The role of Izalah in effacing the `Urf of Hausa/Fulani Muslim family in Gombe, Nigeria

Abstract

This research aims at finding out the achievements of the Izalah organization in eradicating the family customs and marriage traditions of the Hausa/Fulani tribes in Gombe metropolis which contradicts with the Shari’a of Islam. These activities in respect to the ʻUrf marriage and family set-up in Gombe metropolis have not been studied before. The research adopted the qualitative phenomenological survey approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and open-ended survey questions were distributed to the eleven wards of the Gombe metropolis. This method was adopted to get in-depth information of the efficacy of Izalah reformative daʽwa on ʻUrf in marriage within the study area. A documentary content analysis was used to triangulate the results of the research. The Izalah organization has been involved in the reformation of certain practices that contradict the Shari’a of Islam in Northern Nigeria in the past, especially in the area of this study. The data revealed adequate efforts made by the organization in rectifying some of the ʽUrf in marriage and family set-ups which contradict the Islamic Shari’a. An example can be seen in the increasing level of women’s education and embracement of proper Islamic attire for Muslim women. The research attempts to place Islam’s acceptability of valid ʻUrf as one source of shar’iah of mu’amalat. It also attempts to explore how the Hausa/Fulani tribes understand the concept of ʽAdat al-Muhakkama’ in relation to marriage and family set-up. The Izalah method of da’wah has assisted the Hausa/Fulani to perceive anything that is not mentioned in either the Qur’an or the Sunnah as bid’ah. However, despite the effort of the Izalah organization on enlightenments and exhortations, the research found some variances between the Hausa/Fulani customs and the Islamic injunctions on marriage preparation and family set-up. Some of these are caused by the absence of strong Islamic values, greediness and smugness while others are attributed to the method of educating the family adopted by the Izalah. Based on this, the research recommends the need for the Izalah organization to re-strategize its methods of daʽwa, so as to tilt more towards the Islamic tenets of da’iyaḥ in order to achieve its aims and objectives.