(Reprinted from the Muslim Journal 3-23-07 to 4-13-07)

The Day Of Religion

Imam W. Deen Mohammed

(Imam W. Deen Mohammed gave this Address at the Educational Weekend presented by Clara Muhammad School and Masjid Muhammad of Washington, D.C., on Sun,, Jan. 14, 2007.)

On the Day of Religion, I intend that this presentation that I am going to make now brings us to see more and understand better the Islamic Concept of Unity, termed "Tauheed."

It comes from a word in Qur'anic Arabic; these terms were not with the Arabs before Islam. They came only with the Prophet as Qur'anic terms. So they are not Arabic terms only; they are "Qur'anic Arabic" terms.

"Tauheed" does mean unity, but it really means a little more than unity. There are other common words for unity. This is a particular word in Revelation for unity. It is close to monotheism, the idea of One G-d ruling in the human life and over everything that exists.

It is understood as that for the Jews and also has some ties to the Christians' concept of G-d, not the shirk or plural body but the continuous Line of Purity and Light that comes from our Creator to the service of G-d through men. How it comes, how we understand it resembles something in Christian doctrine and theology.

The purpose in presenting Tauheed in this connection with the most important concept for the People of the Book is to show us our connectedness - that we are not to see ourselves completely separate from the movement in Scripture from its beginning to its conclusion.

Its conclusion brings us to the language of The Day of Religion. If we would translate "Yaumid Deen" literally -without interpreting it or translating it or applying it from some other language of the Guidance to Muslims in the Qur'an, we would translate it as "The Day of Religion."

"Deen" in Arabic is very closely associated with a word that means "debt" or the Arabic word, "Dane." That is how we are to understand religion in the Qur'an: It refers to the debt of the creature to the Creator.

We are indebted to the Creator of everything, including mankind, for whatever we have of good use in our own lives and in His Creation. We are indebted to Him, and that should be our most important view of man's relation to his G-d.

Man is created to be conscious and for his consciousness to reach to the far regions of the heavens and the earth and behold the unity for the logic supporting matter, keeping matter's existence and preserving its nature or performance as G-d created it.

So Tauheed begins with the observation that not only Abraham made, but Abraham is the Father of that insight being given to mankind and evolving eventually into exact sciences and higher education.

We believe in the unity of matter. The Prophets of old observed that, and I have said that Abraham is the leader of all nations. He is the Father, meaning he is the first leader.

This unity continues or proceeds from that belief or premise that all matter comes under the same Universal Law or Laws that are Universal, that are tied together by one consistent logic.

It is a consistent logic that is true for one side of the earth and true on the other side of the earth. It is true in my town and in your town across the waters. It is true everywhere. That truth stands up anywhere and everywhere.

Recently, we have heard in the news, in magazines and on television that thinkers are saying now that religion and science are coming together. It you understand the Qur'an, it is clear in the Qur'an that they must come together. This is inevitable, because G-d's Truth is One.

G-d doesn't have a Truth here and another somewhere else that contradicts it. He does not have a Truth in one form of life that contradicts the Truth in another form of life. His Truth is One, and wherever His Truth is does not contradict with other Truths. So religion and science must come together.

If religion is true and science is true, they must come together. Allah says, "Think, that this creation was once one continuous whole before it was separated and made sky and earth." Science tells us that earth was once continuous with the sky. It was made of the heavenly bodies or sky bodies or bodies in space.

Science tells us that the heavens and earth were not truly separated, that the nature and its movement belonged to the family or bodies in space. I thank G-d for making my heart stronger than my mind; my mind is too small for all that G-d puts on it. My heart has to bear the weight.

Tauheed is a logic that influences all of life, all matter, human life more than anything else, because it is free with the freedom of consciousness.

We are free to take our minds out of the small confines of our created nature into the nature of energy and matter and just delve into everything that our minds can reach. We can study it, get information from it and have our own lives influenced by what we find.

Most of the time, if you are searching for truth, it increases your life. It is like man and wife - mind and matter. When they have a relationship, where they have engagement and exchanges, matter imparts something to me and situates my mind to respond to it, like breathing in and breathing out.

As it situates my mind to respond to it and I do respond to it, both grow. Look how man has grown his mind over the long, long road of human existence and civilization. Look how he has increased his imprint on matter and how he has changed the environment and has done so much.

