An Islamic cleric, Malam Hussaini Abubakar-Giro, has charged Nigerian pilgrims to rigorously pray for prevailing peace across Nigeria.
He also urged them to pray for Nigerian leaders by seeking divine intervention on the nation’s lingering economic predicament.
Abubakar-Giro, a board member of Kebbi Pilgrims Welfare Board, gave the charge at a routine enlightenment session shortly after the dawn prayer (Subh) in Makkah, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on Saturday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the essence of the enlightenment session is to educate the pilgrims on rituals of Hajj towards an acceptable Hajj (Hajj Mabrur).
The cleric, who is a son to one of the famous Islamic scholars, late Sheik Abubakar Giro-Argungu, said: “We must always devote time for seeking divine intervention for God Almighty to fix our major problems of lingering insecurity as well as economic difficulties.
“We must therefore, pray for our leaders to be able to tackle these challenges. The more they tackle the challenges, the better for us.
“Since your arrival here in Saudi Arabia you have never heard of any Imam accusing the leaders, hence the need for us all to emulate and pray for Nigerian leaders to succeed.”
He advised the pilgrims to beg God Almighty for good both here in the world as well as the hereafter, saying that those who beg for worldly things alone were not of the successful.
While encouraging the pilgrims to repent to earn Allah’s favour, the cleric said nobody knew when he/she would answer the call of his/her creator (die).
Abubakar-Giro also cautioned them against mistrust, backbiting and other forms of sin to be able to scale through peacefully on the Day of Judgement (Quyama).
“Prophet Muhammad (SAW) asked his companions, who is a poor (muflis), they replied, he is somebody who has neither gold nor silver.
“But the Prophet (SAW) replied: muflis in my Ummah is he who will come on the Day of Judgement with good deeds but he has cheated different people through backbiting, mistrust, deception, stealing among others.
“At the end, his deeds will be used to compensate these people he cheated and he will end up with nothing and he will be sent to hell fire,” he said.
He, however, quoted the holy Prophet (SAW) as saying: “Had it been that we don’t commit sin and at the same time repent to God Almighty, He (God) would have cleared us all and created another set of people who will workshop Him more than us.”
In his contribution, Malam Kabiru Umar-Wasagu reminded the pilgrims that whenever a Muslim prays and couldn’t get what he wanted, he should bear in mind that Almighty Allah had changed it for something good.
While charging them to always pray for the best from God (Allah’s choice is always the best), the cleric urged the pilgrims to use the Hajj to purify their minds to go back home clean and pure.
He also encouraged the entire Muslims to do everything possible to exhibit good human relationships with fellow human beings, saying: “No matter your good deeds, if you do not have good relationship with people, it might throw you into hell.” (NAN
