04/01/2003
IWDM Study Library 
Importance of Diversity in Islam - College of NJ - Ewing NJ

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
The following lecture is the sole property of Imam W.D. Muhammad and cannot be sold or reproduced without written consent or permission of Imam W.D. Muhammad. Anyone not compliant will be apprehended and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
This is the national public broadcast of Imam W.D. Muhammad, American Society of Muslims leader. The following lecture, titled, The Importance of Diversity in Islam, was recorded April the 1st, the year 2003, at the College of New Jersey in Ewing, New Jersey. The lecturer is the Imam W.D. Muhammad.
Peace be unto you. Our greeting is peace, As Salaamu Alaikum. I didn't hear that introduction. I wish it could be like that all the time. We are very pleased to be your guest, here are at this college in Jersey. Trenton, New Jersey. And we are going to be addressing diversity in Islam. Diversity in Islam.
The human being is a special creation in Islam as for most of the civilized world, especially the religious world. And we believe that the human being is the inheritor of the world that 
G-d made. G-d made us to inherit this world, but only a human being in the model that G-d intends for us, a model person, a model life that G-d intend for us. Outside of that model life, we are not honored to be the caretakers and inheritors of this world that G-d made.
We believe in Islam that responsibility for the environment, for our own life and also for the environment, is given to every human being. But we know that it's only the very few that will even have the curiosities and the interests to think in a way that would bring them to be concerned for the environment, for human life and for the environment.
And only then the few, the special few, that have inherited that from our first parent, our father, Adam. We believe that G-d gave it to Adam and he was seduced out of it, out of his nature or out of his beautiful life that G-d created for him by the Satan. This is also in Christianity and Judaism. Christianity, I know very much, like you believe it.
And we believe that Satan is always challenging mankind, scheming and plotting the defeat of mankind. To defeat mankind so mankind cannot come to that responsibility, to come to grip, and even today I believe Satan is just as he was in the Garden or just as he was when he received Adam, he's just the same.
He's still existing and Satan is still working to defeat humanity, to defeat the human being and prove that he is better than mankind, that he can plan the world better than mankind can. That he can manage the challenges better than humanity can, better than mankind can.
We believe he's real. Not only do we believe Satan is real, we believe hell is real, An naarul Haqq, hell fire, is a reality. It's not a myth or superstition, it's a reality. We are living in a wonderful time, in spite of all the trouble we see in the world.
The confusion we see in the religious world, the fighting that is going on and all of this, it makes us believe just when you look at it without understanding or knowledge of how we've made a lot of progress for the unity of mankind, and for religious tolerance. A lot of progress for religious tolerance. But we can easily forget the great progress we have made when we look at all the trouble in the religious world today, the world of religions today.
Islam wants us to see our differences or our diversity, but it wants us to see it in the same focus with our unity, with our unity. It wants us to see unity and diversity in one focus. Hence the saying of G-d in our holy book, the Quran, highly glorified is G-d, he says, "For each is a goal, turn your faces in the direction of this sacred house, and G-d will bring you all, wherever you may be scattered on this Earth, G-d will bring you all together."
So, in this one focus, this one statement, this one picture that G-d is putting before our eyes, we have our unity and our diversity. So, G-d wants us to keep our diversity, our differences that he intended for us, and at the same time, he wants us to value our unity over our diversity.
We believe, as G-d says, he is the one who gave you your features, when you were in your mother's, that is while your mother was holding you, conceiving you, or you had been conceived in your mother as a baby before your delivery. You were given your features inside the mothers before your delivery. G-d says he is the one that has given you your features.
But then G-d says, "He made most beautiful and excellent your feature, one feature," he gave us all these different features, African, European, Asian, whatever. He gave us all of these different features in our mother's ... but he says, and he made most attractive, most beautiful and excellent, your single feature, your single picture.
So, we have pictures of our diversity, the diversity of nations, the diversity of races, the diversity of cultures, all this. But what's more important is our sameness, the common human life for all of us, the common human life that G-d made for us.
G-d made us in the human image firstly. And I think when Christianity or Christian preachers, when I hear them preach, "A little child shall lead them," I know Christians think of what they want to think of, I don't know, I can't say what they're thinking about.
But I know what I think of when I'm thinking with my mind, Muslim mind, having understanding of my religion, my book, my sacred book regarding man. I think of man's innocence, man's purity and man's innocence. That's what we come in the world with, that purity and that innocence. We come here as babies, from our mothers, all of us, with that purity and that innocence.
