1985-July-5

Muslim Journal

Muhammad Speaks: The Universal Plan

Imam W. Deen Muhammad

(Editor's note: The following timely excerpt is from "Imam W. Deen Muhammad Speaks from Harlem," Volume 11.)

Dear beloved people, here is the problem: we are not in touch with what we call the Univer­sal Plan, and Universal Direction. We are not in touch with it. If you are going to establish yourself as a Race, as an ethnic group, that can best be done upon the Universal Plan. But when you do it outside of the Universal Plan, then your individualism becomes a burden on you. It becomes the very thing that's going to cut you off from progress.
Your Nationalism becomes the very thing that oppresses you. But if you do it within the Universal Plan, you do it as Allah has intend­ed, and you are a person that other persons can live with. You don't frighten the rest of the na­tions. But if you do something that comes off the top of your mind, "out of the hat," as they say, just comes out of the hat, if you come up with a concept for African-American, or Black people, that you got off the tip of your finger or off the top of your head, you are going to frighten other races.

You are going to frighten other nationalities. You are going to frighten other nations. But if they see that you are grounded in the universal scheme of things, they know that you may be different, you may be new and unique, but they know that you are in tune with something permanent and univer­sal. So there is always an opportunity for you and them to sit down at the universal table and talk peace. But if you are not tied into the universal scheme of things, they will say, "Well, hell, down the line, when they grow big and powerful, there will be no opportunity to sit down at a table because they don't even see any table that will permit all of us to sit down and talk peace!"