ISLAMIC AND ARABIC STUDIES PROJECT TOPICS AND MATERIALS

The waves of Islam is felt in nook and cranny of the world as the result of its sound seed which is its creed planted on a fertile land of Arabian Peninsula in fourteen hundred years ago by the able Planter, the Prophet of Allah, Muhammad bn Abdillah bn Abdilmutalib. The growth of the seed was rapid and miraculous with the production of gigantic trees across the globe; Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia, North and South America.

It is axiomatic that one of the factors that contributed to the development to Islam in Nigeria was poetry works. Arabic poetry began in Iwo town some years after the town came in contact with Islam in the year 1655 as said by Al-Iloriy. There were different types of themes used by the scholars such as Didactic, Ascetic, elegy, descriptive, panegyric, and thanksgiving poems.

“Almajiri” is a hausa word meaning immigrant children in search of search of Qur’anic education. The children are sent out early in life to seek Islamic knowledge outside their environment. They are placed under Islamic teachers known simply as ‘mallam’ under whom they are supposed to learn the rudiments of the religion. Khalid (2000), describes almajiranci as seasonal migration of school age male children from rural to urban areas in northern Nigeria in search of Qur’anic education. In this contemporary era, Almajiranci has degenerated to the extent that it has now greatly exposed the children to various types of moral or social hazards. Many of these children metamorphasize into drug addicts, dropouts, street beggars etc. they seldom go back to their villages or home towns.

The most recent and significant development in the banking industry is the emergence of Islamic Banking System and Interest-Free Banks (IFBs) in Nigeria through the CBN guideline on non interest banking. This is in response to the failure of the conventional interest based banking system to cater for the developmental needs of the country which also apply to other developing economies (Ahmed, 2000).

Western education is a system originated from the west and penetrated to the world after Islamic education in the earliest 15th century. Its main approach was the modernization of social life through science and technological advancement (Farid, 2005). Western system of education was first propagated by the missionaries and promoted by colonialist to different part of the globe, in their view for westernization and globalization in the name of modernity. It is a complete secular system that differentiated life and religion and focuses on materialism. It’s also rationalistic in its quest for knowledge as relied more on human ability of reason than spiritual inspiration. The preparation made to man in this system was very limited as it fall short in training only the body and the physique in this fair of life, therefore the modern western system does not consider the relationship between God and human as socially or intellectually relevance, hence revelation or the revealed knowledge, they are ignored even when modern secular subjects are introduced in the curriculum for the traditional older system (Rosnani, 2004).

In every religion there is a scripture which is considered its canon of law. People of the past also had theirs; Tawrāh, Injīl( the Bible), Zabūr (the Psalm) and the Qur‟ān were revealed to Mūsā (Moses),„Īsā(Jesus),Dāwūd(David)and Muhammad respectively. The last revealed scripture, which is the Noble Qur‟ān, occupies a very important position in the life of Muslims. It is the word of Almighty Allah revealed to Prophet Muhammad through Angel Jibrīl. Its recitation serves as an act of worship. Recitation of the Holy Qur‟ān is highly rewardable in Islam as it attracts many rewards. It was reported that the Prpohet Muhammad said:

Many traditions exist on the origin of Ilorin. Many of them try to make sense of the name “Ilorin”. Some relate it with iron deposit and call it ( Ilu Irin ) which means ( Town of Iron ). Also, there are some which links Ilorin with a historical rock said to be fondly used by Yoruba hunters to sharpen their hunting implements called ( Ilo Irin ) which means ( Iron sharpening implement). Another tradition on the origin of Ilorin is by those who say that the town used to be a gaming field of elephants for Yoruba hunters before some of them began to settle in the area. They call Ilorin ( Ilu Erin ), which means ( Town of Elephants )13.

Islam is the religion of peace and brotherhood. It is a belief in Divine Monotheism, i.e. belief in one supreme divine being, Allah. It protests against idolatry, inequality and evil ways of the society. Islam enjoins its followers to lead a pure, simple and decent life.1Islam, as a universal religion, was conveyed extensively to the nooks and crannies of the world through Da’wah activities. Islam has, from the outset, been identified with the act of proselytization. This religion cannot, therefore, be divorced from Da‟wah and vice-versa. This is because, the latter serves as tools for the former. In fact, it equally serves as the backbone through which the Qur’ān enjoins the entire Muslim community to follow the way of the Prophets by commanding what is good and prohibiting what is bad: