BABA DOS NOIBI ( THE WALIY OF OUR TIME) AND THE BEST MUSLIM I EVER MET
Ishaq Kunle Sanni
It is wonderful starting the auspicious, great and sacred month of Ramadan with the knowledge of a special homosapien of Allah and pattern our lives after his spartan disciplinary life of absolute dedidication to Islam in its pristine purity
It was the inimitable philantropic legend of this contemporary life Alhaj Abdulazeez Arisekola Alao who seeing Professor Noibi from close quarters when Baba was staying in one of his palatial buildings in London that commented that THIS MAN IS NOT AN ORDINARY MORTAL, HE IS THE WALIY OF OUR TIME
Let me make an honest clarification that i am not insinuating that he is the best Muslim in the universe. In fact i believe there are others all over the world better than him but i am not opportuned to meet them
I am also not alluding to the fact that Baba is perfect but honestly his faults are not many like those of us close to him
In one of his plays the greatest playwright in history, William Shakespeare said ‘ Frail Creatures Are We All, To Be The Best IS But The Fewest Faults To Have.’
The hallmark of Baba Noibi’s moral superiority is PATIENCE. It is a common maxim among we his mentees that in an enviroment where Baba Noibi loses his temper we would have commited blue murder.
For a man on sabbatical in the UK preaching Islam to be recognised by the Queen and be awarded the title OBE, (MOST EXCELLENT ORDER OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE) is awesome and unprecedentedly amazing
In 2003 during Baba’s investiture the Queen mentioned that Baba was involved in prisón advocacy and many of the criminals became very righteous after listening to Professor Daud Olatokunbo Shittu Noibi
Not a few accepted Islam and their reformation uplifted them morally to become better citizens of the United Kingdom
At the risk of self adulation i was the only person from Nigeria who came to attend the reception in Baba’s honour after the investiture, May Allah bless the soul of Alhaj Abdulazeez Arisekola Alao who financed the unforgetable trip.
If you hear many of the children of Alhaj Abdulazeez Arisekola’ Alao becoming epicenter of Islamic excellence in the UK to the extent that some of the girls started putting on Niqab like Hauwa and Bilkis and the male even journeyed to Cairo and Yemen to become fantastic scholars of Islam like Dr Uthman Alao and Jubril Alao, to mention but a few, it was not accidental
They at a young impressionable age lived with a Waliy, Baba Noibi in their fathers house at Thorverton street in London
Arisekola eventually gave Baba another Title THE LORD OF THORVERTON
These lucky children of a wealthy man saw puré Islam from close quarters and Jubril Alao an ICT guru not only taught Arabic in a radio station in London but established an Arabic school there as well .
The business mogul Tajudeen Fola Adeola was one of his students.
Baba was one of those who made nonesense of the popular saying that ijebus are stingy
Alhaja Sekina Adekola the nonegarian iya Adinni of yorubaland is also genorousity personified that people argue she could not have been of ijebu genealogy
Let me begin with my humble self
My youthful exuberance and religious rascality caused my sack by chief Bola Ige when i was working as a sales executive at Unión Beverages makers of Pepsi Cola owned by Oodua Group Of Compañies
I needed about three hundred naira to start distribution of flour to make ends meet. Baba got wind of my predicament
When it was month end Baba’s salary as lecturer at the University of Ibadan was three hundred and sixty naira.
Baba Noibi didnt take one naira from the salary envelope but gave everything to me
My protestation against the totalitarian attitude of Baba was a time wasting adventurism
How Baba’s family survived that month is inexplicable and only known to Allah. Can that be the modus operandi of a typical so called ijebu man?
At a time as a senior lecturer it was fashionable to have a personal house, only Baba among his contemporaries had no house over his head because he always gave out a lion share of his salary to indigent students
His contemporaries normally go on sabbatical leave abroad to get the necassary funds to construct a house but Baba will argue that what happens to the multifarious and multidimentional challenges facing us frñm the unmasqueraded antagonists of Islam if he for ‘selfish reasons abandon the ship of Dawah for sabbatical?
