Ruqayya with Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Sumait, may God have mercy on him, and a group of new Muslims
IN HIS OWN WORDS
In the March 2005 issue of Al-Kawthar magazine, Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Sumait, writing as its editor-in-chief, told the story of Ayo, a village in southern Benin that had resisted Islam for centuries, until a simple woman named Ruqayya arrived who knew little of it beyond al-Fatiha. Her efforts ended with 352 of the village’s people declaring their Islam at his hands.
The village of Ayo, densely populated with some five thousand inhabitants, lies in one of the provinces of southern Benin, known as Atlantique. Some of its people profess Christianity and others follow traditional religion. It resisted the entry of Islam for hundreds of years, until a new Muslim woman named Ruqayya migrated there. She had embraced Islam after wavering between paganism and Christianity, but she knew only a little about it.
Once she had settled in the village, she made her living selling foodstuffs she brought from the city, which meant she lived from hand to mouth.
Thirty-five years after settling there, she thought of spreading Islam among its people, even though her knowledge of it went no further than memorising Surat al-Fatiha and a few very simple facts about its teachings. Yet this small measure of knowledge made her the most learned person in her village in this religion.
Ruqayya began calling people to Islam until a few of them believed. But she was at a loss with them: they did not know al-Fatiha or have it by heart, and they knew nothing of how to perform the prayer. By her own reasoning, she settled on leading them in congregational prayer herself, serving as imam to a congregation of men and women together in one place. She thus became the imam of the village’s Muslims and their religious reference.
“As I raised my finger to lead hundreds in the shahada”
Ayo village, southern Benin
When we opened our office in Benin, Ruqayya would visit us on every trip she made to the city, pleading with us to do something; her heart burned with grief over the state of Islam. She kept at it until she succeeded in compelling us to send a da‘wa caravan to her village. She also contacted some preachers in the neighbouring villages and asked them to join the caravan, alone or in groups, to help her carry out her programme. The Tablighi Jamaat played the greatest part in the success of this journey of faith, which within a short time led 352 people to accept Islam. They all asked for a visit from an Arab Muslim so that they could declare their Islam at his hands, and that was the occasion of my recent visit to the village, about an hour’s drive from the capital along a road that is good for most of the way. I recall, too, that one of the preachers, named Muhammad, used to visit the village from time to time on his motorcycle, until he died, may God have mercy on him, when he collided with a car.
Ayo lies about 68 kilometres from Benin’s capital. Its people descend from the Alqa tribe, the largest tribe of the south, which is not Muslim.
Its people live off their crops, especially cassava, a vegetable that resembles the potato but is larger, weighing between five and ten kilograms. It is usually cooked with beans, and bread is made from it along with other dishes.
In this village I saw an African nun riding a motorcycle and handing out Bibles written in the Alqa language, along with other books on Christianity in the same language.
The villagers asked me to fulfil their great dream of building a mosque in their village, and Ruqayya asked me to appoint a preacher to live among them, lead them in prayer and teach them their religion, now that she had learned it was not valid for her to lead men and women in prayer.
In truth, I cannot describe to you what I felt as I raised my finger to lead hundreds in the shahada, and they repeated it until it filled the hearts and filled the highest horizon. Are there booklets on Islam in the Alqa language for this village, which has believed in its Lord and wishes to keep to His straight path in creed and in law?
SOURCE
Al-Kawthar magazine, March 2005 issue — an article written by Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Sumait as the magazine’s editor-in-chief.
Translated from the Arabic for this site; the article’s final section is abridged.
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