Chief Imam of Maamobi Prayer and Prophecy for Zongo Graduate in a dangerous world

Imam Iddrisu Yussif Yahaya is the Chief Imam of Maamobi and possibly the oldest serving Imam in Ghana. In Maamobi, he is popularly called Limann. He was born in January 1931 to Imam Yussif Yahaya and Hawawu Abudallah (Anasua) at Agona Nyakrom in the Central Region of Ghana. Imam is currently 90 years and has served as Chief Imam of Maamobi for 59 years (almost 60 years).

His father served as the Chief Imam of Maamobi for 33 years, and Limann took over as the second Chief Imam in 1962. He is still very strong, with clear eyesight, impeccable memory, in very good health, and walks around daily without any stick or support. He is very intelligent, who even follows current national and global politics. He also knows about Oxbridge and their histories.

At his age, and rightly so, Limann spends virtually all his time praying for the community, Accra, Ghana, Africa, and the world. And most especially, he prays for reformers to build the Maamobi community.

I have known Limann since I was a child in the 1980s. It was, however, during the late 1990s that I started getting close to him. But in terms of scholarship and my quest to know more about the history of Maamobi and Islam, it was in 2009 that I started getting very close and interviewing him.

Given my few academic sojourners from Maamobi as a result of education and work since 2012, Limann had hardly seen and heard from me. So, I narrowly missed participating in the celebration of his 50th anniversary as the Chief Imam of Maamobi.

In 2019, after spending a couple of years pursuing my doctoral studies at the University of Cambridge, England, I visited Ghana for my fieldwork. While home, because I was busy straddling all the major Akan Regions and some of the key chieftaincies in the country, and Accra – my ultimate base, I never, regrettably, visited Limann.

So, when I recently went home, I planned to visit Liman and inform him of the Lord's grace upon my life and to present my certificate to him for blessing. Given that he is advanced in age, I also wanted to get his fatherly, patriarchal blessings before the Lord calls him or me home.

Thus, on Sunday, December 12, 2021, after church service at the Maamobi English Assembly of the Church of Pentecost, I hurriedly visited Limann. Knowing the impact Limann has had on the lives of individuals and Ghana, I decided to go along with one of my former students, Mohammed Mansur Rayamah. I simply call my student Mansur.

Mansur is one of the young men in the Maamobi community, whom I provided free tuition in 2010, just when I was done with the course work for MPhil at the Institute of African Studies (IAS), University of Ghana. After senior high school education, Mansur and a few of his friends needed to re-sit a few papers to further their education at the tertiary level. It was for this reason that, as has often been my practice, I taught Mansur and his friends in the community.

Graciously, Mansur and his friends passed the re-sit papers, and because of my influence, he decided to go and read African Studies at the University of Cape Coast (UCC). Mansur said he wanted to follow my steps in life – not a good idea, though. At the UCC, he worked so hard and graduated with a Second Class (Upper Division). Unfortunately, he couldn’t break my record – even though I had prayed and passed on my baraka to him before he started the UCC.

However, after the UCC, Mansur decided to rather pursue law education instead of just undertaking any postgraduate programme. But admission to the law school eluded him for a few years – making him turn abroad for a postgraduate education. So, every now and then, he would get in touch with me, and I would write recommendation letters and guide him on proposals.

After all our failed attempts at getting Mansur abroad, last two years, he graciously got admission to the University of Ghana School of Law to begin his Bachelor of Laws (LLB). Because I had distantly (as I was in England) and graciously played a role in his preparation for the law entrance exams, I decided to meet him too when I was in Ghana last month.

So, upon meeting Mansur when I was in Ghana, I asked him to accompany me to Limann. I did not immediately tell him the main purpose of our visit, except to say that I wanted to interview Limann for further research.

Nevertheless, I knew that with the path Mansur and I have taken and our interest, as young men, to help Maamobi, we would meet several challenges. I was also aware that the challenges would need the prayer support and intervention of the sages and spiritual heads of the community.

As Limann, now more than ever, spends nearly all his time praying at the mosque, located about 5 minutes from his house, when Mansur and I arrived at his house, he was at the mosque praying. One of his daughters met us, and upon knowing about our visit, quickly said that, “Limann is praying. Let me go and tell him he has visitors, else he would pray the entire day”.

