Opinion
Conditions for the acceptance of good deeds in Islam (1)
إنّ الحمد لله نحمده ونستعينه ونسستغفره ونعوذ بالله من شرور أنفسنا ومن سيّئات أعمالنا, من يهده الله فلا مضلّ له ومن يضلل فلا هادي له وأشهد ألاّ إله إلاّ الله وحده لا شريك له وأشهد أنّ محمّدا عبده ورسوله.
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اتَّقُوا رَبَّكُمُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُمْ مِنْ نَفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ وَخَلَقَ مِنْهَا زَوْجَهَا وَبَثَّ مِنْهُمَا رِجَالاً كَثِيراً وَنِسَاءً وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ الَّذِي تَسَاءَلُونَ بِهِ وَالْأَرْحَامَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَلَيْكُمْ رَقِيباً
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَقُولُوا قَوْلاً سَدِيداً، يُصْلِحْ لَكُمْ أَعْمَالَكُمْ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ وَمَنْ يُطِعِ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ فَقَدْ فَازَ فَوْزاً عَظِيماً.
أما بعد: السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته
Distinguished brothers and sisters in Islam, the topic of our khutbah today is: The conditions for the acceptance of good deeds in Islam. This topic is one of the fundamental issues in Islām that every Muslim know and understand. This is because the ultimate hope of every Muslim is to attain the pleasure of Allāh in both this life and the hereafter. This goal would never be achieved unless one’s deeds are accepted by Allāh. Consequently, no single deed shall be accepted by Allāh except it satisfies the conditions of acceptance of good deeds as stipulated in the Sharīah. Hence, it becomes imperative for every Muslim to strive to know these conditions prior before embarking on any meritorious act in order not to be among the losers in the hereafter. Allāh says:
﴿ قُلْ هَلْ نُنَبِّئُكُمْ بِالْأَخْسَرِينَ أَعْمَالاً * الَّذِينَ ضَلَّ سَعْيُهُمْ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَهُمْ يَحْسَبُونَ أَنَّهُمْ يُحْسِنُونَ صُنْعاً ﴾
“Say: Shall We inform you of the greatest losers in (their) deeds? (These are) they whose labour is lost in this world’s life while they think that they have done good deeds.”
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Al-hāfiz ibn Kathīr (rahīmahullāh), while commenting on the above verse quoted a ḥadīth from Al-Bukhārī on the authority of Abū Hurayrah that the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ said:
عن أبي هريرة – رضي الله عنه – أن رسول الله – صلى الله عليه وسلم – قال: إنه ليأتي الرجل العظيم السمين يوم القيامة لا يزن عند الله جناح بعوضة. وقال: اقرؤوا فَلَا نُقِيمُ لَهُمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ وَزْنًا
“A man so hefty and chubby will appear on the Day of Resurrection and he would not weigh the wings of a mosquito (when put on the scale of deeds).”
In another narration, he said:
عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ قَالَ: قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وسلم: يؤتى بالرجل الأكول الشروب العظيم، فيوزن بحبة فلا يزنها. قَالَ: وقرأ: فَلا نُقِيمُ لَهُمْ يَوْم الْقِيَامَة وَزْنًا.
“A gluttonous and huge man shall be brought (on the Day of Resurrection) and weighed side by side with a grain and the latter shall outweigh him.”
‘Ibādallāh! What does it profit a man to live for 5,6 or 10 decades, striving tirelessly in the path of Allāh, only to be told on the Day of Judgment that his deeds amount to nothing and then he is thrown in hellfire?
This is why it is extremely important for us to hold on to the kitāb and Sunnah and adhere strictly to only what they legislate and shun all forms of bid’ah no matter how commonplace they are.
‘Ibādallāh! There are primarily two basic conditions for the acceptance of good deeds by Allāh. These are:
Al-Ikhlāṣ (Sincerity of purpose): This implies that we keep our intention for embarking on such meritorious deeds solely for Allāh alone. We must not intend with our good deeds the attainment of some worldly benefits or showing off to gain fame and praise from the people.
