Ilmi Bookshop, Minna – A trove of wisdom.
One of the most impactful ventures of the Islamic Education Trust (IET) is the bookshop, appropriately named Ilmi (knowledge, wisdom), that is situated at the National headquarters of the Islamic organisation in Minna, Niger state.
It provided a trove where you find all the books authored by the late Sheikh Ahmed Lemu and his wife, Hajiya Aisha Bridget Lemu. There too, you would readily get supplies of books, magazines and other important Islamic materials from around the world. While I actively patronized it years back, it was one of the important hub of Islamic literature in Nigeria.
Because it also stocked and sold non-religious literature, individual writers and publishers supplied books to the bookshop for display and sale. At a time, it had a space for a small canteen and a mini-shop that sold clothing items, all of these made it a place of attraction for many people.
It was on one of my many visits to the bookshop years ago that I learned a simple, but profound romantic lesson from a wise elder that gives me chuckles each time I remember it.
On this day, I had gone to the bookshop with my wife to buy my regular monthly copies of Deen Digest and other materials when my eyes caught a nice traditional cap on display. I was irresistibly drawn to it and I made up my mind to buy it.
After some negotiation with the seller, I wanted to try it on to see how well it fitted on my head. At this moment, the late Mallam Abdulsalam, one of Sheikh Lemu’s close staff and companions walked into the workshop in his usual white babban riga dress, a gentle smile effusing from him.
Being my second formal Mu’allim in whose Islamiyya school, Nurul Hikmat, I completed my study of the recitation of the Holy Qur’an, my wife and I were quick to pay him our obeisance after which he went into the inner part of the bookshop.
The late Mallam Dauda Sulaiman (may Allah have mercy on his soul), from whose Islamiyya school I started and later joined Mallam Abdulsalam’s were both, literally speaking, disciples of the late Sheikh Lemu and were evidently influenced by his sense of service and sacrifice to both found, albeit at great personal inconvenience and family discomfort, their Islamiyyas right in their living rooms!
Today, both Islamiyyas in Tunga Low-cost, Minna have outlived their founders and grown to have formal structures and Management, graduating thousands of students over the years.
I took the cap and placed it on my head, moving it back and forth to get a good head-cap fit while my wife and the seller looked on. I asked for a mirror to see how the cap fitted on me just as the late Mallam Abdulsalam walked towards us on his way out of the bookshop.
Hearing my request for a mirror, he stopped in his track, smiled at us and reprimanded me lightheartedly,
“What do you need a mirror for when your wife is here to confirm to you if the cap fits or not?”
I bowed my head at the big romantic lesson just taught me from the wisdom of an elder even as my wife and the cap seller laughed at me.
That day, I learned a huge Ilimin Soyayya inside Ilmi Bookshop! Those little gestures of trusting your spouse enough to help you affirm the sense and propriety of your dressing do great things to the good health of your relationship.
May Allah have mercy on the souls of Mallam Dauda Sulaiman, Mallam Abdulsalam, and Sheikh Ahmed Lemu. May He build homes for them in Jannah near Him. And may He grant us too beautiful exits from this world at our points of death.
Mr Muhammad writes from Abuja
