Muhammadu Sanusi II, the 14th Emir of Kano, says greed, selfishness and envy are “much greater sins” than unlawful sex, homosexuality and gambling.
Sanusi spoke on Sunday as a guest lecturer during a virtual Ramadan lecture titled “Some dimensions of the concept of ibadah”.
The former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said part of the reason there is a social disorder in the country is that some Muslims forget that they will give an account of their actions before God.
He said people observe prayers and fast but keep committing evil “because our hearts are not Islamic”.
Sanusi further said a governor of a Sharia-implementing state in Nigeria stole funds and bought a hotel in Lagos.
While he did not mention the name of the governor, Sanusi said his state remained a “most serious example of backwardness”.
Sanusi said if leaders were conscious that they would account for the trust bequeathed to them, they would not steal public funds.
“On Social order and Ibadah, you know when our hearts are not good, our deeds will not be good.
“We say we are Muslims, we go to the mosque and pray and Allah says prayer stops evil deeds and wrong deeds. Why is it that we go to pray all the time, we fast all the time and then we are committing this evil?
“How do you get a Muslim to become a minister or governor and all he is thinking of is how he is going to steal public funds to build a big house for himself or have billions for his children and deny people?
“When you know what the prophet has said about leadership. It is a trust and on the day of judgment, it would be a source of bitterness, sadness, and regret, for those who do not keep that trust properly.
“When you sit down and know that you are going to account to Allah for this wealth, you are going to answer for it, how do you get to that office and steal public funds? This is why you have a social disorder.
“We even have had state governors who said they were practising sharia, they were leading the implementation of sharia and they were stealing money and buying hotels.
“There was a governor implementing sharia in a sharia state who stole public funds and bought a hotel in Lagos. And he says Allahu Akbar.
“Meanwhile, his state was left with no education, with no health care, with one of the most serious cases of security, most serious examples of backwardness.
“How do you explain that you have this external religiosity and then you have so much injustice? And that’s why I say the obligations of the heart are far more important than those of the body.
“Greed, selfishness, wickedness, envy. These are much greater sins than zina (illegal sexual intercourse), homosexuality, and gambling. The sins of the heart are greater than the sins of the body. We are focused so much on the external things.
“The purity of our hearts, the love for humanity, the fear of Allah, the knowledge that we are accountable to Allah, all of that is missing.
“What is obligatory on the heart is greater than what is obligatory on the external because this is what Allah works with.”
Sanusi also said the misinterpretation of some teachings of Islam “has been the cause of some of the problems that we are facing today”.
He encouraged Muslims to serve as examples for those in the coming centuries to look up to.
