Ahmad Gumi, a renowned Islamic cleric, has said Nigeria is a circular state where Muslims and Christians have agreed to live together, noting that any Muslim who kills a non-Muslim in the country won’t smell the fragrance of paradise for 40 years.
Gumi spoke while conducting a religious teaching class in his Kaduna Juma’at mosque.
He said that the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad (SAW), was at several points during his lifetime insulted by non-Muslims, yet he refused to attack or even kill persons who assassinated his characters.
The Kaduna based cleric was reacting to the brutal murder of Deborah Samuel, afemale Christian student at Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto, over alleged blasphemous statements on Prophet Muhammad.
According to him, the best way Muslims can show that they love Prophet Muhammad (SAW) is by adhering to his religious teaching, and totally obeying him, instead of killing people over trivial issues.
“Anyone who kills a non-Muslim who they have agreed to live peacefully with, will not smell the fragrance of Paradise for 40 years,” he said.
Mr Gumi, while noting that no one is allowed to take laws into his or her hands in Islam, called on his fellow Islamic clerics to impart sound religious tenets to their adherents instead of instigating them to perpetrate ‘reprehensible’ acts.
“If we think by killing Deborah, people who are not of the same faith with us will stop insulting our prophet, then we are in delusion,” he concluded.