Islam
Friday Sermon: Monuments of a Wasted Generation
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2 months agoon
By
Eric![](https://thebossnewspapers.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Youths.jpg)
By Babatunde Jose
“When the citizens of a nation deem their most accomplished thieves as the most electable, then they lose the right to complain when theft becomes their national creed.”- Modibo Keita (1915-1977)
The plight of millions of abandoned Nigerians who today are languishing in poverty and squalor signposts a collateral ‘damage’ of the huge wastage of our ‘God-given’ resources.
In ‘The Last Show of a Wasted Generation’, Adeola Aderounmu berated the supposed millions of passive citizens for contributing to our current woes –
“The endless resiliency of the ordinary Nigerian has made nonsense of the principle of time and performance as well as accountability and probity. By sleeping away mentally while living in a country devoid completely of social justice and equity, the ordinary Nigerian have been as guilty as the marauders who raped the land and cart away the treasuries for themselves and their children. Passive citizenry contributed largely to the wasteful years that befell Nigeria.”
Passive citizenry is one of the causes of our retrogression as a nation. We resigned our fate to and acquiesce to the thievery and brigandage being perpetrated by our leaders and often at times take part in the looting and savoring the forbidden fruit.
We are, therefore, equally guilty of the fate that befell us. By acts of omission and mass commission, we allowed marauders to get away with impunity. Those who defrauded our common patrimony are today walking freely and amassing national and traditional accolades; the choice hilltop addresses are reserved for them.
We watch with mouth agape as they dole out billions to purchase private jets, SUVs, mansions, and estates: Playing ‘kalokalo’ with monies of a lifetime. Yet, the mass of the populace are impoverished and pauperized, wallowing in hunger, want and poverty.
The debauchers who gorge the nation’s wealth and fritter its assets in the realization of their gluttonous hedonism are today feeding fat on their loot to the detriment of the impoverished masses.
Our parliaments are filled to the bursting brim with men of doubtful pedigree, knaves, dubious characters, drug barons, and political marabouts. They are bereft of mission or vision and are propelled only by the allure of monies to be shared and proceeds of looting of the exchequer. They are not nation builders like their ancestors, and neither are they role models for their descendants.
The younger generation has been socialized into the ignoble mores, values and ethos of their fathers and has evolved deviant and devilish idiosyncrasies to uphold those criminal and delinquent values. Their hopes and aspirations are all focused on becoming like their fathers. We are in trouble! Another generation has been wasted!
Our youths seem content to file behind old politicians like area boys, hailing ‘twale’ with their hand raised. Rather than get organized and form a strong mass organization with fresh ideas to wrestle leadership from the antiquated regime, and chart a course for their generation, Nigerian youths are being used as enforcers of the old order: They are content to serve as social and political pimps and gigolos.
Alcoholism, drugs and the easy life has become the order of the day; and they are not immune to the corrupt and criminal tendencies of the older generation. Rather than raise a voice against crime, corruption and impunity, they are content to feed off the crumbs from the same politicians who have been plundering the country since independence. Omo ‘ole jo baba, k’ama binu omo. We cannot grudge a child for resembling the father; can we? Yet, there are some who have seized the mantle of positive and purposeful leadership from their fathers; they are few. But, we need more of them.
In 1983, late Chinua Achebe in his seminal work: The Trouble with Nigeria, declared that, “the trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a problem of leadership” and of the inability or unwillingness of leaders to rise to “the challenge of personal example.” Very true, as is exemplified by the misrule of post military Republic; 16 years of the locust and 8 years of the ‘undertaker’, both Evil agents of ruination! Will the current administration renew our hope?
About the same time, a disappointed Wole Soyinka had observed that, “after a quarter of a century of witnessing and occasionally participating in varied aspects of social struggle in all their shifting tempi, dimensions, pragmatic and sometimes even ideologically oriented goals, I feel at this moment that I can only describe my generation as the wasted generation, frustrated by forces which are readily recognizable, which can be understood and analyzed but which nevertheless have succeeded in defying whatever weapons such ‘understanding’ has been able to muster towards their defeat.” WS
But little did this conscience of society know that successive leaders would make the situation worse. Nigeria is a country that has never risen beyond its potential. We remain the ‘sleeping giant’, while our potentials were never harnessed for greatness: Even in mundane areas such as sports; a country of 200 million cannot assemble 22 players to form a formidable soccer team or develop its youths to excel in athletics.
In a Netflix 6-part sports documentary series titled SPRINT, elite sprinters navigate training, media scrutiny and fierce competition following their race to become the world’s best. It is sad to note that no Nigerian athlete was featured in the documentary.
Today those whose fathers have ruined Nigeria, and the contemporaries of their fathers are what we have left on the stage: Criminal politicians and soldiers of fortune, who have been recycled and patently overused.
We had opportunities to become a great nation, but we blew them; our oil boom became an ‘oil doom’ as our wealth was frittered away by ‘leaders’ who behaved like drunken sailors.
Our educational system has also contributed to the failure to raise patriotic future leaders. Public education has suffered a gradual but steady decline. Why won’t it decline when ASUU has gone on strike cumulatively for almost 5 years since 1999.
The country has witnessed a massive brain drain that led to the depletion of human resources at the nation’s tertiary institutions. Those who would have remained in the country to help salvage the rot, checked out like Andrew; in what Pat Utomi described as ‘the generation that left town’.
There is no doubt; we have had good leaders in the past. Though they may have been challenged by bigotries and sectarian attitudes: They may have been irredentists, geo-political gladiators or tribal champions, but by God, they had some ideas. They articulated their dreams for their country as they saw it. But their best was not good enough.
Today, the leadership crisis refers to a glaring lack of alternatives to a bankrupt political class. There are still politicians who describe themselves as disciples of the patriarchs; but these self-styled disciples have distinguished themselves only by their ready abandonment of their mentors’ principles.
The sons and daughters of our past leaders would have changed the course of this country if they had exhibited greater fidelity to their fathers’ principles. As soon as our democracy was truncated by Abacha, the so-called Awoists were jostling to serve the ‘goggled’ General. It marked the greatest low in the camp of the so-called progressives. What manner of ‘discipleship’? The cases of some were particularly disturbing and heart rending. It was a season of political backsliding and apostasy.
According to Olaniyan Olumuyiwa, commenting on our declaration of Abiola as a hero of democracy, in our hunger for heroes: “We forgot in a hurry that Abiola was manufactured by the CIA (read ITT) and the Nigerian militocracy. It was even said that he sponsored the coup that ousted Buhari; and which held democracy hostage for eight years. What goes round comes round. It was the same military friends that eventually annulled his electoral victory. See Max Siollun: Soldiers of Fortune; A History of Nigeria (1963-1993).
The truth is that most public officers who administered this country should be vilified and not praised. They brought us to the point where we are. “We live in a “republic of mediocrity” – a realm in which the best is possible but never achieved; where common criminals attain power and are serenaded for their villainy by a dysfunctional society and a bankrupt state; where politics is about the distribution of the spoils of office and defined by the absence of ideas or principles.” Olaniyan Olumuyiwa
Unfortunately, many of today’s leaders were youths 30 years ago. Where do we draw the line? It is pathetic that we continue to recycle those who contributed to our predicament: It implies an unwillingness of the present generation to ‘jettison survivalism and gerontocratic’ tendencies. Ideally, these veterans ought to retire and become living fossils in our ‘political museum’. There is therefore a dangerous vacuum of leadership and ideas in our society.
Despite their high level of education, intellectual capacity and proven acts of patriotism, Nigerian youths have been grossly corrupted. They have succumbed to the allurement of position, power and money, seeing these as their only means of survival: The present generation, like its predecessor, is fast wasting away. It would be a monumental tragedy if the rot is allowed to continue. Whither my country?
“What is a Nation’s foundation if not its People?” Asks Abimbola Daniyan. “To build a strong Nation, you primarily focus on building the People’s capacities and capabilities and positively deploy them in order to build the Nation and Country. By the People, we mean the majority of the population, essentially young people in Nigeria’s case. They are the vast reservoir of its strength, potential and possibilities. Overpaying big men and women enjoying the privileges of wealth mostly stolen from denying the majority the fair share of resources won’t help build this country. Any Government by whatever name which does the contrary is destructive and does not deserve to be there even for one day.
“Somebody must call a stop to the nonsense that passes for governance and Government in Nigeria before it finally sends this country into an intractable state of unrest like we are seeing in country after country now.”
There are 200 million solutions to our problems, seeing that we are all part of the problems. Our attitude would therefore determine our altitude!
Prayer!!!
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, The Cherisher and Sustainer of the Worlds; Most Gracious, Most Merciful; Master of the Day of Judgment. Thee do we worship, and Thine aid we seek. Show us the straight way, the way of those on whom Thou hast bestowed Thy Grace, Those whose (portion) is not wrath, and who go not astray. (Quran 1:1-7)
Barka Juma’at and a happy weekend
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Islam
Friday Sermon: God As Manifest in Creation: Revisited
Published
1 week agoon
August 30, 2024By
Eric![](https://thebossnewspapers.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Creation.jpg)
By Babatunde Jose
Not only does the existence of matter, of motion, and of life, testify that there is God, but the magnitude and magnificence of creation announce the same grand truth: the work reveals the Workman.
