Date: 2017-03-02

More facts emerged last night on the life and times of late Sheikh Abdulkadri Ahmad Alaiye, who died on Sunday in Ilorin.

He was 95 years old and his Fidau will be held today (Thursday). According to a member of the family, AbdulHamid Funsho Alaiye, the late Sheikh Ahmed Alaiye converted his car park to a place of worship, which later metamorphosed to a school when the car he was promised never came.

He said he (Sheikh) was eventually buried there Speaking with National Pilot, Alaiye said the late scholar was always concerned about his relationship with Allah and not about wealth and opulence. He started Dawah works right from his childhood and started living exceptional life at a very young age.

He said the late Alaiye was the Islamic scholar in Nigeria that first put the word of God on Lineal Plate (records) and waxed 25 different records before he stopped, aside public lectures, sermons, invitation or Ramadhan lectures. He described the late cleric as one endowed from birth and that it would be difficult to ascribe a particular person as his teacher, adding that the late Mufti of Ilorin, Sheikh Muhammed Kamaldeen only taught him a page of Islamic lesson.

Hear Him: "He's exceptionally different and well-endowed about the word of God. He had quite exceptional dexterity of interpretation of the word of God. Many Scholars learned from him how to live life devoid of material influence. There was a time some people were saying he had a car and he bought one, used it for only one week before he abandoned it.

"Also somebody promised to give him a car and instructed him to build a car park before the arrival of the car. When the car refused to come, he turned the car park into a place of worship and knowledge for about 25 years. It was there he was buried. So he was always prepared for any eventuality. "So he must have had the premonition of where he would eventually sleep and used it as a place of worship instead of car park.

His death was a gradual and gracious passage. He was a prominent Islamic scholar and educated poet on Islamic issue, erudite scholar of national and international repute. He had his own class in terms of style of preaching and method of delivering the word of God. His chapter is a close one in the history of Islamic tradition in Ilorin.

"Many scholars, since his death, have said they have learned from him new methods of Quran Tafseer and Hadith of the prophet and even in Sufism "He was a well endowed man of God, who lived a quiet, simple and humane life. He was the first Islamic cleric in Nigeria and across West Africa, to have put the word of God on Lineal Plate, what we call records and waxed 25 different records before he stopped, aside public lectures, sermons, invitation or Ramadhan lectures. He did the tafsir for about five decades.

He was exceptionally different and well endowed about the word of God and had a quite exceptional dexterity about the interpretation of the Quran.

"Listening to him was like he was there when the Quran was being revealed; he will never say anything that contradicts the Quran. He travelled wide and far and performed about the hajj 12 times. He stepped on toes of those in authority because of his preaching and came out unscathed because of his closeness to Allah, the late Alaiye was very blunt and was not bothered about whose ox was gored.

His life radiated simplicity and as a top and well endowed scholar, many people still query why he lived in the kind of environment he lived in. He never preached prosperity at the expense of salvation."