The Ghanaian Minaret

Accra: Sheikh Usman Nuhu Sharubutu, the National Chief Imam, has chided the chiefs and Muslim scholars within his circle for failing to take the needed steps to make peace between him and his prominent student.

He said they had failed to speak truth to power and call “his son” to order after the student had gone astray due to a misunderstanding that occurred between the Imam and his student.

“You knew he erred, yet you kept supporting him to cut ties with his father to the extent of hating the father who taught him, nurtured him, got him married, showed him love, and even named him as his successor.

“I loved him from the bottom of my heart to the extent of me saying whoever loved me should love him,” the centenarian said when the Ahlu Shabaniyya Tijanniya group paid him a courtesy call last Thursday.

The Chief Imam, who appeared agitated by the situation, kept asking those present what role they played in reconciling them, adding, “Is it now that you want reconciliation after you have destroyed everything?”

He said he had observed how the student in question had been avoiding him at public gatherings.

“They came, asking me to be patient. Am I the one to be patient? They should rather be asked to be patient. He never shows up where I am until I leave the place,” the Chief Imam said.

Though the National Chief Imam failed to mention the name of the student, sources close to the office had identified the student in question as Sheikh Yahyal Amin.

Sheikh Sharubutu indicated that he looks forward to a reunion between him and his student if he sincerely wants a reconciliation, adding that “this house is his house, and I was the one who took him to Shukura.”

“For now, let me be. If he sincerely repents, the dust is settled, and he can identify those who taught him to hate me, I will accept him,” he added.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that the misunderstanding between the two prominent clerics had a political undertone.