Adieu, Sheikh Ahmad BUK

As I woke up late in the morning, trying to figure out the schedules of the day, someone called me with a remorseful and emotional tone trying to break the saddest news of the hurtful demise of Sheikh Dr. Ahmad BUK. All I did was to calm my jittered nerves for me to be able to control myself to accept it and come to terms with the sorrowful news. 

But to be blunt, I had nothing to do but to loudly say: “Inna lillahi wa Inna Ilaihi Raji’un” (from Allah we came and to Him we shall return). Since we were young, we used to trek to attend the Saturdays and Sunday’s lectures of Sheikh Dr Ahmad Bamba held weekly at Juma’at Mosque of Bayero University, Kano. 

We did so, not minding the distance between our respective residential areas and old campus of Bayero University, Kano. Therefore, since we were young lads, we were glamorously opportune to learn and benefit from his lectures. Ditto his erstwhile late student, Sheikh Ja’afar Mahmud Adam.

 I fell in love with Dr Ahmad’s mode of preaching when I was still a minor. This was before the relocation of his weekly lectures to a new suburban area called Tudun Yola in Kano state. I’m not certain if it was it as a result of old age or something else? But Ahmad Bamba barely made it to many occasions, and official gatherings, except remaining adhered, committed and dedicated to his Saturday’s and Sunday’s preaching. 

His weekly lectures, which took him to cover the Six Sound Collections of Hadith (Sihahus-Sittah) garnered him wide acceptance and respect from all and sundry. History will no doubt remember Dr Ahmad as a good, exemplary and dogged retentive scholar of Hadith. On many occasions, his mosque was the only place to see him when the need calls for his counsel.

 I pray for someone to emerge and step in to fill the wide gap left by Dr. Ahmad Buk. But to further assert the uniqueness Allah made upon him, I can bet that none can serve as an exact, and real replacement of Sheikh Ahmad Bamba. He is a peacemaker and a bridge-builder among all clerics. His wise and elderly intervention helped to stabilise the polity whenever there was any disagreement or misunderstanding among clerics. 

He is a standing pillar that always strengthened the clarion call to sticking to the real practice, traditions, doctrines of the Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh). He is ever ready to counsel, deliberate, and negotiate among scholars on the need for forgiveness and reconciliation whenever someone among them goes astray. 

I really cherish, respect, and adore his wise and elderly counsel with respect to preaching whenever there was any dispute. Dr Ahmad is gone, but his preaching will always remain indelible, careening to several generations to come.

Abbas Datti, 

Kano

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