ABSTRACT
The profile of Asma'u's writing seems not to have changed as the years went by. What had concerned her in 1820 concerned her just as much in 1860. She wrote about the need to respond to the call to arms and the joys of victory, not about tactics and strategies; she wrote about the need to build up intellectual and spiritual muscle to combat materialism, not about political structures; she was concerned with the prosperity of the community and registered her approval of men and women who used their talents for the common good; she used the names of Sufi saints in her doxologies but wrote little about Sufism, mystical experiences, baraka or karama.
