1975-October-3

Muhammad Speaks

God Is One

W.D. Muhammad

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1.  Say: He is Allah the One and Only;

2.  Allah, the Eternal, Absolute;

3.  He begetteth, not nor is He begotten;

4.  And there is none like unto Him.

Holy Quran; translation by Yusuf Ali, sura 112, verses 1 – 4
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In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful; Peace ad Blessings upon His servant and His messenger, Muhammad forever. Amen.

As-Salaam-Alaikum

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The first pillar of Islam is belief in One God, “There is no god but Allah”. The belief in One God is first in the life of the Muslims. We say that there is nothing worthy or equivalent of worship but Allah, Who is One and One Alone. The first job of the Biblical and Quranic prophets was to establish that there is but One God.

This fundamental principle of Islam demonstrates in one thought or idea the basic concept upon which everything in the universe exists and acts. Wherever we look in nature we see manifest proof of the truth of the Oneness of God.



Mathematics Is One

Mathematics is a word that was used much in the language and in the teachings of the great masters Fard Muhammad and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad (may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). Mathematics is a science and science is truth. It is also a symbolic language which deals with numbers (symbols which represent something). Mathematics is the most ordered science of man. You cannot break rules and be successful in mathematics.

When we trace the beginning to mathematics, we find that it begins with the unit number “one.” No matter what number you may have, whether it is 2, 4, 10, or 1,000 – you only have the number “one” expressing itself on different levels. The number “2” is two ones; the number “4” is four ones; the number “1,000” is 1,000 ones, etc.


Medicine Is One

Medicine is matter of the material world (healing food) that acts against a disturbance in the life of the person. Both that which causes the disturbance and that which acts against the disturbance are made of the same material (matter). When this food is reordered and put in a certain composition, it will heal. To heal, we must know exactly what to give, that not to give, and in what proportion the matter must be combined. In medicine too, we must have order and we see the concept of the “one.” Both the trouble and the correction were brought about by one matter.


Color Is One

In the rainbow, which revels the beautiful colors in the sunlight, we also have matter (sun) which is ordered. The colors in the rainbow are from one sun, one ball of fire, but they are expressed in six color ranges to the physical eye. The beautiful rainbow is a visual manifestation of one light.


Music Is One

In music we are dealing with sound, but sound cannot exist without the matter of creation. That sound must be composed of units which are called “notes.” Music is the one matter expressing itself in many different sounds and in many different arrangements.

If you really want to understand the musical beauty of one matter expressing itself in many different notes or forms, you should think on the Creator and see that the whole heaven is a big beautiful composition which is making beautiful music. Then you can appreciate the language of music unfolding from one. If you really want to get thrilled, don’t listen to the music that you hear on the radio of on your record player – listen to the music that is coming out of the creation of the One Supreme Being.


Truth Begins With “One”

The lesson that we learn from comparing mathematics, medicine, color, and music is that there is but One God. If we want to arrive at Truth, we must begin with “one”. If we want to have fewer problems, we must return those problems to the beginning, which is Allah.

Belief in One God is the most important thing for people in religion for more reasons that just to be thankful or grateful to God. Most people will say “thank You” to God when they eat or when they are saved from a mishap because that kind of gratitude is natural in people.

Gratitude and thankfulness are important in shaping the right kind of  person in yourself. If you do not express thanks, you will become an ugly person spiritually and people will not want to have any association with you. People like the company of other people who know how to appreciate things.


Naturalness Of One God

The belief in One God is taken as the Great Pillar of Islam because it is vital and most important as a saving power for our own survival. Human beings cannot exist without this saving power in their lives. You may think that this unnatural world of grafted mentality has survived without the belief of One God in the lives of the people. Even though they are taught Trinitarian-ism (belief in three gods in one), most of the people have One God in their hearts.


Islam: The Way For Human Survival

Christians say that they believe in god the father, god the son, and god the holy ghost — but they just have a lot of confusion in their minds. When they are desperate or in trouble they turn to one saving power, whether they call it "Lord," "Jesus," "God," or "Jehovah." It is only natural for a human being to turn to One God.

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72. They do blaspheme who say: "(Allah) is Christ the son of Mary." But said Christ: "O Children of Israel! worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord." Whoever joins other gods with Allah,- Allah will forbid him the garden, and the Fire will be his abode. There will for the wrong-doers be no one to help. 

