Abubakar Gumi
Encyclopedia
Sheik
Abubakar Gumi (1922–1992) was an outspoken Islamic scholar and Grand Khadi of the Northern Region of Nigeria
(1962–1967), a position which made him a central authority in the interpretation of the Sharia
legal system in the region. He was a close associate of Ahmadu Bello
, the premier of the region in the 1950s and 1960s and became the Grand Khadi partly as a result of his friendship with the premier. In 1967, the position was abolished.
Gumi emerged as a vocal leader during the colonial
era, where he felt the practice of indirect rule
had weakened the religious power of Emirs and encouraged westernization
. Beginning in the 1960s, public conflicts emerged between him and leaders of the Sufi brotherhood, some of whom he later debated on television programs in the 1970s and 1980s. By that time, he had managed to keep himself and his ideas in the spotlight by holding Friday talking sessions inside the Kaduna
Central Mosque
. He used the sessions to revive his criticism of established authorities based on his views of a back to the source approach or the need to embrace a puritanical practice of Islam. He also criticized harshly the involvement of mysticism
and the resulting syncreticized practice of the Sufis.
of Gummi to the family of Mahmud, an Islamic scholar and Alkali (judge
) of Gummi. His education
started within the walls of his family
when he was a pupil
of his father's Islamic teachings. He later went to a school under the tutelage of a Malam called Musa at Ambursa, Sokoto
province
. There he was introduced to Fiqh
and read books and praise poems on the prophet. The first secular school he attended was the Dogondaji Primary School, while in the primary school, he met the future Sultan, Ibrahim Dasuki and excelled in religious duties. He was made Hakimin Salla (leader of prayer) and was delegated responsibility for catering to the students religious activities. Within a year, he was transferred to the Sokoto Middle School
, where Ahamdu Bello was teaching, there he was acquainted with Shehu Shagari
, Waziri
Junaidu and Yahaya Gusau, the latter was a co-founder of Jamaat nasr al-Islam, a prominent Nigerian Muslim
organization.
After completing his studies at the middle school, he went to Kano
to study Law
and was trained as an Alkali
. He started work as a scribe to Alkali Attahiru but he soon became disenchanted with the specifics of his job. He gave private lessons on Islam and tafsir
as an escape from his disenchantment.
to Alkali Attahiru and went to teach at the Kano Law School, which he had previously attended. While in Kano, he met Sheik Sa'id Hayatu, a man widely considered one of the most prominent victims of colonial rule. Hayatu was the leader of the Mahdiyya movement
and had just returned from a forced sojourn in Cameroon
. Abubakar became enthralled with the teachings of the movement and briefly became a follower of the Mahdiyya movement; he later married Hanatu's daughter, Maryam. However, she died after giving birth to a son.
In 1949, he took a teaching job at a school in Maru, Sokoto. The school had a famous tutor, Aminu Kano
, who was the co-founder of the Northern Teachers Association and proprietor of a few Muslim schools. Aminu and Gumi mingled and shared views on the influence of the traditional society with the Islamic faith and also the indifference or support given to the situation of Bida or syncretism by the Sufi brotherhoods.
He left Maru to further his education at the school of Arabic Studies in kano. On completion of his studies, he became a teacher for two years at the school. He also attended a school of education in Sudan.
In 1957, he became an interpreter for the Northern Nigeria government on Saudi Arabia
matters.
officials in Northern Nigeria, but Gumi was particularly irked by the latter. His first dogmatic conflict with authorities was in Maru. The conflict dealt with the practice of Tayammum
. The chief Imam of the Mosque in Maru practiced the act of washing with sand (Tayammum) before prayers
while Gumi argued that Tayammum was only applicable when water was not available, and water was widely available in Maru. Gumi went further in his challenge of the practice, by asking students not to show up for prayers until the Imam
reneged on practicing Tayammum. However, Gumi who had earlier written a scathing attack on the Sultan
of Sokoto, now found the Sultan interested in his grievance with the Chief Imam of Maru. A commission of Inquiry was raised on the issue with the support of the Sultan. However, Gumi's knowledge of Islamic dogma was superior and so was his argumentative skills, the commission ruled in favor of Gumi. Having gained a small victory over the Sultan, Gumi capitalized on the attention he got by writing a critical article on the issue of Muslims, especially the Sultan, accepting British titles. By then, he had begun to gradually challenge established beliefs and attitude to actions among the Muslim Ummah
.
