Sultan asks Muslim women to quit begging, says practice lacks basis in Islam

Sultan of Sokoto, Saad Abubakar
Sultan of Sokoto, Saad Abubakar

The Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar, said on Saturday that begging has no basis in Islam and challenged those engaging in the act to find legitimate means of earning a living.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Sultan Abubakar made the remark in Sokoto at the graduation of 2000 women trained in various skills by the Wife of Sokoto State Governor, Mairo Tambuwal.

The training was conducted in collaboration with Sokoto State Zakkat and Endowment Commission to empower the women drawn from the 86 districts of the state.

The Sultan said, “Our women should always desist from street begging, as it has no basis in Islam and it only generates more harm than good among the society.

“Women have always been the pillars for any societal development, so we need to do more in encouraging and supporting their living standard in order to yield a better society.

“Moreover empowering women is one of the positive base to a better, secured and productive society.”

He commended Mrs Tambuwal for initiating the programme and admonished the beneficiaries to utilize the opportunity to enhace their livelihood.

The monarch is the President-General of the Nigerian Islamic Council for Islamic Affairs.

Earlier, the governor’s wife had expressed appreciation to the Sultanate Council, the state government and Zakkat commission for supporting the initiative.

She said the skills training initiative was principally to make women in the state self-reliant.

Mrs Tambuwal, who was represented by Hauwa Muhammad, called on the beneficiaries to apply the new skills they acquired to uplift their economic status and contribute to the overall development of the state.

The Overseer of the Zakat commission, Lawal Maidoki, said that the 2000 women were carefully selected and empowered to live above the poverty line.

(NAN)

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  • Dejandon

    Emir Sanusi has open the door. Sultan too has now found a voice to speak up to the North. Thank God, change must come to the North so it stops dragging down the rest of the country’s human indexes

    • Abdullah Musa

      And where is your index when a particular tribe takes number position as drug peddlers, criminals?
      Every Nigerian tribe has its flaws.
      If northern leaders are speaking against begging, what are yours doing against drugs peddling and other criminal acts?

    • muazu wali

      These are not the north my friend. Sultan was a soldier and Sanusi was a banker. They have all been contaminated by the western ways of thinking, aspirations and ways of life. They are the elites who have no constituency in the north but trying to be relevant talking to their other elites with whom they lived all their lives in Lagos, Ibadan and Abuja. Honestly they are not relevant to their subjects. They are simply tolerated.

      • Dejandon

        Maybe they are the exact types of people the North need. After all it sometimes takes an external person to see what is going wrong but which the people involved have taken as normal. Both the Sultan and Emir have given counsels that only retrogressive minds can fault. Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, even Indonesia have all modernised their way of life, no need for the North to be stuck in the past and use religion as excuse. They can’t claim to be holier than Pope of other progressives, yet highly religious Islamic Countries

  • muazu wali

    With all due respect the Sultan should read his speaches carefully and think over in the context of Islamic principles and the Hikma behind them.. In a society where social welfare system does not exist, in the absence of Muslim Foundationm to assist and a Zakat Commission who has no insight into how the money collected should be used, begging is inevitble. The money used to train and empower 2000 women can be used to establish monthly financial cash support for thiusands of women as a first step.

  • Tunde Kollington

    Let the revolution begin. The truth is bitter but it has to be told.

    • muazu wali

      Truth is reletive. In muslim north what the Almighty says is the truth. Whatever any human says is his opinion. Would you accept same sex meriage is a true or correct human relationship, some do!