Faith And The Unity Of The Human Family
Lecture and Proposal
Ayabe, Japan
November 3 - 6. 1993


In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful, and Blessings and Peace be on our masters Muhammad, Jesus, Moses and all other Prophets, Apostles and Messengers of God.

My Dear Audience, I would like to thank the Oomoto Foundation, and all those who made this meeting possible. This meeting is among brothers who believe in God, in the accountability of man, and in doing good deeds.

I believe it is important that the followers of the divinely revealed religions meet in order to tear down the barriers that prevent them from knowing, loving, and cooperating with each other. This decade may prove fruitful for all men of faith, because they are now very eager to learn about each other, strengthen the bonds of brotherhood between them, and cooperate peacefully in order to serve mankind.

These meetings are very helpful in tearing down these barriers, in dispelling the myths established by bigoted clergymen who encouraged war and oppression against other men of faith, creating division and hatred. Today we have godly, devoted clergymen who are advocating love, understanding, and cooperation in direct contrast to the agony of the earlier eras.

The abuses of the past have created a wide gulf between the people and their clergy, resulting in atheism, corruption, and severe social problems. Misguided liberalism and social permissiveness have become the norm, so that now AIDS and drug abuse loom more threatening in our future than the threat of nuclear war.

People have turned their backs on faith. Qualities such as love, purity, chastity, and cooperation have been replaced by lust, egotism, promiscuity, greed, and the desire to manipulate and control others. Instead of calling these people back to righteousness, some clergymen have been instigating fanaticism, calling their followers to abandon reason. In our modern, scientific world, people are no longer content with obscurities and superstitions. They are earnestly seeking the truth.

Thus, I believe that the clergy are wholly responsible for the spread of agnosticism among our youth. They are also responsible for the confusion, purposelessness, and despair that our young people suffer from. Our youth lack an ideal, an example that the clergy can provide when they choose to put their teachings into practice, and when such teachings promote reason and understanding and exemplify a life where man's worldly and spiritual aspirations are brought into complete harmony with one another. Instead, the ideals of our youth are sports stars, pop singers, and gang leaders.

When we have such meetings, conferences, and seminars as this, let's make our utmost concern cooperation between all men of faith in the endeavor to save mankind. Whatever afflictions befall any part of the world affects all of it.

My dear audience, we live on the same Earth, breathe the same air, and are now able to see on television whatever occurs anywhere on the globe. So, let us act positively regardless of our religions and biases, as we are all the children of Adam and have to live together in this world.

It is wonderful when dedicated people volunteer to do charitable deeds, like feeding the poor and providing medicine to the sick, but it is more important that these dedicated people, especially clergymen, devote their energies to addressing the problems of atheism and spreading the word of God. They must present to the people the sublime models of human conduct found in the teachings of God.

God is compassionate and loving, so all people should be taught mercy and their hearts should be full of love and concern for others. God is wise and all-knowing, so the people should be taught wisdom and knowledge, and society should be spared from superstition and ignorance. God is the Lord of all people, so the men of faith should be servants to all people, regardless of their race, sex, or religion.

The Prophet of Islam, Muhammad says: AlI creatures are God's dependents, and the most beloved of God is he who is most loving to them. Jesus Christ says, Love your enemies and bless those who curse you. Muhammad also says: Love those who are on Earth, and those who are in Heaven will love you. Moses and Buddha paralleled these teachings, to which Jesus and Muhammad came to further refine according to the circumstances of their respective societies.

God is the Creator of all things, including the plants and animals; thus, faith in God demands that the believer act benevolently towards all creatures. Prophet Muhammad tells of a sinful woman who was allowed to enter Heaven, because she once gave water to a thirsty dog. Whereas, another woman entered hell because she confined a cat without feeding it or letting it feed for itself.

Muhammad orders us to care for trees and other natural flora, as well as for animals. We are not even allowed to overtax our beasts of burden. Our Prophet tells us that the animals, like ourselves, glorify God. Thus, religion provides a means for man to live in harmony with nature.

Isn't it high time that we returned to the teachings of the messengers of Heaven? Shouldn't we return to the way they dealt with people? Shouldn't we follow their example of humanity, love, and sincerity? Didn't Moses teach his people and deliver them from oppression? Didn't Jesus wash the feet of his disciples? Didn't he call people to love, charity, and benevolence? Was Muhammad not a divine mercy, teaching people the Book of God, teaching them the wisdom and purification?

If Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad and the other teachers of Heaven were to return today, would they join hands and work together to unite people in the worship of God and to solve the problems of humanity, or would they antagonize each other and compete to achieve the largest following? Would they concoct delusions, lies, and forgeries to support their messages? Would we see them filling the lives of people with love, happiness, and growth, or would we see them filling their lives with hostilities, hatred, and corruption? Would they work together to combat poverty and oppression, or would they be instigating exploitation and aggression? No, they are truly the messengers of God, and their message is one. Their source of revelation is one and their objective is one.

My dear brothers and sisters, if we truly seek the pleasure of God, we must eradicate the ignorance and hatred in people's hearts and work hand-in-hand to reintroduce faith to the people in all its purity. The fruit of this work will be love and harmony for all mankind. There will be no poverty, hunger, disease, or homelessness. The powerful will help the powerless, the rich will care for the poor, ignorance and confusion will be dispelled, and people will find a paradise on Earth before entering the paradise of Heaven.

