01/05/2000
Focolare and Imam W. Deen Mohammed 
San Antonio TX

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Thank you. Peace. Peace be unto you. Our greetings as Muslims is As Salaamu Alaikum.
That is peace. Again, it is special occasion for us and a very special blessing for us to be with the Focolare members. Your representatives Julian and Sherry. Sherry and Mary of this region and others from Chicago. Paula and those from Chicago, is a blessing always for me. Special blessing, a very special blessing and very high point in my spirit and in my life when I come and meet with you. Whether it's in a small place or a big place, a small occasional or a big occasion, I feel specially blessed to have the opportunity to develop this friendship with you thats developing very beautifully.

Again, I want to say it's a blessing and we thank G-d for our meeting with the woman that I think it's a very rare and precious gift in this time, on this earth from Almighty G-d. A gift to all people, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, everybody and I'm speaking of the wonderful lady, the Blessed lady, Chiara Lubich.

This this is something that we would not have had not we read about her. Her life was given to me in a book, the story of her life and I read it. I'm a busy man, but I took time out before I retired. Many times, I was in the bed and I would be reading it. I know that we couldn't have had this without her and this is led by her. We're with you, but she is our leader as she's your leader.
I would like to say a word about this relationship of the Focolare and Muslim, Muslim African-Americans. Our friendship aims for a unity and this unity forms upon our common belief that we share with you, our common belief in the family of man, Adam. We have in our Holy scriptures just what was revealed to you before 700 maybe or more years before Muhammad our prophet, the prophet of Al-Islam came. It was revealed to you that we all came from one ancestry called Adam and that's what our holy book says.
Also, the founder and leader of this international movement and this interfaith movement, I would say your movement is an interfaith movement. I am a Muslim member of your movement in Rome and I'm aware that you not all Catholics or Christians, that you have people of other faiths, so I speak of you as international and also interfaith.
Chiara Lubich is not our leader for the purpose of making converts for the church. Chiara Lubich is our friend for the cause of unity, the unity of the family of man. In our sacred book this unity requested by man's coming life, the life that G-d gave us before we deviated from it. It is also stated in our Quran and I quote, "The brotherhood of man is the brotherhood of man hence the theme that you chose with this name, with this term in it, Brotherhood."
Having this great event this very simple event here in San Antonio, Texas hosted by you in this beautiful city is for certainly, a wonderful choice that we asked for the sacred work with Chiara, would not come as a surprise to a person with knowledge of Muslim beliefs, but many are surprised because I'm reading it. They're surprised. They say, "This is a new thing for you, isn't it, Imam? The following is a statement of our beliefs that we share in common that not only invite us to form this friendship with you, to work for unity, the unity of the family of mankind, but it obligates us, in my opinion, to do that. We have a term in Al-Islam, Islamic studies. The term is called Tauheed and it comes from the word one wahid.
Tauheed means unity and oneness. It begins with the belief that our G-d is one, and I used to think the Trinity meant that G-d was not one. Well, I was ignorant. G-d for Muslims, G-d for Christians, G-d for Jews, one G-d and one in the same G-d. And Allah says to us, that is G-d says to us in our holy scriptures say to them. We were new when Muhammad began speaking the message of Al-Islam because he and his followers were new in the world. We had to introduce ourselves to the Christians and the Jews. G-d says to Muhammad and his followers, "Say to them" meaning the people of the book, Jews and Christians.
The people of the book mean people of Scripture, of sacred scripture who were before the Muslims, people of sacred scripture, said, "Say to them. Our G-d and your G-d is one of the same G-d."