Allāh says:
إِنَّا أَنزَلْنَا إِلَيْكَ الْكِتَابَ بِالْحَقِّ فَاعْبُدِ اللَّهَ مُخْلِصًا لَّهُ الدِّينَ
“Indeed, We have revealed to you the Book with the truth, therefore serve Allāh being sincere to Him in obedience.” (Q39:2)
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Allāh also says:
أَلا لِلَّهِ الدِّينُ الْخَالِصُ وَالَّذِينَ اتَّخَذُوا مِنْ دُونِهِ أَوْلِيَاءَ مَا نَعْبُدُهُمْ إِلَّا لِيُقَرِّبُونَا إِلَى اللَّهِ زُلْفَى
“Now, surely, sincere obedience is due to Allāh (alone) and those who take guardians besides Him, (say), we do not serve them save that they may make us nearer to Allah…” (Q. 39:3)
Allāh also says:
قُلْ إِنِّي أُمِرْتُ أَنْ أَعْبُدَ اللَّهَ مُخْلِصًا لَهُ الدِّينَ
“Say: I am commanded that I should serve Allah, being sincere to Him in obedience.” (Q.39:11)
Allāh also says:
قُلِ اللَّهَ أَعْبُدُ مُخْلِصًا لَّهُ دِينِي
“Say: It is Allāh I serve, with my sincere (and exclusive) devotion.” (Q.39:14)
‘Ibādallāh, the second condition for the acceptance of good deeds by Allāh is:
Al-Mutāba’ah (Conformity to the teachings of the Rasūl ﷺ): Before any good deed becomes eligible for acceptance by Allāh, it must be performed in strict accordance with the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. This is because he, Muḥammad, is the channel via which Allāh communicated to His creatures. Allāh revealed the Qur’ān unto him and commanded all sincere believers obey and follow him unconditionally. Consider the following verses: Q.3:32, 4:59, 4:64, 4:80, 4:115, 4:170, 5:92, 8:20, 24:54, 24:56, 47:33, among several others.
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From the ḥadīth, ‘Āisha (may Allāh be pleased with her) narrated that the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ said:
عن أم المؤمنين عائشة رضي الله عنها قالت : قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم :من أحدث في أمرنا هذا ما ليس منه فهو رد
“Whoever innovates into this affair of ours (Islām) that which is not part of it, shall have it rejected.”
The ‘Ulamā’, while explaining the ḥadīth wrote:
فإن هذا الحديث يحتوي قاعدة من قواعد الإسلام وأصلا عظيما من أصوله، وهو يفيد أن ما خالف أمرنا مردود وأن ما وافقه مقبول، فقد قال الحافظ ابن رجب في جامع العلوم والحكم:وهذا الحديث أصلٌ عظيم من أُصول الإسلام، وهو كالميزان للأعمال في ظاهرها كما أنّ حديث: الأعمال بالنيَّات ميزان للأعمال في باطِنها، فكما أنَّ كل عمل لا يُراد به وجه الله تعالى فليس لعامله فيه ثواب، فكذلك كلُّ عمل لا يكون عليه أمر الله ورسوله، فهو مردودٌ على عامله، وكلُّ مَنْ أحدثَ في الدِّين ما لم يأذن به الله ورسوله، فليس مِنَ الدين في شيء. اهـ
This ḥadīth contains one of the fundamentals of Islam and teaches one of its basic lessons. The ḥadīth implies that any deed that contradicts the teachings of Allāh and His Apostle shall be utterly rejected while the one that conforms to them are well accepted.
Al-Ḥāfiz Ibn Rajab in Jāmi’u-‘Ulūm wa’l-ḥikam wrote: “This ḥadīth is a fundamental aspect of the religion. It is like a scale of measure of deeds outwardly, just like the ḥadīth “Actions are judged according to intentions” is used to measure the deeds inwardly. Similarly, just as any deed that is not done solely for the sake of Allāh shall not be rewarded, is any act not done in accordance with the teachings of Allāh and His Apostle ﷺ.”
وقال الحافظ ابن حجر في الفتح: وَهَذَا الْحَدِيثُ مَعْدُودٌ مِنْ أُصُولِ الْإِسْلَامِ، وَقَاعِدَةٌ مِنْ قَوَاعِدِهِ، فَإِنَّ مَعْنَاهُ: مَنْ اخْتَرَعَ مِنْ الدِّينِ مَا لَا يَشْهَدُ لَهُ أَصْلٌ مِنْ أُصُولِهِ فَلَا يُلْتَفَتُ إلَيْهِ
Ibn Ḥajar in Al-Fatḥ wrote:
“This ḥadīth is regarded as one of the foundations upon which Islām was built. It implies that whosoever innovates in the religion without recouse or proof in its foundation should be disregarded.”
