Election 2024: Imams Endorsing Bawumia "Zulm" and "Haram"

Author: Iddrisu ABDUL HAKEEM

“Zulm” and “Haram” are Arabic words meaning “darkness” and “forbidden” respectively. In their Islamic sense and particularly in the context of the Holy Qur’an, “Zulm” is referred to as injustice and Haram indicates anything disallowed by God.

When American Muslims decided to endorse former President Donald Trump, they raised five issues they believed were in line with the teachings of Islam which resonated with the message of the MAGA campaign team. Truth, morality, peace, and justice were the fundamental basis of their reason for openly endorsing former president Trump.

Fellow Ghanaians, what is the fundamental reason for the endorsement of Dr. Bawumia by certain clergymen in the Muslim fraternity (Zongo) apart from the obvious stomach infrastructure and primordial matter of “it's our turn as Muslims”?

Recently, a concerned citizen in the corridors of power lamented albeit mockery of the Islamic clerics, that the only time there's no sectarianism – Shi'a, Ahlulus Sunnah, Ahmadis, Sufism or the Tariqa or even Tabligue brotherhood – among Muslims is when their leaders and other influential Muslims are invited to the presidency. When some light soup is served for a presidential dine and wine with “fat brown envelopes” being prepared from within their sight, there's always an instant vamoose, evaporation and disappearance, into cul-de-sac, the doctrinal differences that exist among them.

Thus, at the presidency to drink soup, one finds no Shi'a, Alhlus Sunnah, nor Tariqa brethren. All scholars will hug, kiss and make up ironing out their differences at the presidential banquet. They only go back to those divisive doctrines once they step out of the premises of the presidential Villa.

Does it then come as a surprise to anybody that many of these Islamic leaders have been quick to endorse political parties in government, but very cemeterily and funerally quiet over the excesses of the same governments?

Standing against bad governance is a virtue in Islam, especially by clerics. The Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) is reported to have said in an authentic prophetic Hadith in Jami' Tirmidhi Number 2174, that speaking a truthful word in the presence of a tyrannical ruler is the most noble of "Jihads" (struggle). That is, to speak against unjust, corrupt, and tyrannical leaders (governments) is a sign of a good Muslim.

And God Almighty admonishes Muslims in the Qur'an, chapter 4:135, saying: "O you who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to Allah, even though it be against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, be he rich or poor, Allah is a Better Protector to both (than you). So follow not the lusts (of your hearts), lest you may avoid justice, and if you distort your witness or refuse to give it, verily, Allah is Ever Well-Acquainted with what you do."

Does it not amount to distortion of witness and refusal to give it if any Islamic clergyman endorses Bawumia when we all were in this country and he gave the yardstick for good leadership? And according to him, borrowing, depreciation of currency, thievery and corruption, nepotism and favoritism, and suffering of the masses on grand scale, were indicators of porous leadership. Hence, Mahama was unfit to continue as president? Today, if each of this factors he enumerated have exponentially worsen under his watch as vice president and chairman of the Economic Management Team, why would any level-headed and truthful individual endorse him to become president? On grounds of religion?

Again, Allah says in the Qur'an that He does not commit even an atom size of injustice against creation (Qur'an 4:40), and in Sahih Muslim in Hadith Number 2577, the Prophet said that, Allah has forbidden Himself injustice and does make injustice forbidden among us as humans as well, including animals. This is why God shall judge between animals by allowing a weaker ram that was abused by a stronger ram to retaliate against it if it headed it unjustly during this worldly life, and all other animals shall be judged accordingly as well. It shall be after judging between the animals and turning all of them into dust God shall attend to the human race and the jinn (aliens) in judgement, and the disbeliever will wish he, too, has been turned into dust! Qur'an 78:40

Justice is therefore the fulcrum of the Islamic faith. And standing up for the oppressed and marginalized is yet another noble virtue in Islam. The Prophet was part of the founding of a group (Hilf al-Fuzul) that was aimed at protecting and helping oppressed people of all walks of life. A reason why nobody can make it to paradise while he or she was owing another person even if it was a needle. As a result, the Prophet said that anyone who dies free from three will enter paradise: arrogance, deceit, and debt! Before the Prophet could lead the prayer of the dead on any deceased person, he will first of all asked the crowd, “was this your brother or sister owing anyone and could not settle the debt before his or her death?” If anybody had answered in the affirmative, the Prophet will then say, “please someone else should carry on with the prayer on the deceased.” He never led prayer for any dead person who was owing and didn’t pay before dying unless someone accepted to settle the debt on behalf of the dead person. All in the name of upholding JUSTICE in Islam.