And as Muhammad, the prophet said, what we become is determined by the environment we are put into. If we're put into an environment of a different religion, and we don't know, we're babies, we come up with believing in a different religion, or if we come on and are put in an environment of another culture, we come up in that culture, and that will be our identity, that will be our life.
So, it is this innocence that G-d, Allah ... We say Allah, highly glorified as G-d. It is this innocence that Allah wants us to keep, it's that purity that our creator wants us to keep. And that is the original self before any cosmetics, before any decorations. That's the naked person, that is the naked person.
Our human identity that we have in common with every other human being, in its purity and in its innocence, that is the naked person. And we dress that person up with the culture of our own, with the nationalism or the national identity of our own, et cetera.
And G-d wants us to know this, that if you lose your original identity that he gave you, the first identity that he gave you ... For he gave us all these other identities too, he created the world to give us all these other identities, our cultural identity, nationhood, national identity, all this, G-d's plan, that's G-d's plan. When we have all these things, we have G-d's plan, that's G-d's plan for us, and this evidence is also in Quran and in other scriptures.
And G-d wants us to know that if you put on culture and you don't respect the naked soul that he created, and you put on nationalism, but you don't respect the naked soul he created. You put on racial identity, but you don't respect the naked soul he created. That's much more in value and it is the foundation for all the other things you put on. If you fail to put those things on, a healthy human person, all that other stuff is nothing but garbage trash, it becomes trash and garbage. This is what G-d wants us to know.
Muhammad, the prophet, he didn't want to see the people of his hometown, Mecca, or the people of his land, Saudi Arabia, go to other areas, other countries, other people and have them do away with their cultures. He advised the leaders that when they go to the other people to invite them to Islam, he advised them to respect the cultures of the other people.
Islam comes, as Christianity originally, to give culture, man's culture, assistance. And to influence the culture to become purer, more righteous. We see in Islamic world today, the different cultures, the various cultures. In Egypt, you go to Egypt, Egypt has its culture, has its music, has its culture. You go to Pakistan, same. Go to different parts of the world, you find Muslims in their different culture dresses. This is Islam.
But the big problem now, for our unity, is in this diversity that has separated from the original person as G-d wants us to see that original person. G-d gives us Christianity, Christ Jesus ... Christians, pardon me, Christ Jesus to look at as the model life. And Islam gives us Muhammad, the prophet, our prophet, to look at as the model life.
But I think most of us are looking for the wrong thing. We are looking with an interest in outdoing the other people, with an interest in rising above the other people. And this didn't start today, it started a long time ago, who knows, maybe even before The Crusades, it had started.
There's a tendency in most of the people of the world, of religion today, to fill themselves in some kind of competition with each other, and to want to promote their interest at the expense of the other, and to dominate. This is no good in Islam, this is no good for Muslims, this is no good for good Christians or anybody else that's good. G-d says, "Whoever wants to corrupt society or the world or wants to dominate, he'll deny them that."
We have a saying, "Long time coming, but it's coming." So, the ones that conspire to do that, sometimes they survive for a long time, and they think that they're situated forever in their places, but something happen to change things, and most of the time it's something that they didn't expect. And they lose their plan.
But Satan is one that he never loses his plan, he just loses a battle. He never loses his plan; he keeps working to discredit our good human nature. G-d created us with human essence that can save us, this is in Christianity, this is in Islam. In Christianity, Jesus Christ, tells one who was saved, he said, "Go, your faith has saved you."
So, we have faith, we know we have that faith in G-d. But what person had faith in was Jesus Christ. And that person, shared with Jesus Christ, a common nature. Jesus Christ said to his followers, "I in the father, and the father in me," then he said, "And I in you."
And Christians say that every person is made to be Christ-like. We believe in ... Christians is what I mean, I said we ... I do too. We believe in Christ, singular, we believe in Christ plural. Christ singular, Christ plural. This is the teaching of the Bible, I'm a student of the Bible too.
And Muhammad was told by G-d to say, "I am a human model just like you," that's what Muhammad the prophet was told to say to his followers. Isn't this a restatement of what Jesus Christ said? That's all it is, it's a restatement of what Jesus Christ said. That whatever this excellence is that I have as a human person, it's in you, G-d put in you. But G-d has manifested it in me, for your salvation. Though it's in you, you have not lived to see it manifest in your own life, but G-d has made it manifest in me for your own salvation, to bring you back to your original nature, and this is true for both religions, I repeat.
Now, diversity. Diversity in Islam. What I'm trying to do is keep in focus, the life that can support our diversity, our differences. Only our human life, in its excellence, that G-d intended for us, can support our differences. When a man is awakened to the value of himself as a human person, his common life that he shares or that he has with all other human beings, that man sometimes rises to the top of his society. He becomes the planner, the boss, and the one with the vision for the future of his society. And he does not bring in racism, he does not bring in all of these prejudices that we have experienced as people trying to live together on this planet Earth.