A bee can do a lot with the pollen on the flowers. They make honey and get the wax and make a nice home, that scientists say is air conditioned. It never gets too hot in there for them; the temperature is regulated. They have a great science, and that is why the bee is mentioned in the Qur'an.

The thinkers observed long ago that there is much beauty in science, a message from a sign from their life that we can take into our lives and brain and improve our own life, how we perceive life and how we perceive ourselves.
The bee has an industry that speaks to us, the industrial man.

And the bee is not the only one. Look how the birds make nests in trees. Look how the snow falls from the clouds or from the colder regions above, forming a kind of solid from a mist in the air. Look how they fall and how beautiful their designs are. Every snowflake is so beautiful in design, so graphic, so artistically designed.

If we think of whatever is in matter, we can become fascinated, if we are real thinkers and love and enjoy observing the beauty, the art and wonders of Allah's Creation. That is what has brought us to be the creators ourselves of man's world.

G-d says, "He (Allah) is the Best of Creators." It is so man will not become so big headed and forget Who designed the Creation, for man to have that great opportunity for him to become a creator of his own world.

First, the idea of Tauheed comes from observing how the outer world looks and behaves. When Abraham saw how it looked to him, he was fascinated. But as he studied its behavior, he came to know that it was not G-d, that some Higher Power, Higher Form had formed the world itself.

So Abraham is a type or symbol for the beginning of not only the Belief in One G-d but also the beginning of the True Sciences. That is Abraham.

Allah says in Qur'an and in other Scriptures, "None can touch it but the purified ones." Then He sends Muhammed the Prophet, the Mercy to all people, all nations, all worlds, and He says of him, "He is a Mercy to all the worlds."

And he, Muhammed, is sent to bond the people who have lost their true bond that G-d gave them in the making or creation of them.

The breaking of bonds brings about enslavement of human life. If you break your bond that G-d wants you to have with your true self, first of all, and then with other people who have evolved in human society and human life, then Satan comes in.

If he, Satan, cannot get you to break that bond, then he contrives or invents something to influence you to break the bonds. In that way he usurps your authority to govern your own life.

Keep in mind the physiology of the woman and the need for her to mate, and she enjoys her children more than anything else. She enjoys her mate and her family, and eventually this brings us to have a public life.

The work comes from the house, the home, and in time the homes have to bond with each other and form communities. Bond is the marriage and family, and then bond is families that come together and share in the one interest of providing for their life.

Eventually, there is the public life. Streets to connect the smaller communities and businesses form great transportation and transportation systems. All of this evolves from human life. The needs that G-d has clocked into human life produce all that we see in man's life. If you lose those sacred bonds, you give yourself into slavery.

We have come now to the unity of the family of man. That we all are the same creation. In science, if you want to study the human species, you have to accept, firstly, that the human species is one life or one creation.

If you go to the doctor to be treated, the doctor has information that he has to rely upon, and it doesn't tell him too much about what nation you belong to or what color you are - black, brown, white. They give him a chart of your anatomy, and it is the anatomy of everybody. Everybody has a heart, lungs, etc.

When you go to a psychologist, that is when it changes. So really, it is your mind that makes you different. The way your mind is constituted makes you different, not how your flesh is constituted.

You may be asked by the doctor what is your blood type, but that will vary across all of the other divisions. The White man will have different blood types among them. Some have the same blood type that we have. There is no White blood type or African blood type. There are certain blood types that are common and universal. There is the universal person, and we all are universal persons.

But if we are raised up in different environments, that will affect how you think and behave. So when you go the psychologist about your behavior, he will ask, "What neighborhood did you come from? Where do you live?"

He wants the factors he can study that are in your environment that will tell him what is happening to you. But those factors didn't exist when G-d created us. Those factors came into existence with mankind.

We believe like others believe in religion, especially the People of the Book, that the human life is morally fated. Things will seem to you changing in your life and in the society, but to put them in one lump sum they are called environmental conditions and influences.

We have the saying of Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) supporting that, when he said that everyone is born Muslim until the environment that they are put in makes them otherwise. This is the definition of Muslim that is for all people. It is the definition of being Muslim by nature.

When the Christians say, "Christ within me," he is saying the same thing that we are saying, when we say "every human being is born Muslim." They call it "Christ," and our language in Al-Islam calls it "Muslim." Their language comes to them from the ideas given in Christianity, and our language comes to us from the ideas given in Islam.