Of all the verses in the Qur’an addressing social ills, the verse dedicated to debt is the longest covering a whole page. Qur’an 2:282.

It was in the light of the above verses of the Holy Qur'an and the prophetic sayings which Ibn Taymiyyah dwelled upon and affirmed that, "God will support a just nation, even if it be a nation that rejects faith and not Muslims, and He will not support an unjust nation even if it be a nation of Muslims".

This means that, at the micro and individual level, God will support a non-muslim who is just and truthful against a practicing Muslim who is unjust and a pathological liar!

Dr. Bawumia over the last eight years has become to be the latest synonym for a liar and dishonesty in both our social and political lexicon. With numerous economic lectures, he was very instrumental in the ousting of the Mahama administration purely based on subterfuges, both white and black lies told, and outright propaganda and deception.

The Dagomba people have a saying that, “God never incurs a debt but settles debts. And these are the debts of people God usually settles. He has decided to show up and to settle Mahama’s debts for him and to make Bawumia reap what he sowed!

The economic quagmire we are experiencing today is Divine’s instant poetic justice served Bawumia and all those who sent him to demean, defame, de-market, and demonize President Mahama and his administration. And until they vacate the corridors of political power, Ghana will continue to be in a state of anguish, ignobility, and anomie. That has just begun. Black Stars could not qualify for AFCON 2025. Every glory Ghana has ever labored for has been stripped away and shame, pain, doom, and goom remain our country’s companion among its peers in the comity of nations! It was part of our national embarrassment when our dear newly inaugurated president Akufo Addo stole the speech of former American president, George Bush Jr.

It is therefore intriguing that the leadership of some of the religious and spiritual community openly comes out to support this apparent curse of God!

We all were in this country when Bawumia set the standard for any would-be or seating president. And Mahama’s Great Five Questions to him recently exposed Dr. Bawumia as someone very unfit for the presidential job he is seeking today.

Fundamentally, we are at a critical juncture of our history facing a crucial election which accords us the opportunity to make a choice that will reset the country and marshal it back on track of prosperity, peace, freedom, and growth as left us by our political ancestors; or, we shall collectively in our stupidity make a choice that will condemn the country into an irredeemable, irreparable path of economic dysfunction, collapse and backwaters of civilization. And Muslims can’t certainly be on the side of injustice and gross incompetence!

The Qur’an teaches that Muslims should cooperate with virtue and piety and do not conspire and cooperate in sin and transgression for God is strongest in punishment (Qur’an 5:2). Endorsing vice president Bawumia does not only declare war on the principle of justice in Islam, it is conspiratorial to morality and support for sin and harm! Of all Ramadans I have fasted, the most starving and difficult-to-find-food to fast was the 2023 Ramadan. Because of severe mismanagement of the economy by Dr. Bawumia. Why would our scholars endorse another Ramadan of that difficulty for Muslims?

Make no stupid mistake. I don’t hate Dr. Bawumia or hate having a Muslim president; but I stand with justice and truth! Clearly, endorsing Dr. Bawumia means endorsing the suffering of Ghanaians further; it is the endorsement of the cedi depreciation, and the general economic catastrophe under his stewardship as the chairman of the EMT.

Of course, evil and good have always been forces within nature since time immemorial. And even as we are faced with this most crucial navigation out of the economic doldrums accentuated by leadership turbulence and compromise as a country, these forces of evil and darkness are in our amidst working tirelessly like a demon in order to foist upon us their apostle and ambassador of evil. Unfortunately, our own Alhaj Dr. Bawumia is their economic anti-christ and false prophet who is preparing to introduce “B-Levy or O-levy”! Breathing-levy or Oxygen-levy. There would be S-levy very soon. Before you “shift the pant of your woman” as it is put in colloquial terms, you must have paid sex-levy as S-levy before you meet her in her kingdom!

