ROSARIMANIA: A DISORDER
In what seemed like a spiritual diet where attendees were meant to be fed (to their fill) with Allah's dos and don'ts as enshrined in the Qur'aan, and of course, in the Sunnah, the sheikh rather sanctimoniously thrilled his listeners with cock and bull tales which did not only defy logic, but were disappointingly untraceable to reliable, researchable sources. Moved by the laughable self-glorification, members of the audience mesmerically trooped out in their numbers to have their rosaries dropped on their sheikh's neck - as gifts or as part of their alien doctrines, I guess.
At some point, one of the sheikh's disciples who probably must have pitied that his boss' neck was on the verge of getting wrecked (by the loads of rosaries), asked the crowd to discontinue the crap, but the comic sheikh who had been carried away by the euphoria of the recognition rather told his compassionate disciple to allow his fans the latitude to do as they so wished - after all, it's his neck. He could not be better loved than he did love himself.
By the time the sheikh would vacate the stage to rejoin his cohorts on the platform, he had been gifted numberless rosaries and his neck same like nollyhood's Abija-wara-bi-ekun, Dagunro-alakija-oogun or Alapinni-oogun-laya!
When a grownup muslim dons an elegant African attire and the feet adorned, too with the most trending designer-shoes of the time, only to unimaginably dismay his admirers by topping the outfit with plenty of rosaries tied round the neck and resting conspicuously on the chest, apparently, what comes to mind is that the wearer is probably out of his sensibility. Even those who wear beads to symbolize royalty or chieftaincy do not wreck their necks with the customary (and/or fetish) ornament, how much more the one who claims to be doing so for servitude to the Almighty.
Donning rosary as a complementary ornament with the intention of reaching Allah in worship has taken an astonishingly new turn in this era. Thank God for the advent of social media which have now made the age-long heresy known to all, as it is common with the sufi ideologists.
Growing up, we used to place rosaries on our necks whenever we had an Islamic function to grace. Sometimes, we would hold them while walking and the tongue joggled in adhkaar. We were doing so because we saw our elders do so.
To date, some muslims hang rosaries in their cars and at home to signal the religion they serve. It is commonplace, too, to see rosaries placed on the chest of a sick or dying person for protection. In fact, rosary also forms a significant part of what muslim parents require of the man seeking to have the hand of their daughter in marriage. This is requested together with kettles, prayer-mats etc. as items of sodaaq - bride price.
The aforementioned and a couple of other factors too many to mention birthed in me the curiosity to research into the etymology (origin) of rosary, and I could not do any write-up until after weeks of surfing different world wide webs for verifiable facts.
In summary, rosary or prayer beads as put by historians started with the catholics in the 4th century. It was a worship material that was peculiarly used by christians to keep track of repetitions in prayer, particularly in the Roman Catholic Marian prayer. Rosary was usually placed on the neck or tied round the wrist as an insignia of worship to God through Rose Mary. Therefore, the name - rosary - had its root from the word, "rose" as reflective above. Another historical account of how rosary came about was attributed to Hinduism - a religion, philosophy and culture native to India, characterized by the belief in reincarnation and a supreme oneness personified in many forms and natures.
From the foregoing, it is crystal clear that the use of rosary was either christian, catholic or hindu - not Islam, at all. However, it was in later centuries that Islamic rosary was dubbed by some muslims to differentiate between theirs and that of the catholics and/or hindus. They called it subha, misbaha or tesbeeh in Arabic. The practice was linked to some ahaadeeth which had been adjudged as da'eefah (weak) by muhaddithuun (experts in Science of Hadeeth) - that Aisha (wife of the Prophet) and a couple of Sohabah would use pebbles (small stones) for 'adad (counting) during adhkaar. Aside the fact that the acclaimed ahaadeeth are weak, it is obviously no justification to imitate the originators - the catholics and the hindus.
Let's assumedly argue that rosary were of Islam, isn't it nauseating, sickening and a display of derangement that the neck is filled up with it with the intention of servitude to Allah? What kind of a religion is that? Islam? No!
