Najeebwali

.... Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves....  Q13V11 'For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he' Proverbs 23:7 The Prophet SAW dispatched a contingent of the army, Upon their return, he SAW said: ‘Blessed are those who have performed the minor jihad and have yet to perform the major jihad.’ When asked, ‘What is the major jihad?’ the Prophet SAW replied: ‘The jihad of the mind'. The following story serves to highlight neurological pathways and patterns to learned helplessness in individuals and collective behaviours; 5 monkeys were placed in a cage as part of an experiment. In the middle of the cage was a ladder with bananas on the top rung. Every time a monkey tried to climb the ladder, the experimenter sprayed all of the monkeys with icy water. Eventually, each time a monkey started to climb the ladder, the other ones pulled him off and beat him up so they could avoid the icy spray. Soon, no monkey ...

The recent coup in Niger republic is threatening to be the last straw that may break the camel's back in view of the delicate situation in the sahelian belt of Africa. The coup, which has been executed successfully is facing stiff resistance externally especially from the United States, France and Nigeria whilst also enjoying a modicum of support internally and also externally from ideologically/culturally and neighboring states.  Niger lies near the center of Africa’s Sahel region, a narrow band of semi-arid land where the savanna transitions to the Sahara Desert. Like most Sahel countries, Niger’s population is concentrated in the more fertile south of the sahel, with vast expanses of largely uninhabited desert constituting the majority of the country, though some population centres thrive in the north due to mining activities. Mohamed Bazoum, the former President of Niger republic was ousted in a military coup on the 26th of July and was promptly replaced by a junta ...

  On the 29th of may, 2015, he was sworn in as president of the federal republic of Nigeria, and during his inaugural address, he uttered a sentence that has become the most quoted, most cryptic and probably most profound of any president in the history of Nigeria; 'I belong everybody, and I belong to nobody'. Seven and a half years later into his reign, the quotation looks like a prophecy, for not only has he lived up to his signature quote, he has surpassed expectations in how devoted he is to making it manifest. His tenure began with the treachery and insubordination in the contest of the leadership of the national assembly, where some rogue legislatures of the ruling party connived with the opposition to hijack the leadership of the NASS. It was the first test of his democratic credentials, their were calls and uproar for the president to go the 'Obasanjo way' and have them removed by any means necessary, however, he let the democratic process take its cour...

In the small peninsula in the persian gulf, a land which was once under persian rule, Rashidun caliphate, ottoman and british rule, before finally becoming independent and self governing in from the british on September 1st, 1971, the twenty second edition of the FIFA world cup took place.   This is a nation, that one could argue by accident of geography was destined for the shadows. To the north lies the persian behemoth of Iran, a nation of huge geographical expanse and a population of 90 million people, to the west, the Arab juggernaut of Saudi Arabia, with her massive oil wealth and the two holiest cities of Islam, and the south, the commercial and tourist node that is the UAE. The Qatari irrepressible spirit was never going to accept being in the shadows, against all odds, the Emir, Tamim Ibn Hamad Al - Thank has gone to great lengths to build a twenty first century kingdom and put Qatar on the global map and consciousness. What they lacked in hard power, their inv...

Ya Rasulallah, He whom it is honorable to call Master, for associating with Abu - Zahra honors with an honor unrefuted. Ya Rasulallah, to whom being enslaved to is a rank above all earthly stations, for we are all hitherto enslaved, except the one whom you liberate with your everlasting liberation. Ya Rasulallah, the dispeller of all darkness, and the giver of everlasting light, for your light outshines a million suns. Ya Rasulallah, the fountain of mercy to wretched us, for your mercy alone puts all mothers to shame. Ya Rasulallah, the source of hope in a of pain and anguish, for it is only through you, the multitude find succor. Ya Rasulallah, the bestower of joy to an anguished heart, for every other 'joy' bar thee is a grand illusion. Ya Rasulallah, the only guide in a lost world, for without you we are but sheep without a shepherd, and are lost irrevocably. Accept this litany ya Abu - Ibrahim, for all your servant seeks is your acceptance.

'Every successful story is a tale of adaption, revision and change'.    - Richard Branson The process of growth and evolution can be painful, but life is a journey of continuous growth or evolution, and whoever resists or refuses that impetus, like stagnant water becomes stagnant, and like stagnant water lose purity and clarity, accumulating filth and corruption. Just as the stagnant water becomes polluted and thus pollutes, so does the man who refuses to grow up, he becomes not only a dangerous to himself, but also to his community. You refuse to change yet assume things will change, you have increased in size, but that's all their is to your 'growth', however within lies an adolescent. You get married, or rather get married off, however being the perennial child you are, you fail to make the distinction between wife and mother, thus, projecting motherhood on your victim, and abdicating all expected leadership roles leaving her to pick up the slack, thi...