In short, this is the call of Islam, and I invite my Christian and Jewish brothers, as well as the followers of other religions to study Islam from its authentic sources, not from sources written or practiced to distort the truth. Then it will be learned that Islam calls to the unity of all divine religions, and believes in all the prophets, known and unknown. All the prophets came to complete the messages of those who came before them, adding to it until it was completed with the advent of Muhammad. Muhammad explained this by saying, The likeness of me and the prophets before me is that of a man who built a house. People would go around it, admiring its construction and its beauty, but they would say that the house would be perfect if it were not for one missing stone. I am that missing stone. Thus, Muhammad does not claim that he is the only one who ever came with truth. All the prophets who came before him brought truth as well; he just came to complete the structure that was already built.

Islam came confirming all the divine religions that came before it. It is unique in that it glorifies all of their messengers and prophets and calls on its followers to obey the divine law with reason and conviction. It enjoins man to employ religious guidance with his reason in order to achieve human happiness on all levels, for the individual, the family, and the society. It goes beyond this and calls for the establishment of the human family under the umbrella of all the divine religions. It calls for the establishment of a global state bringing about justice, equality, education, and security for all people. It affirms the brotherhood of man.

Do our Christian and Jewish brothers and the followers of all religions know that when we perform our five daily prayers, we recite from the Quran the lives and teachings of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Noah, Aaron and many others from the Torah? Do they know that we recite from the Quran the gospel of Jesus, his life and teachings no differently than we recite the teachings of Muhammad? Do they know that we believe that prophethood is not exclusive to followers of the Torah, the Gospel, or the Quran? The Quran mentions that messengers were sent to all people. All had a teacher, a herald, a messenger, or prophet, raised by the Creator to teach them the law of God, how to attain happiness on Earth and earn the happiness of the hereafter.

How beautiful it would be if we followed the way of true faith and began calling for the unity of all people, for strengthening the bonds of brotherhood between us. We should cooperate in ending bigotry and fratricide. This will be the cure for all the ailments and problems of humanity. We will rid human society of its present calamities, its wars, and its tendency towards self destruction. We will replace fear, suicide, and despair with happiness and affluence. Then God will be pleased with us and history will mention that 2000 years after the birth of Christ, the clerics of all the divine religions met and united under the word of God in order to lead humanity out of its misery, wretchedness and bigotry. It will mention that they showed mankind the way to true happiness, peace, and love and strove to establish the Kingdom of God on Earth in order to earn His pleasure. The Quran says:

And say (to them): Act. God will behold your actions, and so will His messenger and the believers. T.Q., Sura 9, Repentance, verse 105.

Peace be upon you all.


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The Proposal

In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful, and Blessings and Peace be on our masters Muhammad, Jesus, Moses and all other Prophets, Apostles and Messengers of God.

I begin this, The Grand Mufti's proposals, speech by thanking the Oomoto Foundation for this invitation and opportunity as brethren in the unity of God who work towards good deeds and strive for the betterment of mankind.

Today the world is moving through a period of great hardship, despite the fact that man has made great advances in technology and that his material well being is so much better than his predecessor's. This twentieth century has seen great wars that ravaged much of its lands and destroyed the happiness and harmony of its people. All of this is because man has been seeking his happiness through mere material pursuits, which have blinded him from the very agents and means that may have led to his happiness. These agents and means have neither lain hidden nor remained obscure, but were shunned by the man-made ideologies and his faulty aspirations during his various stages of development.

As well intentioned as these ideologies may have been, mankind in our present century is suffering from abject poverty and incurable diseases that his predecessors never knew. We see man destroying his fellow man by the propagation of corruption in the form of pornography, and characters that are accepted by society despite their evil. In short, man stands forlorn, as a wounded savage beast. His instinct is to lash out and kill rather than to seek a remedy, or befriend one who may help him. His diseases have destroyed his very humanity stripping him of a conscience that may have moved him towards compassion and love for his fellow being. Allah addresses man in the Quran in the following terms:

Verily, this Brotherhood of yours is a single Brotherhood, and I am your Lord and Cherisher. Therefore serve Me, (and no other) T.Q., Sura 21, The Prophets, verse 92.

As such, Allah lays down the foundations through which man may attain happiness. This call of God to mankind is neither limited to any one religion or any one people, because Islam is not satisfied in only calling man towards belief in the One God, but calls for the brotherhood of mankind despite their differences. Regarding this, Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, has said: The example of the believers in their mutual love and compassion is as the example of a body in which when a particular organ falls ill, all the other organs will be called upon with vigilance and fever.

We see in our time that the world organizations such as the Security Council and the United Nations have failed and are mere shadows of the noble intentions from which they began.

We as people of faith, who carry the banners of religion, must remove the disunity that separates us and move towards the common ground of faith. It is faith and faith alone that must be the vanguard that enters the battle field and spreads by its light, justice, tolerance and peace. It is this faith that, when combined with rationality, will bring prosperity for mankind and instill in them the qualities that they lost, those of compassion and love. Allah describes the mission of Muhammad as a global one, when He says:

We have not sent you forth save as a blessing of mercy to mankind. T.Q., Sura 21, The Prophets, verse 107.

It is not for a specific people, nor for a specific religion, it is for all. However, if man does not awaken to the reality of his tragic situation, he will allow the world around him to collapse. I see that our religious task is to create an organization representing all the world's major religions run by those who possess open minds.



It is this very organization that must stand as a vanguard against all oppression and corruption in all their forms be they political, intellectual or otherwise. I consider it necessary that this organization work in close collaboration with the United Nations to solve the problems that we face in our present day society in raising its level and in supporting human rights.

I also propose the writing of a book, that categorizes all religions and their role in creating the ideal man, who cares for the family, and as such for greater society. This man looks towards mankind as an international brotherhood and seeks cooperation.

Allah says in the Quran:

And help one another in righteousness and piety, and do not help one another to sin and enmity. (inequity and aggression) T.Q., Sura 5, The Table Spread, verse 2.


Peace be upon you all.