Rosarimania, therefore, is a disorder that is characterized by obsessive, compulsive use of rosary especially when it is plentifully placed on the neck with the intention of serving Allah. And the one suffering from this unhealthy and irrational fixation is called a rosarimaniac.
Rosarimania (the sickness or disorder) and rosarimaniac (the sick person or patient) are my coinages. Don't bother looking them out in the dictionary.
At some point, one of the sheikh's disciples who probably must have pitied that his boss' neck was on the verge of getting wrecked (by the loads of rosaries), asked the crowd to discontinue the crap, but the comic sheikh who had been carried away by the euphoria of the recognition rather told his compassionate disciple to allow his fans the latitude to do as they so wished - after all, it's his neck. He could not be better loved than he did love himself.
By the time the sheikh would vacate the stage to rejoin his cohorts on the platform, he had been gifted numberless rosaries and his neck same like nollyhood's Abija-wara-bi-ekun, Dagunro-alakija-oogun or Alapinni-oogun-laya!
When a grownup muslim dons an elegant African attire and the feet adorned, too with the most trending designer-shoes of the time, only to unimaginably dismay his admirers by topping the outfit with plenty of rosaries tied round the neck and resting conspicuously on the chest, apparently, what comes to mind is that the wearer is probably out of his sensibility. Even those who wear beads to symbolize royalty or chieftaincy do not wreck their necks with the customary (and/or fetish) ornament, how much more the one who claims to be doing so for servitude to the Almighty.
Donning rosary as a complementary ornament with the intention of reaching Allah in worship has taken an astonishingly new turn in this era. Thank God for the advent of social media which have now made the age-long heresy known to all, as it is common with the sufi ideologists.
Growing up, we used to place rosaries on our necks whenever we had an Islamic function to grace. Sometimes, we would hold them while walking and the tongue joggled in adhkaar. We were doing so because we saw our elders do so.
To date, some muslims hang rosaries in their cars and at home to signal the religion they serve. It is commonplace, too, to see rosaries placed on the chest of a sick or dying person for protection. In fact, rosary also forms a significant part of what muslim parents require of the man seeking to have the hand of their daughter in marriage. This is requested together with kettles, prayer-mats etc. as items of sodaaq - bride price.
The aforementioned and a couple of other factors too many to mention birthed in me the curiosity to research into the etymology (origin) of rosary, and I could not do any write-up until after weeks of surfing different world wide webs for verifiable facts.
In summary, rosary or prayer beads as put by historians started with the catholics in the 4th century. It was a worship material that was peculiarly used by christians to keep track of repetitions in prayer, particularly in the Roman Catholic Marian prayer. Rosary was usually placed on the neck or tied round the wrist as an insignia of worship to God through Rose Mary. Therefore, the name - rosary - had its root from the word, "rose" as reflective above. Another historical account of how rosary came about was attributed to Hinduism - a religion, philosophy and culture native to India, characterized by the belief in reincarnation and a supreme oneness personified in many forms and natures.
From the foregoing, it is crystal clear that the use of rosary was either christian, catholic or hindu - not Islam, at all. However, it was in later centuries that Islamic rosary was dubbed by some muslims to differentiate between theirs and that of the catholics and/or hindus. They called it subha, misbaha or tesbeeh in Arabic. The practice was linked to some ahaadeeth which had been adjudged as da'eefah (weak) by muhaddithuun (experts in Science of Hadeeth) - that Aisha (wife of the Prophet) and a couple of Sohabah would use pebbles (small stones) for 'adad (counting) during adhkaar. Aside the fact that the acclaimed ahaadeeth are weak, it is obviously no justification to imitate the originators - the catholics and the hindus.
Let's assumedly argue that rosary were of Islam, isn't it nauseating, sickening and a display of derangement that the neck is filled up with it with the intention of servitude to Allah? What kind of a religion is that? Islam? No!
Rosarimania, therefore, is a disorder that is characterized by obsessive, compulsive use of rosary especially when it is plentifully placed on the neck with the intention of serving Allah. And the one suffering from this unhealthy and irrational fixation is called a rosarimaniac.
Rosarimania (the sickness or disorder) and rosarimaniac (the sick person or patient) are my coinages. Don't bother looking them out in the dictionary.
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