“Our Lord is He Who gave to each (created) thing its form and nature, and further, gave (it) guidance. (Quran 20:50) See also (Quran 13:3)
Imbued with the mores of the cultures that created them, archaeological sites shed light on past civilizations, preserving their societal structures, religious beliefs, and modes of living. By studying these sites, scholars are often able to trace their histories, as well as their place in the historical continuum. Many foreshadow art and architecture as we know them today.
Stonehenge, Pyramids, The Sphinx, Taj Mahal, Machu Picchu, Chichén Itzá, Great Wall of China; all offer clues to their builders’ aesthetics and values. Blind chance never built these architectural wonders. There must have been a controlling intelligence.
The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews indulged in no mere poetic rhapsody when he wrote, “Every house is builded by some man; but He that built all things is God.” Hebrews 3:4
Allah is He Who raised the heavens . . .. He doth regulate all affairs, explaining the Signs in detail that ye may believe with certainty in the meeting with your Lord. (Quran 13:2)
“…So also the universal harmony by which the whole mechanism is regulated, indicates a character of infinite perfection in harmony with itself. Thus, seen from no higher point of view than the scientific and philosophical, the dome of the sky bears, wrought on its expanse, in starry mosaics, ‘There is a God’” (The Gordian Knot) James Harvey.
Behold! In the creation of the heavens and the earth; in the alternation of the Night and the Day; in the sailing of the ships through the Ocean for the profit of mankind; in the rain which Allah sends down from the skies, and the life which He gives therewith to an earth that is dead; in the beasts of all kinds that He scatters through the earth; In the change of the winds, and the clouds which they trail like their slaves between the sky and the earth; (here) indeed are Signs for a people that are wise. (Quran 2:164)
On this Earth too, we are confronted with phenomena, for which no explanation is adequate save that of an Almighty, benevolent, and infinitely wise Creator. “He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle and herb for the service of men: the earth is full of Thy riches. These all wait upon Thee, that Thou mayest give them meat in season. Thou openest Thy hand, they are filled with good” (Psalm 104:14).
Consider that atmospheric pressure upon a person of ordinary stature is equal to the weight of 14 tons, and it scarcely needs to be pointed out that the falling upon him of a very much lighter object would break every bone in his body and drive all breath out of his lungs. The Creator’s having so devised that the air permeates the whole of our body, and by its peculiar nature pressing equally in all directions, all harm and discomfort is prevented. (Encyclopaedia Britannica).
The air performs many functions for the good of mankind. While it covers us without any conscious weight, the air reflects, and thereby increases the life-giving heat of the sun. The air does this for us much as our garments supply additional heat to our bodies. The air co-operates with our lungs, thereby ventilating the blood and refining the fluids of the body, stimulating the animal secretions, and regulating our natural warmth. We could live for months without the light of the sun or the glimmering of a star, but if deprived of air for a very few minutes we quickly faint and die.
It is this gaseous element enveloping the earth which both sustains and feeds all vegetable life.
By the undulating motions of the air, all the diversities of sound are conducted to the ear.
Let us then inquire, what is it that has endowed the atmosphere with such varied and beneficent adaptations, so that it diffuses vitality and health, retains and modifies solar heat, transmits odours and conveys sound? Must we not rather ask “Whom?” and answer, “This also cometh from the Lord!
There in the firmament we behold an endless succession of clouds fed by evaporation from the ocean, drawn thither by the action of the sun. The clouds are themselves a miniature ocean, suspended in the air with a skill which as far transcends that of the wisest man. It is because so very few “stand still and consider” the amazing fact of millions of tons of water being suspended over their heads and sustained there in the thinnest parts of the atmosphere, that such a prodigy is lost upon them.
But what most fills us with wonderment is that these celestial reservoirs, so incalculably greater than any of human construction, should be suspended in the air.
The ocean and its inhabitants present to our consideration as many, as varied, and as unmistakable, evidence of the handiwork of God as do the stellar and atmospheric heavens. If we give serious thought to the subject, it must fill us with astonishment that it is possible for any creatures to live in such a suffocating element as the sea, and that in waters so salty they should be preserved in their freshness; and still more so that they should find themselves provided with abundant food and be able to propagate their species from one generation to another. Yet by the wisdom and power of God not only are myriads of fishes sustained there, but the greatest of all living creatures-the whale-is found there.