73. They do blaspheme who say: Allah is one of three in a Trinity: for there is no god except One Allah. If they desist not from their word (of blasphemy), verily a grievous penalty will befall the blasphemers among them. 

74. Why turn they not to Allah, and seek His forgiveness? For Allah is Oft- forgiving, Most Merciful.

Holy Quran; Yusuf Ali translation, sura 5 verses 72-74
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The great contribution that Islam gives to the world is a way for human survival. To understand why the belief in One God is necessary for human survival, we must go back to the beginning of things.

We know that we do not just spring up from nothing into knowledgeable people, but in the human life we develop along certain definite lines. When we are born and we begin to grow as little children, we "feel" more than we "think" until the feeling begins to grow a knowledge body in us. When we feel the truth, we already have some knowledge of truth but we call it "belief." (Something is growing).


Life Needs Ordered Movement

Before there is life there must exist some movement, or motion. That motion must take some kind of order before we can have life. Abstract motion cannot produce life.
Consider an unmagnetized bar of iron metal that appears to be dead. Even though we call it "dead" we know that it is really alive inside with molecular activity. If we can bring about order in the atoms of the dead bar of metal, we can make the life in the bar visible to the eye.

By rubbing a live bar of metal (magnet) in an orderly fashion along the dead bar, the orderly life in the live bar pulls the disorderly life in the dead bar into order. Soon we can see the visible sign of life in the bar that was once dead. We can take the bar with new visible life and rub it in an orderly fashion along other dead bars, we can continue to produce more and more visible life.


From Motion To Peace

In the development of life there is motion first, and then order. This order takes on a design and the design is one design. Although the oneness in design is not clear at first, it begins shaping in oneness even before the life is manifested. Motion, being different from stillness, is a movement towards oneness. Once it takes order, it can manifest life. In the order of the motion we see even a greater manifestation of oneness.

After there exists motion and life born out of order, the order tries to make its form visible. The life does not want two forms or many forms, it wants one form. Once the life gets form, it struggles to make itself comfortable and to achieve balance (peace).
The human being begins to wobble and crawl until he can stand up on two feet and complete his form. Although his form is already complete as a physical environment, it must also be complete as a geometric structure.

Life has ordained for the human being a geometric form and that form is upright. Once it struggles for balance and gets its form, it is at peace and walks in coordinated movements without any conscious thought of moving.

Even after the development of the geometrical form, with which he can make movement, the human being needs another development-that is direction. When the little child crawls around, his vision is on the ground. He struggles to lift his head up so that he can see out and ahead of himself. Once the child stands up and his vision goes out in front of him, he begins to look for direction.

The two eyes combine and agree with each other to make one focus. We look with two eyes, but we see one image or one reality. The visions of the two eyes blend so well together that it seems, looking from the inside out, to be one big eye.
From the very beginning we see that our movement is towards completion, or oneness.

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16. So I do call to witness the ruddy glow of Sunset; 

17. The Night and its Homing; 

18. And the Moon in her fullness: 

19. Ye shall surely travel from stage to stage.

Holy Quran; Yusuf Ali translation, sura 84, verses 16 – 19
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Life Moves Toward Oneness

The direction that we seek as upright human life with vision out in front of ourselves is the manifestation on a higher level of direction we seek from the beginning. All these things are growing from the beginning in the motion: the order is seeking direction: the form is seeking order and direction; balance is seeking all of these things.

When we reach the level where we have eliminated the struggle for motion, order, form, and balance, we can concentrate on completing our direction. Before we can move from one point to another point with any kind of order, we have to fix our mind on a goal. That goal must be a single object. The mind will not concentrate on more than one object as a goal at any one time. In the motion and development of the physical world, the movement of life is towards oneness.


Father And Mother As One

The growth of human life in the home begins with two people, a male and a female. The two people must come together and become one before they can achieve their life's aim, which is survival or continuation. The male must unite with the female and they must become one life if they are to reproduce themselves.

In order to raise children in a healthy way, the parents themselves must become one. If the father's mind is going one way and the mother's mind is going another way, an orderly human life will not develop in the home. The child will not have one leader. When the two parents come together as one, like the sight of the two eyes come together as one sight, then the child can follow one leader.

If you produce two leaders in the house, the child has to make a choice. This divides the house and oneness cannot manifest in its purity. You cannot live without oneness. Islam is not a religion that invents oneness, Islam is the religion that works for the purification of oneness.


Creator And Creation Are One

Christians preach Trinitarianism, which is division in Creator. Division in creation is good but division in Creator is death. Creation begins as a whole, a unit and then breaks itself up to multiply itself. So out of creation we have negative and positive, female and male—but this breaking up is just to extend creation and to give it more movement. Creation breaks up and comes back together over and over again. It starts with one and after it arrives at its goal of movement, we see one again.


Identifying Oneness In Creation

Religion is a natural thing and life is struggling along the path of religion naturally, all the time, looking for oneness. There is no stronger force in creation than the belief in oneness. It has the power to unify a people. Unity means that things which act separately are brought together to act as one.

If people preach anything other than the belief in One God, they are preaching contrary to life itself. Islam teaches us that it is the very nature in which the creation is made. Islam is a way that we can find and identify oneness in the heavens and in the earth and in all living things.

The Islamic concept or idea of Creator enables us to see God as One. We, the objects of heaven and earth, are many. If you look out into the heavens and the earth and focus your eyes on creation to try to find oneness, it will take a long, long time. It is hard to discover the oneness that dominates all of the diversities in creation.


Recognize A Superior

If you put your mind on recognizing and on giving credit to a superior over yourself, you will quickly and naturally arrive at the realization of oneness in creation. You know that you are not the maker of creation, so your nature tells you that you should be grateful and thankful for what you receive from creation.

You know that you are receiving rule from something that is superior to yourself. This makes you confess that there is a superior over you. The moment that you confess that there is a superior over you, things begin to take shape.

You know that you are the superior over many things. You have to depend upon the earth, yet you have a great deal of freedom and you can bring other creatures under you. There is something superior to you and you know that it is not the things that you see in creation. You know that something created all of this, whether you have a name for that something or not. Now you have arrived at oneness.


The Movement In Creation

In finding the God that is superior to all that you see in creation, you have discovered the oneness of the creation. If One God made all things, creation is one creation. Creation is one and Creator is One.

If creation wants to evolve higher and higher, it should know the rule for movement. Movement needs direction and the most inexpensive direction is a straight line. One creation looking for movement has to find one object to focus its attention on, so this one creation represents one point between two points of travel. Creation is one point, but it is never satisfied with its point.

Creation is always struggling to get somewhere else. If it can't get there by one route, it will destroy itself and start all over from scratch. The movement of creation or the growth of matter is a struggle towards an objective. It moves towards that objective by Divine plan, although it may look like a trial and error method to us.

If we could get where we are going without any alterations (submitting), we would look very wise and powerful after we get there. But if we get there by what seems to be trial and error, it shows that we do not know the way ourselves. If we go so far and then find that we can't make it, we have to undo the thing and start all over again because we did not have the power to continue our travel. In undoing it, we demonstrate that we do not have the weakness of false pride.


Worship The Superior

The nature of man tells him that he must grow. In order to grow, you should have that which has more room for you to grow in than anything else in you or around you. If my own-self offers me a field to grow in, I can only grow as far as my own strength allows. I can only stretch the "rubber band."

But if something greater than me can attract me and can encourage me to grow beyond myself, I can then do more than just stretch the rubber band. I can then grow the rubber band bigger so that when it stretches it will be much greater than before.

If creation is the end of my growth, I can only grow in the room that creation offers me or as far as creation bids me grow. When I reach the end of the knowledge of creation, my growth will stop. But if I can find and fasten my heart and my mind upon the concept of One Creator, I am automatically given the courage to outgrow everything else.

With my mind on Creator, I am not worshipping self nor am I worshipping the earth nor am I worshipping the moon or the sun-l am worshipping That which is Superior to all of them. So I now have more room to grow in than the universe itself.


“Home” Is The Reward

In the Holy Quran we are told that the home Allah promises to those who achieve the superior reward is a home whose area is the extent of the earth and the sky and a home that will last. We are told that if we follow the path of Islam, moving always towards the Creator, we will be brought into a field that will be home at the end of the struggle.
Home is a place where things serve you, complement you, feed you, and give you comfort. The opposite of home is that which works against you, that which tends to hurt you, or that which wants to destroy you.

