04/07/2025
Sheikh Salman Ahmad Alawaye; An Unforgettable Qur'anic Exegete And Orator Of Oyo
Prophets of Allah were bestowed with many wonders and surprises as reinforcement of their strengths; credence to their callings and as tools to further the job of apostleship being conferred on them. These wonders and surprises , in the apostleship's parlance are known as "al-mu'jizah" and are solely given to them but not to others who were not heavenly and divinely consecrated like them!
In that instances, Prophet Nuh was sanctified to build the Ark which was the only item left untouched when the world then experienced the deluge; Prophet Ibrahim was conditioned to undergo the burning of fire without being burnt and his children and descendants were the only family with the highest number of prophets; Prophet Daud was given wisdom and sound judgement in speech and decision while his son Sulaiman was conferred with the ability to understand the words of man and the jinn.
In the same vein, Prophet 'Isa, Jesus Christ was endowed with the power of medicine to resuscitate the dead and to turn the deaf and the blind into normal human being which would be able to hear and see and finally, Prophet Muhammad, the leader of all the Allah's apostle, had been blessed with the inimitable timeless glorious Qur'an and the power to say few words but with thousand meanings!
Likewise, men of God, who would go ahead and continue the dissemination of God's words after the cessation of apostleship as the inheritors of the apostles, either from birth or afterwards, have been blessed with some powers too, though not up to the standard of that of the prophets ( Alehim Salaam). In the language of apostleship in Islam, this is what is called "Karaamah"!
And like the prophets, the karaamah or honour given to the men of God are given simply to aid the jobs set for them; to advance their courses ( godly) and to lionize them against evils of the jinn and men and their machinations. This was what Allah Had done for Sheikh Salman Ahmad Alawaye, of Alawaye House, Imam Compound Oyo town, Oyo State!
If it was impossible for us to witness first hand, the "wisdom and sound judgement in speech and decision" or Al-Hikmata wa-Faslal-Khitaabah, in Qur'anic words, as bestowed on prophet Dawud(Alehi Salam), the bits of these fine qualities could be verified and realized in Sheikh Salman Ahmad Alawaye, an enigmatic exegete of the glorious Qur'an and an orator of Islamic sciences and its jurisprudence, when alive!
Journey To Scholarship; Birth, Family and Shuyukh( Teachers)
His birth was in the earliest part of the 20th century to a family regarded as Islamic, at least two or three generations of his father and grandfather, were Muslims. The father's name were Ahmad Giwa Ejanlalonibu whose father's name was Jubril who in actuality hailed from Ile Ondasa Sango at Oyo Ile. While there, some parts of the Ondasa family had embraced Islam and had practiced it well before the fall of the Old Oyo-Ile or Oyo Empire as popularly designated!
At the fall of Oyo Empire when her people were moving towards the new Oyo, Ibadan and other towns around it for safety and continuation of life, the Ondasa family following the entreaty of Alaafin Atiba to the people of old Oyo to come and join him at the new Oyo, then known as Agodoyo, the Ondasa firstly had a stop over at Awaye, a town after Saki, which is part of Oke-Ogun today and where the grandfather, Jubril married a woman who was the mother of Ahmad, the father of Salman Alawaye!
Arriving at Oyo and for already being a people of Faith who believed in Allah and His apostle, Muhammad ( salla-llahu alehi wasalam), and who preferred the people of similar faith to others in their choice of residency
, the Ondasa people first of all lived at Ile-Imam Ajokidero Oyo for some years until a son was born, later called Baba Aito.
Earlier on, one of Ondasa's son had married into the royal family of the reigning Alaafin and when the wife gave birth to a baby ( Baba Aito who later lived at Alaodi Compound and had his two-story building there), it happened that one of the Alaafin's sentries who were sent to greet his daughter that was just put to bed entered into a gutter with a minor injury due to the narrowness of the road into Ile-Imam and the incident was reported to the Alaafin.
