The Yan Tatsine Cult of the False Prophet Maitatsine

 

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

الصلاة والسلام عليك يا سيدي يا رسول الله

وعلى آلك واصحابك يا سيدي يا نور الله

فداك ابي وامي يا رسول الله

In the Name of Allah, the Rahman, the Merciful

It is reported that Sayyiduna Mu’adh bin Jabal رضى الله عنه narrated from the Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم that he said:

إِنَّ ‌الشَّيْطَانَ ‌ذِئْبُ ‌الْإِنْسَانِ كَذِئْبِ الْغَنَمِ يَأْخُذُ الشَّاةَ الْقَاصِيَةَ وَالنَّاحِيَةَ فَإِيَّاكُمْ وَالشِّعَابَ وَعَلَيْكُمْ بِالْجَمَاعَةِ وَالْعَامَّةِ وَالْمَسْجِدِ

Satan is a wolf to man like a wolf to sheep that seizes the one that is stray and far away (from the flock). So beware of the valleys and stick to the Jama’ah, and the general community and the Masjid (Musnad Ahmad, v.36, p.358, #22029)

This beautiful prescription from the Holy Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم is a sure protection against any sort of going astray and deviation from orthodox Islam. The Believers are warned about straying from the Flock and going their own way. For if they do that then Satan will seize them the way a wolf preys upon the sheep that has been separated from the flock. This Hadith is a strong proof for the people of the Sunnah and the Jama’ah, or Sunni Muslims who are the mainstream and the main body of the Ummah. All of the misguided sects that have opposed the way of Ahl us-Sunnah wal-Jama’ah have fallen prey to Satan by separating themselves from the main Flock and going their own way in opposition to it. This is the common denominator of all the astray sects, movements and individuals such as the Khawarij, the Shi’ah, the Mu’tazilah, etc. In our time the followers of false prophets like the Qadianis and also the Hadith rejecters (so-called “Quranists”) are especially appropriate to be described as stray sheep that the wolf Satan has captured because they have separated themselves from the Flock.

Most of these deviated sects and movements that separated from the Flock of the Sunni Muslims were characterized by fanaticism, violence and terrorism. Beginning with the false prophets Musailimah bin Habib and al-Aswad al-Ansi (Ka’b bin Abhalah) who led armed insurrections against the Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and his first Successor Abu Bakr رضى الله عنه virtually each subsequent sect or movement of misguidance emerging within the Ummah was characterized by violence. Consider the Khawarij, then the pretender al-Mukhtar al-Thaqafi, the false prophet al-Harith bin Sa’id of Damascus, the Qaramitah, the Assassins associated with Hasan al-Sabbah of the Nizari Isma’ilis, Ali bin Muhammad leader of the Zanj rebellion, the false prophet Salih bin Tarif of the Barghawatah, Ibn Tumart and the Almohads, the false prophet Ustadhsis of Khurasan, Shukri Mustafa and his Takfiri group in Egypt, and the neo-Kharijite factions closer to our time such as Al-Qa’idah, Al-Shabab, Boko Haram, and ISIS.