Baba didnt think it was important
What mattered most to him was assisting poor students to fulfil their dreams and confront the kufar headlong with all the resources ar our disposal. Due to a lot of pressure from those around him Baba went on Sabbatical leave to Uk at Siddique Trust Foundation. It was supposed to be for a short time but the Ummah in UK would not allow him come back home
That was the only legítimate means for him to rake some money in foreign currency to build a house
However Baba will collect his salary , but a lot of the money went on charity and a small percentage went for the construction of the house the purpose of his UK sojourn.
We pleaded with Baba to remember that he didnt go to UK to look for money to oil the wheel of his philantropism but to have a roof over his head but Baba will tell us, in sha Allah, Allah will see to the completion of the house
One day the secret of why the house was going at a snail speed was exposed
Baba normally sent emissaries to me through his wife but Professor Abdulganiy Bello of the dept of philisophy does the sharing of the money to students on Baba’s scholarship
So we met in Baba’s house at Amina way University of ibadan in the night of that auspicious day
The students were just retuming back to school and Baba in his wisdom sent all the money to the indigent students
Prof Bello was alarmed that there was no fund for Mamá Noibi and the contractor Alhaj Adaranijo of blessed memory towards the ongoing house project
Prof Bello ‘ ‘Philosophically’ told Mamá another money was on the way. I doubt if Mamá was convinced
I left Professor Bello and Professor Aderinoye there and went home
As fate would have it Professor Bello forgot the letter Baba Noibi wrote to us and went home
Mama Noibi smelt a rat that Baba sent all the money for charity.
She saw a list attached to the letter containing the list of students who were beneficiaries of Baba’s milk of human kindness
Next morning after fajr Mama raced to our family house and reported to my father how we have been part of the conspiracy toward Baba Noibi’s overgenerousity and neglect of the house he was constructing
My father ( May Allah bless him ) phoned Baba in London reminding him not to forget his share of this world as enunciated in the Holy Quran
That probably changed the fortune of the building project and like Baba prognosticated the house is now a beauty to behold
Last but definitely the most inspiring of Baba’s generousity
As it should not surprise any discerning Muslim, Baba doesnt believe in birthday celebration but around the time when Baba clocked ninety Baba confided in me of his wish to dispose of one of his property.
Baba told me to keep it top secret even from his biológical children
However I told Baba he must buy a brand new car out of the proceeds
When Baba said ‘ May Allah guide us aright i had a feeling he was not going to take my ‘worldly tainted idea’
When i went to Baba he already bought a Tokunbo grade one car
He gave thirty million to Muswen but didnt disclose to me what he did with the rest. He disclosed that of MUSWEN because as an executive member, there was no way the informatión could be perpetually obscured from me
Later on, we.learnt he gave part to Anwarul Islam Society the organisation that bankrolled his educational career to Cairo among others.
That is Baba Noibi for you, the Waliy of our time
I can go on ad- infinitum to enumerate Baba’s uncommon acts of charity
On Baba’s kindness only a Waliy can match his fantasic way of helping others
In our days in the Muslim Students Society Of Nigeria there was a sister who had mental challenges . It was so serious that the family abandoned her to her fate at the University Of Ibadan
Baba unilaterally accepted her guardianship and used his ramshackle peugeot 404 to ferry her to Aro mental hospital in Abeokuta once a week
Not a few times would Baba’s car developed fault on the road until the sister completed her educational carrer at the University of Ibadan
How many if us can be so humanitarian to our fellow human being?
Baba is an extremely considerate person and that is why he is monogamous.
