BY ISHAQ USMAN
We were awakened by screams of surprise, pains and wonderment as we read continuously, the outpour of reactions that greeted the Maryam Sanda Episode (MSE). People talked, shouted, insulted and condemned her, likening her and likes to the devil. What even compounded her case was her beautiful history of consistent violence.
Her husband’s, the deceased Bilyamin, may Allah rest his soul, gentleman nature did nothing to douse to anger. Nigerian Twittersphere was even further vexed after reading a thread done by @habibgajam where he, allegedly, painted a picture of an unrepentant Maryam who after heinously killing an innocent man, still colluded with people to surreptitiously and with dazzling intensity, clear the crime scene of any major evidence. Then came the jokes. Social Media was awash with pictures of men sleeping with guns and weapons, a precautionary measure, in case of anything Mephistopheian. People made jokes and laughed. Some even mocked the expensive wedding. Men, some of them, masturbated on this issue so much to the point of irritation. I understand the outrage. I understand the anger. I understand why men feel slighted…we shouldn’t, however, forget that Women are greater victims of domestic violence. I don’t seem to understand why a single case is stretched beyond what it is. There is no doubt that Maryam did or committed something evil but why concentrate so much on it? Why make too much jokes out of it? Why is this case stretched to places where ordinarily shouldn’t be??
Today, we saw a picture of her holding the Holy Qur’an, reciting it in court and shedding tears. People still asked why she held the Qur’an. They asked where she kept the Quran when she was stabbing him. They said she was using the Qur’an to buy sympathy. They said she was using the Qur’an and her little daughter to whip public sentiment in her favour. And I ask them “What if she has repented? What if she just realized her being evil? What if she has sincerely asked Allah for forgiveness? What if this was what she needed to be even closer to Allah? What if she asked Bilyamin’s family for forgiveness and they did forgive her? What if Allah saw the sincerity in her repentance and forgave her? Really. ” What if God has forgiven her?” We should ask ourselves that.
The problem is the permanent condemnation and stigma we graciously expend on people who have committed heinous sins. We leave no chance for a second chance. We continue to curse and insult them forgetting a very simple truism. Maryam even remembered God. How many of us will?
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I’m not making a case for Maryam. She should carry her cross. Bilyamin must get justice. What is hurting is the erosion of our collective humanity. How we don’t want to ever give anyone a second chance. How we eternally condemn those who have done evil forgetting the evil we do daily. How we don’t forgive or have forgotten to forgive or how we don’t even want to or care to forgive. How we destroy people with our mouths? How we consciously revel in the faults of others forgetting ours. How we, instead of light, gather all the firewood possible, make a fire, sing, wiggle, dance, drink and create darkness at the end of the tunnel….
Usman, a writer and poet, sent this from Kano. He tweets @NajAlpharouque
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Views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of TheCable.
3 comments
Yes Allah may have forgiven her but she still needs to be punished to serve as a lesson to others who may want to tow in her line.Don’t forget that if it were to be a sharia court governed by the dictates of the Qur’an she is reading she would have been dead by now. we cannot keep quiet and turn our eyes the other way simply because a killer decides to hold a holy book..else people like Evans the kidnapper would also hold the bible and claim repentance. .
YES THAT’S THE BITTER TRUTH.MAY ALLAH FORGIVE OUR OWN HIP OF SINS THAT WE CLIMB ON TO SEE OTHERS’
Maryam may be forgiven by Almighty Allah (SWT) because Allah is Gafur and Rahim. But she need forgiveness from the family of the deceased with whom She’s arrogant to even after killing her husband. Final decision is from the family deceased. If they decided eye for an eye so be it. Justice need to teach others who have the same ideology of Maryam. Hence this case need not to be swept under the carpet.