He does not bring in those things. He speaks to the common excellence of humanity, and he brings all the people together. Fortunate for us ... As a political nation or a political body here, the American people, fortunate for us, our founding fathers, they had that perception, and they wrote for us, and still here for us, "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights," and they go to say, "life, liberty, pursuit of happiness."
So, here is an idea of the founding fathers, an idea to give a people a point of unity for them. And a point of unity for them that will inspire them to more excellence, to better and better human life and to more and more excellent achievement. They saw that and they passed onto us.
I believe if it was not for that idea given to us by the founding fathers of this nation, this nation would not have survived this long. It is only because good, innocent human beings had faith in the idea, when the idea was not yet respected and established. There are good people, there are good citizens of America, of all different persuasions, believing in the vision of the founding fathers, and I believe that's what has held us together till today.
If I did not have that to see, to look at and trust and stand upon, I will be truthful will you, I would not be supporting the United States of America, I would not. The United States of America is not good enough for me, if you take that out of it. It makes all citizens equal in their human essence, and it makes all citizens noble, and it makes all citizens deserving of the same rights and protection, the same freedom in this country. That's what gives that idea its longevity.
Getting back to diversity. If I forget my human identity and begin to occupy my mind with my identity as an African-American, as a black American, I'm not going far, I'm not going to achieve much for myself or for my people. I'm very limited, but I'm going to be defeated by my own idea, that's going to defeat me. It's going to deny me the freedom and the progress that G-d created me for.
I don't like anything in extremes and Islam asks us to guard against the extremes. The only thing we can welcome in the extreme is obedience to G-d. Love for G-d, obedience for G-d, that's the only thing we can accept in extreme, and you can only accept that when your perception is correct. If you misperceive that G-d, oh you're in more trouble ... You might as well give yourself to extreme alcoholism if you misperceive G-d, you see him incorrectly.
And G-d says to us in our holy book, says to the world, "No just estimates have we made of G-d," the human mind is created to know what no other thing G-d created can know, and to find G-d and learn G-d way, the way of G-d or the plan of G-d for human society, and pursue that path and earn the great destiny, the heaven, the paradise, the garden, human being created for that.
But the human being was not created to put G-d in one focus and study G-d like you do something of the world. We can't do that. G-d will always be too big for us to see completely. And I think that the warning to us, that we should not try to see G-d in his totality, we should see G-d as he presents himself to us. I want to see G-d as G-d wants me to see him. I don't want to see G-d beyond that.
Discovering the material universe ... We're searching the ends of the universe, if we can imagine the ends of the universe. But not yet, have we put the universe on paper, and say this is a map of the universe. We don't know yet where space ends, and where space begins, we don't.
So, I think that's G-d's way. G-d created the material world so big, that we cannot even perceive or understand where it starts and where it ends. And I think that's to tell us, "If you can't see my works, where they started and end, please don't try to see me where I started and where I am," because he is eternal, that's what man concluded. G-d is eternal, G-d is never beginning, he always was, and G-d is never ending, he always will be, as he is, as he always has been. This is the conclusion that the pious thinkers came to, who were thinking on G-d.
So, I'm not pleased to embrace diversity without also promoting thankfulness to G-d, the creator, for all that we have of good. And pointing to the precious human life that G-d wants to see established, as a model for all people. Then, I feel comfortable saying, "Yes, we accept diversity, and we should be tolerant towards each other’s religions," et cetera. Thank you very much, peace to you, As Salaamu Alaikum.
Speaker 4:
Thank you very much for that great speech, the Imam is now going to take a quick 15-minute question and answer period. So, anyone who has a question should just raise their hand and he'll start answering your questions.
Speaker 4:
(silence)
IWDM:
No. The forefathers I was talking about they're gone, they've been dead, centuries ago. Two centuries ago, they're gone.
IWDM:
Yes. Well, sometimes a situation won't permit you to have any short, brief, clear cut answer for it, and this is one. This is one. It's not to look at what's happening without looking at what are the causes behind what's going on. And I know some say Bush wants Iraqi oil, I think it would be much cheaper for the United States of America to buy Iraq's oil, than to spend of all these billions fighting the Iraqi, fighting Saddam's forces.
IWDM:
So, I don't ... I can't buy that as the reason for what Bush is doing, or for what our government is doing. And I can't answer you directly, I can just give you the responses that I have inside here. While I'm looking at the war and regretting the loss of innocent lives and the trouble that we are bringing to the Iraqi people after all the troubles that we have already caused them, and the suffering that they have already, and that's very painful in my soul.
