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The Ideal Greeting

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“The ideal suture material is one that allows secure knot tying without slippage, provokes little tissue reaction, does not increase the risk of infection, retains enough tensile strength until the healing process has laid down sufficient collagen and connective tissue to restore tissue integrity, and can be wholly reabsorbed by the body. Such a material does not exist.” But what if an ideal greeting were to exist? In our education, we have encountered many “ideals” that exist more in theory than in practice, the ideal suture material, the ideal gas, the ideal conditions for countless scientific principles. These ideals serve as benchmarks and aspirational standards against which reality is measured, yet they remain perpetually out of reach. Now, as debates intensify about greeting customs, especially in our part of the world, to prostrate or not to prostrate, to kneel or not to kneel, it is worth asking what would constitute an ideal greeting. And like the ideal suture material or the...
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Big Bang Month: The Divine Reset

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That month is almost upon us again. The month of the Qur’an. The month of the Night of Majesty. One month to rule them all. A month in which we are enjoined to increase in good deeds, and rewards are multiplied beyond measure. Charity is elevated. The recitation of the Qur’an becomes a daily companion. The stillness of the night is broken by sincere midnight prayers. We leave food and drink for the sake of Allah, restrain our desires, and consciously avoid transgression. Ramadan is a school. It retrains the soul, disciplines the body, and softens the heart. And yet, my friend, do not let the label of being called a “Ramadan Muslim” deter you from becoming anew in this month and beyond. Rather, let Ramadan be the beginning. Let it be the spark that ignites consistency, not a temporary performance. Let this blessed month wash you clean, just as snow, frost, and hail wash away impurities. Hasten towards excellent deeds. Be kinder to your neighbour. Maintain the ties of kinship. Lower your...
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Sometimes Goodbyes Are Forever

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 I recently went home for a break, to spend time with my family and to rest from the hassle of COMUI (College of Medicine, University of Ibadan) and the decrepit living conditions of ABH (Alexander Brown Hall, University College Hospital Ibadan). The journey home was much like many I had taken before. There were complaints about the cost of transport, hours spent in a cramped seat as the driver sped over bumpy roads, and passengers yelling at him to slow down. You know, the usual. Entering the city I lived in did not feel the same, though. A lot had changed. It felt like I had been away for much longer than I actually had. New roads, an overhead bridge, new estates, restaurants and other businesses were springing up here and there. When I got to my street, the sense of familiarity returned. It was just as I remembered. I looked around at the faded roofs, unpaved roads and unfinished houses, and it brought the feeling of home. It also brought back the bitter memory of a young neighb...
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Sheikh Shirked Shirk: Swearing by Other than Allah

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All praise is due to Allah alone, far exalted is He above whatever partners people ascribe to Him in worship. May peace and salutations be upon His Messenger ﷺ , through whom the message of pure and uncompromising Tawḥīd (monotheism) was perfectly conveyed. One of the subtle yet dangerous threats to pure monotheism is minor shirk (polytheism), acts that do not expel a person from Islam but corrupt the perfection of their Tawḥīd and may serve as a gateway to major shirk if left unchecked.  Allah Swears by His Creation But Do We? Allah, in His infinite majesty, swears by elements of His creation in several verses of the Qur’an, and these oaths stand as testimonies to His greatness and absolute authority.  “By Al-‘Aṣr (time).” {Surah Al-‘Aṣr v 1} “By Mount Sinai.” {Surah At-Tīn v 2} These divine oaths raise an important question. Do human beings share this privilege, or are we commanded to swear only by Allah? The answer is clear from the Qur’an and Sunnah. Swearing by other than...
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The Truth About Terror

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  From the end of my secondary school days through university, I had several non-Muslims, during conversations, attempt to convert me to their religion. Those who knew me personally could not accuse me of vices such as gambling, drinking, or reckless living, things conversion was often said to “save” people from. So, more often than not, the conversation shifted to terrorism. “Why is terrorism usually linked to Islam?” “Why are terrorists usually Muslims?” From 9/11 to Boko Haram and then Hamas, these examples were repeatedly raised. My response was always simple: there is no part of Islam that commands Muslims to kill non-Muslims. The only context in which fighting is sanctioned is warfare, specifically defensive war, when Muslims are attacked and must defend themselves. One can only imagine how many Muslims, over this same decade, were subjected to similar conversations. For those with little grounding or conviction, many may have quietly drifted away from Islam, especially after...
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Debunking the myth: A redefined perspective on Islam and feminism

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  Although contemporary feminists have raised a lot of prepositions against liberalism, one cannot deny the historical framework liberalism provided for feminism and how it influenced its development (Baehr, 2004). If liberalism is the root of feminism, it begs the question: “What is Liberalism, and what is the Islamic perspective on it?”  Liberalism is a political doctrine that takes protecting and enhancing the freedom of the individual to be the central problem of politics (Minogue et al., 2023) whereas, Allah says in suratul Ahzab verse 36,  “It is not for a believing man or woman—when Allah and His Messenger decree a matter—to have any other choice in that matter. Indeed, whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger has clearly gone ˹far˺ astray” . This is the first loggerhead between liberalism and Islam, while liberalism places its fulcrum on individual freedom, Islam restricts it and even calls whoever places personal freedom over her astray. Feminism is often descri...
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The Life Saving Miracle of Antimicrobials and the Rising Threat of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)

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 One fateful evening in the year 323 BC, a man lay dying from a disease that can easily be cured with antibiotics today. All his wealth and all his power could not save Alexander the Great from what was likely typhoid fever. Humanity has come a long way since then. We now have the upper hand in our war against microbes that cause diseases capable of killing many people at once. We have better understanding of these pathogens, we have improved sanitation and perhaps most importantly, we have antimicrobial drugs. Most people know the famous story of the discovery of penicillin. Sir Alexander Fleming was growing a bacteria colony on a petri dish. Unknown to him, the dish had been contaminated with penicillium mould which secreted a substance that inhibited bacteria growth. Fleming named this antibacterial substance penicillin and the rest, as they say, is history. Antimicrobials have quite literally revolutionized modern medicine. A cut, a scrape, stepping on a rusty nail and many oth...
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