Abubakar Gumi

Abubakar Mahmud Gumi (7 November 1924 – 11 September 1992) was a Nigerian Islamic scholar and Grand Khadi of the Northern Region of Nigeria (1962–1967), a position which made him a central authority in the interpretation of the Shari'a legal system in the region.

He lost his father in 1937 while he was at the middle school.

He got married 3 years later to Maryam in 1941 when he was just 19.

In 1947, Abubakar Gumi left his job as secretary to Qadi Attahiru and went to teach at the Kano Law School, which he had previously attended.

While in Kano, he met Sheik Sa'id Hayatu, a man widely considered one of the most prominent victims of colonial rule.

Hayatu was the leader of the Mahdiyya movement and had just returned from a forced sojourn in Cameroon.

Abubakar became enthralled with the teachings of the Mahdiyya movement and briefly became a follower; he later married Hayatu's daughter, Maryam.

However, she died after giving birth to a son.

Abubakar Gumi's first son wasn't Ahmad Abubakar, but Dr Hamza Abubakar, a medical doctor currently practicing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, followed by Maj. Gen. Abdulkadir Abubakar (rtd.) and two elder sisters--one married to late Justice Muhammadu Bello, former chief justice of the federation, and the other married to Sheik Sunusi Gumbi, a well-known Islamic scholar and student of Abubakar Gumi.

In 1949, Gumi took a teaching job at a school in Maru, Sokoto.

The school had a famous tutor, Aminu Kano, who was the co-founder of the Northern Teachers Association and proprietor of a few Muslim schools.

Aminu and Gumi mingled and shared views on the influence of the traditional society with the Islamic faith, and also the indifference or support given to the situation of Bida or syncretism by the Sufi brotherhoods.

He left Maru to further his education at the school of Arabic Studies in Kano.

On completion of his studies, he became a teacher for two years at the school.

He also attended a school of education in Sudan.

He was a close associate of Ahmadu Bello, the premier of the Northern region in the 1950s and 1960s and became the Grand Khadi.

In 1957, he became an interpreter for the Northern Nigeria government on Saudi Arabia matters.

Abubakar Gumi had reservations about the administrative and religious guidance of the emirate officials in Northern Nigeria.

His first dogmatic conflict with authorities was in Maru.

The conflict dealt with the practice of Tayammum.

Beginning in the 1960s, public conflicts emerged between him and leaders of the Sufi brotherhood, some of whom he later debated on television programs in the 1970s and 1980s.

By that time, he kept his ideas in the spotlight by holding Friday talking sessions inside the Kaduna Central Mosque (Sultan Bello Mosque).

He used the sessions to revive his criticism of established authorities based on his views of a back to the source approach or the need to embrace a puritanical practice of Islam.

He also criticized harshly the involvement of mysticism.

He has a large number of children, however his most popular child happens to be Dr Ahmad Abubakar Gumi who succeeded his father as the scholar of the central mosque Kaduna (Sultan Bello), Dr Ahmad Gumi is a certified medical doctor from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria and was a former military officer, he left the military and travel to study fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) at the umm Al-Qura University in Mecca, Saudi Arabia where he obtained his PhD.

Gumi is a follower of the Maliki school of thought, this was derived through his writings including his Qur'anic tafsir (Raddul azhaan ila ma'anil Qur'an)

and other books like (hullu nizam ala nuzuul isa).

Gumi was born in the village of Gummi now a local government area in Zamfara state on the last Friday of Ramadan in the Islamic year 1344, to the family of Mahmud, an Islamic scholar and Alkali (judge) of Gummi.

His education started within the walls of his family when he was a pupil of his father's Islamic teachings.

He later sent to a school under the tutelage of a Malam called Musa at Ambursa, Sokoto province.

There he was introduced to Fiqh and read books and praise poems on the prophet.

In 1967, the position was abolished.

Gumi emerged as a vocal leader during the colonial era, where he felt the practice of indirect rule had weakened the religious power of Emirs and encouraged westernization.

The first secular school he attended was the Dogondaji Primary School, while in the primary school, he met the future 18th Sultan of Sokoto, Ibrahim Dasuki and excelled in religious duties.

He was made Hakimin Salla (leader of prayer) and was delegated responsibility for catering to the students religious activities.

Within a year, he was transferred to the Sokoto Middle School, where Ahmadu Bello was teaching.

There he became acquainted with Shehu Shagari, Waziri Muhammadu Junaidu, and Yahaya Gusau; the latter was a co-founder of Jama'atu Nasril Islam, a prominent Nigerian Muslim organization.

After completing his studies at the middle school, he went to Kano to study Law and was trained as a Qadi.

He started work as a scribe to Qadi Attahiru but he soon became disenchanted with the specifics of his job.

He gave private lessons on Islam and tafsir as an escape from his disenchantment.