AS the first five-verse revelation of the Holy Qur’an to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in Cave Hira, Makkah, Saudi Arabia, Almighty Allah Declares in Holy Qur’an, Iqraa, 96:1-5 thus, “Proclaim (or read) in the name Of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created—Created man out of A (mere) clot Of congealed blood: Proclaim! And thy Lord Is Most Bountiful,—He Who taught (The use of) the Pen,— Taught man that Which he knew not”.
Education, spirituality and morality, has been the bedrock of Da›wah activities at the IMA Research Centre in Abeokuta, Nigeria, through monthly lecture series by the academia, intelligentsia, and Islamic scholars from Nigeria and different parts of the world.
We have regular weekly Juma’at services; weekly Sunday Adhkar sessions with lectures from 8.00 a.m. to 10.00 a.m. with the guide of IMA Prayer Book; school sessions for students in the Nursery/Primary and Secondary School; books and audio-visual aids in the library; Tafsir (recitation and interpretation of Holy Qur’an) sessions during Ramadan and Iftar (breaking of fast) for all; annual Ramadan lectures; annual Maolud Nabiyyi lectures; regular Eid-el-Fitr and Eid-el-Kabir prayers at the premises of the IMA Research Centre with the approval of the Abeokuta Central Mosque; and the release of press statements in the media on the Islamic festivals by the President, Justice Bola Ajibola, SAN.
By September 2001, the Egyptian government gave me a scholarship for one-year training programme in Da’wah for my regular programmes on OGBC 2 FM; the ‘Muslim Sermon’ column in the Nigerian Tribune; and as Secretary-General of IMA. They equipped the Audio-Visual Centre of the IMA Library and donated lots of books, Holy Qur’an, Hadith, and among others.
Also, Cairo University, Egypt, gave me admission for PhD programme in Mass Communications to stimulate my scholarship.
My host in Cairo, facilitated by the Chief Imam of Oyo, Alhaji Mas’ud Adebayo, who was one of the resource persons at the IMA Research Centre, was Alhaji Kamarudeen Ajimoti, who was working with the Cairo Radio after his graduation from the El-Azhar University in Horticulture.
His colleague at the Radio Station after his graduation too from El-Azhar University, Dr. Mufutau Olaleye, really made my activities and stay in Cairo for the Da’wah work eventful.
Our exploits included meeting with the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy (October 28, 1928 – March 10, 2010). He was the Grand Mufti of Egypt from 1986 to 1996, and was appointed by President Hosni Mubarak as the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar in 1996 till his death in 2010. He commended the projects of IMA as unique in the contemporary world, and supported all our projects with personnel; books; equipment; facilities; and among others. Justice Abdul-Jabbar Bola Ajibola met him in 2005 during official visitation to Egypt on IMA and Crescent University. May Almighty Allah rest their souls, Ameen.
Other establishments in Egypt that I facilitated relationships with IMA and Crescent University with Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) are the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Cairo, Egypt; Cairo University; Chancellor, El-Azhar University; Institute of National Planning; Egyptian National Library; Majmal Islamy, El-Azhar University; and among others.
In February 2002, I came to Nigeria with the Executive Director of the Egyptian National Library, Professor Ghalal Ghandour and Professor Abdul-Satar El-Halwagy of Cairo University and recipient of King Faisal Award in Saudi Arabia on Islamic Studies scholarship to deliver International Lecture series of IMA in Abeokuta, Nigeria. Our Distinguished Guests from Egypt also met our Patron and Baba Adinni of Nigeria in Lagos, Alhaji Abdul-Wahab Folawiyo.
Also, in August 2002, I came with Professor Cynthia Nelson from the American University in Cairo, Egypt to deliver lecture to the women wing of IMA for development as sponsored by the Ford Foundation. As 1963 Professor of Anthropology, she also visited the Vice-Chancellors of the universities of Ibadan and Lagos and interacted with the faculty members for exchange programmes.
Moreover, Professor Nelson met with our Patron and Baba Adini of Nigeria in Lagos, Alhaji Abdul-Wahab Folawiyo of Blessed memory and commended his supports to the lofty objectives of IMA and Crescent University, Abeokuta, Nigeria.
However, we caught a very big fish from Cairo, Egypt to deliver the International IMA Lecture series in October 2002 in person of a colleague of Judge Bola Ajibola SAN at the World Court and World Bank Administrative Tribunal, Dr. Ahmed Kamal Abul-Majd of Egypt. He delivered the lecture at the IMA Centre in Abeokuta with many scholars from the Universities of Lagos, Ibadan, Ilorin, Obafemi Awolowo University, Lagos State University, and many Muslim leaders and organisations.
Dr. Ahmed Kamal Abul Majd was a Minister in Anwar Sadat government and held political, and diplomatic positions in Egypt; Director at the National Council for Human Rights and the Islamic Research Centre in Al-Azhar. He was the head of powerful political youth organisation in Egypt in the 1960 and 1970s. Dr. Ahmed Kamal Abul Majd died at 89 on April 3, 2019. He was author of many books in Law, Arabic and Islamic studies.
During his stay with us in Nigeria for the lecture, a call came from his Secretary in Cairo and told him he was needed by the Kuwaiti government as a Consultant on constitutional issues in the country as four heads of government died in natural circumstances. He needed to come and help solve the problem immediately.
The following day of the lecture, I needed to get flight for him to get to Cairo and get to Kuwait. It was tough, as I brought him to Nigeria through Europe.
Yet Judge Ajibola SAN had flown back to Europe immediately after the lecture on Saturday. Alhamdulillahi, we flew him back through Egypt Air as the Manager wondered how I was able to bring him to Nigeria…he worked with him as a security man under President Anwar Sadat government in Egypt.
May Almighty Allah accept our actions on the propagation of Islam as worship, Ameen.
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