05/11/2001
Muslim Journal

Revelation and Its Influence on Culture: Part 2

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed

The following address by Imam Deen Mohammed was given in Norfolk, Va., at Booker T Washington High School, on June 23, 2000.

When Muhammed of Arabia declared the worship of G-d, he used the term in the Arabic language, because that was his language and G-d revealed to him the message in the language that he spoke. When he declared belief in G-d, he was saying to the Arab people: "G-d is One."

They believed in that time, 14 centuries ago, in many gods. The history on the beginning of Islam in the land of the Arabs, Arabia, tells us that those people before Islam believed in about 369 different gods. Those gods were given physical shapes and made into idols.

When Muhammed the Prophet told them that "G-d Creator, The One G-d, The Invisible G-d, but nevertheless The Manifest G-d, The G-d that we do know — 'Your G-d and our G-d is One and the same G-d."

Muhammed was preparing a people who had worshipped 369 or more gods to join the effort of the people of The Book, to make this world a world to accommodate all people as one family of mankind or as one human family. This is very important to know. The people fought Muhammed, although he did not want to fight. They tried to kill him and tried to kill his followers. They tried to stop the spread of the religion of Islam, and the Prophet was told to fight them in the defense of the religion until religion is free for G-d.

Here is a Prophet remembered in history as a prophet who had to go to war. He was a prophet who took up arms. Many of the reports present him as the prophet who spread the religion by the sword. When the fact of history is that he only picked up the sword to defend the religion and the followers of that religion against idol worshippers, who wanted that religion to be put away and never seen again. This is the truth of it.

If you listen to the language of Islam, it tells you what Islam is all about. It tells you what we want. The first language is given to us in the Call to Worship. It is called The Adhan in Islamic terminology. Adhan means that which gets your ear; it is derived from the Arabic word for ear. It means that which gets your attention. We are given a Call to Worship that is intended to get our attention.

The first words of the Call to Worship are: G-d is Greater. Many translations say: G-d is the Greatest. That is true, but that language in Arabic says: G-d is Greater.