Ahmad Alawaye, the father of Salman Alawaye had been a friend to Aremo Ila, the reining Prince of the new Oyo, who advised him to request from Alaafin to give the Ondasa family a new land in the vicinity. A parcel of land owned initially by the Olomu's family who had their family house behind Awaye's house, was later released to them by the Olomus on the request of Alaafin!
Eventually, Ile Ondasa was later changed to Ile Alawaye as a result of the reason that whenever the then King of Awaye was at Oyo to see the Alaafin until it was night, instead of returning to Awaye on that night bearing in mind the drudgery and toiling involved in travelling around the country then, he would be told by his entourage to come to Ile Ondasa after all, his daughter had been married therein!
This practice continued untill the king of Awaye turned Ile Ondasa to his regular abode and mini-palace whenever he came into Oyo to see the Alaafin and as the people near and far started addressing the house as Ile-Alawaye for the Awaye's King who usually slept there until the eponymous name of Ile Ondasa became Ile Alawaye on the tips of the elders and the younger ones!
His mother was Hafsah with the popular moniker Asani. She had hailed from the royal family of the Olagunjus who were one of the families on whom the crown of Timi of Ede were placed! For the love of his mother, Sheikh Salman Alawaye would later in life named one of her daughter after his mother and the daughter is known as Hafsah Dasola till now! The mother's sister , was said to be the mother of Pa Azeez Obasekore of Imam Ajokidero House, Oyo.
Bold, articulated and with other qualities that make men, such as being avuncular, considerate, justice-personified and well-sculpted, Baba Alawiye Alawaye had been popularly known among many of his admirers and foes, for his good presentation of speeches especially those that were Allah's, and in the comity of the explicator of the glorious Qur'an! His journey to this enviable height had started from his earlier enrolment in the Qur'anic School of Alfa Sanni Gboro, who was one of the leading Scholars of Islam of his time and whose own mother, was from Alawaye's compound!
Afterwards, when his feet had been well grounded in the elementary studies of the sciences of the glorious Qur'an, he had proceeded to learn advance Qur'anic study and allied knowledge from the popular sage and the Wonder of the Time, Sheikh Kamalideen Habeebullah Musa Al-Adaby in Lagos! Sheikh Kamalideen Al-adaby as an itinerant Scholar used to have an Arabic and Islamiyyah School at Isale-Eko in addition to his popular Madrasah in Ilorin, Madrasah Zumratul-Adab, from which Sheikh Salman Alawaye drank to the fill, the water of knowledge!
Himself, Sheikh Salman, was living in Lagos at that time at Gorodonu, Obun Area Isale-Eko. He would still lived later at Ilesa and finally returned to Oyo in the 1950s when he was invited by Sheikh Muhibudden Ajokidero to come and be the leading Qur'anic Exegete of Oyo.
Among the characteristic endowments of his was that he could speak English and write it as well. The reason adduced for this was that he had learnt it from his teacher, Sheikh Kamalideen Habeebullah Musa Al-Adaby as his own teacher, an enigmatic soul without a teacher, Sheikh Tajul-Adab was said to be at home with many world languages when alive and which he had taught his direct students like Sheikh Kamalideen, who in turn had taught his own students.
Sheikh Zul-Nuraen Abdul-Ganiy Aboto, had laid credence to this assertion when he said that "many of the students of Kamalideen had learnt English language from him as he had been taught himself by Sheikh Tajul-Adab", Aboto ( 2022)
As a lover of Knowledge and the believer in the saying of the prophet (salla-llahu alehi wasalam) that " knowledge is to be sought from the cradle to the sepulchre, he would also went ahead to learn at the feet of the light of the age and the teacher of most top-notch scholars of Oyo of the last generation, Sheikh Sanusi Ode-Omu, who was an itinerant Scholar who took Oyo as his resident for many years and taught the like of Sheikh Abdul-Raheem Ara-Oyo, Sheikh Abdul-Azeez Abdu-Salaam Iso-Elu, and many others, after his returns to Oyo as the leading Exegete!