Fellow Ghanaians, like Abraham Lincoln said during the American civil war of 1865, in the series: Abraham Lincoln: The Vampire Hunter, "This war shall decide whether this nation (the USA) remains a nation of men or the nation of monsters!" For Mr. Lincoln, what was spine-chilling in the fight against the national monsters (vampires), was the fact that they infiltrated every fabric of the American society: "among doctors, lawyers, politicians, pharmacists, butchers and of course, among the target group this piece is addressing – the clergymen! There were friends of the Devil masquerading as men of God.

In our Ghanaian context in the fight against these national monsters whose leader is unfortunately our own brother in faith, the election 2024 will decide whether Ghana shall remain under the grip of political vultures, thieves and criminals who can never reconcile with justice, truth, and fairness, or the country shall be liberated politically and economically under the care of good men and women with conscience?

Ghana shall not forget the fact that amidst this all important but lethal election, what is most flabbergasting and sending chilling waves of disbelief down the spine of many clean-minded Ghanaians, is the decision by certain public figures in the religious market of the country to be on the wrong and demonic side of history by endorsing the dark forces of the country. Those who don’t hesitate to attempt to humiliate anybody who questions their modus operandi in underhanded dealings with the most unforgettable fraudulent projects but colossal in budgets that are never accounted for!

One would have thought, that, considering the unpardonably excruciating economic pain and agony, which certainly connotes God’s disapproval in the religious and spiritual realm, any man of God, and not the friend of the Devil, must have realized that the crippling hunger sweeping across the country with its accompanying acute shortage of commonsense on how to counter the issue despite living in era of "easy money", is an eloquent testament to the "wrath of God" upon us!

The naked suffering in the land Ghanaians go through on daily basis and yet we have very callous leaders who really don’t care about the killer hunger situation, and rather focus on raising their own statues around the country, is mind-boggling and disgraceful! That, at a time majority of people go to bed with very empty stomachs not knowing what to eat even the next day, their leaders are committing staggering sums of money into building “image infrastructure”, makes Ghana a hopeless country!

But wait a minute. Why have the religious and spiritual men fail to see the current ruling party and its flagbearer and leadership as the source of our woes and why? It is certainly due to “Zulm” (injustice or darkness due to sins)! Many clergymen also came into “power” through "Zulm" (unjust) manner and they continue to clinch to power by "Zulm". Something they share in common with the ruling government.

Consequently, the religious and moral community does not only jump on the bandwagon of quiet citizens over these brazen corruption, thievery and injustices perpetrated against citizens, many of them have decided to publicly, without any atom of shame, declare their support for the ongoing political callousness.

For many of them, building new Massajid (Mosques) or renovation of old ones by the vice president is okay to make him the next president. It doesn’t matter when citizens are languishing in the economic prisons he has created for us.

I once heard a great Islamic scholar in Tamale say, “if your friend steals a goat and share the meat with you and you take, what are you also?” A thick and undiluted thief I suppose.

It is most disgraceful that some scholars I once admired dragged their reputation in such a mud trying to endorse Bawumia on the basis of the Islamic faith.

Let someone remind these stomach scholars that Allah does not care whether it is in politics or business. Justice, truth, honesty, must prevail at all times and places – always. And Mahama must come back as president. Dr. Bawumia lied against him and his government and it is Haram to vote for him. Ignore the goof and gaffes by NAPO that it is Haram to vote for the NDC as a Muslim. In fact, the most virtuous thing to do in Ghana right now as a religious being is to help bring back former president John Mahama like the American Muslims had done to former President Trump.

Unless both Bawumia and NAPO are “Timothy Muslim” or an “alcoholic Christian” respectively, with their Holy Scriptures on their palms, if they are true believers in the fundamental teachings of their faiths, they must vote for John Mahama come December 7.