Another target of Gumi was the Jibril Martin led Ahmadiyya
movement. The movement was an easy target for Gummi, as some of the movement founder's views were at odds with fundamental Islamic dogma, as the founder had labeled himself prophetic. Gumi's fears about the movement were later fomented by the organizational skills of the Nigerian founder
, the movement gradually became involved in the Western Nigerian pilgrimage
board and had established schools for pupils in the South and was moving up north in his dissemination of the principles of the Ahmadis. Gumi took on the challenge easily and the movement's northward agenda was curtailed.
in 1955 and was joined in the journey by Ahmadu Bello. While in Mecca, he translated Islamic works in the company of Bello and King Sa'ud. He also met and befriended many members of the Ummah or Muslim community in Saudi Arabia, many of whom later became his benefactors after the death of Ahmadu Bello in 1966. On returning to Nigeria, he began to teach at the School of Arabic Studies in Kano and also at some Muslim schools founded by the Jammat nasr al-Islam (JNI) which were situated near the metropolis
of Kaduna. A large part of his teachings focused on the differences between tradition and Religion, and how to understand and embrace an Islamic identity. He also wrote interpretations of the Qur'an
, mostly based on the Sunna
and translated the Qur'an from Arabic to Hausa
. This process led to the dissemination of the Holy book to a larger Northern Nigerian audience and his views and message on fundamental Islamic teachings began to find a wider audience. However, his opposition to the dominant Sufi brotherhoods such as the Tijaniya and Qadirriya earned him constant criticism and was usually attacked by some Muslims on his interpretations, he usually replied that they should go on and make their own interpretations, if they don't like his. By the 1970s, he became a regular feature on Television shows especially during Islamic events.
By the late 1960s, after the death of Bello, Gumi's major Nigerian political support and moderating influence was gone. He felt the new administration had the political power to curtail his views, and in the process, he resulted to consult his friends in Saudi Arabia for moral
, dogmatic and financial
support to promote a grassroot and media approach to the promotion of Islamic reform
centering on the rejection of mysticism, return to puritanical Islamic teaching and rejection of the then dominant Sufi brotherhoods. He also wanted to find mass
support in his battle with the brotherhood and what he felt was their hold on the political process. Gumi, became more interested in ensuring political support for his ideas, based on his perception that a political Muslim has the power to change the course of lives of a larger number of people than publishing scholarly works or engaging in private debates and gradually became more interested in political means to achieve an Islamic reformist end. In the process, he became a supporter of women's rights
to vote. By the early 1970s, to contest what he felt was the hijacking of major Islamic political organizations by the Fityan al-Islam, an organization founded in Kano by Mudi Salga, a leader of the Salgawa network and who was opposed to some of the policies of the late Ahmadu Bello and his Jamaat nasr al-Islam (the Association for the support of Islam). He decided to start a movement and relied on his old students to spread his views on Islamic dogma, prodding many to take jobs at the JNI and enter into legislative duties. He used his students as a foundation for the new movement to challenge the Sufi brotherhoods
and ensure a return of Islam to a fundamental
way. However, his views where without its share critics especially from the Sufi brotherhoods. Many held that Gumi was driving a wedge between Muslims and non Muslims, that his interpretations of the Hadith
and Quran were based on his own personal views and not the Sunna, and that he was monopolizing the mass media
for his personal views. He was also criticized for his rebellious views on traditional authorities.
Sheikh
Not to be confused with sikhSheikh — also spelled Sheik or Shaikh, or transliterated as Shaykh — is an honorific in the Arabic language that literally means "elder" and carries the meaning "leader and/or governor"...
Abubakar Gumi (1922–1992) was an outspoken Islamic scholar and Grand Khadi of the Northern Region of Nigeria
Northern Region, Nigeria
The Northern Region was one of Nigeria's federal divisions. It was created before independence in 1960, with its capital at Kaduna. In 1962 it acquired the territory of the British Northern Cameroons, who had voted to become part of Nigeria....
(1962–1967), a position which made him a central authority in the interpretation of the Sharia
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
legal system in the region. He was a close associate of Ahmadu Bello
Ahmadu Bello
Sir Ahmadu Bello was a Nigerian politician, and was the first premier of the Northern Nigeria region from 1954-1966. He was one of the prominent leaders in Northern Nigeria alongside Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, both of whom were prominent in negotiations about the region's place in an independent...
, the premier of the region in the 1950s and 1960s and became the Grand Khadi partly as a result of his friendship with the premier. In 1967, the position was abolished.
