Abbas Yushau Yusuf
On April 30th, the people of Badawa community located in Nassarawa local government area of Kano state, Northwestern Nigeria woke up to the sad demise of a committed Imam, Late Malam Baba Muhammad Said, aka (Dalla-Dalla).
My first contact with Late Malam Baba Muhammad Said Dalla Dalla was in the early 90s at Daawah Group of Nigeria Suleiman Crescent. As boys, we used to converge inside Late Sheikh Aminuddeen’s Mosque sometimes to pray and play. During the Ramadan period, Daawah Mosque is one of the busiest throughout Kano. Then, as kids, I caught a glimpse of an elderly man, tall and dark in complexion, interacting amidst his contemporaries, but I couldn’t vividly grasp who he was.
But as circumstances of life change by the day, by accident or conviction, our father, may Allah continue to prolong his life and good health, moved from the elite Suleiman Crescent and decided to reside in Badawa area. This was around February 1996. As new settlers of Badawa along a street called Layin Palmgrove close to the Apostolic church, my mind turned into soliloquy. I said, “We have now turned into a cosmopolitan area.”
When one visits Badawa and was once in Southern Nigeria, one understands very little difference between Badawa and the southern part of this country. Hardly any Nigerian ethnic group is not found in Badawa.
Days after our settlement in Badawa, as traditions and customs of Islam, whenever a father is at home, and it’s time for Prayer, he hardly goes to the Mosque alone. He also instructs his children, boys exclusive, to follow him. It was time for Zuhr prayer; my father asked me and some of my siblings to follow him to the Mosque.
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Since we are new in the area, I followed to see which Mosque we are going. After the completion of the Prayer, I asked my father, “Baba, it’s like I know this Imam.” His reply was, “You may know him. He is part of those who studied at Daawah Group of Nigeria, where my father taught for several decades under the tutelage of Late Sheikh Aminuddeen Abubakar.”
We continued to stay in Badawa for almost twenty years, and the only Mosque where you could go in the surrounding and pray without an Imam in absentia is Malam Baba Dalla Dalla’s Mosque.
The late Baba Dalla Dalla hardly missed a prayer in the Mosque, which was built by one of his confidants, Malam Muhammad Saleh (may Allah increase his health).
It was the first Mosque in my lifetime where I saw an Imam turning to the congregation and announced the change of time for the five daily prayers being observed by Muslim faithfuls. Whenever the time for Prayer was changed, Late Malam Baba Dalla Dalla adhered to the time.
Apart from Sabongari, Badawa is one of the cosmopolitan areas in Kano. The major ethnic groups that reside in the area are mostly people from the South-South, South-east, Southern Kaduna, Southern Bauchi, Billiri local government of Gombe state, people from southern Borno, North-central Nigeria, people from Chad, Niger, and a few from South Western Nigeria.
Since Malam Baba’s Mosque is surrounded by houses of different ethnic groups, the tradition in Islam is that the first chapter to recite in every Rakaat of the five daily prayers is the first chapter of the Quran, Suratul Fatiha, due to its consistent recitation loudly in the first two raakaats of Salatul Maghrib and Isha and two raakaats of Salatul Subuhi, a non-Muslim lady from the South-South geopolitical zone neighboring Malam Baba Dalla Dalla’s Mosque, was listening to Malam Baba’s voice as it rent through the speakers. She was significantly inspired by how he recited the Quran with gentility, slowly and not in a hurry. Malam Baba’s recitation of the Quran was so powerful that the non-Muslim lady was heard reciting the whole Chapter of Fatiha containing seven verses.
When she was asked how she comprehended the first chapter of the Glorious Quran, her reply was that it was due to Malam Baba Dalla Dalla’s consistent recitation.
Malam Baba was committed to education, and he opened Islamic lesson sessions inside the Mosque, teaching Arabic Alphabets of Huruful Hijaiyya. Most of his students took a mastery of it, and he had a scholarship program that benefited Muslim adults within the area who are now in the the age range of 25 to almost forty. His life was committed to serving humanity through education, and he did not tolerate nonsense from students during his teaching lessons. He taught with vigor and passion.
The sea of people that witnessed his Janazah was extensive, including his teachers and students. The funeral prayer was led by Sheikh Muhammad Sunusi Abubakar, one of the teachers of Late Malam Baba Muhammad. Late Malam Baba Dalla was very gentle, humble and a man of the people.
May Allah grant Malam Baba Jannatul Firdausi.
The writer is one of the close associates of Late Malam Baba Dalla Dalla.
