Re-Islamization of the West African Ummah A Model for Tajdid?

Abstract

Introduction
Human development, from the Islamic point of view, can be achieved only
by following the footsteps of the Prophet (SAAS). The nearer one comes to
imbibing the Message of the Quran, Sunnah, and Shari’ah in one’s life, the
more humanly developed one becomes, because personal development in Islam
is measured by one’s refinement in living this Message. The more refined
and developed are the persons in a community, the better will be their culture
and civilization.
As long as Muslims continued moulding their life according to the Shari‘ah,
their civilization in Medina, Baghdad, Andullis, Constantinople, and Delhi
flourished. The decline and fall of Islamic civilization came when Muslims
started paying mere lip service to the formula of faith and departing from
the spirit and purposes of the Shari‘ah. This was the unfortunate phenomenon
throughout the Muslim world. Fortunately, the rightly inspired people rose
to bring back the erring Muslims to the path of the Shari’ah. This paper seeks
to present an assessment of the dynamics used by a Mujaddid (a promoter
of Tajdid or revival) of West Africa to re-Islamize a society that had sunk
into the abyss of confusion.
Islam in West Africa
West Africa, situated south of the Sahara desert, and which the Arab
historians called Bilad al Sudan, has witnessed in the past, many Islamic
empires, e.g., Ghana, Mali, Songhai, and Bornu, the last of which was the
Sokoto Caliphate. It emerged from the process of Tajdid (renewal or revival in
accordance with the Quran and Sunnah)’ which was started by Shehu
(Shaikh) ‘Uthman Danfodio (1754-1817) in 1774, and which culminated in ...