قَالَ النَّوَوِيُّ: هَذَا الْحَدِيثُ مِمَّا يَنْبَغِي حِفْظُهُ وَاسْتِعْمَالُهُ فِي إبْطَالِ الْمُنْكَرَاتِ وَإِشَاعَةِ الِاسْتِدْلَالِ بِهِ
كَذَلِكَ. اهـ
An-Nawawi also wrote:
“This ḥadīth ought to be memorized and applied in disproving all forms of shenanigans (bid’ah practices).”
والله أعلم.
Dr. Sanusi Lafiagi is a lecturer in Department of Islamic Studies, Al-Hikmah University Ilorin
Opinion
Tinubu’s Buharization of NNPC By Farooq Kperogi
Tinubu’s Buharization of NNPC by Farooq Kperogi
After the sustained, unwarranted personal attacks I endured for eight years from northerners for unswervingly calling out what I called the “embarrassingly undisguised Arewacentricity of Buhari’s appointments” in a February 2, 2019, column titled “Even Ahmadu Bello Would Be Ashamed of Buhari’s Arewacentricity,” I promised that I would look the other way if a southern president returned the favor after Buhari’s tenure.
But promises made in the heat of disillusionment often crumble under the weight of principle.
Ironically, this column was inspired by a well-regarded Yoruba supporter of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who is worried, in fact embarrassed, by the optics of what he says is Tinubu’s relentless Yorubacentric take-over of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC).
His concern wasn’t just partisan discomfort; it was a profound unease about how this nepotistic approach undermines national cohesion.
I frankly hadn’t been paying attention to the internal dynamics at the NNPC, but the acquaintance pointed out that Yoruba people now occupy major positions at the NNPC and that a certain (person) is “being proposed as GMD after Mele Kyari’s term expires” early next year.
I haven’t independently confirmed the accuracy of this claim but given the closeness of the source of information to people in the circles of power, it’s probably best to not dismiss this with the wave of the hand.
His concern is that Tinubu, from the Southwest, is already the minister of petroleum. Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, the Minister of State for Petroleum and Chairman of the NNPC, is from the South-South. Chief Pius Akinyelure from the Southwest is NNPC’s Non-Executive Board Chairman.
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The head of the NNPC Upstream Investment Management Services (NUIMS), Mr. Bala Wunti, my acquaintance pointed out, has been replaced by one Seyi Omotowa. Gbenga Komolafe is the chief executive officer of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), making him the highest-ranking upstream regulator.
“If a Yoruba man were to be the GMD, another Yoruba man is the Chairman, and yet another Yoruba man is the regulator, that’s extreme lopsidedness,” and other parts of Nigeria would be justified to feel uncomfortable, my acquaintance said.
As with issues of this nature, the reality may be more complex that the surface-level impressions that I have been presented with. Of the 12-member non-executive Board of Directors, I counted at least four names that I recognize as northern, and that includes Kyari, the outgoing GMD.
The 7-member Senior Management Team on NNPC’s website has three northerners (if Kyari is included). That seems fair. Plus, Buhari actually appointed many of the Yoruba people in high places at the NNPC. By these metrics, one might argue that there’s a semblance of balance.
However, Tinubu’s broader public image tells a different story. His administration is rapidly cementing a reputation for Yorubacentric provincialism. Like the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, who governed Nigeria as if he were still a Katsina governor, Tinubu appears to be governing Nigeria as though he were still the governor of Lagos.
Just like Yar’adua was elected a Nigerian president but operated like a Katsina governor in Abuja, Tinubu is also, so far, a Nigerian president only in name. His mindset is still that of the governor of Lagos.
With a few notable (and in some cases unavoidable) exceptions, Tinubu’s government is largely the re-enactment of his time as the governor of Lagos. It is, for all practical purposes, an unabashed Lagos-centric Yorubacracy.
To be fair, though, with the possible exception of Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, all civilian regimes since 1999 have been insular ethnocracies.
My source reminded me of a viral social media post I wrote on January 14, 2019, titled “New IGP: Why Progressive Northerners Should be Embarrassed” where I gave four reasons for being insistently censorious of Buhari’s Arewacentric appointments in response to southerners who asked why I was bothered since I was a northern Muslim who was “favored” by such appointments—“favored,” that is, on the emotional and symbolic plane.
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I pointed out that I criticized similar such parochial appointments by previous presidents from the South and that it would be hypocritical to look the other way because I was now “favored” by such appointments.