Gumi emerged as a vocal leader during the colonial
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
era, where he felt the practice of indirect rule
Indirect rule
Indirect rule was a system of government that was developed in certain British colonial dependencies...
had weakened the religious power of Emirs and encouraged westernization
Westernization
Westernization or Westernisation , also occidentalization or occidentalisation , is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in such matters as industry, technology, law, politics, economics, lifestyle, diet, language, alphabet,...
. Beginning in the 1960s, public conflicts emerged between him and leaders of the Sufi brotherhood, some of whom he later debated on television programs in the 1970s and 1980s. By that time, he had managed to keep himself and his ideas in the spotlight by holding Friday talking sessions inside the Kaduna
Kaduna
Kaduna is the state capital of Kaduna State in north-central Nigeria. The city, located on the Kaduna River, is a trade center and a major transportation hub for the surrounding agricultural areas with its rail and road junction. The population of Kaduna is at 760,084 as of the 2006 Nigerian census...
Central Mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
. He used the sessions to revive his criticism of established authorities based on his views of a back to the source approach or the need to embrace a puritanical practice of Islam. He also criticized harshly the involvement of mysticism
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
and the resulting syncreticized practice of the Sufis.
Early life and education
The Sheik was born in the villageVillage
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
of Gummi to the family of Mahmud, an Islamic scholar and Alkali (judge
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
) of Gummi. His education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
started within the walls of his family
Family
In human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children...
when he was a pupil
Pupil
The pupil is a hole located in the center of the iris of the eye that allows light to enter the retina. It appears black because most of the light entering the pupil is absorbed by the tissues inside the eye. In humans the pupil is round, but other species, such as some cats, have slit pupils. In...
of his father's Islamic teachings. He later went to a school under the tutelage of a Malam called Musa at Ambursa, Sokoto
Sokoto
Sokoto is a city located in the extreme northwest of Nigeria, near to the confluence of the Sokoto River and the Rima River. As of 2006 it has a population of 427,760...
province
Province
A province is a territorial unit, almost always an administrative division, within a country or state.-Etymology:The English word "province" is attested since about 1330 and derives from the 13th-century Old French "province," which itself comes from the Latin word "provincia," which referred to...
. There he was introduced to Fiqh
Fiqh
Fiqh is Islamic jurisprudence. Fiqh is an expansion of the code of conduct expounded in the Quran, often supplemented by tradition and implemented by the rulings and interpretations of Islamic jurists....
and read books and praise poems on the prophet. The first secular school he attended was the Dogondaji Primary School, while in the primary school, he met the future Sultan, Ibrahim Dasuki and excelled in religious duties. He was made Hakimin Salla (leader of prayer) and was delegated responsibility for catering to the students religious activities. Within a year, he was transferred to the Sokoto Middle School
Middle school
Middle School and Junior High School are levels of schooling between elementary and high schools. Most school systems use one term or the other, not both. The terms are not interchangeable...
, where Ahamdu Bello was teaching, there he was acquainted with Shehu Shagari
Shehu Shagari
Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari, Turakin Sakkwato served as the President of Nigeria's Second Republic , after the handover of power by General Olusegun Obasanjo's military government....
, Waziri
Waziri
Waziri may refer to:* Wazir , a Pashtun tribe* Waziri language, spoken by Waziris* Waziri , a breed of sheep originating in Waziristan* Something or someone originating from Waziristan* The family name of the Sokoto Grand Vizier...
Junaidu and Yahaya Gusau, the latter was a co-founder of Jamaat nasr al-Islam, a prominent Nigerian Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
organization.
After completing his studies at the middle school, he went to Kano
Kano
Kano is a city in Nigeria and the capital of Kano State in Northern Nigeria. Its metropolitan population is the second largest in Nigeria after Lagos. The Kano Urban area covers 137 sq.km and comprises six Local Government Area - Kano Municipal, Fagge, Dala, Gwale, Tarauni and Nassarawa - with a...
to study Law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
and was trained as an Alkali
Alkali
In chemistry, an alkali is a basic, ionic salt of an alkali metal or alkaline earth metal element. Some authors also define an alkali as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a soluble base has a pH greater than 7. The adjective alkaline is commonly used in English as a synonym for base,...
. He started work as a scribe to Alkali Attahiru but he soon became disenchanted with the specifics of his job. He gave private lessons on Islam and tafsir
Tafsir
Tafseer is the Arabic word for exegesis or commentary, usually of the Qur'an. Ta'wīl is a subset of tafsir and refers to esoteric or mystical interpretation. An author of tafsir is a mufassir .- Etymology :...
as an escape from his disenchantment.