Becoming The Leading Exegete Of Oyo
As noted earlier, Sheikh Salman Alawaye was a Lagos based Mallam with occasional travelling and sojourning in towns and cities in Yorubaland as a scholar who was highly sought for being well grounded in knowledge of the great names of Allah ( Ismu-llahi-l-Azeem) and who was as well in constant search of more from contemporaries who might still have others who he did not have in which he could exchange the ones with him with those others did not have!
Sheikh was like this when the crisis between Alaafin Raji Adeniran Adeyemi and the former political titan of the West, chief Obafemi Awolowo ensued! Eventually, Alaafin Adeniran was dethroned and the reigning Oni-nasia( the Islamic Chief in charge of Public Exhortation and Advice to the Muslims) of Oyo land then who was from the Akeugberu Imam's house resigned his post as the Imam Akeugberu house was irked with Alaafin Adeniran's dethronement which they saw as as an injustice of the highest order to the Alaafin as according to the rave of the moment then, Alhaji Alaafin had been dealt with because of his Islamic faith which as a first class Oba in Yorubaland, he preferred above other things which did not go down well with the political titan.
Other things being mentioned as the causes of the dethronement such as the Alaafin's support for the rival political party to the Action Group, the Nigerian People's Party, NPN, were just remote causes, but the immediate cause had been his unhidden show of love and support for anything Islam.
For example, Alaafin Adeniran was the singular patriot and strong pillar of the Muslim League Party (MLP), a quasi-political movement formed by the Muslims heavyweights of the western region with a view to countering A.G's leadership insouciant behavior of neglecting Muslims among its cabinet Ministers and for other infractions towards Islam in Yorubaland then by Awo's party!
Despite the fact that the reigning Imam of Oyo Land then was his eminent Muhibudden Ajokidero of the Ajokidero's Imam House, he still persuaded the Oni-nasia to stay that the issue at hand did not warrant the Islamic chiefs to join the fray at hands as seemingly as it might look injustice but the Chief Adviser of the Muslim did not look back on the decision of his house in their moves to show indignation to what had befallen the Alaafin Adeniran!
Imam Muhibudden Ajokidero would continue to act as the Oni-nasia of the land in addition to being the Imam of Oyo land for two years as nature abhorred vacuum so that the functions of the Oni-nasia would continue despite his insistence to be at the side of his family on Alaafin's matter. Baba Muhibudden Ajokidero who was himself was a consummate caller to Allah's way, according to those that witnessed his reign, performed credibly well until new Oni-nasia was found!
Baba Muhibudden Ajokidero was combining the leading of prayers with the public exhortation of the Muslims in the town until exactly two years time after the then Oni-nasia had resigned when the people from the Ajokidero's Imam House remembered that they had an equally capable hands in Lagos among their family sides, who was manifestly qualified to man the position for the Imam, so that the Imam would concentrate on his leadership function as old age was quite making a toil on him!
The qualified hands remembered by the Ajokidero's Imam House was nobody other than Sheikh Salman Ahmad Alawaye! For the next twelve (12) years Imam Muhibudden Ajokidero would continue to reign as the leader of the Oyo Muslims in addition to the ones he had used before the coming of Sheikh Salman Alawaye, Sheikh Salman would dazzle, refine and elevate the position of the chief Exegetes of Oyo land with his incisive but mellifluous invitations of people to Allah's way, words and good moral conducts!
His exegesis methods included the recitation of the glorious Qur'an with the indigenous voice of Adabiyya ( remember his teacher was Sheikh Kamalideen Habeebullah Musa Al-Adaby as mentioned earlier) combined with meticulous explanation of the Qur'anic verses in Yoruba language with a mixture of proverbs, simile, metaphor and other Yoruba language figures of speech where necessary for clarity and understanding of the audience and the enjoyment of the listeners!
