Shaykh Dahiru Uthman Bauchi, a huge library of the Qur’an and its sciences

After a century of life in the service of the holy Qur’an, Shaykh Dahiru Uthman Bauchi returned to Allah on Thursday, November 27, 2025. His janaza (funeral), which witnessed a massive crowd of mourners and sympathizers from within and outside of Nigeria took place after the Jumu’at congregational prayer on Friday, November 28, 2025. The janaza prayer, which was held at the central Eid praying ground in Bauchi metropolis was led by Shaykh Sharif Ibrahim Saleh; another well-read scholar.

Born in 1927, Shaykh Dahiru lived for 98 years in the count of the Gregorian calendar, and 101 years in the count of the Hijrah calendar. The mention of some of his feats could be a worthy point to start this homage of a grieving dirge. Shaykh Dahiru spent 75 years of his life conducting Tafseer (exegesis of Qur’an). He also established about 1,500 schools and centers for the memorization of the holy Qur’an across Africa. In the Cholan Book of World Records, the legendary scholar holds the global record of having the highest number of descendants who have committed the holy Qur’an to memory, including 80 of his 82 surviving children from a total of 95 biological children (48 females and 47 males), and over 200 grandchildren. Indeed, Shaykh Dahiru Bauchi’s death is a colossal loss to the Muslim world.

The celebrated scholar will highly be missed for his intellectual contributions to the understanding of Islam and Qur’anic knowledge. Shaykh Dahiru Bauchi was a huge library, not an encyclopedia, of the holy Qur’an and its sciences. He was a huge library because several encyclopedias, compendia, books, brochures, databanks, journals, periodicals, reference works, archival reports, manuals, handbooks, manuscripts, files, registers, and indices exist within a library.

Besides being a guru in the field of Qur’anic sciences, there’s hardly any aspect of the Arabic and Islamic sciences that you would not find Shaykh Dahiru at the top echelon of first-rate scholars. For several decades, his commentary of the glorious Qur’an during Ramadan which was aired on Radio Nigeria Kaduna became an inspiring source of knowledge particularly for several millions of Nigerian Muslims.

In 1999, Shaykh Dahiru Uthman Bauchi was the guest speaker at the public presentation of my book on Tijanniyah. The event, which took place at the conference hall of the National Mosque, Abuja, was attended (physically, not by representation) by some dignitaries that included late Justice Muhammad Bashir Sambo as chairman of the occasion; Justice Musa Song as the special guest of honour; the late Imam of Kpaki in Niger State who was then the  Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Alhaji idris Alhassan Kpaki as the guest of honour; and late Alhaji Abdullahi B. Yawa who was then my principal at the federal government college in Kwali, Abuja, as the chief host.

In the midst of his speech at the event, Shaykh Dahiru Bauchi paused and said he would attempt to showcase to the audience that the holy Qur’an is a holy Book with special intangible features that are exclusive to it. Shaykh Dahiru who had come to the venue with two of his male children called the two little boys out to the podium who, he said, were both barely seven years old. He requested the audience to recite any verse for the little boys to complete the recitation to the end of the verse or even Surah.

The first attempt was by Alhaji Abdurrahman Aboki from Bida who opened the floor with a long verse. The two little boys took over the recitation until the audience stopped them. Prof Ibrahim Abubakar Imam also opened the recitation of another verse and the little boys who looked babyish continued with the recitation until the audience asked them to return to their seats where they sat behind their father’s armchair playing with their fingers. Shaykh Dahiru, thereafter, affirmed to the audience that no child at less than 7 years of age would ever be able to commit to memory any book as huge in volume and content as the Qur’an except the Qur’an.

Although Shaykh Dahiru Bauchi was a prominent leader of the Tijaniyyah Sufi (mystic) order in Nigeria, the approach and the methodology he deployed in his commentary of the Qur’an attracted even non-Muslims to accept Islam at his Ramadan Tafseer sessions. During the off-Ramadan season, Shaykh Dahiru also had another radio programme aired on Radio Nigeria Kaduna where he read and interpreted Imam Malik’s compendium of hadith, “Muwatta,” otherwise called Maliki Law. Through these knowledge sessions via radio, Muslims had access to the Fatwah (legal opinion) of Muslim jurists on religious issues that are either controversial or modernistic in nature. His lively and pleasant voice that always sounded like that of a young man in his 30s would also be missed by his audience with deep nostalgia.

Shaykh Dahiru would be remembered as a peace maker. Many years ago, he was one of the guest speakers at the National preaching convention (branded in Hausa as ‘Wa’azin Kasa’) of the Jama’atu Izalatul Bid’ah Wa Iqamati s-Sunnah. I find it relevant to relate Dr Shaykh Muhammad Nuru Khalid’s message in a recent video clip that was shared with me. From the message, it was obvious that Dr Khalid, otherwise called ‘digital Imam’, was reacting to some denigrating comments made by some Muslims against the person of late Shaykh Dahiru Bauchi.

Dr Khalid exhorts Muslims to appreciate Shaykh Dahiru Bauchi in the light of his universal contributions to Qur’anic scholarship (with his world record of having the highest number family members as memorizers of the Qur’an), not in the light of his practice of the Tijaniyyah Sufi order; describing him as a great scholar and Muslim leader. The digital Imam cautioned people against vilifying the Shaykh, his teachings or what he stood for; adding that hyper banters only seek to divide the Muslim ummah. Dr Khalid cautioned that it was not for anyone to take over Allah’s job of judging people.

It’s reprehensible in Islam to talk evil of the dead. It’s ridiculous for a Muslim to rejoice at the death of a fellow creature let alone a fellow Muslim. This is stranger than fiction in Muslim civilization. A hadith recorded by Imam Bukhari states that “… A prayer procession passed in front of the Prophet (SAW) and he stood up. When he was told that it was the coffin of a Jew, he said, “Is it not a living being?” May Allah grant Shaykh Dahiru Bauchi eternal forgiveness and mercy, Amin.

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