Sheik Muhammad Saidu Enagi is a late Islamic Nupe scholar was an articulate, eloquent and inspiring public speaker who strived and made strides for the propagation of Islam in KinNupe especially in the grassroots. The locals across the length and breadth of KinNupe would travel hundreds of miles to listen to his sermons and soul touching preachings.
His greatest achievement in the service of Islam and humanity, to which he attested to while alive, is believed to be the translation of the Glorious Qur’an into Nupe language which he started by translating the last twenty parts (hizb) of the Qur’an and published same in 1998/1419AH. He completed the translation of the entire Qur’an in to Nupe and published it in 2002; with a re-print in 2009. We pray that Allah (SWT) would make it a Sadaqatu Jariyyah for him.
Biography Of Sheik Saidu Enagi
His reason for leaving the judiciary (or the civil service) was to avail him with enough time to engage in da’awah activities and to look after the center he founded at Enagi in 1980; the Islamic Propagation Group. He moved the center, which later came to be known as Ulul Azmi Islamic Institute, to Bida. The Institute is an educational consortium that operates a Nursery/primary school; a fully-fledged Science Secondary School; a College of Arabic and Islamic Studies which offers Diploma programmes; and a Women Adult Education Center
Sheik Muhammad Saidu Enagi Achievement
Sheikh Saeedu Enagi was the Chief Imam of the Juma’at Mosque of the Federal Polytechnic Bida. He was also the patron of the Muslim Forum in Bida. The Sheikh conducted Ramadan Tafsir twice daily during every month of Ramadan. He conducted a morning session specifically for women, which begins at 9am at the Bida Town hall. The other but general session was conducted at Alhaji Dokoci Residence near Dangi along BCC Road in Bida township. This second session begins at 9pm after tarawih prayers in the night. Both were conducted by the Sheikh in Nupe language. Sheikh Saeedu’s religious impact, with specific reference to Nupe land, was more in the areas of grassroots da’awah and women liberation through education; a pre-occupation similar to that of Sheikh Uthman Dan Fodio. In truth, it is not an overstatement to state that the popular use of hijab among women in Nupe country today owes much to the teachings and preaching of Sheikh Saeedu Enagi. His da’wah and preaching activities took him across regional borders in Nigeria. He was a regular speaker at Islamic forums on campuses of tertiary institutions in Nigeria including those in the south-east, south-south and south-west geo-political zones in the country. I knew him to be a guest lecturer/speaker at Islamic forums organized by the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria (MSSN) since his undergraduate days at BUK when he used to come to the Niger State College of Education Minna where I was then a student
Who is Sheik Saidu Enagi ?
One unique feature of Sheikh Saeedu Enagi, which distinguishes it from several Islamic scholars of his background,
knowledge and experience, is that he was an articulate, eloquent and inspiring speaker in his lectures, sermons, speeches and preaching. When he spoke in Nupe, his native language, it was as if Tsoede, the legendary ancestor of the Nupe, brought him up. If again Sheikh Saeedu stood before his audience to speak in English; even Chomsky, the great linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist and activist, would not only doff his cap for the Sheikh but shall equally appreciate the rhetorics and semantics in the Sheikh’s choice of words. This, in addition to the historical and literary perspectives within which Sheikh Saeedu put and explained issues, perhaps, accounted for the large crowed that accompanied his preaching or lecture sessions. The central theme of Sheikh Enagi’s teachings was the unity of Muslim ummah. He would always preach and advise Muslims to unite and see themselves as one indivisible entity; disregarding their religio-political affiliations. He would assert that it is only through unity that Muslims in one voice and with a common front would be able to tackle their regional and global challenges. His greatest achievement in the service of Islam and humanity, to which he attested to while alive, is believed to be the translation of the Glorious Qur’an in to Nupe language. He first began by translating the last twenty parts (hizb) of the Qur’an and published same in 1998/1419AH. He completed the translation of the entire Qur’an in to Nupe and published it in 2002; with a re-print in 2009. We pray that Allah (SWT) would make it a Sadaqatu Jariyyah for him. I find it relevant to relate here the contacts I had with Sheikh Saeedu in the last weeks of his life. On Wednesday October 19 2011, exactly 13 days before his demise; Sheikh Saeedu called me on phone and requested me to stand in for him at a lecture he was scheduled to deliver at the University of Abuja on Sunday October 23, 2001. He complained that he was indisposed and would not be able to honour the invitation which he had long accepted. During our conversation, he reiterated that it has become a routine for him to fall ill after every Ramadan; but added that the illness, this year, has lasted longer than usual. I then consoled him that, by Allah’s grace, he would be well soon. Since I couldn’t honour a similar request previously made by Sheikh, I felt compelled this time around to oblige to his request and thus I delivered the lecture. Two weeks before this last phone call I received from Sheikh Saeedu Enagi, he called me to discuss his new vision for his school. He told me some notable personalities have approached him to upgrade his school to a university status. So, he requested me to get him all necessary information that relates to the structure of a conventional university. When he called me two weeks later on the lecture he wanted me to deliver, I told him I have started the working on the earlier assignment he gave and we agreed that I would deliver it when I come home for Eid el-kabir; unknown to both of us that Sheikh would have passed on by our target. Allah Akbar!!! Sheikh Saeedu Enagi, without reservations, lived and died for what he believed in; Islam and Islamic teachings. If number of mourners at the funeral of a deceased would imply God’s mercy; then Sheikh Saeedu Enagi could be said to have earned Allah’s mercy. How many wives Sheik Saidu Enagi has ? The Sheikh is survived by three wives, 27 children (24 living and 3 dead); two grand children; an aged mother and 28 siblings among whom is Alhaji Abdulmumini Muhammad Enagi, the current Grand Qadi of Niger state.