I said people from my region and religion won’t always be in power, and I wanted to be able to stand on a firm moral pedestal when I criticize future presidents who replicate Buhari’s (and previous presidents’) provincialism.
Most importantly, I said, I was personally embarrassed by Buhari’s insularity and that every progressive northerner should be. I described it as the sort of embarrassment you feel when your best friend who thinks highly of your mother visits you in your home and your mother, during a family dinner, gives you a considerably bigger food portion size and choicer pieces of meat than your friend.
“You feel like screaming: ‘Mom, I know you love me, but you’re embarrassing me by showing overt preferential treatment to me in the presence of my friend’,” I wrote.
The Yoruba acquaintance of mine who alerted me to the creeping Yoruba-centric take-over of the NNPC said he was doing so out of a feeling of the same sense of embarrassment that inspired my rage against Buhari’s appointments that favored the North unfairly, especially in the areas of security.
Tinubu is doing in the economy sector what Buhari did in the security sector. The minister of finance, the governor of the central bank, and every other consequential agency in finance is headed by a Yoruba man. I am not sure Nigeria has ever seen this level of extreme, state-sanctioned ethnocentric domination of a critical segment of national life.
Appointing another Yoruba individual as the head of the NNPC would complete what many already perceive as the ethnic capture of Nigeria’s economic nerve center. It would not only cement Tinubu’s image as an insensitive ethnocrat but also exacerbate public discontent and foster deeper divisions in an already polarized nation.
If Tinubu is unaware of this burgeoning perception, he needs to awaken to its reality. Leadership is not just about policies and actions; it’s also about managing optics and inspiring confidence in a nation’s collective identity.
In a September 5, 2015, column titled “Buhari is Losing the Symbolic War,” where I railed against the exclusion of Igbo people in Buhari’s first appointments, I wrote:
“Symbolism isn’t the same thing as substance. Appointing people to governmental positions does nothing to improve anybody’s lot—except, perhaps, the people so appointed and their immediate families.
“Jonathan’s disastrous 5-year presidency couldn’t even bring basic infrastructure like boreholes to his hometown of Otueke, yet his people derive vicarious satisfaction from the fact of his being Nigeria’s former president.
“Human beings are animated by a multiplicity of impulses, including rational and emotional impulses, both of which are legitimate. When we turn on our rational impulses, we may ask: What would appointing an Igbo man as SGF, for instance, do to Igbo people? The answer is ‘nothing.’
“But we are more than rational beings: we are also emotional beings. That’s why people are invested in symbolism. Appointing someone from the southeast or the deep south is merely a symbolic gesture, but it inspires a sense of inclusion in the minds of many people from that region; it serves as a symbolic conduit through which people vicariously connect with the government.”
This cycle of ethnic favoritism must end if Nigeria is to realize its full potential as a nation. To grow and thrive, we need leaders who can transcend the narrow confines of ethnocracy.
We need leadership that embraces diversity and inclusion, not as buzzwords but as guiding principles for governance. Only then can we begin to heal the fractures that divide us and build a nation that serves all its citizens, regardless of ethnicity or region.
Farooq Kperogi is a renowned Nigerian columnist and United States-based Professor of Media Studies.
Tinubu’s Buharization of NNPC by Farooq Kperogi
Opinion
Ademola Lookman showed Davido and Kemi Badenoch that wisdom is not by age – Omokri
Ademola Lookman showed Davido and Kemi Badenoch that wisdom is not by age – Omokri
Recently, the singer David Adeleke was given a global stage to do whatever he wanted and deliver any message.
Sadly, Mr. Adeleke used the opportunity to speak in an American accent. Not only that, he used that American accent to talk down on Nigeria and tell the world not to invest in Nigeria because, as he put it, Nigeria’s “economy is in shambles”.
Coincidentally, a month after his faux pas, Kemi Badenoch, probably inspired by Davido, used her British accent to talk down Nigeria, calling us “a very poor country” where the police rob citizens.
But the interesting thing about her own case is that the next day, the BBC featured a panel of Conservative Party big shots, and one of them, Albie Amankona, a party chieftain from Chiswick, who is also a celebrity broadcaster, said, and this is a direct quote:
“If you are a Brexiteer, and you are saying we need to be expanding our global trade beyond the European Union, we want to be looking at emerging markets for growth, don’t slag off one of the fastest growing economies in Africa.”
Is it not strange that it took the BBC and a British politician to promote Nigeria as one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa?
And just when we thought it was all bad news, God gave us a breath of fresh air in the youthful Ademola Lookman, who used the global podium granted to him by his winning the 2024 African Footballer of the Year award to promote and project Nigeria and the Lukumi Yoruba language to the world.
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Wisdom is not by age. If not, Ademola Lookman, who is just twenty-seven, will not have displayed greater wisdom than David Adeleke, who is thirty-two, and Kemi Badenoch, at forty-four.
Mr. Lookman proved that the age of Methuselah has nothing to do with the wisdom of Solomon.
And it is not as though other ethnicities with global icons do not also project Nigeria. They do.
Dr. Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala spoke Igbo on the podium of the WTO in Geneva. In terms of prestige, she is FAR above Lookman.
My campaign is not for the Lukumi Yoruba alone. It is for all sub-Saharan Black Africans to learn to speak their language and not use ability to speak English or another colonial language as a measure of intelligence.
Besides Lukumi Yoruba and Hausa, every other Nigerian language, including Fulfulde, is gradually dying out.
General Buhari is half Fulani and half Kanuri. Yet, he cannot speak either Fuifulde or Kanuri. But he speaks Hausa and English.
Fact-check me: In 2012, UNESCO declared Igbo an endangered language.
However, the Lukumi Yoruba are to be commended for their affirmative actions to advance their language and culture.
Let me give you an example. All six Governors of the Southwest bear full Lukumi names: Jide Sanwa-Olu, Seyi Makinde, Dapo Abiodun, Ademola Adeleke, Abiodun Oyebanji, and Orighomisan Aiyedatiwa.
No other zone in Nigeria has all its governors bearing ethnic Nigerian names as first and second names. They either bear Arabic or European names as first names or even first and second names.
If we truly want to be the Giant of Africa, we must take affirmative steps to preserve our language and culture so we can have children like Ademola Lookman.
Teach your language to your children before you teach them English. They will learn English at school. Being multilingual is scientifically proven to boost intelligence.
Fact-check me: In the U.S., Latino kids do not speak English until they start school. They learn Spanish as a first language.
Even if you relocate to the UK, the best you can be is British. You can never be English. And if your choice of Japa is the U.S., the highest you can be is an American citizen. You will never become a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant WASP.
Your power lies in balancing ancient and modern, Western and African, English (or other colonial languages) and your native tongue.
That is the way to reverse language erosion, like the Lukumi Yoruba.
Ademola Lookman showed Davido and Kemi Badenoch that wisdom is not by age – Omokri
Opinion
Kemi Badenoch’s Hate for Nigeria – Femi Fani-Kayode
Kemi Badenoch’s Hate for Nigeria – Femi Fani-Kayode
“I find it interesting that everyone defines me as a Nigerian. I identify less with the country than with my specific ethnic group. I have nothing in common with the people from the north of the country, the Boko Haram, where Islamism is. Being Yoruba is my true identity and I refuse to be lumped with the northern people of Nigeria who were our ethnic enemies, all in the name of being called a Nigerian”- @KemiBadenoch.
Dangerous rhetoric
Kemi Badenoch, MP, the leader of the British Conservative Party and Opposition in the @UKParliament, has refused to stop at just denigrating our country but has gone a step further by seeking to divide us on ethnic lines.
She claims that she never regarded herself as being a Nigerian but rather a Yoruba and that she never identified with the people from the Northern part of our country who she collectively describes as being “Boko Haram Islamists” and “terrorists”.
This is dangerous rhetoric coming from an impudent and ignorant foreign leader who knows nothing about our country, who does not know her place and who insists on stirring up a storm that she cannot contain and that may eventually consume her.
It is rather like saying that she identifies more with the English than she does with the Scots and the Welsh whom she regards as nothing more than homicidal and murderous barbarians that once waged war against her ethnic English compatriots!
All this coming from a young lady of colour that is a political leader in a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural country that lays claim to being the epitome of decency and civilisation! What a strange and inexplicable contradiction this is.
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Her intentions are malevolent and insidious and her objective, outside of ridiculing and mocking us, is to divide us and bring us to our knees.
I am constrained to ask, what on earth happened to this creature in her youth and why does she hate Nigeria with such passion?
Did something happen to her when she lived here which she has kept secret?
Kemi Badenoch’s Hate for Nigeria – Femi Fani-Kayode
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