Christians' term that they arrive at is from Christ and "Christ within me." Ours is Adam, Abraham, Muslim in me - in my nature, my original creation. Christ is the innocence of human life - the soul, the mind, the thinking, the behavior. Muslim is the exact same.

The word "Christ" goes back to "anointed with oil." When those who try to determine the lineage of Christ, they ask, "Is he the son of David?" Why David? It is because David was the one anointed. And he was anointed to be king. They saw David worthy of that title and role and anointed him with oil.

Although the tradition has him being anointed by oil, when he cries out he is talking to G-d. David said, "You anoint my head with oil, and my cup runneth over." He is saying that G-d gave him more oil than he could use.

Isn't that the way of G-d, the Creator? It is said in the Qur'an, "He is the One Who gives without counting." When we give, we count. We believe in that innocence of giving without counting.

Prophet Muhammed said that at some time in the future or in the end, the people will see Christ Jesus and himself together.

The psychiatrist wants to know the factors he can study that are in your environment that will tell him what is happening to you. But those factors didn't exist when G-d created us. Those factors came into existence with mankind.

We believe like others believe in religion, especially the People of the Book, that the human life is morally fated. Things will seem to you changing in your life and in the society, but to put them in one lump sum they are called environmental conditions and influences.

We have the saying of Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) supporting that, when he said that everyone is born Muslim until the environment that they are put in makes them otherwise. This is the definition of Muslim that is for all people. It is the definition of being Muslim by nature.

When the Christians say, "Christ within me," he is saying the same thing that we are saying, when we say "every human being is born Muslim."

They call it "Christ," and our language in Al-Islam calls it "Muslim." Their language comes to them from the ideas given in Christianity, and our language comes to us from the ideas given in Islam.

Christians' term that they arrive at is from Christ and "Christ within me." Ours is Adam, Abraham, Muslim in me - in my nature, my original creation. Christ is the innocence of human life - the soul, the mind, the thinking, the behavior. Muslim is the exact same.

The word "Christ" goes back to "anointed with oil." Those who try to determine the lineage of Christ, they ask, "Is he the son of David?" Why David? It is because David was the one anointed.

And he was anointed to be king. They saw David worthy of that title and role and anointed him with oil.

Although the tradition has him being anointed by oil, when he cries out, he is talking to G-d. David said, "You anoint my head with oil, and my cup runneth over." He is saying that G-d gave him more oil than he could use.

Isn't that the way of G-d, the Creator? It is said in the Qur'an, "He is the One Who gives without counting." When we give, we count. We believe in that innocence of giving without counting.

Prophet Muhammed said that at some time in the future or in the end, the people will see Christ Jesus and himself together.

We know that Jesus said, "It is expedient that I go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you." He says in other places, "He will send you another Comforter." We in Islam believe that points to Muhammed.

Prophet Muhammed says that he is the "Unlettered Prophet" mentioned in the Torah and The Gospel. That he will come breaking the bonds that weigh down or crush the people. He will break every unjust bond.

It alludes to slavery, but we know it is not just the slavery of the people put on the plantation, to control our life, movements and everything.

This enslavement refers to the enslavement of the faculties of the human mind and soul, denying you the opportunity to develop and enjoy the growth of your potential and the capacity of your potential.

It is the enslavement of the capacity of your potential — your created energies — to a small space that cuts you off from roaming the earth and the universe with your intelligence.

G-d created all of us to travel the earth and the universe with our minds and our intelligence and with our hearts.

Innocence in the spirit of humanity brings us to see a concept that has been presented in so many different languages and so many different cultural ideas or concepts.

The child of common life essence by philosophical and scientific logic is the child of the cosmos or the child of the universe.

The spirit-born logic emerges upon a magnificent premise shared among religious communities. That is human innocence, and in that innocence is the "inevitable product."

Nothing is going to prevent it from becoming a product that everybody can see. Nothing is going to prevent it from bearing fruit. With the People of the Book, this inevitable product is termed The Promised Land."

With the People of the Qur'an, this inevitable product is termed the "justly balanced community." Humanity's unstoppable life strengthen by humanity's most powerful of the Angelic Mediums speaks through Divine Prophecy of Truth, pointing to the nations of mankind to present time for the Day of Religion.

The Day of Religion - the conclusion for prophecy, the finality on the stage for triumphant global dynamics of humanity's social life experience engaging matter, economic interests - now puts common man and nations at the table I would like to describe as The Table of the Fifth Dimension.

Natural forces supported by global circumstances are the Table that we are calling The Table of the Fifth Dimension.

