The day I felt sad as a muslim in Ghana

I had resolved not to voice out issues relating to Muslims and Islam in Ghana because most times,I end up making unnecessary enemies for myself.

A whole lot of people, out of their extreme affinity for certain personalities give “wrong interpretations mixed up with vain imaginations" to the issues I raise and drag a whole lot of the gullible along to rain an avalanche of attacks on me. However my resolution can never be because, “The likeness of the believers in their mutual love, mercy and compassion is that of the body; when one part of it is in pain, the rest of the body joins it in restlessness and fever ” as stated succinctly by our noble Prophet Mohammed. Narrated by al-Bukhari (6011) and Muslim (2586).

It behooves on me therefore to speak. I must speak because this particular day has left an imprint in mind. I must speak because "there comes a time when silence is betrayal." I must speak because “the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony; but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision." I must speak because it has really made me feel very sad as a Muslim Ghana. I must speak because "our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

It was a very hot, sunny Wednesday, specifically the 29th day of the month of July, 2015 with the scorching sun blazing on all cylinders. I had traversed the length and breadth of Accra searching for a book to buy. The book is 101 Keys to Success and Fulfilment authored by the inspirational couple in Ghana, Albert and Comfort Ocran. It was the second book I had wanted us to read at Success Book Club.

SUCCESS BOOK CLUB is a community-based, youth-centered organization that seeks to empower the youth to take on the world and make monumental impact in the world. Among the aims and objectives of the organization as stated in our constitution are

“To Increase the literacy rate in the country.

To eradicate illiteracy completely from our midst.

To empower the youth in the country.

To serve as motivational and inspirational platform to the youth

To inter alia, equip the youth with skills that will make them make a dent in the universe."

What we do is basically to suggest a book for the month, read it and then meet to discuss the book and its contents comprehensively. We then pick the lessons worth picking to shape ourselves and better our lives.

The first book we read was Benjamin Carson's Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence. In that life-changing book, we learnt that "if we commit ourselves to reading thus increasing our knowledge, only God limits how far we can go in this world."

As the Executive Secretary of the Organization, I decided to choose the next book and present it to the Executive Body for subsequent presentation to the membership in its entirety for adoption or rejection. I decided to choose a book written by a Ghanaian. So I settled on 101 Keys to Success and Fulfilment authored by Albert and Comfort Ocran. A book I first read in 2009.

On the said day, I took a French leave from job and moved to town to buy the book. I traversed the length and breadth of the capital searching for it.

I first went to the bookshop directly opposite Cocobod and the attendant told me the only place I could get it was Calvary bookshop opposite Mr.Biggs. I had my doubts on getting the book at that place because that is the bookshop I mostly buy my books. I then moved through the Makola market to the reshaped Methodist bookshop and my search there proved futile. My further search upfront at the EPP bookshop yielded no result either. I then joined a commercial bus enroute to Circle and checked at Calvary bookshop and my doubts were confirmed there as they also did not have it. However, the attendant there directed me to the area that generated in me a great deal of melancholy that day. She directed me to Altar bookshop, the bookshop of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC).

The atmosphere at the ICGC that day was that of activism and progression. The fleet of cars packed alone could tell you the place you found yourself in is a place of law and orderliness. One could pick that discipline was the keystone of the church just from the parking lot. It was a working day yet one will baffle at the fact that the premise was the very cynosure of a very important function in preparation. My enquiries led me to the realization that it was a programme dubbed Greater Works with Pastors Mathew Ashimolowo from London, Tudor Bismarck from Zimbabwe, Mike Okonkwo from Nigeria and our own Mensah Otabil billed to speak to participants.

"It's a weeklong programme that is held every year around July with the same speakers coming to deliver a word to us" as stated by Melvin Achor.

I then moved to the bookshop for the book. Although I never got the book I wanted, I bought Pretending to be President by Ato Kwamena Dadzie, ‘Ghana’s most irreverent journalist’.

One thing that will linger in my mind is the neat and prim way the bookshop is kept. Everything is cool and collected in there. I left there feeling strong pangs of activism in my spirits as I witnessed the lush of the youth and other elderly folks that were thronging the premises in earnest preparation for the programme.