As it is with us in the surrounding air, so it is with the fish in their liquid element. According to James Harvey, “They are clothed and accoutred in exact conformity to their clime. Not in swelling wool or buoyant feathers, nor in flowing robe or full-trimmed suit, but with as much compactness than and with as little superfluity as possible. They are clad, or rather sheathed, in scales, which adhere closely to their bodies, and are always laid in a kind of natural oil—which apparel nothing can be lighter, and at the same time so solid, and nothing so smooth. It hinders the fluid from penetrating their flesh, it prevents the cold from coagulating their blood, and enables them to make their way through the waters with the greatest possible facility. If in their rapid progress they strike against any hard substance, this their scaly doublet breaks the force of it and secures them from harm.”
Being slender and tapering, the shape of fishes fits them to cleave the waters and to move with the utmost ease through so resisting a medium. Their tails, are extremely flexible, consisting largely of powerful muscles, and act with uncommon agility. By its alternate impulsion, the tail produces a progressive motion, and by repeated strokes propels the whole body forward.
Still more remarkable is that wonderful apparatus or contrivance, the airbladder, with which they are furnished, for it enables them to increase or diminish their specific gravity, to sink like lead or float like a cork, to rise to whatever height or sink to whatever depths they please.
As these creatures probably have no occasion for the sense of hearing, for the impressions of sound have very little if any existence in their sphere of life, to have provided them with ears would have been an encumbrance rather than a benefit. Is that noticeable and benignant distinction to be ascribed to blind chance?
A spiritually minded naturalist has pointed out that almost all flat fish, such as soles and flounders, are white on their underside but tinctured with darkish brown on the upper, so that to their enemies they resemble the colour of mud and are therefore more easily concealed. What is still more remarkable, Providence, which has given to other fishes an eye on either side of the head, has placed both eyes on the same side in their species, which is exactly suited unto the peculiarity of their condition. Swimming as they do but little, and always with their white side downward, an eye on the lower part of their bodies would be of little benefit, whereas on the higher they have need of the quickest sight for their preservation. Now we confidently submit that such remarkable adaptations as all of these argue design, and that, in turn, a designer, and a Designer, too, who is endowed with more than human wisdom, power and benignity.
“One circumstance relating to the natives of the deep is very peculiar, and no less astonishing. As they neither sow nor reap, they are obliged to plunder and devour one another for necessary subsistence. Were they to bring forth, like the most prolific of our terrestrial animals, a dozen only or a score, at each birth, the increase would be unspeakably too small for consumption. The weaker species would be destroyed by the stronger, and in time the stronger must perish, even by their successful endeavours to maintain themselves. Therefore, to supply millions of fishes with their prey and millions of tables with their food, yet not to depopulate the watery realms, the issue produced by every breeder is almost incredible.
They spawn not by scores or hundreds, but by thousands and tens of thousands. A single mother is pregnant with a nation. Mute though the fishes be, yet they are full of instruction for the thoughtful inquirer. Wise contrivances and logical arrangements involve forethought and planning. Suitable accommodations and the appropriate and accurate fitting of one joint to another unquestionably evinces intelligence.
In the Holy Qur’an, Allah, the Exalted, calls our attention to his creatures and appeals to us to study them closely in order that we may know that He is the Most Powerful, Most High, so that we can reference and worship Him. See Quran 7:174 and Quran 40:81)
Those who study medicine will appreciate the complexity and wonders of human systems. Allah praises Himself on these wonders: Then We made the sperm into a clot of congealed blood; then of that clot We made a (fetus) lump; then We made out of that lump bones and clothed the bones with flesh; then We developed out of it another creature. So blesses be Allah, the Best to create! (Quran 23:14)
Allah did not stop at these wonderful creatures, but He gave mankind the intellect to explore them so as to get benefits from them.
Barka Juma’at and a happy weekend.
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Friday Sermon: The Apotheosis of Hon. Justice Kudirat Motonmori Kekere-Ekun CFR
Published
2 weeks agoon
August 23, 2024By
Eric![](https://thebossnewspapers.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Nigerias-next-Chief-Justice-Kudirat-Kekere-Ekun.png)
By Babatunde Jose
“The National Judicial Council at its 106th Meeting held on 14 & 15 August 2024, recommended Hon. Justice Kudirat Motonmori Kekere-Ekun, CFR, to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, for appointment as the Chief Justice of Nigeria.”
