A Kano Islamic Sharia court has sentenced a prominent and controversial Sufi Muslim cleric; Sheikh Abduljabbar Nasiru Kabara to death for blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammed, in a rare capital punishment ruling against an imam.
The Upper Sharia court passed the sentence on Sheikh Abduljabbar Kabara for his revisionist preaching which the court said misinterpreted some religious texts that portrayed the Prophet in a bad light.
Blasphemy is a sensitive issue which attracts the death sentence in a dozen predominantly Muslim states in northern Nigeria where Sharia law operates alongside common law.
Judge Abdullahi Sarki Yola found Kabara guilty of blasphemy after he had been in custody since his arrest and subsequent arraignment in February last year.
“This court has established all the charges brought against you and hereby sentences you to death in accordance with Sharia provision on blasphemy,” Yola said during the hour-long judgement.
The judge ordered the confiscation of Kabara’s two mosques and his personal library.
Kabara sat quietly throughout the judgement in the courtroom packed with lawyers and journalists with scores of armed police and other paramilitary personnel on guard outside.
However, there was a mild drama in court when Barrister Aminu Ado Abubakar, who stood as the defence counsel asked the court to accord leniency to Abduljabbar for he did what he did out of ignorance.
At that point, Abduljabbar stood up and said he did not know the lawyer.
According to the cleric, he was seeing the lawyer for the first time.
“I don’t know him. This is the first time I am seeing him. He should not be allowed to speak on my behalf. I can and should be allowed to speak for myself,” he said.
The judge however said the lawyer was recognised by the court as the defence counsel.
“My lord, after I heard how you twisted all my evidence, you turned around all my submissions upside down, you have assigned words to me that I have never uttered.
“Deliver your judgement, and I am not asking for leniency at all. I want all my followers to know that I will die a hero and I don’t want you (the Judge) Ibrahim Sarki Yola to do me any favour or grant me leniency. This is my last word. Assalamu Alaikum,” he said.
Kabara, from the Qadiriyya Sufi order, has been at odds with other Sunni Muslim clerics in northern Nigeria, particularly ultra-conservative Salafi.
Their disagreement stemmed from his revisionist approach to Islamic history and theology which he claims are replete with myths, lies, distortions and concoctions.
Kabara’s opponents accused him of insulting the companions of the Prophet some of whom Kabara accused of lying against the Prophet and maliciously portraying him in a bad light.
Kabara’s conviction for blasphemy is the third in recent years in Kano.
In August 2020 a Sharia court in the city gave the death penalty to singer Yahaya Aminu Sharif from the Tijjaniyya Sufi order for a song he shared online that blasphemed the Prophet. His case is on retrial.
Abdul Nyass, a Tijjaniyya Sufi Muslim cleric, was sentenced to death in 2015 for blasphemy against the prophet in his preaching. The sentence has not been carried out.
In April, a Kano high court jailed Mubarak Bala, an atheist, for 24 years for blasphemous online posts against the Prophet.
