—my colleagues on the Islamic University delegation and I—his great campaign to spread Islam in northern Nigeria in 1385 AH. Many Christian or pagan regions became Muslim, praise be to Allah Most High. How many Christian and pagan villages began the day Christian or pagan and ended it Muslim through his call! How many Christian churches became mosques overnight! Nigeria’s daily newspapers brought readers staggering figures for new Muslims, while local radio broadcast news that gladdened Muslim hearts but was intolerable to the spiteful Zionists and Christians who conspired to hatch that wicked plot which led to the martyr’s assassination, after he had sent these noble deeds ahead of him. We ask Allah Most High to accept them from him and unite him with the righteous. Indeed, He does not let the reward of those who do good go to waste.
2- Shaykh Muhammad Abd Allāh al-Mālī al-Madanī. This caller to Islam lived in Medina for a time and served as imam of the Prophet’s Mosque early in the reign of King Abd al-Azīz, may Allah have mercy on him. He then travelled to India, then to Sanaa in Yemen, before entering East Africa by way of Somalia and Abyssinia. This journey combined the pursuit of knowledge with calling people to Islam, until he eventually returned to his homeland, Mali. There he proclaimed the truth openly, turning away from the ignorant among the Sufi shaykhs, practitioners of charlatanry, adherents of blind imitation, the Muʿtazilite deniers of the divine attributes, and their followers. He began spreading knowledge of the Quran and Sunnah and the creed of this community’s righteous predecessors, in following whom all goodness lies: the Companions of Allah’s Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and those who followed them in righteousness. Well did the poet say:
All good lies in following those who came before;
All evil lies in the innovations of those who came after.
He began his blessed call in eastern Mali in 1357 AH and continued calling people to Islam and striving in its cause until his death in 1373 AH, may Allah have mercy on him, after leaving