But I'm also looking at their leader, who seems to be in control and dominating them, Saddam, who will put innocent civilians and use them as shields to protect their weapons against America's military forces attack upon them. So that when the attack come upon their military installations, Bush will be blamed for killing innocent civilians.
So, a person that will do that, in my opinion, is the person that we should want to get rid of. No way I would take innocent people and put them in front of my house so that when shots are fired at me, it'll hit those innocent people, and blame the police for shooting innocent people. That's not in my soul to do anything like that.
So, I'm not just looking at what is happening, the misery that we are increasing for the Iraqi people, I'm looking also at the cancer that the expedition is intended to extract from the Iraqi people. And that cancer is Saddam.
I have many thoughts about it, some thoughts I can't share with you right now, at this time, and in this situation. I believe in scripture, and if you are aware of scripture and you study scripture, you can see something that's going on in the world today, and it's ugly. Satan is behind a lot of things that's going on in the world today, and Satan is no mystery, Satan is real.
Shaitan, Shaitan is behind a lot of what is going on in the world today, and Jews are the victims of Shaitan, Christians are the victims of Shaitan, Muslims are the victims of Shaitan. All humanity, we are the victims of Shaitan. In Quran, G-d does not repeat his name, Shaitan, Shaitan, Shaitan, G-d says, "He is the enemy of humanity," Aduwanas. He is the enemy of humanity, the Satan.
I do believe that Satan is the conspirator, and he has conspired to put the world into his hands, and he has influenced our divisions, he has instigated these troubles that we have. He is the main one responsible for all these troubles we have.
A learned mind, scholar in Islam, Dr. Ibrahim Izzadeen, really of the Emirates but he was born in the Egypt. But he had served the Emirates, and he was interviewed by a little magazine called, The Little City, recently. He gave this answer, he said, "Had politics not instigated trouble for the religious communities," he said, "There would be no problem for Muslims, Christians, and Jews today." I firmly believe that. Politics influenced by the Satan, the real Satan. Satan is no superstition, Satan is no myth, Satan is real. I wish I could say more to you, but I can't thank you.
Yes. Well, I began with that awareness, I didn't want to mention it, but when I started that was a thought on my mind when I uttered my first words here today. And really, Muslim scholars should really study what G-d says. When he says, "For each is a goal, for which you are being turned. So, turn your faces all towards this sacred place, and wherever you're scattered on Earth, G-d will bring you all together."
So, G-d promises us that we will never have to worry about our togetherness, our unity, if we keep focused on the human excellence that he wants in all of us. That's the answer, sister.
G-d says in our holy book that he created this world, this big material universe to promote justice. To promote justice. So, we believe that natural phenomenon, that the nature, the material dynamics is promoting justice. Justice. And the more man engaged the material world, bring out its sciences, utilize the benefits of G-d's creation for his own society, the more justice is going to be in demand.
Study history, you will see justice is more in demand now than ever before because man has progressed with the material world. He has made great progress using the material world, the material things that G-d made. Now, there is no peace until there is justice. No peace until there is justice.
We believe that G-d gave us a picture of this great universe, and he says that, "It's beginning was not in quiet but in noise, confusion, explosions. In chaos." And this one of the names for the universe, chaos. The universe was in violent commotion, one translator of Quran translates it. In violent commotion. A smoke, a disturbed smoke, another description. 
And G-d caused order to come into that chaos.
When order came into chaos and everything received its attention and bodies were given their freedom to have their orbits and to have their place in the beautiful picture of the universe, everything got its respect, and was given its freedom to be in the whole picture and to have its existence and its functions in the whole picture, then we have order, then the heavens are at peace.
G-d gives us that to show us what must happen on this Earth. When we can respect our nations, our sister nations, as we respect ourselves. When we can give them the same freedom to have their own orbits, not impose our ideology on them, et cetera. But as long as they support the order and the peace for all mankind, we should tolerate their differences, even their differences in ideology. That's what I believe, that's what I believe justice is. Justice is having that kind of thought, that kind of mind, and accepting that everything G-d created for dignity can have its dignity and live its life. I would not want to see the United States pose its ideology on others.
Help me out here ... about Saudi Arabia. Yes, not that I agree with Saudi Arabia, but I believe if Saudi Arabia wants mosques in other countries, then they should accept that churches be in Saudi Arabia, and if Saudi Arabia doesn't want any churches in Saudi Arabia, then Saudi Arabia shouldn't want any mosques in Christian countries.
If we are going to have mosque, masajid in Christian countries, then all those nations should, at least, be on the paper for accepting that those people can have their own church or synagogue also in our land. It's not just ... It's not consistent with the logic of it, with goodness, to say that we want our places of worship in your land, but you can't have one in our land, that's not good.
But if Saudi Arabia sees itself as the Vatican, as a sanctuary for Muslims, and it doesn't want any religion preached over there, then it should establish, for the world, that we see this as a sanctuary, this is not just another Muslim country or another Muslim city, this is a sanctuary. This is a Muslim sanctuary, and we don't want other religions preached here. Maybe we can accept that. But it must establish that it's a sanctuary, that means Saudi Arabia has to clean up a lot, if we're going to see it as a sanctuary because it's not quite a sanctuary, not in my opinion.
IWDM:
(silence)
IWDM:
Yes. In Islam, along with diversity, we are entitled to differences of opinion, differences of opinion. This is the teachings of Prophet, and the scholars of Islam, most of them know this, and they respect differences of opinion.
But the preachers of Islam ... Most of the preachers of the Islam, they preach like a lot of the holier than thou preachers in Christianity, and they do not invite the open mindedness that we need in our public. They don't encourage that. They don't encourage an acknowledgement before the public of this belief that we should respect differences of opinion.
I believe that this kind of teaching has influenced the way we look at others, and we look at America and we say, "They don't think like we do, they don't believe like we do and so their thinking is bad. Their behavior is bad, it's all bad. It can't be good because they don't think like we do." We should look for good.
The same man that I mentioned earlier, Ibrahim Izzadeen, he was not satisfied with me when I became the leader. He thought someone else was going to become the leader of the Nation of Islam, my father's following. So, when he came to me, he said, "I know your father, I met your father," he said, "Well, we didn't expect you would become the leader," he said, "If we can't get an educated leader, we'll accept a good leader."
So, he had his opinions of me, and the Muslim world had been given a picture of the West, especially America, as Khomeini says, the big Satan. And I think Khomeini was a great man, a great man. I think he did a lot of good for his country and for Muslims of the world, Khomeini. I love him, love Khomeini, I pray for his soul in paradise, that he's in paradise, Khomeini. Although, I know we didn't like him but I know what he was fighting and I thank G-d for him.
Yes, he said ... He called this country the big Satan. Well, when you look at it, you see a big Satan because, after all, Satan is not all bad. Satan know he can't be all bad, he knows he'll be identified if he's all bad. Satan is bad and good, in extreme. He's extremely bad and extremely good. So, when you look at our society, it's extremely bad and extremely good.
So, I can't blame them for saying, "This is the big Satan. This is the big Satan." But we can't blame the intent. Matters in Islam is judged by intent, this is what our prophet taught us, peace be upon him. Matters are judged by intent. What is the intent of the American people? The intent of the American people is to support human life, and to advance the good human life. That's the intent.
Yes, the intent of the American people, not all of them, but the intent of those people who are sincere in their religion, sincere in the church, that is their intent. The intent of the founding fathers was just that and there are many American citizens who cherish that intent, they will live by it, they will die by it, they will stay here and they will pass on respect for it and support for it to their children. It will be supported by the generations to come for as long as G-d choose to have us exist on this Earth, as a country, the United States. So, this is what I believe.
But when I look at drugs and alcoholism, prostitution, gambling, I see what they have in their idea too, church people. I don't know if they're aware of, but it's in their idea. That Satan is in charge, that Satan has been put in man's hand, and you can lock Satan up and free him whenever you like. That the key to lock him up and to free him is given to man. And they lock him up sometimes and they free him most of the time. Wa Alaikumus Salaam. I think I ... I understand, I understand. Yes. G-d created us with a heart and a human ... and a mind, a human head, a head on our body. And when you look at the human body, and the head in proportion to the rest of the body, the head is a small quantity mass in comparison with the whole body.
That is to say, that we're never going to have the great numbers, qualified or even inspired to lead and protect our interests. We have to identify those of like minds who are ready to support and advance our cause, and they have to come together and represent the head for the body.
It'll never be the many, there'll always be the few. So, my advice to the sisters is get the sisters that are of like mind, come together with sisters that are of like mind. Don't be separated from one another, don't be out of touch with one another, and together, you will have strength, you will have increased knowledge and vision, and you will be able to do marvelous things for your community of Islam in America. That's my advice, and I'm with you. Thank you, thank you.
For more audio and video lectures by Imam W.D. Muhammad call, W.D. Muhammad publications at 17088627733 or write post office box, 1944, Calumet City, Illinois at 60409. A Muslim journal and see local distributors, and thanks for listening.


