[Editor’s Note: This article is reprinted from Volume 32, No. 38 and The Final Call will continue to reprint articles written by our late and dear Mother Tynnetta Muhammad.]
“And Allah’s is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth. And Allah is Possessor of power over all things. In the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day, there are surely signs for men of understanding.” —Holy Qur’an, Surah 3, verses 189-190
While I was growing up in the city of Detroit, I knew that I was not comfortable with this world, but had come from an existence far away and apart from this present reality. As I continued to reflect on some of my childhood memories and the adjustments I had to make to this world’s challenges in present space time of events, I was beset by many difficulties in treading this unfamiliar territory. Did I agree to come here, or was it a part of my soul’s evolutionary journey to learn more about the essence of myself in pursuit of the All-Knowing God? I am now able to perceive a certain pattern of my life’s destiny that endeared me to the Path of Islam in fulfilling yet another higher calling to the Divine Unity of Allah which is the Divine Calling to us all.
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I have come to understand that Islam is not really a religion as much as it is the nature of Allah imprinted on every human soul. The Holy Qur’an states in Surah 30, verse 30, the following words: “So set thy face for religion, being upright, the nature made by Allah in which he has created men. There is no altering Allah’s creation. That is the right religion–but most people know not”–The true nature of religion is predicated upon unconditional love and the making of peace and harmony among all human creatures and is the basic instinct guiding the totality of nature. The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad has taught us that the universe was built upon love, the preeminent nature of all created things. This means that the very act of creation going back to “The Big Bang” itself spreading from the instinctive power of the love and Will of the Almighty God, Creator, who desired to make Himself known, not just to a few, but to the whole of His Divine Creation.
To distinguish this Act of creation from the beginning, he has permitted other religions and schools of thought to come into existence and organized systems of thought rooted in the belief of God in one form or another. This is true in the origins of Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and all other world faiths who have dominated the earth for a limited period of time. We can now say after the experience of all these religious systems that Islam unites them all as One and comes after all else has failed.
The last verse revealed in the Holy Qur’an during the last pilgrimage of Prophet Muhammad (May Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) to the Holy City of Mecca, this principle of Divine Unity is reiterated in Surah 5, verse 3: “This day have those who disbelieve despaired of your Religion so fear them not and fear Me. This day have I perfected for you your religion and completed my favor to you and chosen for you Islam as a religion.” To know God is to love Him and to love oneself by putting these principles of Divine Unity into practice. The more I penetrate into my past childhood experiences and memories, the more I become acquainted with the Presence of God in my life. It is the society in which we are born that shapes and molds our belief systems and ultimately takes us away from the nature in which we were originally created.
In Surah 4 verses 125-126, we read: “And who is better in religion than He who submits himself entirely to Allah while doing good (to others) and follows the faith of Abraham, the upright one? And Allah took Abraham for a friend. And to Allah belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth. And Allah ever encompasses all things.” According to a saying of the Prophet, we are born Muslims, submissive to the Will of Allah (God), but it is our parents who make us members of other organized religions which we inherit in our respective societies, such as Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. Much of our rebelliousness in our youth comes from a mistaken identity given to our parents who were also born and reared into a society not of their own making.
The society in which we are presently living was forced upon our people for over 100 years by our former slave masters who wanted us to remain under their mental control since post-slavery days. We knew something was wrong, but didn’t know how to explain it, or how to escape from it, until we heard the Teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad. In my reading of the literary works of prose writer and poet Khalil Gibran, which I incorporated in my valedictorian speech at my centennial graduation at Central High School in 1958, I was beginning to emerge from the power that surrounded me into a new spirit of an ever evolving consciousness. It was at this time when I came to know my unique friend who identified himself as a student in my senior year who taught me some of the inner meanings of my life that connected me to others in this vast universe, which connected me even further to the Path of Islam under the Divine Teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
I was beginning to find my freedom in breaking away from a society and a way of life that would hamper the Divine Guidance of Islam that was being offered to me to enter into a new world of thought. This was the initial phase of my Coming Forth by Day being reunited back to the source of my original creation in Divine Unity with Almighty God, Allah.
“Our Lord, whomsoever Thou makest enter the Fire, him Thou indeed bringest to disgrace. And there will be no helpers for the wrongdoers. Our Lord, surely we have heard a Crier calling to the faith, saying: Believe in your Lord. So we do believe. Our Lord, grant us protection from our sins and remove our evils and make us die with the righteous.” —Holy Qur’an, Surah 3, verses 192-193
To be continued.
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