Ilorin Journal of Religious Studies

Memorial services as continuity of belief in ancestor worship in Yorubaland

2024-03-15T09:39:14+00:00

No Abstract

Slavery in the Pauline epistle to Philemon: Theological, social, and economic implications for Nigerian context

2024-03-15T09:50:44+00:00

The point of departure for this study is the slave identity of Onesimus and the inter-relationship of Paul and Onesimus, Philemon and Onesimus, Paul and Philemon in the Pauline epistle to Philemon with the aim of comparing the resurgence of contemporary slavery in the Nigerian context. The study adopts semiotic analysis intending to proffer a solution to the puzzle of Onesimus‟ identity. Slavery was an acknowledged part of the world in which the biblical authors lived. It was a dynamic part of the empires in the ancient Near East, the Greco-Roman and the Mediterranean world. The Hebrew Bible contains laws regulating slavery and even uses it as a metaphor to describe God‟s relationship with Israel. The New Testament, engrained in the Greco-Roman world, accepts the fact of slavery. But as psychology transforms, abolitionism became an inspiring force, Biblicists were challenged to reconsider the Bible in the light of the novel worldview. It is problematic that the Bible was used both to support and condemn slavery. The study reveals that Nigeria has also become a transit corridor through which modern slavery thrives highest in Africa. Modern slavery is occurring through poverty, unemployment, hunger and ignorance. One has to reassess how slavery is studied. The paper in conclusion recommends equality of humanity in God‟s sight irrespective of skin colour, language, tribe, or religion. In general, slavery is viewed through negative eyes for the fact that slaves are not treated as human beings, but as animals or inanimate things in the first century C.E.

Girl-child upbringing in Islam: Where contemporary Ilorin Muslim women are getting it wrong

2024-03-15T09:56:47+00:00

Islam considers female child a treasure that must be well guarded due to her sensitive role to humanity. Hence, Islam gives special attention to her upbringing in a way to safeguard her against waywardness and prepare her for the role of shaping society. The shari^cah counts on the expertise of women (as mothers or female guardians) in the female-child upbringing. Consequently, they are to conscientiously monitor her in all the stages of development and serve as good models to her. Reports indicated how some ancient Ilorin Muslim women applied the Islamic template in nurturing their girls to ascertain their uprightness and efficiency as wives and mothers. Quite on the contrary, many modern Ilorin Muslim women are reportedly breeding ill-mannered female children, a development that negates the Islamic principle. This study is descriptive and analytical, probing into what modern Ilorin Muslim women are doing wrongly in girl-child nurturing, which has led to societal incongruity. Interview was the major research instrument used. The study revealed that most of modern Ilorin Muslim women downplayed the Islamic nurturing method in the bid for modernisation. This trend was observed to have led to many female children to be dysfunctional. The study concluded that the situation is redeemable if Muslim women adopt the Islamic guidelines to confront the contemporary challenges faced in female-child upbringing.

Awareness of Ḥalāl food consumption among the Muslim consumers in Lagos and Ògùn states, Nigeria

2024-03-15T10:03:21+00:00

Ḥalāl food is prescribed by Allah for Muslim consumption which must be produced under strict compliance with Sharī‘ah. However, most food products which are purchased by Muslim consumers are not ḥalāl certified. Focus has not been directed to investigate Muslims‟ awareness of ḥalāl food consumption in the coverage area of this study. Thus, this paper examines the awareness of the Muslim populace in Lagos and Ògùn States towards ḥalāl food consumption. The survey utilised a five-point Rensis Likert scale to extract data from 489 Muslim respondents who were selected through a stratified random scheme. The demographic characteristics of participants (gender, ethnicity, age, occupation and education) are the independent variables employed in the study. The study reveals that Muslims in Lagos and Ògùn States have a good level of awareness of ḥalāl food and possess a positive perception of it. The result from One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) reveals that age and education have a significant influence on the awareness of Muslim consumers towards ḥalāl food while gender and age are the two significant influencing factors on the perception of Muslim consumers towards ḥalāl food. This suggests that there is a need for strategic awareness and sensitization programmes to consolidate the current level of awareness of Muslim consumers of ḥalāl food and also considering the potential of ignorance of manufacturers about ḥalāl food issues which has to cut across genders, various age groups, occupations and education levels of Muslim consumers.

A comparative study of Manhaj Salafi cum Attaṣawwuf al-islāmiy on radio: a clarion call for Muslim brotherhood

2024-03-15T10:10:26+00:00

Brotherhood is a watchword of the Islamic religion that both the Qur‟an and Hadith clamour for emphatically. In achieving this, the role of daᶜwah on the radio could never be undermined due to its large coverage. Salafi and Ṣūfi groups could not but also use the medium to evangelise their views on some Islamic issues on weekly basis. Manhaj Salaf and AtTaṣawwuful-Islāmiy are daᶜwah programmes on the radio that are aired on Albarka and Harmony stations respectively by the Salafi and Ṣūfi groups. Historical methods and interviews were used for the research work. Manhaj Salaf and At-Taṣawwuful-Islāmiy are studied to bring forth their compliance with an objective of aᶜwah i.e., Muslim brotherhood. The paper discovered that Manhaj Salaf and At-Taṣawwuful-Islāmiy are Islamic-oriented programmes anchored by Islamic scholars of various organisational affiliations. The use of the Qur‟an, Hadith and other scholars‟ views as references is also common among them. The employment of action-reaction and retaliatory approaches tends to render the Muslim brotherhood phantom. In conclusion, recommendations are made that anchors of the programmes must adopt the major method of daᶜwah (Al- Ḥikmahwal-Mawʿizhah al-Ḥasanah) on radio as that would not only aid in disseminating true Islamic worldview on every matter they discuss, but as well promote Muslim brotherhood among the generality of the Muslim Ummah.

The meanings of Ḥikmah in Abu-Talib al-Makki’s ‘ilm Al-Qulūb and wisdom in Yoruba worldview: A comparative discourse

2024-03-15T10:26:04+00:00

The background to this study is the plurality of the meaning of the concept of Ḥikmah in Islamic Philosophy. The problem of the study is to answer the epistemological questions of sources and justifications of wisdom within the context of the meanings of wisdom given by Al-Makki in his work Ilm al-Qulūb. The study aims at translating and analysing a significant portion of the said work so as to expose its thought on wisdom to an Islamic Philosophical examination, with a comparative touch from the Yoruba conception of the sources of wisdom. Historical method was adopted in the paper and the challenges addressed in the paper included elements of translation, annotation and content analysis. The quintessential finding was that Al-Makki‟s gave six meanings of wisdom that suggest some forms of acquired knowledge as sources of wisdom and nine meanings that suggest some behavioural justifications of wisdom. On the whole, Al-Makki‟s epistemology is not alien to the African Traditional Religion‟s conception of wisdom in that they both affiliate wisdom to the Divine. AlMakki‟s thought however gives a more explicit taxonomy, though, his meanings fall short of the consideration of being elderly as a source of wisdom, whereas, the source is seen as the major epistemological factor in the discussed African Philosophy. The paper therefore recommends that, for the thoughts of Al-Makki to be applicable in an environment like the Yoruba culture, it becomes imperative to add elderliness as an epistemological factor, especially since it is not alien to the general Islamic worldview.