Among these violent and fanatical groups that emerged closer to our time was the anti-Sunni, Hadith-rejecting Yan Tatsine movement in Nigeria: “The Maitatsine movement, led by Muhammadu Marwa, a Cameroonian with a long period of residence in Kano, had as its professed objective the purification of Islam. Maitatsine is a Hausa word meaning ‘the one who damns’; it is derived from the regular cursing or swearing of Marwa and alluded to his frequent, bitter public condemnation of the Nigerian state. His declaration of himself as a prophet and his abhorrence of Western technology and its products marked him out...But the unIslamic practices that Marwa was allegedly involved in, like the use of human organs for the manufacture of charms and drinking human blood, while differentiating the movement, make its categorization difficult...Maitatsine’s perception of himself as a mujaddid (reformer) following in the footsteps of Sheik Usman dan Fodio, or, more explicitly, as a prophet” (Between Maitatsine and Boko Haram: Islamic Fundamentalism and the Response of the Nigerian State by Abimbola O. Adesoji) "From the late seventies Marwa’s preaching and the militant activities of his followers led to arrests and violent confrontations with non-believers and the police. His community, composed largely of youths, gardawa and unemployed migrants, divorced itself from the mainstream, orthodox community both socially and spatially. The official Aniagolu Tribunal concludes that around 1979 Marwa declared himself a prophet, and thus a heretic to orthodox Muslims...even before the insurrection at Kano, when Maitatsine was killed by Nigerian security forces, discussion by Muslims of his rituals and practices suggested unambiguously unorthodox practices: e.g. salat rekaats reduced from four to three or two, rejection of the Hadith and avoidance of prayer facing towards Mecca...Further, newspaper reports during the 1980 insurrection at Kaduna suggested that Maitatsine was taken by his followers to be a prophet for Africans, hence promoting an indigenous African religion. Such reports are difficult to confirm, of course, since the imprisoned gardawa allegedly refuse to discuss their beliefs with police authorities. The reported rituals of the Yan Tatsine, such as praying three rather than five times, and towards the north rather than towards Mecca, the use of tattoos, juju, drug potions and invincible 'magic sand to protect them from police bullets, suggest a syncretist rather than an orthodox Mahdist movement (Islamic Protest Under Semi-Industrial Capitalism: Yan Tatsine Explained by Paul M. Lubeck) "Of somewhat less eccentric kind but equally deconstructive of the established teaching of the Sunni malams was his interpretation of the luministic Qur’an 2/115, ‘And to Allah belongs the East and the West, so whatever way you turn, there is the Face of God.’ This, said the Maitatsine, means that it is wrong to do as the Sunnis (those who follow the ‘Way’, Sunna, of the Prophet) do and face Mecca when praying, a practice he claimed arose from the custom of the Prophet and not directly from the Qur’an, the revealed word of God. Thus, he averred, the Muslim may pray facing any direction he pleases...what he certainly did do was deny that the Sunna, the Prophet’s ‘Way’, had the authority of revelation, as the Sunnis believe." (The Maitatsine Riots in Kano, 1980: An Assessment by Mervyn Hiskett) "Maitatsine was the nickname of a Camerounian religious teacher who died a violent death in Kano, Nigeria, in 1980. His teachings were deeply heterodox-he claimed to be a Prophet (The Maitatsine Risings in Nigeria 1980-85: A Revolt of the Disinherited by Elizabeth Isichei)

While not all the information presented about the Maitatsine (Marwa) and his Yan Tatsine movement should be accepted uncritically, a general picture emerges of a violent, fanatical sect that was clearly heretical. It seems as though the Maitatsine claimed to be a prophet and established a cult following around himself. His doctrine was characterized by a syncretism with pagan African spirituality. His was a teaching of anti-intellectualism, playing with the Text of the Holy Quran to derive absurd interpretations. Apart from denying the Sunnah and the Hadith, thereby classifying this movement under the Hadith-rejecting so-called “Quranists”, the Yan Tatsine rejected the imperative of facing the Qiblah when offering Salah, which they further considered to be only three instead of five. This heresy certainly means that the Yan Tatsine were apostates expelled from the fold of Islam and not merely a misguided group within the Ummah. The group was an extreme manifestation of the Kharijite and Takfiri approach, as they apparently considered all Muslims outside their cult unbelievers. They were also infamous for an extreme Luddite tendency in rejecting modern technology and inventions, including even bicycles and watches. And finally, what gives this obscure but remarkably unique cult notoriety was its violent revolt against the Nigerian State in the 1980s, in which they were, by the grace of Allah, decimated.

In conclusion, heretical cults like the Yan Tatsine are an object lesson for the Muslims to be extremely wary of movements and individuals who dissent from orthodox and mainstream, moderate Sunni Islam with a radical, new message that counters what the Ummah has been upon since the beginning and for centuries till now.