The annual 30-day Ramadan tafsir (sermon) and breaking of fast organised and sponsored by a Minna-based journalist, Alhaji Mohammed Baba Busu, has ended in the Better Life Mosque, CAB-Busu road in Bida.
Baba Busu, the Minna Zonal Manager of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), a traditional title holder (Wakili Labarin Nupe), also sponsored similar programmes in Busu, Niger, billed to wind up on Saturday.
During the closing of the tafsir in Bida on Thursday, another traditional title holder in Nupe land, (Gafaka Nupe) Alhaji Abdullahi Umaru-BabanNachi, urged Muslims to sustain their good acts and behaviour beyond the one-month period of the Ramadan fast.
BabanNachi, a member of Niger Emirate Council, said: “We should strive to maintain our God-fearing acts exhibited during the fasting period.
“As Muslims, we must strive to maintain all the good deeds we showed during the fasting period and shun the evil and devilish acts we abstained from during the holy month.
Umaru-BabanNachi noted that such good behaviours included abstaining from adultery, cheating, stealing, alcoholism, drug abuse and other secret sins.
The Gafaka Nupe also called on Muslim Ummah to always unite, tolerate one another and continue to be their brothers’ keepers.
In his sermon, Ustaz Abdullahi Idris, “Alifa Fogun”, urged Muslims to always pray for national peace and progress and
tolerate one another for sustained unity in the country.
He noted that the two major religions in the country preached peace, unity and love, stressing that without peace and unity, socio-economic development would continue to elude any society devoid of it.
Alifa Fogun also called on leaders at all levels to lead the people with the fear of God, saying “leaders should always remember that they would all account for their deeds on the day of reckoning”.
An Islamic preacher in the Mosque, during the Ramadan sermon, Mallam Abdulrahman Muhammad-Manbe, urged Muslims to use the period to help the less-privileged in the society.
“As Muslims, we should use this Ramadan period to rededicate ourselves to Islam and strive to help the less-privileged in the society.
“You must not wait for them to come and beg you, you should look for them and help them in whatever way you can,’’ he said.
Muhammad-Manbe stressed the need for government at all levels and the wealthy in the society to do more to help the poor, to reduce poverty and crime.
He described Ramadan as a period of forgiveness and blessing and urged Muslims to take advantage of the holy month to supplicate to Allah
Responding, the organiser and sponsor of the sermon, Alhaji Mohammed Baba Busu, (Jakada Labarin Nupe), who is the Minna Zonal Manager of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), expressed gratitude to the Almighty Allah for bestowing the wherewithal and will on him to organise the one-month long event.
Baba Busu explained that the Ramadan fast was the most auspicious period for him to spend the litle wealth in the growth of Islam.
He beseeched the Almighty Allah to accept all the acts of Ibadah and prayers offered during the period with a view to restoring permanent peace, unity and prosperity to Bida Emirate, Niger State and Nigeria in general.(NAN)
By Mohammed Baba Busu