The new CJ starts her tenure today, howbeit in an acting capacity until confirmation, which is a foregone conclusion. Congratulations are in order. Very cheering news.
The new Chief Justice, Kudirat Motonmori Olatokunbo Kekere-Ekun CFR, popularly known as Kudirat Kekere-Ekun is a tested Jurist and an illustrious daughter of an illustrious father. They don’t come with better pedigree as she does, stoic, stern, firm and principled. Her father late HAB Fasinro was the first Town Clerk of the Lagos City Council, a Senator, legal luminary, historian, author and foremost religious leader of his time. Her mother, Mrs. Winifred Layiwola Ogundimu (née Savage), is a qualified Public Health Nurse who built her career in the civil service of Lagos State from where she retired. She is currently the head of the prominent Savage Family of Lagos.
Following in her father’s footstep, the new CJN as she would henceforth be known has made her mark in the temple of justice since she was appointed a Senior Magistrate, High Court Judge, Federal Court of Appeal Judge and subsequently, a judge of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. In the parlance of we unlearned folks, we would say, she had risen through the ranks.
She is entering a turbulent sea as far as the judiciary in Nigeria’s political firmament is concerned. Everywhere is talk of separation or araba, ethnic irredentism, restructuring and devolution, power reconfiguration and reconstitution of the polity, all requiring judicial interpretation when push comes to shove.
Nigeria is practically in a state of ebullition. From local governments, state administrations to the central authority, there are calls for revisiting the legislative lists and a refashioning of the revenue formulae of the political system. Who runs the primary education system? What of the primary health administration? Which tier of governments oversees collection of rates, waste disposal and local taxes in motor parks? Cases thrown up by disputes over these issues will eventually find their way to the apex court under her. Very serious matter to contemplate.
There are many other constitutional issues that will arrest her attention in the next four years of her tenure. May Allah give her the wisdom of Solomon to wade through the minefields of a neo-colonial state mired in identity crisis.
It is therefore appropriate to emphasise the need to address the issue of justice, equity, and fairness which Hon. Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun CFR, must address during her tenure. There is no doubt the present structure of the post-colonial state called Nigeria is a bedrock of colossal political injustice, inequity and generational unfairness. These are issues that need to be tackled through judicial intervention and interpretation.
Allah, through the Holy Quran speaks to us about the concepts of justice, equity and fairness. These are three interrelated concepts that combine to make a spiritual whole. Justice is the sum-total, in a sense, of all recognised rights and duties, as it often consists of nothing more than a balanced implementation of rights and duties, and of due regard for equality and fairness. The Qur’an is emphatic on the objectivity of justice, so much so that it defies any level of relativity and compromise in its basic conception. A perusal of the Qur’anic evidence on justice leaves one in no doubt that justice is integral to the basic outlook and philosophy of life.
Allah (SWT) said in the Holy Quran, Surah Al-Hadid: We sent aforetime Our apostles with Clear signs and sent down with them the Book and the Balance (of Right and wrong), that men may stand forth in justice; . . . . (Quran 57: 25)
There is no gainsaying the fact that the major themes of the Qur’an include God-consciousness, fairness, equity, justice, equality and balance in all our dealings. These concepts are drummed into the believers every Juma’at service in the form of admonitions where we are enjoined to heed the words of Allah in Surah Al-Nahl: Allah commands justice, the doing of good, and liberality to kith and kin, and He forbids all shameful deeds, and injustice and rebellion: He instructs you that ye may receive admonition. (Quran 16:90)
It stresses the doing of what is right because it is the truth. We are urged to establish justice and deal with all in a manner that assures equity, fairness and balance and safeguards the rights, property, honour and dignity of all people. God assures us that even though He is All-Powerful, and none can challenge His Authority, He deals with all with truth, kindness, justice, and the rights of none will be transgressed on the Day of Judgment.
Allah says in Surah Al Anbia’ Ayah 47: We shall set up scales of justice for the Day of Judgment, so that not a soul will be dealt with unjustly in the least. (Quran 21:47)
When Prophet Muhammad, (SAW), said “help the oppressor and the oppressed”, he was stressing this same concept. The Companions responded that they understood what “helping the oppressed” meant, but what did he mean by “helping the oppressor”? He replied, “By preventing the oppressor from oppressing others”.
In Surah Al Ma’idah, Ayah 9, it is said that we should stand firmly for Allah as witness to fairness: O ye who believe! . . .Be just: That is next to Piety: And fear Allah. For Allah is well acquainted with all that ye do. (Quran 5:9)
A person’s faith does not become perfect until he observes fairness with respect to himself and others. In exchange, God shall increase his honour and glory. Man, by nature, prefers his own self and loves everything that is associated with him.
