36 Facts About Abubakar Gumi

Abubakar Mahmud Gumi was a Nigerian Islamic scholar and Grand Khadi of the Northern Region of Nigeria, a position which made him a central authority in the interpretation of the Shari'a legal system in the region.

Abubakar Gumi was a close associate of Ahmadu Bello, the premier of the Northern region in the 1950s and 1960s and became the Grand Khadi.

Abubakar Gumi used the sessions to revive his criticism of established authorities based on his views of a back to the source approach or the need to embrace a puritanical practice of Islam.

Abubakar Gumi has a large number of children, however his most popular child happens to be Dr Ahmad Abubakar Gumi who succeeded his father as the scholar of the central mosque Kaduna, Dr Ahmad Gumi is a certified medical doctor from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria and was a former military officer, he left the military and travel to study fiqh at the umm Al-Qura University in Mecca, Saudi Arabia where he obtained his PhD.

Abubakar Gumi is a follower of the Maliki school of thought, this was derived through his writings including his Qur'anic tafsir.

Abubakar Gumi was born in the village of Gummi on the last Friday of Ramadan in the Islamic year 1344, to the family of Mahmud, an Islamic scholar and Alkali of Gummi.

Abubakar Gumi's education started within the walls of his family when he was a pupil of his father's Islamic teachings.

Abubakar Gumi later sent to a school under the tutelage of a Malam called Musa at Ambursa, Sokoto province.

Abubakar Gumi was made Hakimin Salla and was delegated responsibility for catering to the students religious activities.

Abubakar Gumi started work as a scribe to Qadi Attahiru but he soon became disenchanted with the specifics of his job.

Abubakar Gumi gave private lessons on Islam and tafsir as an escape from his disenchantment.

Abubakar Gumi lost his father in 1937 while he was at the middle school.

Abubakar Gumi got married 3 years later to Maryam in 1941 when he was just 19.

In 1947 Abubakar Gumi left his job as secretary to Qadi Attahiru and went to teach at the Kano Law School, which he had previously attended.

Abubakar Gumi was the leader of the Mahdiyya movement and had just returned from a forced sojourn in Cameroon.

Abubakar Gumi became enthralled with the teachings of the Mahdiyya movement and briefly became a follower; he later married Hayatu's daughter, Maryam.

In 1949 Abubakar Gumi took a teaching job at a school in Maru, Sokoto.

Aminu and Abubakar Gumi mingled and shared views on the influence of the traditional society with the Islamic faith, and the indifference or support given to the situation of Bida or syncretism by the Sufi brotherhoods.

Abubakar Gumi left Maru to further his education at the school of Arabic Studies in Kano.

Abubakar Gumi had reservations about the administrative and religious guidance of the emirate officials in Northern Nigeria.

The chief Imam of the Mosque in Maru practiced the act of washing with sand before prayers while Abubakar Gumi argued that Tayammum was only applicable when water was not available, and water was widely available in Maru.

Abubakar Gumi went further in his challenge of the practice, by asking students not to show up for prayers until the Imam reneged on practicing Tayammum.

However, Abubakar Gumi who had earlier written a scathing attack on the Sultan of Sokoto, now found the Sultan interested in his grievance with the Chief Imam of Maru.

Abubakar Gumi took on the challenge easily and the movement's northward agenda was curtailed.

Sheik Abubakar Gumi made his first pilgrimage to Mecca in 1955 and was joined in the journey by Ahmadu Bello.

Abubakar Gumi met and befriended many members of the Ummah or Muslim community in Saudi Arabia, many of whom later became his benefactors after the death of Ahmadu Bello in 1966.

Abubakar Gumi wrote interpretations of the Qur'an, mostly based on the Sunna, and translated the Qur'an from Arabic to Hausa.

Abubakar Gumi felt the new administration had the political power to curtail his views, and in the process, he resorted to consulting his friends in Saudi Arabia for moral, dogmatic and financial support to promote a Wahabbist interpretation of Islam centering on the rejection of mysticism, return to puritanical Islamic teaching, and rejection of the then dominant Sufi brotherhoods.

Abubakar Gumi wanted to find mass support in his battle with the brotherhoods and what he felt was their hold on the political process.

Abubakar Gumi became more interested in ensuring political support for his ideas, based on his perception that a political Muslim has the power to change the course of lives of a larger number of people than publishing scholarly works or engaging in private debates and gradually became more interested in political means to achieve an Islamic reformist end.

Abubakar Gumi decided to start a movement and relied on his old students to spread his views on Islamic dogma, prodding many to take jobs at the JNI and enter into legislative duties.

Abubakar Gumi used one of his students, Sheikh Ismaila Idris Ibn Zakariyya, as a founder for the new movement to challenge the Sufi brotherhoods and ensure a return of Islam to a fundamental way.

Many within the political cycles and Sufi Brotherhoods of Northern Nigeria held that Abubakar Gumi was the principal who drove a wedge between Muslims and non-Muslims in Northern Nigeria; that his interpretations of the Hadith and Qur'an were based on his own personal views and not the Sunnah; and that he was monopolizing the mass media for his personal views.

Abubakar Gumi was criticized for his rebellious views on traditional authorities.

Abubakar Gumi believed that Nigerian Muslims should never accept a non-Muslim ruler, but he advocated peaceful coexistence with non-Muslim groups.

Abubakar Gumi received the Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic.