Muhammadu Sanusi II, the 14th Emir of Kano, has described greed, selfishness and envy as “much greater sins” than unlawful sex, homosexuality and gambling.
Sanusi stated this on Sunday when he appeared as a guest lecturer during a virtual Ramadan lecture titled “Some dimensions of the concept of ibadah”.
The former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, also said that part of the reason there is a social disorder in the country is that some Muslims forget that they will give an account of their actions before God.
He said people observe prayers and fast but keep committing evil “because our hearts are not Islamic”.
Sanusi alleged that a governor of a Sharia-implementing state in Nigeria stole funds and bought a hotel in Lagos.
Although he did not mention the name of the governor, Sanusi said his state remained a “most serious example of backwardness”.
According to him, if leaders were conscious that they would account for the trust bequeathed to them, they would not steal public funds.
“On Social order and Ibadah, you know when our hearts are not good, our deeds will not be good,” Sanusi said.
He continued: “How do you explain that you have this external religiosity and then you have so much injustice? And that’s why I say the obligations of the heart are far more important than those of the body.
“Greed, selfishness, wickedness, envy. These are much greater sins than zina (illegal sexual intercourse), homosexuality, and gambling. The sins of the heart are greater than the sins of the body. We are focused so much on the external things.
“We even have had state governors who said they were practising sharia, they were leading the implementation of sharia and they were stealing money and buying hotels.
“There was a governor implementing sharia in a sharia state who stole public funds and bought a hotel in Lagos. And he says Allahu Akbar.
“Meanwhile, his state was left with no education, with no healthcare, with one of the most serious cases of security, most serious examples of backwardness.”