The 1496th birth anniversary of the Prophet Mohamed was celebrated in Ethiopia early this week with annual rituals, recitations of poetry and passages from the holy book of Quran as well as comments on Islamic culture by university professors and researchers in Islamic affairs. The local media has devoted all day long last Monday broadcasting live on the history of Islam in Ethiopia, the air filled with menzumas, or Islamic chants, poetry readings and the lives and times of prominent Islamic scholars in Ethiopia and their contributions to the history and culture of Ethiopia in the past as well as at present.
Islam in Ethiopia was promoted as a faith and culture for many centuries thanks to the scholars, musicians, poets and through oral media. Along with writers and orators on Islam, there also existed Islamic meta psychics and clairvoyants who were respected in their communities for their accurate predictions of the times to come and the fate of prominent personalities who ruled the country in different times. Sheikh Hussein Jibril was one such prominent prophet of his time whose reflections and predictions of political events and the fate of political personalities captured the imaginations of many Ethiopian Muslims and non-Muslims who accepted him as a prophet.
The life and works of Sheikh Hussein Jibril remained unknown to the larger public until very recently. There were some oral records of his personality and his prophesies that disappeared with the death of oral story tellers. I discovered the first written book about sheikh Hussein Jibril rather lately when an unknown traditional scholar by the name of Bogale Teferi Bezu bpublished his famous work entitled, “Shiekh Hussein Joibril’s Prophecy” in Amharic, a 234 pages work that records the main prophesies of the famous Sheikh.
In the introduction to the book, the author Bogale says that, “Ethiopia which is rich in ancient art works had many citizens respected for their educational skills. She is endowed with beautiful natural landscapes , valleys and rivers. Historical records testify to the fact that Ethiopia has always been a respected country. In the past, Ethiopia became the target of foreign invasions by the Turks, Dervishes, by Italians and British and other aggressors because Ethiopia was rich in terms of arts, her tales, her alphabets, and her ancients artifacts that attracted the attention of various invaders.”
In the same introduction, the author tells us that he tried to collect the sayings and prophesies of Sheik Ahmed Jibril by speaking to elderly people who kept the records orally and from respected elderly people because nothing was told about the prophet either in writing or through the media or newspapers. “The task of collecting the prophet’s utterances from diverse sources was not an easy task. It rather required a lot of hard work on my part” says the author of the book.
The author expresses his belief about the need to know the past about our country, whether pleasant or unpleasant in order to build a better future. when he was trying to research his book, he has encountered successes as well as disappointments. There were people among those whom he interviewed who were ready to share their recollections while others refused to cooperate with him or simply disappeared after promising to meet him and share their memories with him.
Sheikh Ahmed Jibril was born in northern Ethiopia’s old province of Wollo, now located in the Amhara region. he grew up with his parents and his childhood was remarkable because the child was keen to visit his siblings and relatives and showed an early interest in their wellbeing.
The young Jibril was known as an intelligent child, respectful of the elders and loving his smaller brothers. Sheikh Jibril was famous for his wit and humor and his name was famous among the communities around his birth place. He was known to be blessed by the elders for his humility and good manners. One day, Jibril the child found himself with an elderly person from his tribe and the man observed that the child seemed to be intelligent and capable of looking at and “knowing things from a distance”.
The young Jibril soon revealed his talent for expressing his thoughts or his prophesies in verse and everyone was interested to hear what he was saying about a particular person or situation. In his poems, Jibril predicted whether the future would be dark or bright or who among the rules would rise or who would fall. He was known to be relaxed and witty when he expressed those predictions. When he was asked how he could make those predictions, Sheikh Hussein Jibril was quoted as saying that he had no education or that he could not read or write but that he could see by intuition clearly the shape of things to come. He made his predictions in verses that he composed on the spot. He had no need to think hard about them or spend sleepless nights to express his thoughts. As he attained mature age, the sheikh’s fame grew by leaps and bounds for the accuracy of his predictions and the brightness of his visions. he was a devout Muslim but he did not chew the narcotic kaht as many were doing. Nor did he carry the utensils needed for prayer while he was travelling. he never referred to books of prophesy as some educated folks were doing in his time.
His habits were limited to smoking raw tobacco and drinking birz, a milder form of the popular drink made of honey mead in almost all parts of Ethiopia. It was said that he held his non-alcoholic drink and sipping from it whenever he was sitting surrounded by his admirers who were eager to listen to what he was saying. Sheik Hussein Jibril started prophesying when he was as young as seven.