A mallam once gave a lecture, that a man who can afford two wives and on his own volition has one loves his wife
The one with more than one wife loves himself
I agree in absolutism with this dictum. I love myself a million times
Baba loves his wife, Mama Silfat very passionately
The love became obvious even to the blind when Baba was in London on sabbatical
Ordinarily being on sabbatical was enough excuse to marry another woman
In the UK Baba was a celebrity for his thought provoking lectures and a lot of female reverts paoffered to marry Baba.
One day i went to Baba in London and in a subtle manner asked me to talk to one of the Nigerian members of the Muslim Association of Nigeria London Branch who was always troubling him to get married to one of the converts.
I said from what Baba told me the brother now of blessed memory was unnecessarily rude but i also think Baba should get married to one of his suitors among the female reverts
Baba gave reasons why he would be unfair to the wife if he decided to get a second wife in London
1 it was the need to build a house and the stampede from friends that brought him to London not the.need for a second wife
2 That his wife is an hypertensive patient and hearing he had married another woman could aggravate her health condition
How many men could be so considerate and caring?
Baba had to do eveyrhing humanly possible to get Mama relocate to London before the issue of a second wife got thrown into the dustbin of history
In london apart from Baba’s job at Siddique Trust and preaching to inmates in the prison Baba’s main pastime was settling disputes mainly among couples where women are favoured in the British society if they lied of gender violence in order to get their husbands sent packing from the house.
I never learnt by heart the verse of the Holy Quran 3:134 where Allah said ALATHINA YUNFIQUNA FI SARAAHI WADARAAHI
WAL KASIMINAL GAESA
WAL AAFINA ANI NAAS
WALLAHU YUHIBUL MUHSINEEN
Thise who spend in the cause of Allah during either ease or hardship, Those who refrán from anger
And those who pardon men who offend them
Allah loves those who do good ‘
I learnt this verse by going out settling disputes with Baba Noibi
The time Muswen wanted to appoint the first executive secretary Baba was still in London and our committe had a guideline for the prospective Executive Secretay
The day somebody mentioned WHY CANT WE CONVINCE BABA NOIBI TO COME HOME AND BE THE PIONEER EXECUTIVE SECRETARY THE COMMITTE GOT AUTOMATICALLY DISSOLVED.
When somebody mentioned that Baba Noibi didnt meet the age criterion, he was told to say it to the marines
Can you imagine that a period when MUSWEN was facing economic crisis, Baba was being owed seventeen months salary and yet he never complained and was working energetically beyond the call of duty as if his life depended on the job
Baba SOB Babalola the new President of MUSWEN then was alarmed and flabagasted when he saw this homongous debt in the handing over report from his predecessor .
Baba Babalola paid the cumulative salary with his own personal resources
Who would have been patient to withstand almost two years without pay as a pensioner ?
Our Baba is blessed with five children all male.
Baba had little time in their upbringing but Allah’s magnanimity followed them in their profesional trajectory.
Baba was totally and unabashedly enveloped by Dawah work , yet none of the children is a failure today, Alhamdulillah
All of them have at least Dr before their names
1 Dr Lukman Noibi is an Agric consultant
2 Professor Mansur Noibi is a professor of Islamic Finance at Islamic Development Bank Saudi Arabia
3 Professor Mubarak Noibi, is of department of Arabic and Islamic studies University Of Ibadan
4 Dr Tajudeen Noibi an educational consultant is based in the Uk
5 Dr Saheed Noibi a Medical Practitioner is based in Riyad Saudi Arabia. He is married to Maryam Arisekola Alao
When Saheed was the Ameer of the Youth wing of the Muslim Associaton of Nigeria, London, Maryam was the Ameera
No wonder it had been a success story in love adventurism
Baba looks strong at over ninety two years of age
We pray for longevity of life for him so that he can continúe to impact positively on the Ummah
We are trying to emulate his pattern of life which is an herculian task
May Allah make it easy for us
Ramadan Mubarak to all Muslims
Send this to a Muslim brother who may not be on this platform perchance he may find something to emulate in Baba’s life of spartan discipline and total dedication to Islam