Only Sultan has statutory authority to announce Ramadan moonsighting, MUSWEN educates Muslims

By Sumayyah Adefaka

…the Sultan is very much aware that sighting the relevant crescent as a condition for commencing or ending Ramadan fast has a due process which he has never ignored in favour of personal whim.

There is no commencement of Ramadan fast in Nigeria without announcement by the statutory authority represented by the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar.

This was a warned handed down by Muslim Ummah of Southwest Nigeria (MUSWEN), when it admonished all Muslims in the South West geopolitical zone to guard against any speculation about the commencement of this year’s Ramadan 1441AH, 2020 fasting.

According to a statement issued by the MUSWEN’s Executive Secretary, Professor Muslih Tayo Yahya, on Sunday, April 19, 2020 it spoke to clear, once again, the doubts cast by some kind of annual speculations about the commencement of Ramadan fasting.

Th

e DEFENDER reports that a particular cleric in Lagos had allegedly announced his dates for the commencement of this year’s Ramadan fast, thus prompting the time press release by the body.

While enjoining the Muslim Ummah in the region to be grateful to Allah for sparing their lives, despite the global lockdown situation imposed on them by an expediency of the moment, the MUSWEN’s chief scribe said the Ummah had transcended an era of unnecessary tangle over moon sighting at the commencement or completion of Ramadan fast in Nigeria.

According to him, the entire Nigerian Muslim Ummah is already blessed with a very competent leader in the person of His Eminence, Dr. Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto, who, by his venerable position as the President General of Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), is the only undisputable leader with the statutory authority to make official announcement on when to start or end Ramadan fast in Nigeria.

He said the Sultan is very much aware that sighting the relevant crescent as a condition for commencing or ending Ramadan fast has a due process which he has never ignored in favour of personal whim.

Emphasizing that NSCIA is the apex body of the entire Nigerian Muslims while MUSWEN is the umbrella body for the Southwest Muslims, Professor Yahya advised the Muslims in the six States of the Southwest region to avoid any distraction that may negatively tamper with the serenity already delightfully ventilated by the unity of the Ummah in the country.

He implored Nigeria’s Southwest Muslims to resolutely uphold the protocol of the existing Muslim unity in Nigeria and seize the opportunity of the incoming blessed month of Ramadan to pray, as a unified body,to the Almighty Allah, for safety, peace and mercy.

He reminded the Muslims in the region of the Qur’anic verse that instructed Muslims generally to “..obey Allah, obey the Messenger (of Allah) and those vested with authority among you” (Q. 4:59) and pleaded with the Southwest Muslims not to confront Allah by querying His issuance of that divine instruction.

Professor Yahya then advised the Southwest State Muslim Communities as well as Muslim Organizations that happen to be the major stake holders in MUSWEN to wait for anauthoritative official announcement by the Sultan before commencing this year’s Ramadan fast.

He counselled the Southwest Muslims to expect the announcement of 1441 AH Ramadan commencement by His Eminence, the Sultan,through the electronic and print media, as usual, at the appropriate time.

Meanwhile, the MUSWEN Executive Secretary has urged all Imams and other Muslim clerics as well as the generality of Muslims in Nigeria not to relent in praying the Almighty Allah to rescue Nigeria and indeed the entire world from the catastrophe of the current ravaging pandemic called coronavirus.