Salat is a very cardinal pillar in Islam that a Muslim must attend to five times every day; I decided to enter the National Mosque of Ghana's Muslims which shares the same wall with ICGC to pray. And that is where I felt really sad as Muslim in Ghana. The sadness stemmed from the fact that the National Mosque was closed on that day (a thing I was told is normal as the mosque is opened only on Fridays).There was nothing to show that it was a mosque save the ablution kettles and few men praying. Few mats were made available at the edge of the mosque where people could pray and the numerous mendicants resting from their day's business. The mosque was dryer and more arid than the Kalahari desert. There is no bookshop much less to talk about a library. As a matter of fact, the only established bookshops I know in the Muslim Community are two. Marhaba bookshop and Abu Mujaahid bookshop where I mostly get my Islamic books. Coming from a lively and activity-filled place like the ICGC that day to a virtual cemetery as our National Mosque alone shows how we have wrongly viewed and treated the mosque as Muslims in Ghana. The way we treat our mosque as prayer centers only is a reflection of how we have reduced Islam to only Salat in our lives.

The bitter and the hard truth is that we have succeeded in misrepresenting Islam in Ghana and beyond. We have succeeded in making view of the absurd as normal; we have succeeded in entrenching the wrong notion that the best mosque is the one which is well-tiled with a good lightening system.

The greatest civilization since the dawn of human life on this planet was demonstrated by our noble Prophet and his companions. They have shown both in words and action the role of the mosque. The same mosque that was used for the five daily prayers and other optional prayers was the same place the companions will sit quietly to receive lessons from the best of teachers.This epitomizes the fact that a mosque is supposed to serve as an institution of learning.The same mosque is where married couples come to receive guidance as to how they can live a successful marriage. This shows the mosque as also guidance and counseling unit. It is the same mosque that the companions will be seen seated, reading and revising what they have gathered from the prophet.This presupposes that a mosque should have a mini-library and if possible a bookshop attached to it. It is the same mosque that conferences are held, this signifies that our mosque must have an auditorium and a conference room. It is in the same mosque that the companions and the noble prophet will sit to take initiatives and policies in order to better the lives of the adherent of the religion.

As a matter of fact, the mosque is supposed to kick-start the development of the community. Our appalling condition as a people manifests our extreme carelessness towards our mosques.

The Muslim community in Ghana must be up and doing in its activities.What troubles me most is not that we are incapacitated to have a similar or something better than what the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC) has, but our failure to use our resources and power wisely. We have failed to prioritize our needs. We have failed in all disciplines that make life meaningful. The colossal amount money that goes into the annual celebration of the birth of the noble prophet which has no basis in Islam could have gotten us libraries, conference rooms, higher institutions of learning, auditoriums, proper mosques and not the 'dungeons' we pray in. On the other hand, the exorbitant amount of monies taken from congregants as charity during the Qur'an exegesis of the Ahlu- Sunna wal jama'a for the past ten years and beyond could have been used to cushion our status as Muslims in this country. Unfortunately, nothing is there to show that certain monies were once upon a time, taken and still been taken.

We as a people must change our attitude before is too late, we must have clear-cut policies as to how we can lift ourselves from this despondent way of living to the highest standard of living which is in consonance with the teachings and dictates of the Quran and Hadith. This must be done if it is not done then we are never going to see ourselves moving forward.

Sayyid Mujtaba Lari asked poignantly in his book, Western Civilization Through Muslim Eyes:

“What has happened to us, the heirs of so brilliant and magnificent a civilisation? What has reduced us to our present living conditions? Why have we ceded the hegemony of our world to others? What has caused the decline in our culture, in our science and our political power? What stopped our progress in its tracks? Why have we yielded our leadership in manufactures and science to Westerners so that we now need them where they once needed us? Why must Muslims, with all their splendid past in East and West, hang their heads in the modern world?”

Inusah Mohammed and Alhassan Ahmed Tembineh

NB: The writer is a Youth-Activist and a Student of knowledge.

The co-writer is the President of GMSA, Legon Branch.