In a recent media interview, he said: “I thank Allah for the good things He has done. It is a great thing when he demotes a bad person. It is all the more a source of happiness if that person happens to be in the business of inflicting torment on Muslims. People come in different types: some people start with good acts and end badly; some people start with bad acts and end up well. Imam Fatty is that kind who started well and come to a bad end. Imam Fatty’s machinations have lost the president many supporters in the past five years.
“I have always warned Imam Fatty that as he does to others so shall it be done to him. The president had employed him in a position of influence but instead of using it for good he concentrated on driving a wedge between people and the president. Allah has demoted him from the pulpit he used to excite the president’s disaffection for Imam Baba Leigh, Banding Drammeh and myself.
“Since the establishment of Banjul no imam has ever been sacked except him. Even when sick, imams are deputised by their deputies as happened in the case of Abdoulie Jobe. This is a divine retribution for his agency in my inability to mount the pulpit which used to attract hundreds of Muslims. Imam Fatty told me that when Banding Drammeh wanted to get the Supreme Islamic Council presidency from Soriba Gassama he used them. There was once an old man who misled a lot of people and finally wanted to repent. He went to a mosque and vowed to stay there until Allah forgave him. Imam Hambali dispatched people to him and said to him ‘Allah says He will not forgive you because you have misled people who are in hell because of your distortion of His religion’.”
Asked whether he had forgiven him, he said: “When we met the president at State House I came back home and somebody asked me to curse him in a dream but there and then Abdul Qadr Jilani appeared to me and instructed me to leave my detractors with Allah. I did not have problem with them over land, money or women but over the religion of Allah. Seeing a person does not equal to knowing him, that is why the great griots say they do not solicit from everybody. I wish The Gambia all the best. Since I left The Gambia I am always saddened by any bad news I hear from there. It is the ardent hope for The Gambia’s salvation that impelled me to embark on preaching tours around the country and teach the Qur’an. If Allah had a great blessing and I had to apportion it, it will be for The Gambia. If it is possible for me to go back with assurances of peace and trust, I certainly will return. But I cannot return if those conditions do not exist.”
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