Upon hearing "else he would pray the entire day", I knew Limann was praying for everyone, including Mansur and me. In other to while away time and possibly allow Mansur to pray with him at the mosque, we decided to go with Limann's daughter to see Limann at the mosque. But by the time we were at the mosque, Limann, perceptively, was already rounding his prayer, as he later told us, he knew I was visiting.

Immediately Limann got up from his prayer mat and turned to see the Mansur and me, his first words directed at me, "I have not seen you for getting to twenty years. While my eyes could not readily see you, my heart was with you, and looking for you. Welcome home, my son". He, then hugged me.

At this point, Mansur was quite surprised. To interrupt Mansur, I quickly introduced Mansur to Limann. Limann, then led us to his house, once again.

Once we got to his house and entered his room, he had already prepared his prayer mat. So, upon entering his room, and after I had informed him about my journeys and the fact that I had completed the University of Cambridge and was home to receive his blessings, he simply said multiple times, "Allaahu Akbar". Out of excitement, tears welled in his eyes, as he embraced me.

I later told him about Mansur that, as a son of Maamobi, he had recently begun his law education at the University of Ghana and I wanted him (Limann) to pray for him as well. Limann shook hands with Mansur.

After our pleasantries, Limann went into about an hour of prayer for me, after which he prayed for Mansur. In all his prayers, which I recorded, Limann kept repeating,

“You are a son of Zongo, you have become a light. You have brought me a story that I always wanted to hear, you have changed a bad story that we the people of Maamobi and the Zongos are only troublesome people.”

“Because of what you have achieved, and because it is such a piece of good news from one of the best universities in the world, enemies will come after you. The bad jinns will seek to ruin your life. Evil eyes will want to see your downfall. You will attract enemies. But, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, who has always been with me and who has kept me this long and far, protect you. May any evil eye that sees you go blind soon after seeing you. May enemies never win over you”.

He then recited/sang some chapters from the Qur’an, paused, recited the rosary, and continued:

“And now, as the son of the soil of the Zongo, Prempeh, because of what you have achieved, may Maamobi and the Zongos progress. I pray that everyone will benefit from the knowledge you have acquired. May Allah bless you, may Allah bless you!”

The prayer ended with another round of a summary of everything he had said in Arabic, after which I said a loud Ameen. Limann, then, turned and prayed for him, too. He blessed Mansur and invoked God’s protection over his life.

As Limann was praying for me, I became very sad and remembered my own late father. This was for two reasons, I promised my father, four days before his sudden death on December 13, 2008, that I would get a terminal degree. Second, I had gone through multiple challenges, including surgeries, and threats of liver damages, as I pursued education. And more recently, I have had a few spiritual attacks.

Unfortunately, the very people I have risked my life for are the very same people who turn against me. For the last five months, I had often told Josephine that I wanted to withdraw from public life to live a life of solitude. Initially, she thought my quest for solitude was a bad one.

Nevertheless, after several people, whom I had literally died for, had betrayed me, and after a church had also excommunicated me, not because of any known wrongdoing, other than expressing "informed" views about doctrines, Josephine corroborated that I should go into solitude life.

In all of this, I have never wanted to begrudge anyone, including those who offend me. In my own life, I have offended and betrayed several people, including close friends. But I am very sure that all those I have offended would admit that I have often apologised to them and severally tried to make restitution. For this reason, some of the persons I offended remain my friends.

On December 24, 2021, I wrote on Facebook apologising to all those who felt I had offended them. I had just two persons in mind. I had not offended any of two persons. If anything at all, they had taken my kindness for granted.

I wrote to one of them, and she was highly appreciative. The other one was rather cold towards me. Meanwhile, she is one person I have literally died for nearly a decade. Given this person’s ingrate attitude, I did not want to renew any friendship with her, as I only wanted her to be at peace with herself and God. And to let her know that I am still always happy to help.

Instead of accepting my needless "apology", she sent me a private message, seeking to blackmail me. At that point, I was so shocked that I never responded directly to her accusations, but rather sought to appeal to her conscience. But because she had warned me to stay away and because I didn't know how far she may have spread malicious information about me, I decided to take my fight public.