Early career
In 1947, Abubakar Gumi, left his job as secretarySecretary
A secretary, or administrative assistant, is a person whose work consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of project management, communication & organizational skills. These functions may be entirely carried out to assist one other employee or may be for the benefit...
to Alkali Attahiru and went to teach at the Kano Law School, which he had previously attended. While in Kano, he met Sheik Sa'id Hayatu, a man widely considered one of the most prominent victims of colonial rule. Hayatu was the leader of the Mahdiyya movement
Social movement
Social movements are a type of group action. They are large informal groupings of individuals or organizations focused on specific political or social issues, in other words, on carrying out, resisting or undoing a social change....
and had just returned from a forced sojourn in Cameroon
Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...
. Abubakar became enthralled with the teachings of the movement and briefly became a follower of the Mahdiyya movement; he later married Hanatu's daughter, Maryam. However, she died after giving birth to a son.
In 1949, he took a teaching job at a school in Maru, Sokoto. The school had a famous tutor, Aminu Kano
Aminu Kano
Aminu Kano was a Muslim politician from Nigeria. In the 1940s he led an Islamic movement in the north of the country in opposition to British rule...
, who was the co-founder of the Northern Teachers Association and proprietor of a few Muslim schools. Aminu and Gumi mingled and shared views on the influence of the traditional society with the Islamic faith and also the indifference or support given to the situation of Bida or syncretism by the Sufi brotherhoods.
He left Maru to further his education at the school of Arabic Studies in kano. On completion of his studies, he became a teacher for two years at the school. He also attended a school of education in Sudan.
In 1957, he became an interpreter for the Northern Nigeria government on Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
matters.
Conflicts
Abubakar Gummi like Aminu Kano had reservations about the administrative and religious guidance of the emirateEmirate
An emirate is a political territory that is ruled by a dynastic Muslim monarch styled emir.-Etymology:Etymologically emirate or amirate is the quality, dignity, office or territorial competence of any emir ....
officials in Northern Nigeria, but Gumi was particularly irked by the latter. His first dogmatic conflict with authorities was in Maru. The conflict dealt with the practice of Tayammum
Tayammum
Tayammum is the Islamic act of dry ablution using sand or dust, which may be performed in place of ritual washing if no clean water is readily available.-Circumstances when tayammum is necessary:...
. The chief Imam of the Mosque in Maru practiced the act of washing with sand (Tayammum) before prayers
Prayers
is an anime set in the year 2014 where the young of Japan have rebelled against the government for segregating Shibuya and declared themselves to be independent of Japan...
while Gumi argued that Tayammum was only applicable when water was not available, and water was widely available in Maru. Gumi went further in his challenge of the practice, by asking students not to show up for prayers until the Imam
Imam
An imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...
reneged on practicing Tayammum. However, Gumi who had earlier written a scathing attack on the Sultan
Sultan
Sultan is a title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", and "dictatorship", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who...
of Sokoto, now found the Sultan interested in his grievance with the Chief Imam of Maru. A commission of Inquiry was raised on the issue with the support of the Sultan. However, Gumi's knowledge of Islamic dogma was superior and so was his argumentative skills, the commission ruled in favor of Gumi. Having gained a small victory over the Sultan, Gumi capitalized on the attention he got by writing a critical article on the issue of Muslims, especially the Sultan, accepting British titles. By then, he had begun to gradually challenge established beliefs and attitude to actions among the Muslim Ummah
Ummah
Ummah is an Arabic word meaning "community" or "nation." It is commonly used to mean either the collective nation of states, or the whole Arab world...
.
Another target of Gumi was the Jibril Martin led Ahmadiyya
Ahmadiyya
Ahmadiyya is an Islamic religious revivalist movement founded in India near the end of the 19th century, originating with the life and teachings of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad , who claimed to have fulfilled the prophecies about the world reformer of the end times, who was to herald the Eschaton as...
movement. The movement was an easy target for Gummi, as some of the movement founder's views were at odds with fundamental Islamic dogma, as the founder had labeled himself prophetic. Gumi's fears about the movement were later fomented by the organizational skills of the Nigerian founder
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
, the movement gradually became involved in the Western Nigerian pilgrimage
Pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...
board and had established schools for pupils in the South and was moving up north in his dissemination of the principles of the Ahmadis. Gumi took on the challenge easily and the movement's northward agenda was curtailed.
