Condemnations have trailed the rising cost of commodity goods since the ongoing Ramadan fasting began.
A community leader, Alhaji Moshood Salami, said traders effecting arbitrary increase in the prices of their wares all in the name of Ramadan were only incurring the wrath of Allah.
Salami, a former council boss in Ifo Local Government of Ogun State, who is currently a leader of the Muslim community in Iju/Okearo Unit in Ogun, particularly faulted the price hike in consumer goods, describing it as ungodly.
“Take for instance, people who are fasting usually break their fast with light foods like fruits, indomie noodles and pap. But it is to our chagrin the cost of these items is now becoming unbearable as it keeps increasing in the market.”
Salami quoted the Prophet Muhammed (SWA) as stating in the Holy Quran that, “Whoever withholds food (in order to raise its price) has certainly erred!; and that, “Whoever strives to increase the cost (of products) for Muslims, that Allah the Exalted, will seat him in the centre of the Fire on the Day of Resurrection.”
He, as such, urged the appropriate government organs to effect price control of goods during the Ramadan period. Speaking in the same vein, a women leader for the Muslim community in Ajuwon, Ifako/Ijaiye Local Government of Lagos State, Alhaja Abibatu Ajuwon, enjoined Muslim women to imbibe the habit of doing Zakat (giving out gifts) during the fasting period.
