The Indivisibility of the Human Race University of California, Berkeley November 12, 1948

This is a cruel world. There are times when one feels the refreshing sweet wind breathing on a bank of violets, giving and stealing odor. There are times when deep-infested venom stalks the mind of man and makes him sink to the lowest of all living forms. There are times when the world seems to be moving on a frictionless pulley, and there are times when pathos rules the fate of man.

What is the disease that makes an animal of man on a Monday; glorifies him on the following day; turns him into a barbarian on a Wednesday; inspires him to become a messiah on a Thursday; draws forth from him glimpse of Plato on a Friday; makes him display a streak of Machiavelli on the Sabbath; and comes Sunday and a shameless congregation of penance is held in splendor in the closest parish.

This is a strange world. There are those that hate you, those that hate me; and there are those that dislike our philosophies. Go there, and you are flattered; go somewhere else and you are insulted. Today it is the decline of the Turks; tomorrow it is the rule of the British, and the day for my domination is still to come, but then there are others as well.

There are some among us who want to hold back the clock. There are others who want to move it ahead of time, and there are a few who want to stop it forever, blocking, as it were, the passage of time. Some take a pride in brand names; they invariably end up in “isms.” Some follow dogmas and doctrines without even knowing their meaning. Others lay down rigid convictions for the entire human race for all ages and demand that they be followed to the letter till the end of time.

We claim to be an advanced people, masters of civilizations, architects of cultures and founders of great religions. And yet, in the ultimate analysis, what do we really know of age, wisdom and tolerance? Some of us are of the opinion that by reading books in ancient universities we can become authorities on life now and hereafter. On my part I can provide no solution. By endeavoring to make ourselves believe that we have sown all the seeds of progress we are dangerously constructing an internal resistance against the search for purity.

We have unabashedly started on a ceaseless career of thinking and acting superior to the next man. How then can we have the effrontery to face God and friend, that is, of course, if we believe in either? Why are we so contemptuous of lesser people? Not really lesser than us, but lesser in the sense of being less fortunate.

We are men that are said to be rational. Social limits cannot be assigned. This is the natural law that has been bestowed on humanity since the advent of time, and yet, in spite of this self-evident truth, we have laid waste mother earth and eradicated the concept of humanism, the thought of equality and liberty.

The agony of the past has shown us that we must begin to think of humanity in terms of a single indivisible body, all of us, irrespective of our ethnic and cultural differences should consider each other as members of the divine body pledging with our lives to work for the happiness of the people, of simple people without affluence or power. We must have fearless minds. Our spirit should never be daunted. Only then will life begin to get meaningful. Now is the time when we should resolutely lift our miserable people to the garden of a promised Eden, instead of sinking to the baser levels of a sordid existence.

We can only improve with the improvement of humanity, for we are an inextricable part of it. Let our achievements be for all, since this world has been created for all. In whatever land we live, wherever man is fighting for right, wherever man is struggling for justice and truth, there in that fight extend the warmth of your heart and the kindness of your soul. Whenever man suffers through oppression, or error, or injustice, or tyranny, preach your crusade without fear, raising high the banner of struggle and sacrifice. Men free and oppressed, opulent and impoverished must unite to banish poverty and misery from God’s earth.

Does it matter if the language we speak is different, for what difference is there if Allah made this world a rich and colorful abode? Tears and starvation, blood and famine are understood in all languages. Measure not the power of the omnipotent but the intentions of the individual. We can be the torch-bearers of a new doctrine, the apostles of brotherhood and unity. This is the challenge, and neither God nor man can demand more of us.

Let us lift our heads with pride and look into the firmament to visualize the serene and unmolested days that will follow the period of turmoil and darkness. Then only can we dare tell our heirs that God is our partner and we shall never want.