Mass media approach
Sheik Gummi made his first pilgrimage to MeccaMecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
in 1955 and was joined in the journey by Ahmadu Bello. While in Mecca, he translated Islamic works in the company of Bello and King Sa'ud. He also met and befriended many members of the Ummah or Muslim community in Saudi Arabia, many of whom later became his benefactors after the death of Ahmadu Bello in 1966. On returning to Nigeria, he began to teach at the School of Arabic Studies in Kano and also at some Muslim schools founded by the Jammat nasr al-Islam (JNI) which were situated near the metropolis
Metropolis
A metropolis is a very large city or urban area which is a significant economic, political and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections and communications...
of Kaduna. A large part of his teachings focused on the differences between tradition and Religion, and how to understand and embrace an Islamic identity. He also wrote interpretations of the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
, mostly based on the Sunna
Sunnah
The word literally means a clear, well trodden, busy and plain surfaced road. In the discussion of the sources of religion, Sunnah denotes the practice of Prophet Muhammad that he taught and practically instituted as a teacher of the sharī‘ah and the best exemplar...
and translated the Qur'an from Arabic to Hausa
Hausa language
Hausa is the Chadic language with the largest number of speakers, spoken as a first language by about 25 million people, and as a second language by about 18 million more, an approximate total of 43 million people...
. This process led to the dissemination of the Holy book to a larger Northern Nigerian audience and his views and message on fundamental Islamic teachings began to find a wider audience. However, his opposition to the dominant Sufi brotherhoods such as the Tijaniya and Qadirriya earned him constant criticism and was usually attacked by some Muslims on his interpretations, he usually replied that they should go on and make their own interpretations, if they don't like his. By the 1970s, he became a regular feature on Television shows especially during Islamic events.
By the late 1960s, after the death of Bello, Gumi's major Nigerian political support and moderating influence was gone. He felt the new administration had the political power to curtail his views, and in the process, he resulted to consult his friends in Saudi Arabia for moral
Moral
A moral is a message conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim...
, dogmatic and financial
FINANCIAL
FINANCIAL is the weekly English-language newspaper with offices in Tbilisi, Georgia and Kiev, Ukraine. Published by Intelligence Group LLC, FINANCIAL is focused on opinion leaders and top business decision-makers; It's about world’s largest companies, investing, careers, and small business. It is...
support to promote a grassroot and media approach to the promotion of Islamic reform
Reform
Reform means to put or change into an improved form or condition; to amend or improve by change of color or removal of faults or abuses, beneficial change, more specifically, reversion to a pure original state, to repair, restore or to correct....
centering on the rejection of mysticism, return to puritanical Islamic teaching and rejection of the then dominant Sufi brotherhoods. He also wanted to find mass
Mass
Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...
support in his battle with the brotherhood and what he felt was their hold on the political process. Gumi, became more interested in ensuring political support for his ideas, based on his perception that a political Muslim has the power to change the course of lives of a larger number of people than publishing scholarly works or engaging in private debates and gradually became more interested in political means to achieve an Islamic reformist end. In the process, he became a supporter of women's rights
Women's rights
Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...
to vote. By the early 1970s, to contest what he felt was the hijacking of major Islamic political organizations by the Fityan al-Islam, an organization founded in Kano by Mudi Salga, a leader of the Salgawa network and who was opposed to some of the policies of the late Ahmadu Bello and his Jamaat nasr al-Islam (the Association for the support of Islam). He decided to start a movement and relied on his old students to spread his views on Islamic dogma, prodding many to take jobs at the JNI and enter into legislative duties. He used his students as a foundation for the new movement to challenge the Sufi brotherhoods
Fraternity
A fraternity is a brotherhood, though the term usually connotes a distinct or formal organization. An organization referred to as a fraternity may be a:*Secret society*Chivalric order*Benefit society*Friendly society*Social club*Trade union...
and ensure a return of Islam to a fundamental
Fundamental
Fundamental may refer to:* Foundation of reality* Fundamental frequency, as in music or phonetics, often referred to as simply a "fundamental"...
way. However, his views where without its share critics especially from the Sufi brotherhoods. Many held that Gumi was driving a wedge between Muslims and non Muslims, that his interpretations of the Hadith
Hadith
The term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....
and Quran were based on his own personal views and not the Sunna, and that he was monopolizing the mass media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
for his personal views. He was also criticized for his rebellious views on traditional authorities.