KHIDR ABDUL-BAQI AND HIS CENTRE FOR ARABIC RESEARCH

A RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION POINT OF VIEW

Abstract

Yoruba Graduates of Saudi Universities have often been noted for specializing in Islamic-oriented fields of studies such as Shari’ah, Hadith, Fiqh, Usul al-Din, Quran Tafsir and Da’wah. Existing studies have concentrated on the religio-humanistic impacts of this set of scholars with little attention to the contributions of non-liturgical academic disciplines. This study, however, examines the contributions of the Centre for Arabic Research, an establishment of Professor Khidr AbdulBaqi, a graduate of Al-Imam University, in the area of information, research and literary enculturation. This will be done by reading into his personality as a teacher and a journalist within the purview of his Research body known as the Nigeria Centre for Arabic Research. The paper, leaning on the historical and descriptive methods of analysis adopts interviews as a tool for gathering data. Also, it benefits largely from reports on its activities, books and articles as secondary sources of data. The paper concludes that the eventual contributions of Khidr through his Centre have been so impactful not only in the field of academic communication and celebration of African socio-cultural values but also in the area of da’wah.