A Historical Study on Friday Sermon Presentation in Arabic Language to Non-Arabic Speaking Congregations in Kano Metropolis, Kano State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examines the role of the Friday sermon in promoting understanding Islam among worshipers. It focuses attention on the impacts of reciting the sermon in Hausa speaking environment, such as the Kano Metropolis. The need and possibility of reciting the sermon in languages other than Arabic is highlighted as well as its position in islam. A total of twenty-one mosques within the Kano metropolis were selected for the study. In the presentation of the statistical analysis, two sets of data were used. The first data was collected from the Imams while the second was selected from the congregation of listeners. A self-designed opinioned questionnaire was used to collect relevant data from the subjects. The data were subjected to frequencies and the X² statistical analysis. From the analysis of the data collected for this study, it was observed that the major problem related to the recitation of the Friday sermon in Arabic to non-Arabic speaking congregation, the inability for most members of the congregation to understand what is being said in the sermon. The findings that emerged were used to make recommendations, which include refresher courses for the Imams, the translation of the sermon before or after the Friday prayer and training and retraining of imams on the philosophy, objective and methodology of delivering sermons.