By Bala Muhammad
Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un! From Allah we come, and to Him we shall return!
Death, whosoever’s, is devastating, but the death of a young person is just tragic. In the not too distant past, this Column had mourned Capt. Ismail Yadudu and Ahmad Galadanci, young men who had died so young. Today, we mourn another young person, a very good friend of this Column, Ayshah Idris Bugaje, daughter of good friend, brother and senior academic colleague Professor Idris Muhammad Bugaje and Dr. Hadiza Nuhu (the famous woman whom Allah used to cure my chronic malaria with her Herb 25), both of whom are senior academicians at ABU, Zaria.
Ayshah, who died at 28, was my student by proxy. Though she studied her Mass Communications at ABU – and I teach the same thing at BUK – she made me one of her academic advisers and reference points. As a budding writer, she would always send her articles and other pieces for my vetting and comments before she would publish. On November 21, 2016, she had sent me an article titled ‘The Beginning of an Era’ which she introduced with “Assalamu Alaykum Sir. Ya kwana biyu, da hidimomi? Hope the family is doing well. Attached are some thoughts I compiled about the recent triumph of Trump. I hope you enjoy it. Regards to the family. Bissalam.”
I had pinned the article to the top of my email inbox, and intended to use it in a piece to commemorate the inauguration of Donald Trump on 20th January, 2017. Ayshah had opened the 883-word essay with “The world as we know it has undergone drastic changes in recent times…” and had closed with “…For now we sit and wait and pray for God’s intervention.”
I had asked the parents, siblings and husband to send in tributes, and the following are excerpts.
THE FATHER, Professor Idris M. Bugaje (who titled his tribute “Nana: A life of Enduring Pain”): Every harmattan season is a frightening time for sicklers and their parents. This current harmattan is the last for our most beloved Nanuwa. She was the second born in the family and as Allah willed it, she was born a sickler, but a very determined one. After her primary education, she attended five secondary schools in six years, due to the dynamic nature of her parents’ jobs and graduated from the Ahmadu Bello University in 2008 with a degree in Mass Communications, against all odds. She even added a Masters in International Relations later. Married at the age of 23 in April 2012, she subsequently had a baby girl in 2015, and finally returned to her Lord at the age of 28 on Thursday December 29, 2016. That is a short summary of the life of this Sickle Cell Anemia patient, Aisha, popularly called Nana. She led a quiet life, though always struggling to be fit and healthy. She was occasionally writing short articles but all the time concerned about her younger ones, guiding and mentoring them on their careers. When she lost her immediate elder sister, Amina, in the 2012 Dana Air Tragedy, Nana became the most senior among her siblings, and she never failed them in her unwavering concern for their studies and future careers. She was doing this throughout her life. She endured pain, from one Sickle Cell Crisis to another…Nana, may you now rest in peace, and may Allah forgive you and join us together in His Garden of Bliss (Firdaus).
THE MOTHER, Dr. Hadiza Nuhu: As I set out from Zaria to Kano on that fateful Thursday, little did I know that my daughter, Aisha, would pass away in few hours’ time. Settling down by her bedside at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, we had talked normally. Then she asked me to forgive her, and to also ask her father to do the same. After a short while, Nana passed away peacefully as she lay quietly on the bed. Inna LilLahi Wa Inna IlaiHi Raji’un. It is difficult to explain the relationship of a mother and daughter, particularly an eldest daughter alive (as her elder sister Amina had passed away in the Dana Crash). Aisha demonstrated to all and in all circumstances that I am her priority. She was concerned with every detail of my work hours, how regularly I ate, my worries and concerns, etc. The first question she would ask whenever she called me on the phone was always, ‘Have you eaten?’ After she married and moved to Kano, I always missed her nightly cup of tea. My consolation is that Nana led a peaceful and useful life. Despite the handicap of sickle cell anaemia, she successfully earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. She led a peaceful married life, and was loved by all. Her love for charity and the family shall remain in our minds for as long as we live. May Allah bless Amina, the little daughter she left behind. Amin.
THE SISTER, Maryam: Inna LilLahi Wa Inna IlaiHi Raji’un. I write regularly, have often faced blank pages of formidable descriptions, but none ever so difficult, none ever so agonizing, as this. This is probably the hardest thing I have ever had to do, certainly the hardest paragraph I have ever had to write. How, for the life of me, am I to approach writing about an event that grieves me so? I cannot even begin to make an attempt at expressing how overwhelmingly and how utterly I have been affected by this. Mere language, even of the most poignant feeling, is inadequate to express my grief. I still, and probably always shall, harbour a lingering hope and a tinge of denial that none of this is real – that Aisha is alive. I accept Allah’s Will without complaint, and He is our Consoler. Nana is alive in my heart and in my mind, and in my every whispered prayer. It is out of this stance that I shrink from writing a tribute, but I cannot close without paying one to her admirable character. Nana is beautiful in the fullest sense of the word; she had a heart of gold. She is my own best friend in the whole wide world. O Allah, grant my beloved sisters Aisha, Amina, and Ikram Light from You, and reunite us all in Al-Firdaws. Ya Rabb Ameen.
THE HUSBAND, Muhammad Bello Tofa: Inna LilLahi Wa Inna IlaiHi Raji’un. I lost my most loving, caring, patient and beautiful wife Ayshah on 29th December 2016. I was lucky to have met and married someone with such a pure heart. It’s the most painful feeling ever, but Allah says in the Qur’an 3:185: “Every person (nafs) shall taste of death; and We try you with evil and good as a test, then unto Us you shall be returned.” Ayshah, I will forever cherish all that we had together, and will in sha Allah raise our daughter to be as caring as you, her mother. May Allah grant you Jannatul Firdaus, and may He reunite us in paradise. Ameen.
May Allah forgive Ayshah; may He grant the family and us all the fortitude to bear this loss. Special condolences to Aisha Umar-Yusuf (Al-Bint, Inner Dimensions), who first told me about Herb 25, which led to a family friendship with the Bugajes, and the adoption of Ayshah as my ‘daughter’.
And yes, Ayshah, as you said on Trump, “For now we sit and wait and pray for God’s intervention.” Allahu Akbar!
NB: This article was first published on Daily Trust on January 14, 2016
