One Mission Many Prophets by

One Mission: Many Prophets

ICNA-MAS Convention Speech by Imam Mohamed Magid

Opening

(اللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ - Allahu Akbar)

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. Peace and blessings be upon the most honored of the messengers, the Master of the Prophets, the Imam of the pious, and the leader of those who are on the right path. Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, the Prophet sent by the mercy of the worlds.

Introduction

It gives me great pleasure to be at the Ijtemas convention, the 42nd convention. I like very much the theme, connecting great prophets of Allah, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon them. This understanding of all the prophets and messengers, they came with the same message.

It's a very important message that we need to convey in this beautiful land. Many people don't realize that Muslims believe in all the prophets and the messengers before Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. And as the Quran takes you into a journey through the history of humankind, every time Allah mentioned the story of a prophet or messenger, he mentioned the challenges and the issues that this prophet had faced at his time.

And today, Muslims, Americans, they are part of the American social fabric, where the neighbors, the Jewish and the Christian neighbors, have come to stand with them in many masajids across America. And matter of fact, that Muslims have more open houses at this time than any other time. And as we share this message of the unity, of the message of all the prophets and messengers from Allah, we need to see the impact of understanding of this concept of tawheed in human life.

The Universal Message of the Prophets

You know, Allah, in the Quran, saying to all of us that every prophet and messenger came with the same message. And every messenger has called his people to Allah. Every prophet says, worship Allah alone.

And do not associate anyone with Allah. You read in the Quran, when Fir'aun asked Musa, alayhi salam, and Harun, he said to them, Who's your lord? Talking to Musa and Harun, alayhi salam, Who's your lord? O Moses. Musa, alayhi salam.

Musa, alayhi salam, responded, He said, our lord is the one who created everything and he guided them. And when Isa, alayhi salam, said to his people, He said to his people, Allah is my lord and your lord, and worship him and be in the straight path. Allah said to the Rasul, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, in the Surah Al-Shura, Does we reveal to you? Imam As-Suyuti said the word, It indicates that Allah revived the hearts of the believers through the Quran.

You didn't have any idea about revelation, nor about the Shari'ah, that how you conduct your life according to the teaching of the divine revelation. It doesn't mean he had faith, because the Rasul, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, always had Tawheed. Never committed Shirk, even before he became a prophet.

We make the Quran as a light, we guide through it, all those whom we wish from our servants. When Allah spoke to the Prophet, Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, He said, very surely you guide people to the straight path. The path of Allah.

The one who owns whatever is in heaven, whatever is on earth. All the affairs go back to Allah. What it means then, to have this message of Tawheed? I would like to share with you what we see today, when people say, I believe in God, and they don't really understand what it means to believe in God.

Every one of you have a dollar in your pocket? What the dollar says? What the dollar says? In God? In God we trust. If Iknah asks you to donate money, your dollar says, in God we trust. Give the dollar, because Allah is going to replace it.

Because it says, in God we trust. We cannot carry that, and we don't understand what it means. Or, when people say, one nation under God.

What do you mean by one nation under God? That, what it means to believe in God? To Allah. It means the following. Number one, that all the Prophets and the Messengers came with the same message, and they're brothers.

Brotherhood of the Prophets

The Rasul sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Prophets are brothers, but they come from different mothers. But they are brothers. That's why Rasul sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he heard a man of his companion arguing with a Jewish man in Medina, who's better, Moses, or Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam? Musa alayhi wa sallam, or Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam? For Rasul sallallahu alayhi wa sallam prohibited that.

He said, do not elevate me over Musa alayhi wa sallam. And he said that in the Day of Judgment, when people are resurrected, you will find Musa alayhi wa sallam standing there, and Rasul sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said,

I don't know whether Allah compensated him from the time he passed out, when Allah asked him to look to the mountain, when he asked Allah if he can see him. Therefore, all the prophets come with the same message.

But every prophet comes with this concept of Tawheed to address the ills of the society that he lives in. You can see that when Musa alayhi wa sallam was sent to Fir'aun, the challenge was, there's a lack of Tawheed, but also there's a political oppression. And aggressions.

The Fir'aun became arrogant on the land, and he created division among people, and started oppressing the women and killing the children. He created mischief and corruption on earth. But Musa alayhi wa sallam came to him with Tawheed.

The Meaning of Tawheed: Unity and Equality

Tawheed meant to bring justice and fairness to every human being. Because when people say, I believe in Allah as a creator, that means all human beings are equal before Allah. The unity of creation.

And that unity of creation diminished, abolished racism, sexism, and all form of preferring or discriminating against others because they look different. As all of you know, the verse that's been recited so many times, when Allah says, We have created you male and female. And made you tribes and nations.

So you may get to know one another, and the best among you are those who are the most righteous. Therefore, an American citizen, and a citizen of any other country, are equal in the eyes of Allah. Sometimes, we have this feeling that because we are American, we have entitlement.

