MM/DD/2002
IWDM Study Library 
IWDM on the Focolare San Antonio, TX

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Peace be Unto You. Our Greetings for the Muslims of As-Salamu Alaykum. That is Peace. Again, this special occasion for us, and very special blessing for us, to be with the Focolare members, the representative Julia and Mary from this region with others from Chicago, Florida, as well as those from Chicago. It's a blessing always for me a very special blessing, in my heart and my spirit in my life when I come and meet with you. Whether it's in a small place or a big place, small occasion or a big occasion, I feel especially blessed to have the opportunity to develop this friendship with you that's developing. Very beautiful friendship.
Again, I want to say it's a blessing and we thank G-d for our meeting. This is wonderful, but I think it's a very rare, very rare and precious gift at this time, on this Earth from Almighty G-d. A gift for all people. Christians, Muslims, Hindus, everybody. And I'm speaking of you know, the wonderful lady, the blessed lady Chiara Lubich.
This is something that we would not have had not we read about her, the life that was given to me in the book, the story of her life and I read it. This Imam, I took time out before I retired at night. Many times, I was in the bed and I would be reading it. And I know that we couldn't have had this without her. And this is led by her. We are with you but she is our leader and she is your leader. I would like to say a word about this relationship of the Focolare and Muslim African Americans. Our friendship aims for the unity and this unity evolves from our common belief that we share with you, our common belief in the family of man, Adam. We have in our Holy Scriptures just what was revealed to you before, maybe 700 or more years before our Holy Prophet of Islam came and what's revealed to you, that we all came from one ancestry called Adam. And that's what our Holy Book says.
Also, the founder and leader, of this international movement, and this Interfaith movement I would say your movement is an Interfaith movement. I've met Muslims, Muslims members of your movement in Rome. And I am aware, you are not all Catholics and Christians, you have people of other faiths, that speak of you as International and also Interfaith. "Chiara Lubich is not our leader for the purpose of making converts for the Church. Chiara Lubich is our friend for the cause and the unity of the family of man". In our Sacred Books, this unity, requested by man’s common life, the life that G-d gave him, before we deviated from it. It's also stated in our Qur'an and I quote "The Brotherhood of Man", this is the Brotherhood of Man. Hence, the theme that you chose with this term in it - Brotherhood.
Having this great event, this very distinctive event here in San Antonio, Texas hosted by you in this beautiful venue is certainly a wonderful choice. We ask for this sacred work with Chiara would not come as a surprise to a person with knowledge of Muslim beliefs. But many are surprised that I am meeting them. They're surprised. "This a new thing for you, isn't it Imam?" The following is a statement from our beliefs that we share in common. It not only invites us to form this friendship with you to work for the unity of the family of mankind, but it obligates us to do that.
We have a term in Islam, Islamic studies, the term is called Tawheed. And it comes from the word One, Wahid, Tawheed. Tawheed means Unity and Oneness. Unity and Oneness. It begins with the belief that our G-d is One, and some suspect that under the Trinity that G-d is not One. Well, I don't believe that. G-d for the Muslims, G-d for the Christians, G-d for the Jews, One G-d. And one and the same G-d. And Allah says to us in our Holy Scriptures, "Say to them". We have to remember that when Muhammad began preaching the Message of Islam that he and his followers were new to the world. We had to introduce ourselves to the Christians. And the Jews. So, G-d said to Muhammad and his followers, "Say to them", meaning The People of the Book, Jews and Christians. The People of the Book, meaning People of Scripture or Sacred Scripture who had become Muslims.
It says "Say to them, our G-d and your G-d is One and the same G-d". So, this concept of Unity and Oneness, of Sacred Unity and Oneness begins with the acknowledgement that the G-d who made everything in the heavens and on earth is One. And then it proceeds from there. This is a logic-Tawheed is really a statement of physical logic, Islamic logic.
It grows from that belief to the belief in the unity of G-d's works. I've read the Bible where the Seers and the Prophets long before Christ Jesus, Peace be upon Christ Jesus, found G-d by searching His works, the universe. And they said "Oh this beautiful design, the Oneness of the heavens and these blue skies, and the Earth, weather changes and everything, must be the handiworks of G-d. And they came to believe in One G-d.
So, we believe in the unity of matter. Science has stated that to us, but long before science had stated that to us G-d had already revealed that all of this is HIs creation, He is One G-d, and He has One law for His creation. One law above all other laws. That's the basic premise of His creation. One law. And all that comes back to G-d. His will overcomes all others. Everything.