Today, the global hour for the arrival of transparency, the new term of the religious leaders on high and now down below, is the opportunity for all eyes favoring of the common people. As Scripture says, "For all eyes to see...."

It is for all to be in a situation to see the Divine Light of Truth, in a climatic moment, for the social situation of dynamics that promote rational wholeness. Today, in this present generation's time, the hour on the Global Nature Clock of G-d says, "Wait, until I bring My Timepiece, My Clock...." This is in Scripture.

On the Global Nature Clock has the arrival coming and appearing at not a rectangular or square table but at a round table.

Today, we call ourselves soul brothers, but all people are soul brothers. Today, soul brothers are favored by the circumstances that are forming because of globalization.

This time is inviting all to sit together for the prophesied meeting in a global circle, like we have Muslims who make pilgrimage. That permits us to sit face-to-face.

If we sit in a circle, like many of the devoted thinkers in Islam do, we see each other and sit face-to-face. When you speak to the persons, you look directly at them.

All shapes, forms and colors — soul folks — are sitting at The Table of The Fifth Dimension. We can say while sitting at that table in the new light, that we see our savior transfigured. All eyes are opened now upon the promised, sacred, soothing, comforting, even cooling but fiery sunlight.

It is the fiery sun, but it doesn't hurt. It doesn't burn your eyes. You can look at it, if you are blessed to be one of the innocent. And it is so soothing. Finished is that non-scientific sun. But we say to the non-scientific sun, as a sign, "live on."

At the crack of dawn, yesterday's savage world and its sun appear to be rising, to the non-scientific mind or non-educated mind, and coming up out of the earth from the east. Then it has a pass over to the west.

When you look at it, as it passes over to the west, it appears to be going down into the earth. If your view is an ocean, it appears to be going down into the ocean. From the east, if the scene is that of an ocean or lake, it appears to be rising up out of the ocean or lake.

Hence, the idea or the concept in religion of birth and life and death and resurrection. You have to turn to the east, the place of its birth to see it come up again. There is much to say about this, but I am going to make it very short. Hence, the cosmic child.

This needs studying; be a good student who will not be satisfied in not knowing one word in what he is given. The good student will seek to understand every word in the text, use his dictionary to increase his vocabulary, language and knowledge.

I began with the concept of Tauheed and brought you to the concept of human innocence and how Allah blesses human innocence to rise and expand with mind and thought and interest, to feed on the heavens and the earth, to feed on sky and earth.

If he feeds on sky and earth with his mind, he is being increased in knowledge, in sensitivities, in human body and what that body can do. He is growing as a person, as though he is now in the womb of mother again.

But his womb of mother is the universe, the womb of the cosmos. He is born a cosmos child. What does Allah say in the Scripture: "He provides for you your food from the skies and the earth."

This is true by scientific learning and inquiry, but it is also true spiritually. The material principle and spiritual principle always go together. Everything that G-d made materially speaks to what He made for us spiritually, our soul and its nature and how it performs.

Men go to schools to get knowledge in religion and theology and metaphysics and study all of this and just treat it as though this is just knowledge, just history, just science of matter and spirit. Something is missing.

I am a student of it. G-d has guided me to study it, and I don't see it as just knowledge or just language or just logos.

I see it as the evidence of "Whatever" formed matter -because "Who" is too small for my G-d - rules in matter, stays with matter, is in matter and in me.

I see Your Matter speaking to and communicating in my existence and showing me myself in a much bigger picture.

That increases my faith. We are promised that The Truth, Heaven and Hell — these things that we doubt, question and argue over — shall be seen with Certain Vision.

There will be no doubting; it will be so clear. There will be no guessing. It will be with Certain Vision, seen in Reality. That is The Promise.
G-d says, "When they behold these things, they will say this is what we were given before." It is saying of our G-d, Allah, that He created the human life firstly in the heavens.

And there was a disturbance in the heavens, because there was one Jinn who had performed as an Angel and lost knowledge of his own creation or own identity; he argued against man.

G-d revealed that He was going to make a human and put the human in the earth and give him charge of the earth, make him a custodian in the earth, one charged with responsibility of G-d's creation.

This one Jinn, who believed he was an Angel, who had forgotten he was a Jinn, disagreed. Understand this, G-d is giving us a scene to show us what has happened in His great creation. The figures that are speaking are not speaking to G-d, because they cannot speak to G-d directly.