When the human life starts out in movement, the vast creation is not a home for it. God promises us a home if we continue to struggle to reach Him. By promising us the reward of a home that has an extent (an area of faith) as big as the earth and the sky, He means that He will turn all the things that were hostile in creation into things that are pleasing to us.

It is a beautiful picture to see life struggling for oneness and moving into higher and higher perfection with greater and greater ease as it expands and grows, reaching more and more wonder. When it finally arrives at the pure concept of
oneness, God will reward that struggle by making everything come into agreement with the movement and the direction of the life.


Understanding: Home Of The Mind

The three developments of human mental or spiritual life move from belief to feeling, from feeling to knowledge, and from knowledge to understanding. Understanding is the attainment of the same goal or reward that is arrived at by struggling as a being to arrive at the Creator, the One God. For that struggle we get a home that is agreeable to ourselves.

That same struggle within the mind makes us arrive at the reward called understanding. Understanding is the home of the mind. The environment is harsh, hostile, and painful to the mind that is struggling for knowledge.

Belief is more burdensome than knowledge. Knowledge is more burdensome than understanding. Once we arrive at understanding, the struggling mind can be at rest. The self finds rest from its movement because it finds an object that enables it to move without friction along its course of travel.

Do not think that everything that is in motion is not at rest. The glorious heavens above us are in motion, but nevertheless they are at rest. The Holy Quran calls the soul that has found rest to enter into Allah's Garden of Paradise, to enter into Allah's peace. This is beautiful.


The Closeness Of God

There is nothing that can touch the living nerves and fibers of your being like the Divine Truth of Almighty God. That is why the Holy Quran says that He is closer to you than your own jugular vein.
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16. It was We Who created man, and We know what dark suggestions his soul makes to him: for We are nearer to him than (his) jugular vein.

Holy Quran; Yusuf Ali translation, sura 50, verse 16
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The jugular vein is the artery that carries blood to the brain. Without blood reaching the brain, the brain will not stay alive. The heart pumps the blood and the brain needs that blood in order to keep the light on. God is saying that He is closer to you than your own heart or your own mind.

If God is the One Who gives us our hearts and our minds, He would have to be closer to our hearts and minds than they are close to us. He is the One Who attracts our hearts and our minds, so they are more attached to Him than they are to us.


The Fire Of Friction

Our hearts and our minds suffer so much when we ignore the Glorious Truth of Islam because we are making ourselves closer to our hearts and our minds than Allah, Himself, Who created them. We are pulling our heart and our mind against the natural course of their movement, which is towards the Oneness of God.

When we move our heart and our mind against their natural movement towards God, we cause friction. The effects of the friction are disastrous because nothing has more force in creation than the heart and the mind of man. If a thing has great force and you pull it back with friction, you will cause it to burn up and destroy itself with fire.

If you pull your mind and your heart against their natural direction towards Allah, you will bring about a force of friction that will destroy the heart, the mind, and yourself. Do you understand why we teach that the religion of Oneness (Islam) is the pathway of human survival?

Brothers and sisters, the religion of Islam is the only religion that can bring the peoples of the world into unity because it is the only religion which correctly expresses the natural concept of unity which pervades all of creation.

We are here with the light of Divine Mind which will generate the motion, design the form, give the balance, and point the direction to move the world from human lifelessness to the sanctuary of bliss in the peace of Allah.

Thank you for honoring us with your time to read these few words.

Your Brother
W.D. Muhammad

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The Wisdom Of W. D. Muhammad:

W.D. Muhammad

The false prophets have the mark of the beast in their foreheads, but they hide their actions and only show us those actions that they would like to hide behind. Prophet only means follower or son. Just as a son takes up his father's work and follows him, a prophet takes up God's work and follows God. False prophets are false sons or false followers (unbelievers). True prophets of God are born of the holy spirit, not of the spirit of the world.

Life comes in the world and it first becomes attached to things that are of the body. The new life in the baby is first attached to milk from the mother's breast (food). It calls for the physical or biological — more materials to sustain itself.

The breath of life (spirit) that comes in us first is the spirit of the material world. "Spirit" means the force of life in you, or that which moves you and drives you.

There are two breaths of life. The second breath of life is the breath that produces the second form or second development.