So, this is Tawheed. And the logic precedes from the Unity of matter to the unity of the human family. We believe that we are one soul, although we have different souls. Each of us has our own separate souls, but we're also one soul. And in my conclusion, on this particular point, before I go into my sermon to you, I am trying to get us to see that Muslims need to see also that we are really together already as far as what we believe in, our sacred knowledge and beliefs. We're together already. We just need to rediscover our knowledge and our faith. And that will show us that we belong together as one people, one human family in one faith. That is faith in our Creator and faith in the excellence of man, Jesus Christ, Peace Be Upon him, and Muhammad, who modeled for us the excellence of man. One human family. G-d says, as He made you in the beginning, so shall you return to Him. And how did He make us in the beginning? G-d says "Kounta", which is an Arabic word. You shall return to Him "Kounta". It means a single soul. At the beginning we were in one soul called Adam. And G-d made that one soul male and female and many people all over the world belonged to that one soul. And G-d said "You shall return to Him" Kounta, and it means that One single soul.
So when I die, I am not going to lose my soul, but my soul is going to conform to the spirit of that sacred soul that G-d created in the beginning. That was fit for Paradise, but lost Paradise because the destiny to the end is long and hard and in the end the adversary would be in the way but eventually all things return to G-d and will find itself fit to claim Paradise once again.
Congratulations Brother Imam Pasha, I didn't know you had all that in you.
As for our experience, as I said in the beginning, from my first meeting with Chiara Lubich and it was very encouraging, I wrote about that. And I was touched. And I said to myself, this is a rare soul on this earth today. And I didn't feel that there was any cause that would give me reason not to seek to know her more and seek more knowledge of the Focolare Movement and to seek an opportunity to have a real relationship with you. Before we even started discussing this, I had a desire of meeting her, and after reading about her life I had a desire to have a real relationship with you. Not just meeting as friends, not just the regular dialogue, where we sit at the table and pretend that we really want to be together, when really, we don't, we just want to take a picture for the press or something and we go back to our single quarters and forget about each other. I didn't want another relationship like that. Another situation like that. And I knew from reading about Chiara Lubich that it wouldn't be just a superficial dialogue as Imam Pasha said. But it would be a real relationship. A real relationship based upon what is most precious for you and what is most precious for us. And that is firstly a real respect for the Word of G-d. And secondly a respect for the excellence of man. That we can grow together and work together and be more productive together if we respect the word of G-d and respect the faith and the excellence of human beings. All of us G-d has made all of us to inherit excellence that sacred substance that He gave to our first father. He has made all of us to inherit that. And if we cherish that and believe in that pardon me, firstly.
One evangelist, Dr Schuller he attracted me, I was working in the front room, doing little things in the front room, the tv was on and I heard him say, "G-d", pardon me, he said "G-d loves you" first, then he said, "I believe in G-d, and then he said, and G-d believes in you". Boom. Something hit me when he said it. "And G-d believes in you. I reflected for a second or two. And then I said, "That man is correct. If G-d didn't believe in us, He wouldn't have chose us for this excellence. He believed in the beginning. G-d trusted us with freedom that He didn't trust any animal with. He trusted us with freedom. That says to me that G-d believes in us. G-d trusts us. And that means a lot to me.
I am a person who has had experiences in my life as an African American, experiences in my life as the son of a very different African American, Elijah Muhammad. It certainly means a lot to me to be trusted. And G-d trusts us more than anyone. More than our parents, more than our nation. G-d trusts us because He loves us and He believes in us.
It's wonderful what Dr. Schuller was preaching. That made me his friend. Since then, we have met and we know each other very well now. And we encourage the same.
Yes, so that is the beginning of my experience and history with Chiara Lubich. And then I experienced actually being with you. In Minneapolis, sharing, and not just sharing but listening to many of your experiences. Many of you spoke. Both the married couples and the children. I could relate to what you were saying. It was directly from the pulpit I was touched or from my reflection for my religion and where I want to go with my life to have my life presented to G-d. I got something from the testimonies that touched me that I could relate to it. I said "Well, I have experienced some of that myself."
What I concluded was this: That here are Christians. And this is not to flatter you. I finally met some Christians that I can be comfortable with. I can eat with them without fear or caution. I can go to sleep with them and sleep without fear or caution. And that's saying a lot because there are many Muslims, I can't do that with.
So, it's not the faith that you claim. It's what you produced as proof of that faith. And you have produced wonders that tell me that you are representatives of the great servant of G-d, you call Jesus the Messiah, Jesus Christ, Peace be Upon Him, the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
And lastly, it was your children that touched me too. I said these children are beautiful performers. They performed so beautifully. They sing and the entertainment is fine entertainment. It's beautiful music, beautiful lyrics. But it has something that all of us need to hear. Especially our youth. And I hope you will reach more youth in the United States. I hope you will come back every year and have your youth sing to us. Because your youth need to touch our youth. Many of our youth are lost in America. You need to touch our youth. I feel you would do a good job. You need to touch our youth with your spirit and your beautiful expressions for your love for G-d and love for mankind. We have had so many experiences that I could share with you. Because these experiences are not just happening with me. I go back home. I am talking to a friend, talking to a coworker and I am interrupted by something I experience regarding their youth. And many times, I begin speaking to them without them knowing where I am coming from. Speaking to them with the beautiful expressions I have from you. And you have given me many tools for my work. Peace be Unto You, As Salaam Alaikum.