A Muslim visits another country and flashes his blue passport. I'm an American. Even in Hajj, we do that, don't we? That we have to remember that we, as human beings, we have to believe that every human being is equal, regardless of their nationality, regardless of the degree they carry, regardless of the color of their skin, regardless of their gender, male or female.

Because the verse says, The other verse, you heard me reciting some other gathering, where Allah says, The message of Musa alayhi salam, the message of Isa alayhi salam, the message of Rasul sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, all of them calling humanity to say to them that the fact that you have a variation of languages and colors, that is a sign of Allah. There cannot be a reason for discrimination. And it has been taught in the tradition that Isa alayhi salam, Jesus, was asked, he was one of his disciples, that which tribe does he prefer? And they said Isa alayhi salam reached out and grabbed some dust.

And grabbed them in both hands and he opened it before the man and said, which one do you like? We created you from dust. The second, that the unity of purpose. Allah says in the Quran, I have not created jinn or ins for any other purpose except to worship me.

For the unity of purpose of creation for all humanity. The unity of destiny. All humanity going to one direction.

Everything will perish and vanish. Except Allah, majesty everlasting. But humanity have to remember there is something called day of judgment.

That every person will be standing before Allah. Allah will bring prophets, Musa alayhi salam, Isa alayhi salam, Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wa sallam and all humanity before him. And this dimension is very important because if human being believe in the ultimate accountability before Allah, you will not see injustice.

You will not see discrimination. You cannot see people using their power to abuse others. For this is a very important aspect of Tawheed.

Shared Values Across Faiths

Now, I do believe in this country, the Muslims and Christians and Jews, they can come together and look to the values of their religion and apply those values. If they do truly apply the value, for example, love thy neighbor. You ask a Christian, is this one of the great teaching of Jesus? They will say yes.

You ask a Jewish person, is it also a teaching of Moses? They will say yes. Is it teaching of Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wa sallam? It's yes. Imagine if every human being from those three religion, let's start with Muslims and Christians and Jews.

They really respect and love and accept the rights and fulfill the rights of the neighbor. You will end war in Syria today. Am I correct? It will be over.

You will have the tension happening in America between immigrants and American public will diminish. You will have the war in Africa among Muslims or in Asia will end because it does not say your neighbor has to be Muslim. Am I correct? And the challenge for you and I, get to know a neighbor who does not look like you and even is not the same religion because the neighbor has a right on us.

If we promote in America compassionate neighborhood, imagine. This will be the IKNA, ISNA, MAS, MUNA initiative. Compassionate neighborhood.

And we bring our fellow Americans from various religion and it says you need to commit yourself to the golden rule. Love thy neighbor. You don't have to love them, by the way.

It starts with protecting them and fulfilling the rights of your neighbor. And that neighbor, it does not say has to be Muslim, black or white and so forth and so on. The most difficult thing that discomfort people have when they leave their comfort zone and reach out to somebody who is not like them.

I would like to maybe begin with IKNA convention, IKNA-MAS convention. Get to know another Muslim from a different ethnic background. Not all the Sudanese hang together.

Let the Sudanese get to know non-Sudanese. I'm from Sudan, that's why I'm saying that. Let all the Pakistani reach out to non-Pakistani, ethnicity-wise, and Bangladeshi and African-American, white Americans.

This is the essence of message of Musa alayhi salam, of Isa alayhi salam, of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. This is number one. Number two, the message of service that all of us have been called to serve others.

The Call to Service

It's very interesting that the Hadith of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, they're similar of it in Matthew. Where Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam saying that Allah will say, Oh my servant, I was sick and you didn't visit me. And a person will say, Oh Allah, how could you, how possible you could feel sick? You are the Lord of the worlds.

Then Allah will say, Don't you know so and so was sick? If you have visited them, you'll find me there. I was hangry and he fed me not. And here, it can relieve, Islamic relief, and helping hands, all of those.

Please, my brothers and sisters, see what kind of program they're doing and become part of it. And I'm very happy to see Muslims are working with people of other faith in their communities. We can, in America, we can challenge ourselves as Muslims and Christians and Jews to say, let us feed the people.

Let us address the issue of challenges in the inner city. If that become our way of showing our faith, imagine how many people will have positive view of faith. Religion now has bad name, to be honest with you.

The fastest growing group of people in America are atheists. People leaving religion. And therefore, that will be one of the important virtue and value we share with others.

Standing Against Discrimination

The last point I want to say, that we must stand together against discrimination and racism. Because if we believe in equality before God Almighty, and if the value of our constitution in the United States indicate that all men are created equal, created equal, which is referring to God, then why is there still some discrimination in America? Why there's some racism in America?

People of faith, they have to get together and to say, we're following the teaching of Moses, the teaching of Jesus, the teaching of Muhammad, all of them, and we will not accept racism, sexism, discrimination against communities, and if we do that, it will be a turning point in the history of this country. And the moment is now.

Closing

May God Almighty help all of us to be the best ambassador of our prophet, Muhammad, and we share with people the values that the Quran taught us about all our prophets, that whom God Almighty called us not to discriminate against any one of them. We do not discriminate among the prophets of Allah, because all of them come with the same message.