This concept of unity and oneness, sacred unity and sacred oneness begins with the acknowledgement that G-d who made everything in the heavens and the earth is one and then it proceeds from there as a logic. This is a logic. Tauheed is really a statement of focus for logic, for Islamic logic.
It goes from that belief to the belief and the unity of G-d's works and I've read the Bible where the seers and prophets long before Christ Jesus, peace be upon Christ Jesus, found G-d by searching His works in the universe. They said, "This beautiful design, the wonders that we witness in the heavens and the skies and in the earth. Weather changes and everything, must be the Handy works of G-d and they came to believe in one G-d.
We believe in the unity of matter. Science came to state that to us, but long before science stated that to us, G-d had already revealed that all of this is His creation. He is one G-d and He has one law for His creation. One law over riding all the other laws that will eventually bring His creation back to Him. Allah says in our holy book willingly or unwillingly. It all has to come back to G-d. His will overcomes all of us, everything. This is Tauheed. Then the logic proceeds from the unity of matter to the unity of the human family, we believe that we are one soul although we have different souls. Each of us have our own separate soul, but we're also one soul and in my conclusion on this particular point before I go to my experience with you, my conclusion, I'm trying to get us to see, Muslims need to see, also. I'm trying to get us to see that we are really together already as far as what we believe in our sacred and knowledge and beliefs. We're together already, we just need to rediscover our knowledge and our faith and that will show us that we belong together as one people, one human family in one faith, that is faith in our Creator and faith in the excellence of man, Jesus Christ, peace be upon him, and Muhammad who modelled for us the excellence of man.
One human family, G-d says, and as He made you in the beginning, so shall you return to him. How did He make us in the beginning, G-d says farda is an Arabic word, you shall return to Him farda. How did He make us in the beginning? Farda. In the beginning we were in one soul called Adam and G-d made that one soul male and female and many people all over the world. All of us belong to that one soul. G-d says, "And you shall return to Him farda. It means a single soul, as a single soul. I know that I'm not going to lose my soul, but my soul is going to conform to the spirit of that sacred soul that G-d created in the beginning. That was fit for paradise and lost paradise because of the destiny the road to the end was long and hard and the enemy, the advisory would be in the way, but the man eventually overcome all things to return to G-d and be fit to have paradise again.
Congratulations brother Imam Pasha. I didn't know you had all in you. Now, as for our experience, and I said it began with my first meeting with Chiara Lubich and it was not in person, I read about her and I was touched and I said to myself, "This is a rare soul on this earth today" and I didn't feel that there was any cause that would- for me not to seek to know her more and seek more knowledge of the Focolare movement and to seek an opportunity to have a real relationship with you. Before I even thought of discussing things which I had a desire, I'm reading her book, the reading of her life, I had a desire to have a real relationship with you. Not just meeting as friends, not just the regular dialogue where we sit at a table and pretend and we want to really be together, but really, we don't. We just want to make a picture for the press or something and we go back to our single quarters and forget about each other. I didn't want another relationship like that, another occasion like that and I knew from reading about Chiara Lubich that it wouldn't be just a superficial dialogue as one of the Imams Umar Shakir said, but it would be a real relationship.
A real relationship based upon what is most precious for you and most precious for us and that is firstly a respect for the Word of G-d and secondly a respect for the excellence of man that we can grow together and work together and be more productive together if we respect the Word of G-d and respect a faith in the excellence of human beings that all of us have this. G-d has made us to inherit excellence, that sacred substance that He gave to our first father, He had made all of us to inherit that. If we cherish that and believe in that firstly-- one Evangelist, Dr. Schuler, he attracted me, I was working in front room, doing those things in the front room, the TV was on and I heard him say, "G-d--" How did he put it? Yes, he said, "G-d, love you first" and then he said, "I believe in G-d," and he said, "And G-d believes in you." Something hit me when he said and G-d believes in you. I reflected it for a second or two. I'm saying, "that man, is correct." If G-d didn't believe in us, He wouldn't have chosen us for the blessing.
He believed that we can make it. He knows that we can make it. G-d trusted us with freedom that He didn't trust any animal with. He trusted us with freedom, that says to me G-d believes in us. G-d trusts us and that means a lot to me. I'm a person who have had experiences in my life as an African-American, and experiences in my life as the son of a very different kind of African-American, Elijah Muhammad, and it means a lot to me to be trusted, and G-d trusts us more than anyone, more than our parents, more than our nation. G-d trusts us because He loves us and He believes in us. It's wonderful what Dr. Schuler was preaching, that made me his friend. Since then we've met, we know each other very well now and we're very good friends. That's the beginning of my experience, just reading the history of Chiara Lubich, then I had experience actually being with you in Mariapolis Luminosa sharing your experiences, listening to your experiences, and sharing your experiences.
Because many of you who spoke, both the married couples and their children, I could relate to what you were saying because whether it was from the pulpit that I was touched or from my own reflection on my religion and where I want to go with my life to have my life resilient to G-d, I got something from the testimonies that touched me and I could relate to it. I said, "Well, I've experienced some of that myself." When I experienced this from you, what I concluded was this, that here are Christians, and this is not the flatter you, I've finally met some Christians, here are some Christians that I can be comfortable with. I can eat with them without fear or caution. I can go to sleep with them and sleep without fear and caution and that's saying a lot because there are many Muslims I can't do that with.

So, its not the faith you claim, it's what you produce as proof of that faith, and you have produced wonders that tell me there's proof of the faith you claim. You are representatives of the great servant of G-d we call Jesus, Massi, Jesus Christ. Isa Massi, Jesus Christ. Lastly, it was your children who touched me too. I said, "These children are beautiful performers, they perform so beautifully. They sing and it's an entertainment, is fine entertainment, it's beautiful music, beautiful lyrics, but it has something that all of us need to hear and especially our youth." Then I hope your youth will reach more in the United States. I hope you'll come back every year and have your youth sing to us because your youth need to touch our youth. Many of our youth are lost in America.
You need to touch our youth, speaking to your youth now. You need to touch our youth with your spirit and your beautiful expressions of love for G-d and love for mankind. We have had so many experiences that I could share with you. Because these experiences are not just happening for me where I have been among you. I go back home, I'm talking to a friend, I'm talking to a co-worker and I am interrupted by something I experienced when I was with you. Many times, I began speaking to them without them knowing where I'm coming from. Speaking to them from the beautiful experiences I had with you, and you have given me added tools for my work. Peace be unto you. As Salaam Alaikum.