In one way or the other we are all guilty of infractions of some of these injunctions, particularly our leaders. From the flinching tramp, the woman who digs for gold, the rich with their insatiable thirst for more, to the legislator, who is the sole beneficiary of his legislations and the executive who corners the people’s commonwealth to feather their own nests, we are all guilty. When justice, equity and fairness depart from a society, that society is finished. A great task therefore rests on the shoulder of our new Chief Justice.
After 11 years at the Supreme Court, 66-year-old Justice Kekere-Ekun, who was born on May 7, 1958, will steer the judiciary for four years till 2028, when she will clock the mandatory retirement age of 70. In Sha Allah. No doubt she will be in the ring side of the usual litigations that will accompany the 2027 elections. May Allah teach her how to navigate the political tide.
A life bencher, Chief Justice Kekere-Ekun started her career in private practice from 1985 to 1989, after which she was appointed as a Senior Magistrate Grade II, Lagos State Judiciary, in December 1989.
She was appointed a judge of the High Court of Lagos State on July 19, 1996, same day as Justice Kazeem Olanrewaju Alogba, the present chief judge of Lagos State.
She served as Chairman of the of the Robbery and Firearms Tribunal, Zone II, Ikeja, Lagos, from November 1996 to May 1999.
She was elevated to the Court of Appeal on September 22, 2004, where she served in various divisions of the court and as presiding justice of two divisions of the court in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
Kekere-Ekun was elevated to the Supreme Court bench as the fifth female justice of the court on Monday, July 8, 2013, filling the vacancy created by Hon. Justice Olufunlola Adekeye, who retired in February 2013 as the first female Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
She obtained her LL.B. in 1980 from the University of Lagos and her LL.M. from the London School of Economics and Political Science in November 1983. She was called to the Nigerian Bar on July 10, 1981.
Our prayer has always been that she will one day become the CJ, hence I have always called her my Chief Justice. Alhamdulillah, it has come to pass, in my lifetime. We give all praise to Almighty Allah. It is to Him all the glory belongs.
Congratulations to our sister, wife, mother and grandmother, our very own Hon. Chief Justice. We must also congratulate our brother Bearer Abdelfattah Akintola Kekere-Ekun for being a companion par excellence. A husband of inestimable value, compassionate, very supportive and understanding. I remember him going to all the various places our wife had always been posted to, ensuring her comfort even at his own discomfort, being made a home-alone husband. Very few men would have weathered through without getting lost in, ‘you know what’.
We must also congratulate the children for bearing the vicissitude of living without their mother, especially since her elevation to the higher bench.
And finally, I must pray for the repose of the soul of her father, late Pa HAB Fasinro, who would have been the happiest man today. But He must be having a ball in heaven with his friends, Pa Jose, Razak Balogun and Rabiu Balogun and other brethren. Inna Lillah wa ina ilehi rajiun. May Allah grant them all Jannatul Firdous. Aameen
As for us at the Crescent Bearers, we might sooner than later confer on Bearer Kekere-Ekun the award of Bearer Supreme Court First Gentleman (BSCFG) and also Bearer DJ Supreme (BDJS) for his indefatigable rendition of good smooth jazz on the CB platform.
In summary, the Kekere-Ekuns are a quintessential humble and contented couple and are not given to ‘karini’ or ostentatious living: Qualities which are sine qua non of people in exalted position. The new CJ is a woman of character, highly principled like her late father and of high moral standard like her mother. She is not loud but assertive when the matter of legal dispensation is called for (you should ask the robbers she sentenced when she headed the Robbery and Firearms Tribunal, Zone II, Ikeja, Lagos, from November 1996 to May 1999). Like we used to say, ‘her gentility should not be taken for stupidity’. You will do so at your peril. May her tenure be beneficial to the judiciary and the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Let me end with what the Psalmist said: This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. . . . we will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:23&24 KJV
Ihdinas siraatal Mustaqeem. (Quran 1:6) Guide us to the straight path, the path of those upon whom you have bestowed Your grace, that is, the people of guidance, sincerity and obedience to Allah and His Messengers.
Barka Juma’at and a happy weekend.
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Islam
Friday Sermon: The World of Plants: Manifestation of the Wonders of Allah’s Creation
Published
3 weeks agoon
August 16, 2024By
Eric![](https://thebossnewspapers.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/plant-world-gardens.jpg)
By Babatunde Jose
There is no evidence whatsoever that flowering plants evolved. Charles Darwin himself once commented: ‘Nothing is more extraordinary in the history of the vegetable kingdom, as it seems to me, than the apparently very sudden and abrupt development of the higher plants.’
