīl fī-mā ashkala min kalām shaykh shuyūkh-nā Jibrīl bn Umar. In Awrāq arabīya min Ṣukkutū (Aḥmad Muḥammad al-badawī, ed.), 39 42, Benghazi: Jāmi a Qār Yūnus.. n. d.-a. Najm al-ikhwān yahtadūna bi-hi bi-idhn Allāh fī umūr al-zamān. Manuscript. National Archives of Nigeria, Kaduna (Kaduna), D/AR36/1.. n. d.-b. Naṣā iḥ al-umma al-muḥammadīya li-bayān al-firaq al-shayṭānīya allatī ẓaharat fī bilād-nā al-sūdānīya. Manuscript. Kenneth Dike Library, University of Ibadan (Ibadan), 82/94.. n. d.-c. Naṣīḥa ahl al-zamān. Sokoto: Published at the expense of al-ḥājj Muḥammad ɗan Ighē.. n. d.-d. Sirāj al-ikhwān fī ahamm mā yuḥtāju ilay-hi fī hādhā al-zamān. Manuscript. Bibliothèque Nationale de France (Paris), Arabe 5528, ff. 225v 238v.. n. d.-e. Tamyīz al-muslimīn min al-kāfirīn. In Majmū al-kutub al-thalātha al-mufīda, 12 22, Sokoto: Published at the expense of al-ḥājj Muḥammad ɗan Ighē.. n. d.-f. Tanbīh al-ikhwān alā aḥwāl arḍ al-sūdān. Manuscript. Bibliothèque de l Institut de France (Paris), 2415 (208). English Balogun, I. A. B A Critical Edition of the Iḥyā al-sunna wa-ikhmād al-bid a of Uthmān b. Fūdī, Popularly Known as Usumanu Ḍan Fodio. Ph. D. Thesis, University of London. El Masri, F. H Introduction, Bayān Wujūb al-hijra ala l- Ibād (F. H. El Masri), 1 39, Khartoum: Khartoum University Press. Hiskett, Mervyn The Sword of Truth: The Life and Times of the Shehu Usuman dan Fodio. 2nd ed. Evanston: Northwestern University Press. Last, Denis Murray The Sokoto Caliphate. London: Longmans. Last, Denis Murray, and M. A. Al-Hajj Attempts at Defining a Muslim in 19th Century Hausaland and Bornu. Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, 3(2): al-naqar, Umar The Pilgrimage Tradition in West Africa: An Historical Study with Special Reference to the Nineteenth Century. Khartoum: Khartoum University Press. Robinson, David Revolutions in the Western Sudan. The History of Islam in Africa (Nehemia Levtzion and Randall L. Pouwels, eds.), , Athens: Ohio University Press