Edited sentence: " (Bookshelf, December 3–9, 1999)." Malam Akilu had not only done these two but had even gone beyond."Ko wani ya yi kiran sunana.Another distinguishing quality of Akilu was the way he used his God-given genius in ‘enjoining what is good’ and ‘forbidding what is bad’ as commanded by his religion.Benjamin Franklin is quoted to have said: "if you would die and not be forgotten either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.For he wrote things worth reading, did things worth writing (his art has been a subject of many academic researches both within and outside Nigeria) and also sang things worth listening.From the West we had in him our Alexander Pope or H.Hamisu Muhammad Gumel said "words to him (Akilu) were like a well from which to draw.Har ku yi min addu’a bayana.He also unleashed his pen, and justifiably too, on the youth who copy the negative, alien cultures of the West.He condemned anti-social vices like prostitution and its patronage (in "Yar Gagara" and "Dangata" respectively).Here we only grant the poet his request that:.I am sure if Malam Akilu had lived longer he would have written poems on the computer and the internet.In Malam Akilu, we had our Abu-Tayyib al-Mutanabbi or Ahmad Shauqi from the East.In fact, from a religious point of view, he observed sadaqatul jariya, a charity with continuous reward, by teaching his students the Glorious Qur’an as well as other forms of knowledge.May Allah reward him abundantly, forgive his sins and shower His mercy on him, Amin.Sai ku cane Allah Ya jikaina.The poet was (and still is) a pride to Hausa literature, to Northern Nigeria and to his religion.Ya Allah sa ku yi juyayina