The task of reforming our spoilt society is daunting, but not insurmountable. This was the summary of the lecture delivered by Professor AbdulRazzaq Abdul Majeed Alaro at the 21st Annual Ramadan Public Lecture of Federal Low-Cost Housing Estate Central Mosque, Ikorodu, Lagos on March 24, 2024.

Entitled: Reforming the Spoilt Society, the renowned scholar of Islamic Law acknowledged that indeed our society has decayed, but we should not fold our arms. He reminded the audience about the report of a Nigerian journalist on the era Liberia slipped into civil war and Liberian refugees came to Nigeria, where their billionaires, business moguls, university professors, a former minister and a former high court judge were all living in refugee camp tents, queuing up to collect foods and defecating in open spaces, despite their previous affluences.

He added that Nigerians should learn from Liberian experience, so as to avoid war as well as Allah’s anger, through our various actions; because Nigerians appear to be calling for Allah’s anger, through our excesses and violation of Allah’s boundaries.

Professor Alaro urged each and everyone to have the fear of Allah and teach their children as well the fear of Allah. He urged each and everyone to be merciful to one another, especially in their business transactions, so as to alleviate the suffering of Nigerians.

While admonishing the audience to take care of their hearts, Prof Alaro quoted a Hadith of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) which says: “Truly in the body there is a morsel of flesh, which, if it is sound, the whole body is sound, and if it is corrupt, the whole body is corrupt. Truly, it is the heart.” [Bukhari & Muslim]. Likewise, he quoted another Hadith where Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said:

“Do not envy one another, do not raise prices by overbidding against one another, do not hate one another, do not turn your backs on each other, and do not undercut one another in trade; but be, O slaves of Allah, as brothers. A Muslim is the brother of a Muslim; he does not wrong him, he does not fail him (when he needs him), he does not lie to him, and he does not show contempt for him. Piety lies here – and he pointed to his chest three times. It is enough evil for a Muslim to hold his Muslim brother in contempt. All of a Muslim is inviolable to another Muslim: his blood, his property, and his honour.” (Sahih Muslim).

However, the lecturer called the attention of the audience to the menace of dollarization of our economy, as one of the factors affecting us. The tradition of dollar account in Nigeria is a practical illustration of such abuse, while in many other countries, they respect and value their local currencies.

Moreover, the prevalence of ritual killing among the youths is a great threat to our society, to the extent that mothers of internet fraudsters, also known as Yahoo boys are forming associations. Several evils are taking over the world stage, like LGBTQIA+ which is becoming an alarming trend in our society. Likewise, moral decadence, spiritual bankruptcy, killing and kidnapping are other vices affecting our society. As a matter of fact, killing of an innocent soul is a grievious sin for which the perpetrator can never have any excuse before Allah.

Again, Prof Alaro cautioned parents on the abuse of social media and the negative influence of the internet. He urged parents to pay attention to the websites their children visit, as many of the societal evils are promoted online and some evil-minded people are spending huge some of money to promote all these evils, like LGBTQIA+. As a matter of fact, transgender is a mere camouflage, because nobody can change his or her nature. A man can never become a woman and a woman can never become a man.
The lecturer also lamented the abandonment and neglect of five daily prayers among some sections of Muslims, as well as the prevalence of nudity in the society, blasphemy through social media and other damages caused to one another.

The inequality between the rich and the poor; especially the so-called out-of-school children and several other downtrodden children in the society is a time bomb, which needs an urgent attention, so as to forestall another social crisis.

He explained further, “Somebody once said the so-called out-of-school children are actually not out-of-school, but they attend a different school and graduate from such school, like school of armed robbery and school of banditry. If we fail to educate other people’s children, they may become problems for our own children that we cared to educate. Part of our responsibility is to take care of the orphans and the downtrodden children.”

The renowned teacher at the Faculty of Law, University of Ilorin described the causes of all these social evils along with their resultant effects as man-made, “that is we created them by ourselves, as mentioned in the Noble Qur’an. The negative social effects of these evils serve as a taste of the punishment of Allah, from our actions, perhaps we will return back to Him.”

Additionally, the lecturer lamented the high rate of inflation and the continuous increase in the prices of goods and services, as it affects most Nigerians today.

The lecturer explained that with all these ugly happenings in our society, Allah is not yet angry with us, because if He is, the situation will be disastrous.

However, “our excesses have gotten to the level that we have become problems for ourselves. We have yet to diagnose our problems, because the minds of many Nigerians are corrupt. A corrupt mind can commit any crime,” Prof Alaro said.

As an illustration of man’s inhumanity against man, he cited the case of Sudan where Muslims turn guns against one another, in a bloody civil war that has claimed countless of lives.

“Ultimately, it is important to know that Prophet Muhammad (SAW) also reformed the spoilt society during the period of ignorance and transformed the lives of the companions, by instilling faith in them. The companions really understood the purpose of life and they worked towards that purpose. So, to reform our society, we need to cleanse our hearts; have piety and build strong faith into our souls, while always remembering that we will all be held responsible for our deeds and we will definitely give account to Allah,” he concluded.