The orchid family is one of the largest plant families, with about 30,000 species. Orchids come in many shapes and sizes; the best known probably being the insect–mimicking species. Many of these mimics have very ingenious ways of attracting pollinating insects, appealing to the senses of both sight and smell. Can evolution explain the origin of these mechanisms?
The evolution of plant life on Earth is fundamental to the history of our planet. It has provided resources and habitats for animals and influenced climate on a global scale. We know that plant life on land is ancient, but exactly how old is widely debated. Now, Museum scientists are part of a multi-institutional team transforming our understanding of this most formative episode in Earth’s history.
Dr Harald Schneider, Dr Paul Kenrick, Dr Silvia Pressel and Dr Mark Puttick were part of a team of ten scientists researching the evolution of plant life. Their latest findings, published in the journals Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Current Biology, show that land plants evolved about 100 million years earlier than previously thought.
New data and analysis show that plant life began colonizing land 500 million years ago, during the Cambrian Period, around the same time as the emergence of the first land animals. This is understandable because land plants predated the arrival of land animals. Allah created the plants on which animals will feed before creating the animals.
There is no doubt therefore that the Cambrian Explosion as described by paleontologists lend credence to the existence of a Creator.
In the Qur’an (55: 10-13), God speaks to those who claim that these beautiful things are the work of blind, unconscious processes: It is He Who has spread out the earth for (His) creatures: Therein is fruit and date palms, producing spathes (enclosing dates); Also, corn, with (its) leaves and stalk for fodder, and sweet-smelling plants. Then which of the favors of your Lord will ye deny? (Quran 55:10-13) See also (Quran 56: 63-65)
The tiny seed we hold in our hands contains sixty times more information than the complete Encyclopedia Britannica. When sown, the information in the tiny seed will turn the seed into either a tree, or another plant depending on the seed of which plant it is. To imagine or contemplate that these creations of nature are the result of chance will be most contemptuous of the awesome powers of the living God.
Biophysicist Lee M. Spetner writes: Plants do not proliferate in a field to the point where they become crowded. They do not engage in a “struggle for existence” where natural selection would preserve the strong and destroy the weak. Plants tend to control their populations by sensing the density of the planting. When the growth is dense, plants produce less seeds; when growth is thin, they produce more seeds. Allahu Akbar!
And We have provided therein means of subsistence, . . . . (Quran 15: 20)
With Him are the keys of the Unseen, the treasures that none knoweth but He. He knoweth whatever there is on the earth and in the sea. Not a leaf doth fall but with His knowledge: There is not a grain in the darkness (or depths) of the earth, nor anything fresh or dry (green or withered) but is (inscribed) in a Record clear (to those who can read). (Quran 6: 59)
The ‘apparently sudden appearance of quite well-developed ‘Flowering Plants’ is still, perhaps, the greatest difficulty in the record of evolution’. Accordingly, Charles Darwin admitted when he said:’ Nothing is more extraordinary in the history of the Vegetable Kingdom, as it seems to me, than the apparently very sudden or abrupt development of the higher plants.
But the Qur’an says: Or, who has created the heavens and the earth, and who sends you down rain from the sky? Yea, with it We cause to grow well-planted orchards full of beauty and delight: It is not in your power to cause the growth of the trees in them. (Can there be another) god besides Allah? Nay, they are a people who swerve from justice. (Quran 27: 60)
The wide variety of plants in the natural world is only one of the proofs that they are not the work of chance. The flawless systems and extraordinary design of these esthetic, sweet-smelling plants couldn’t be formed by the chance agglomeration of atoms. This claim would be as nonsensical as the assertion that clothes in a store could make themselves by the accidental coming together of fabric and thread.
It is He who produceth gardens, with trellises and without, and dates, and tilth with produce of all kinds, and olives and pomegranates, similar (in kind) and different (in variety): (Quran 6: 141)
Dr. Eldred Corner of Cambridge University is forced to admit the all-too-clear fact of creation: . …I still think that, to the unprejudiced, the fossil record of plants is in favor of special creation. If, however, another explanation could be found for this hierarchy of classification, it would be the knell of the theory of evolution. Can you imagine how an orchid, a duckweed, and a palm have come from the same ancestry, and have we any evidence for this assumption? The evolutionist must be prepared with an answer, but I think that most would break down before an inquisition.