Not only that, the types of Tafsir deployed by Sheikh Salman Alawaye in his Tafsir among the genres of tafasir methodical approaches in the study of science of the glorious Qur'an were admixture of the authentic exegetes' methods such as Tafsiru-bil-ma'thur, Tafsiru- bi-riwayah and bil-Athar with Arabian anecdotes ( al-nawadir), Arabic poems, classical examples from Islamic books and native happenings around him and experience from his past sojourn in Lagos and other areas of Yorubaland!
Tafsiru-bil-ma'thur has to do with the explanation of the verses of the glorious Qur'an with another Qur'anic verses and it is the best of all the approaches of exegesis according to scholars of exegesis. This is followed by the tafsiru-bi-riwayah, I e , a tafsir method that employs the use of prophetic tradition to explain the glorious Qur'an. The Tafsiru- bil-Athar deploys the use of the companions of the prophet's ways and understandings in the explanation of the glorious Qur'an!
In addition, among the styles deployed by Sheikh Salman Alawaye to attract people to his da'wah stand was the distribution of Ismu-llahi-l-Azeem free of charge to the audience whenever he came across verses of the glorious Qur'an that had been proven effective in countering both temporal and terrestrial afflictions of the people!
Out of this style of delivering the message of God, many afflicted with diseases had been delivered from pains; many had became wealthy when adhered to the recitation of some verses and a lot had found the wherewithal to go to Makkah based on Sheikh's prescription of verses which facilitated that, by God's grace!
The writer's second teacher of Arabic language and Islamic science, Sheikh Abdul-Hamid Abdul-Azeez Onike had narrated to him that through the prayer recommended by Sheikh Salman Alawaye to the people who were interested to visit the House of Allah in Makkah, he had realized his own Hajj fees through the writing of that prayer for people as a lexicographer of a note on the recommendation of Sheikh Salman Alawaye himself!
It was even said that for his effective methods of delivering Allah's words to people, Sheikh Salman would become the rallying point of other exegetes in Oyo and its environs to the extent that the verses of the glorious that they would explain for their own congregations in their various mosques in the evenings would be first gleaned and listened to from that of Sheikh Salman in the morning during the entire month of Ramadan!
At the death of Imam Muhibudden Ajokidero in 196?, his tafsir sitting at Imam Ajokidero's mosque, Gbooro Mosque and Alawaye opening ground continued to flourish despite the new Oni-nasia of the land and until his death in 1992!
He would combine the function of the orator of the Muslim of Oyo as a great Exegete with being an Islamic spiritualist of high repute who knew his onion without unnecessarily called to himself, cunningly conned unsuspecting clients or using illegal materials in finding solutions to what afflicted them. Besides, confirmed reports have it that Sheikh Salman Alawaye was also an embroider who was very adept at it!
His Students, Families and Friends!
As an engaging and down-to-earth preacher of Allah's words, he had attracted many a student to himself but due to paucity of time for his equally over-engaged life, he had tutored scores of them. Among his were Hamzah Ayegbami, the immediate Imam of Ilora, in Afijio Local Government of Oyo; Imam Mudasiru Lawson Lagos; Baba Ajalaruru; Imam Ife-Odan; Alhaji Fatai Ile Babakekere and the former Otun-Imole of Oyo land, Sheikh Yakub Otun-Imole!
Baba Salman Alawaye was also a complete and accomplished family man who had been blessed with many wives (though they were not all being married to him same times), with evenly well-brought up and blessed children that have attained many heights in the ladder of life. The wives were Ummul-Khaera ( Nihmatallah), Mama Halima Eko, Siddiqoh Imam Ajokidero and Iya Tayyiba and others!
His children include Nihmatallah Eleha, ( Iya-Ile Aje) the mother of Alhaji Abdul-Rafiu Aje, Daddy Honourable ( Abdul-Raheem) who was a surveyor and one time Honourable member of House of Representative representing Alimosho-Kosofe constituency Lagos Area and who had earlier lived in England and worked at Federal Housing Estate before and during Lateef Jakande Era as Governor of Lagos state.