Writing about the contents of Sheikh Huseein Jibril’s poems, Bogale Teferi says that they were very sophisticated and not easy to understand their meanings unless one has knowledge of history, the place and time when the poems were composed.
During the time of Emperor Yohannes of Ethiopia, Sheikh Jibril was said to have predicted the emperor’s campaign to eradicate Islam from the country because he was told by his advisors that Muslims would end his rule.
Emperor Yohannes was thus engaged in a violent campaign to Christianize the population of Wollo province with fire and iron or by cook or by crook. However, long before that tragic event, Sheik Hussein Jibril had said that a man called Emperor Yohannes would force christianity on the people of Wollo by force. Emperor Yohanjes started his campaign in June and Sheikh Hussein Jibril was said to have warned that there will be war by June. “be warned, there will be war in June!” he was quoted as saying. Sheikh Hussein Jibril had also predicted the fall of emperor Yohannes by saying, “The smoke that is wafting through Metema/Is pungent and sneezing/It will not serve much to emperor Yohannes.” History tells us that emperor Yohannes fought against the Dervishes at Metema and lost the battle.
The author of the book on Sheikh Huseein Jibril tells us thatthe prophet had also predicted the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, the rise and fall of emperor Haile Sellasie in his poems. It was said that long before emperor Haile Sellassie became emperor, he was known as Teferi Mekonen. Sheik Jibril, in one of his poems predicted his rise to power by saying, “A kid by the name of Teferi/will later on be called Emperor/ He will rule the country for forty years”
As Bogale tells us, there was also an interesting episode during the reign of Emperor Menelik who was fond of trees and forests. He was said to be advising his subjects about the need to take care of plants and nature in general. One day emperor Menelik went to Bishoftu to hold a court meeting where alleged criminals were judged. Individuals who were accused of destroying forests stood before the emperor who was eager to punish them for their misconduct.
However, the emperor was told that Sheik Hussein Jibril had said that a new type of tree will come from Jerusalem, a tree that is tall and smells good. “But why should anyone who does not plant it be punished?” Sheikh Hussein Jibril was quoted as saying at Menelik’s court hearing. The emperor who knew the Sheik and his accurate predictions ruled that the people accused of deforestation be pardoned and plant new seedlings instead.
Long before the modernizing monarch ascended the throne, and he started to develop the country and build new roads and introduce the aircraft Sheikh Husseing Jibril was quoted as warning Allha by saying that, “They have built roads under the earth and over the sky/Take care Allha, they are coming to you!”
Speaking of the 1974 Revolution in Ethiopia, Sheikh Husseing Jibril was quoted as saying that, “Young students and soldiers are rising/Destroying Teferi’s house” In another account he was quoted as saying that “The world (i.e. Ethiopia) has escaped us in 1966 (1974)/ She will not come back and we will not see her again”
According to Bogale Teferi, Sheikh Huseein Jibril had also spoken about the war in Eritrea and its consequences by saying, “Let you be cursed, vulture of Eritrea/ All the heroes are dead there for the sake of their country”
Sheikh Husseing Jibril is one among many Islamic men of spirits or psychics who predicted the future with great accuracy and earned fame for their intuitive powers. They were men who talked about future events long before the events actually materialized, predicted the fate of emperors and their rise and final fall as well as the fate that will meet the country. The range and depth of Hussein Jibril’s poems cannot be fully conveyed in a foreign language because of their sophistication and the double speak of the language he was using.
Bogale’s Teferi’s book about the Sheikh and his predictions and poems is like taking a spoonful of water from the ocean. Sheikh Jibril’s range of predictions and poems touch upon both the mundane and the spiritual, daily life as well as history. Research into Ethiopian Islamic culture and poetry needs to be promoted with vigor and dedication because the verses unravel the history of the country as well as the lives of ordinary people at every stage in the history of Ethiopia. Bogale Teferi’s efforts to compile the above poems and produce a brief biography of Sheikh Hussein Jibril should be complemented by the works of forthcoming young researchers and writers who care about Ethiopia’s cultural legacy that is unprecedented in its breadth and length anywhere in the world. Bogale Tefery should in the meantime be commended for the immense work he has given us and the window he has opened on Ethiopia’s amazing past.
BY MULUGETA GUDETA
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD OCTOBER 22/2021