Similarly, I decided to go public with my battle with her, because I am a public figure, as a Research Fellow of the second oldest public university in Ghana. And given the pernicious issues of cancel culture, I felt that I needed to put my life in public for judgment.

After taking to Facebook to clear my image, this very lady now wrote privately to say that I had shown immaturity by going public and I couldn’t be trusted. At this point, I simply did not respond to her, but rather continued putting things on Facebook. Knowing she had touched the wrong meat for blackmailing, she quickly unfriended me, and blocked any possibility of me getting to see her page.

Unknown to her, I had gathered and saved every single conversation I have had with her since 2015/2016. Somehow, when she became my “friend” I knew she was a duplicitous character. A non-business fellow who owns about three different active phones, and communicated on all three simultaneously without completing a single communication one network, I knew I had met a senior dariga person.

In my own life, as a young Christian, I have fallen several times. I have offended several people. I have not always lived right. I regrettably disappointed several people. In all these, I have always regretted, apologised to such persons, fasted and prayed for forgiveness. Graciously, I have hardly re-offended any of my friends, at least not as l know.

I have always realised that whereas no one is a saint, the church and religious leaders and some holier-than-thou Christians have turned people to their graves because of a particular sin – fornication, adultery etc. We are all guilty and sinners, and yet, we are often too quick to descend the hammer of the merciful God on fellow sinners.

Usually, those who crash sinners are the worse sinners. Unfortunately, we are all sinners who judge other sinners differently. As Christians, we try and must continue to do so, to live a life beyond reproach. But our Christian calling and journey, is indeed a journey. It is a historical journey that involves real human beings in real lived social conditions.

It is a journey that involves saints whose sainthood is not based on anything they have done – since cannot even achieve it with all their supposed righteousness. It is sainthood that is imposed and given by the work and person of Jesus Christ. As Christians, therefore, we must always bounce back when and if we sin.

The accuser, Lucifer – operating through human beings, may want to always accuse us of the real or imagined sins we have committed. The accuser will always want to tell us that we are unworthy and, yes we aren't worthy on our own; the accuser would always want to point us to hell because of the sins we may have committed; the accuser would always want to keep us in a suicidal mood. Let them throw the stones, but know that your foundation is the Rock – Jesus Christ – that dwarfs every stone of accusation and judgment.

Nevertheless, if you are a Christian, do not give in to the accuser who speaks to you or through your conscience. In all things, if you have really offended someone or when someone feels offended because of you, sincerely ask for forgiveness and try not to repeat the offence – this I have always tried to sincerely do.

After that, whether the person accepts it or not, the person does not qualify to issue a final judgment on your fate and faith, because the person is equally a sinner. Take your prayer of penitence to the Lord, the ultimate judge. Fortunately, the ultimate judge, Jesus Christ, has paid the price already and He is always happy to forgive you.

Always remember that your accuser, human and the demons, and Lucifer cannot hold you guilty forever; they cannot execute judgment, because none of them qualifies to judge you. They can at best, accuse you, but they cannot judge you, for they are all guilty and fugitives – they are all under judgment. It is only the sinless saviour Jesus Christ, who can judge. And as I have said, He is merciful to forgive.

Jesus Christ is the only sinless person to suffer the ultimate betrayal of all friends, including being deserted by all the persons He healed, brought from the dead, fed, and died for. He died for us and yet we all continue to betray Him. Yes, He loves us, because He understands us and is able to comfort and forgive us.

To all men and women, be careful of demons and agents of the devil who come across as friends. Help people who come your way, regardless of how they treat you. But always be on your guard, for the same people will turn against you. Some of them are real agents of the Kingdom of Darkness whose smiles are hidden toxic to destroy. But in all this, do not live in fear: For our Triune God is our Saviour. There is, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ (Romans 8:1). Always bounce back (Philippians 3:13).

To all those I have offended and continue to offend (knowingly and unknowingly), forgive me; to those who feel they have offended me, I forgive. To all of us, let’s love one another, and allow compassion, rather than condemnation to lead. We are pilgrims heading to our ultimate home – paradise restored. May God help me to continue to help others and to need help from others.

Blessings

Satyagraha

Prempeh Charles ([email protected]), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi-Ghana