Others are Misturah, a business woman with class, Moshood Alawaye of the former National Security Service now DSS, during the Babangida regime, Alhaja Afusat who was a Canadian, Sheriffah who married a soldier, Soffiyullah an Alfa and Abdulmojeed Salman Alawaye who is now overseeing the legacy of Sheikh Salman Alawaye as an Islamic Scholar, a Da'i and and a public speaker!
Among Sheikh Salman Alawaye's notable friends in Oyo and Yorubaland were : Imam Isiaq Ogunbado, the former Imam of Oyo land; Ahmad Aroworeki who was famed for his deep-seated knowledge of Ismu-llahi-l-Azeem and a neighbor of Sheikh Ataragba Al- Miskeenu-billah, the Sheikh of the present Mufty of Ilorin, Sheikh Sulaiman Farooq Onikijipa Al-miskeenu-billah; Sheikh Abdullah Adam Al-Ilori, the famed precocious Islamist, writer and founder of Markaz Agege with him Sheikh Salman Alawaye had collaborated to establish RABITAH( The League of Imam and Alfa Of Yorubaland); Sheikh Abdraheem Araoyo, the Jurist and knowledgeable Sheikh of Oyo during his time, Sheikh Haroon , Imam of Aweland then and Sheikh Abdul- Baaqi of the famous Islahudeen Institute and society of Iwo land!
Salman Ahmad Alawaye's Legacy
Many were things Sheikh Salman Alawaye had left behind after his demise in 1992 but the highest of these was the legacy of Islam and the institution of calling people to Allah's way! His son and Khalifah, Abdulmojeed Salman Alawaye has since the demise of the father, continued carrying the flag of Islam to where Baba had carried it and even beyond!
Himself became the Khalifah, a Successor to Sheikh Salman's throne of knowledge in the year 1993. Khalifah started his education at Kamarise Qur'anic School at Imam Akeugberu's quarters Oyo until Sheikh Salman wanted to enrol him at Sheikh Sunusi Ode-Omu's School, at Ode-Omu Osun State but he was advised against it; that the lad was still younger by his first born Iya Ile-Aje, a Jilbab-wearing woman, in 1982 who was the foster mother of the Khalifah after the demise of his mother. She however, gingered her father to get the child ( Khalifah) enrol instead at Markaz Da'wah of Sheikh Solahudeen Sanni Kolade at Agunpopo Oyo!
He would soonest be following Sheikh Solahudeen Kolade to the nook and cranny of Yorubaland in the name of da'wah activities as a back-up Qur'anic vocalist ( Ajanasi) from that precocious age until he followed him to the Hiddun-'Arabahin, the fourty years foundation celebration of Markaz Agege established by Sheikh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilori in the academic season of 88/89 and on beholding him, Sheikh Adam who was his father's friend quickly recognized him and told his teacher, Sheikh Solahudeen Kolade that Khalifah would be schooling at Agege and he would not follow him to Oyo again. From there onward, Khalifah became the student of Markaz Agege where he had his Idaddiyah and Sanawiyya Islamic certificates!
Reminiscing about Sheikh Solahudeen Kolade's influence in his life as a Da'i, Khalifah Abdulmojeed Salman Alawaye would say that Baba Kolade had tutored him in the act of memorizing knowledge which were mostly done impromptu when they were traveling for da'wah in any of the cities and towns of the South-Western Nigeria then!
Another good virtues he had imitated from Sheikh Solahudeen Kolade was the act of boldness and oratory skill of delivering Allah's words without minding whose ox is gored. These virtues have been his guilding light in the past thirty ( 30) years he himself has started flying higher the flag of Islamic da'wah his father Sheikh Salman Ahmad Alawiye Alawaye had birthed!