To Him is due the primal origin of the heavens and the earth: How can He have a son when He hath no consort? He created all things, and He hath full knowledge of all things. That is Allah, your Lord! There is no Allah but He, the Creator of all things: Then worship ye Him: And He hath power to dispose of all affairs. (Quran 6: 101-102)
For millions of years, the countless, varied plants on the Earth have known what they must do and when they must do it, thanks to a program stored in their seeds; and they remember this program and carry it out without error.
An almond tree never grows from a cherry pit, nor does an orange ever come from the seed from a coconut tree. The idea that this system can have been functioning perfectly for millions of years due to the success of chance occurrences is a fantasy that all sensible people will find ridiculous. It is God Who creates plants.
Dr. Lee Spetner writes: How does an acorn know it has to grow into an oak tree and not into a sunflower? . . . The science of biology took a pivotal turn about 40 years ago when biologists began to learn how information plays its role in living organisms. We have discovered the location of the information in the organism that tells it how to function and how to grow, how to live and how to reproduce. The information is in the seed as well as in the plant; it’s in the egg as well as in the chicken. The egg passes the information to the chicken it becomes, and the chicken passes it to the egg it lays, and so on.
Even a rose, whose smell has not changed for millions of years and whose variously colored smooth petals give it a beautiful esthetic appearance, disproves the evolutionists’ claims. For years, trained experts have tried in experiments to duplicate the smell of a rose in the laboratory. But a rose, with more “intelligence” than the experts, has been producing this incomparable scent for millions of years.
A rose’s special smell, color, softness and wondrous design show God’s incomparable creative artistry.
And in the earth, there are tracts (diverse through) neighboring, and gardens of vines and fields sown with corn, and palm trees–growing out of single roots or otherwise: Watered with the same water, yet some of them We make more excellent that others to eat. Behold, verily in these things there are Signs for those who understand! (Quran 13: 4)
All the plants have the structure that is most appropriate for each one. For example, the seeds of a coconut palm float in the water—even seawater—for long periods of time; for this reason, their shells are very hard and have a special composition to protect them from the water. Because of this, they can make long journeys over water—downstream, across the Ocean. Over the course of this journey, they need more nourishment to sustain them, and within their shells is stored just the kind of nourishment they require. Moreover, the coconut does not germinate while in the water; instead, it waits until it reaches the land and germinates at that exactly appropriate time. Unconscious atoms cannot calculate all this by chance! The evident truth is, an All-knowing and intelligent Creator is behind this design. This is just one of the many examples of God’s incomparable creative art.
“He Who has made for you the earth like a carpet spread out; has enabled you to go about therein by roads (and channels); and has sent down water from the sky.” With it we have produced divers pairs of plants each separate from the others. (Quran 20: 53)
When various atoms come together within a plant, they form complex molecules that produce their beautiful smells. And for plants all over the world, this process is the same and the formula never fails; the smell production laboratory in the plant never makes a mistake. Thanks to this ongoing perfection, flowers of the same species everywhere have the same smell.
The production of a scent is a very delicate matter, in the course of which molecules are assembled with very complex structures. For example, it requires between three and ten different compounds to produce the scent of a rose. A water lily uses six, and white freesia uses ten; and every plant uses a different chemical formula for its distinctive aroma. Anyone who has received no training in this field would find it difficult, if not impossible, to understand these chemical formulas, which plants produce in areas that can be seen only with a microscope.
Who gives these plants their awareness, their intelligence, the knowledge that only a chemical engineer could have? These organisms, more successful in producing scents than any laboratory, reveal God’s artistry in creation for all of us to see.
As Niles Eldredge, a well-known paleontologist and curator of the American Museum of Natural History, writes : Indeed, the only competing explanation for the order we all see in the biological world is the notion of Special Creation.
Bananas contain various carbohydrates and an important quantity of potassium which, when eaten by humans, ensure the development of cells and muscles, adjust the level of water in the body, and keep the heart beating normally. Together with these advantages, God tells in the Qur’an (56:28-33) that bananas are among the fruits of paradise:
(They will be) among Lote trees without thorns, Among Talh trees with flowers (or fruits) piled one above another In shade long extended, By water flowing constantly, And fruit in abundance. Whose season is not limited, nor (supply) forbidden . (Quran 56:28-33)
It is God, the Lord of the Worlds, Who has created everything from nothing. “. . . . . The things that ye worship besides Allah have no power to give you sustenance: Then seek ye sustenance from Allah, serve Him, and be grateful to Him: To Him will be your return. (Quran 29: 17)
The work of God, like they say is incomprehensible: Awamaridi Ni ise Oluwa.
Barka Juma’at and a happy weekend.
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