The Sahel is a band of territory in Africa that stretches the length of the continent, from the Atlantic coast of Senegal and Mauritania in the west to the Red Sea coast of Eritrea in the east. The Sahel acts like a buffer or transition zone between the Sahara Desert to the north and the fertile savannahs to the south. The Sahel was once home to several indigenous African kingdoms. The Sahel literally means "edge" or "border" in Arabic. It includes parts of northern Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Gambia, Sudan, Mauritania and Eritrea. It is a zone of transition, between mediterranean and sub-saharan Africa. Thus, just as it is geographically a transitional zone with a hybridization of sahara and savannah characteristics, so also are its inhabitants who have evolved with the land producing a people heavily influenced by those two tendencies, with geographical closeness determining the degree of socio-cultural affinity. Indeed, the intr...

"There are decades where nothing happens; and weeks where decades happen"      - Vladimir Lenin Nigeria is behemoth saddled with a burden of destiny, a burden of being a beacon and guide for the African continent and other nations of the global south. Factors such as a strategic geographical location, huge landmass (Nigeria is bigger than Germany, France and Belgium combined), a population of two hundred and twenty million (more than France, Germany and Britain combined) serve to make her the epicenter and centre of gravity of the African continent.  To buttress her centrality, Nigeria was at the forefront of support of the anti-apartheid movement, giving sanctuary to activists, financial subsidies and diplomatic support. Nigeria also brought an end to a raging civil war in Liberia and Seirra Leone using mechanisms like the ECOMOG where Nigeria invested the blood of her sons and her treasure to bring peace to sister nations of Africa. Nigeria's successful...

 Marriage is an institution that merges hitherto two different individuals, male and female to form a whole. It is metaphysically a unification of differing tendencies, yet when merged, wholly complimentary to form a self sufficient and self sustaining system. It is the foundation of all self actualization individually, and collectively functional families, societies and on a grander scale, civilizations. Marriage is a covenant, transcendent and beyond the physical, for it joins not only two bodies together, but also minds and souls, thus a harmonious integration strived for with limitless possibilities for either progress and prosperity or chaos. Everything which is a source of unity is moral, everything that forces man to be considerate of others whilst forcing him to regulate his conduct through something other than his base ego is transcendent. Marriage far from serving to disengage the individual from his sorrounding, conversely makes him an integral part of a whole, thus, he ...

A society is an aggregation of 'tendencies and contradictions' which coalesce to form a culture, a civilization on a grander scale. It is alive with a pull, a unique heartbeat of itself. A true humanistic society reinvigorates itself, notwithstanding its recurring ups and downs. It is not associated with cruelty, exploitation, and any other form of inhumane behavior. Nor is it to be imposed by force, intimidation, and threats, leaving trails of devastation in its wake. Moreover, a society that has the upliftment of man as the central ethos should not have innocent blood on its hands. It should not be exclusive, exploitative, and discriminatory, belonging to a high-class club only. Rather, it is to be integrative and bountiful. The relationship between it and the people should be instinctive, organic, and reciprocal, instead of being ruptured, erratic and involuntary.  Prosperity in a society is closely related to the truth, the latter being the cause and point of reference of t...

  Education is the process of training the mind to solve problems and proffer solutions for the progress of the individual and mankind collectively. It is a gradual process of setting up thought patterns, setting up foundational blocks for the mind. The human mind or brain is akin to a garden that requires delicate nurturing, abandoned, it gets overgrown with weeds, pests have a field day. The essential feature of indoctrination which emerges then is that it deliberately violates the criteria of rational discussion to achieve a favorable outcome for the position being advanced. The mere exclusion of full rationality in itself is not sufficient, the exclusion must be deliberate and it must be done in a relevant context.  It is logically necessary to the concept of indoctrination that the indoctrinated person arrives at the belief by non-rational methods. The majority of what passes today for education is indoctrination, you identify it mostly by a rabid defense of a dogma, or p...

 Wholeness is not achieved by cutting off a portion of one’s being, but by integration of the contraries.       - Carl Jung  Man is a three-dimensional being, created by the fusion of body, mind, and spirit. These three are in the 'Integrated man' existing in a state of harmony with each reinforcing the other and never in conflict. Conflict does arise and with dire consequences, as only in a state of harmony between the three can man attain his pinnacle as 'Khalifa-fil-ard' (i.e viceroy of God on earth). With man's fall, from both the literal and metaphysical perspectives succumbing to his base self, Allah SWT promised 'to send him guidance periodically' to reverse this fall into a glorious ascent responding to tendencies embedded in his primordial. Thus, man's struggles on earth is a series of ascents and descents in his journey towards integration and all his toils can be traced back to a lack of alignment of the body, mind, and spirit, it is he who al...

  Obesity is a disorder involving excessive body fat that increases the risk of health problems. Obesity often results from taking in more calories than are burned by exercise and normal daily activities. Obesity occurs when a person's body mass index is 30 or greater. The main symptom is excessive body fat, which increases the risk of serious health problems.  Obesity is serious because it is associated with poorer mental health outcomes and reduced quality of life. Obesity is also associated with the leading causes of death in the United States and worldwide, including diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and some types of cancer. Gluttony, one of the classical seven deadly sins, an inability for one to stop, habitual greed or excess in eating. Gluttony is 'consumption at one's own expense'. The inability of one to take just what he needs and let the rest go is an epidemic of this age. This manifest itself in the modern world's obsession with unrestrained growth, accu...