The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, has said that the Almajiri practice, which involves children who have deviated from being students of Quránic schools to being beggars in the streets after their parents had sent them to distant Islamic schools to learn, does not represent Islam and its teachings but instead, represents hunger and poverty.
The Sultan spoke during a meeting in preparation for the Ramadan period.
According to him, “Almajiri does not represent Islam, but hunger and poverty. Almajiri system of begging is not representing Islam and must therefore be distinguished from Islam,” the sultan said.
“Islam encourages scholarship and entrepreneurship and frowns at laziness and idleness as exemplified by itinerant Almajiri. Therefore attempt must be made to stop the practice Almajiri system of begging among Muslim faithful.”
Recall that, in like voice, the Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje had in April raised an alarm over the increasing number of Almajiris in the state, saying they had become both social and economic problem to the country at large.
Govenor Ganduje had said that a survey the state conducted indicated that there were about three million out of school children, roaming the streets of the state, as Almajiris.
“What we discovered from our survey is that many of these Almajiris come from the Niger Republic, some from Chad, Northern Cameroon and some from other states of the North-West”, he had pointed out.
He had however suggested the introduction of a legislation to prevent the movement of school age children as panacea to the problem.
“So, if we can come together and have a common synergy to introduce a common legislation, preventing the movement of school age children from one place to another, I think the states will find it very easy to address the problem of Almajiri syndrome”, he emphasized.
