QUESTION: Numbers and their meaning play important roles in our interpretation and understanding of places, people and events. How can we best understand the number 45 as it relates to our current national reality?
IMAM EARL ABDULMALIK MOHAMMED: To answer your question adequately and correctly, we have to remove the specter of our national politics to see what is being spoken of here clearly. In the context of the national scene, the number 45 is a distraction, and it is intended to be. But, there is much truth here that the most sensitive and the most well-meaning people are entitled to get an accurate and meaningful view of. In order to be freed from the grip and strategies of oppressors we have to understand how they are twisting language, and how that twisted language is being used to take something away from our legitimate human usage and benefit. G'd created us to benefit from everything He created. He created us to grow into understanding of all that is within the reach of our minds, to protect our human existence, to serve our human existence, to grow into our finest and most beautiful human life expression. He created us with 5 senses to aid us in this material creation, and to grow our minds and souls into their fullest excellence and perceptions, and bring us to our intended material and spiritual destiny.
Ordinarily, I might avoid this or similar questions. Not because it is not a worthy question, but because too often religion is confused with mysticism. This is also a scheme in the arsenal of human enemies, used against humanity so that the majority of the people will be influenced to turn away from Guidance. The enemies will wrap clear understanding in the coding of mysticism, and one way they do it is with a corrupted use of the meanings in numbers. I say a corrupted use, because when we see various numbers and their combinations in our religion used by the Prophet of Islam, Muhammed, the prayers and the peace be on him, and mentioned in the Book revealed to him, we know it to be Truth and Guidance. We owe our people to make these things clear. We owe this to humanity. This is the role of true leaders and teachers in the Islamic tradition. So, I want to say to you that I am very appreciative of this question. I am going to handle it carefully, and with as few words as possible. Also, I want to say to those who prefer these kinds of questions because they have a disease in their hearts where they want to quiz their leaders to test their knowledge, don't fuck with me or my supporters. I am certainly not referring to you Sister. Those who read this know who they are. I ask them "Are you repelled by my language?" If so, very good. Allah says "Good and evil are not equal. So, repel evil with good."
All of the heavenly religions, that is, the religions which identify and preach an informed, conscientious faith in the Creator and the destiny or purpose that Creator has designed for His creation, embrace the truth that mankind has a moral destiny. Muslims, Christians, Jews, and some other peoples of faith that I do not want to mention, see this and understand this in the teachings of their religion. What do I mean a moral destiny? I am referring to our Creator's intent for us, that He has fated us for a conclusion. In other words, our creation has defined purpose. The Holy Qur'an's words say in many places "for G'd is the Praise, and for Him is the Rule, and His Power extends over everything." The Christians have in the prayer associated with the teaching of Christ Jesus that for G'd is the "Kingdom and the Power, now and forever." The Christians have a saying that is also based on the teaching associated with Christ. They say the "Christ in me" which they derive from the Jesus' statement in the Bible: "I in the father, and you in me." Now, they interpret the father here incorrectly. The father referred to is the first father, Adam. So the statement and teaching here is identifying that what existed in Adam as his created purpose or destiny, continues through the line of all his descendants. So, in this teaching Jesus is identifying the moral origin and the moral destiny. This is the same as when we Muslims speak of the Muslim nature, referring to Prophet Muhammed's teaching that every child is born upon the original pattern, or in the Islamic language, the 'fitrah.'
Now, Allah says in the Qur'an that He feeds you from the heavens and the earth. This is a statement from the Qur'an, that I could recite to you in the language it was revealed and show you the places where it appears in the Qur'an. I could also show a Christian where in the Bible, in the part called Genesis, where the story is given of when the light in the day and the light in the night were created, and the following day the creatures in the water and the creatures in the air were created. Someone reading this might say, "He is supposed to be an Imam. Why is he referring to the Bible? Why doesn't he just stay with the Qur'an." I could chop them up with many of the sharpest swords that my teacher placed within my reach. I know there are many who think this way. They are ignorant people. Some are scheming people. I will choose one of the sharpest to slice them back. Prophet Muhammed said in a strong and verifiable report that there will come a time of awareness where he and Jesus would be seen in one reference.
So, to continue, Allah says in the Qur'an that He feeds you from the heaven, which is the spiritual realm; and the earth, which is the material realm. And the Bible is saying that on the fourth day He created the light in the day sky and the light in night sky, that is to see or perceive what is in the material creation including my own material self; and on the fifth day He created the life and movement in the water reality and the life and movement in the sky reality, that is the sensitive spiritual nature and perception. The sensitivity that is in the waters of man's soul, and the perception or clarity of sight into that nature and its reality when he ascends his life above the material plane like a bird. The Indians or native Americans, they are called, had this knowledge. They put all of the feathers on the head of the one who is highest in spiritual perception. So the material and spiritual nature are together, in the language of the Bible as 4 and 5.
Where do we see the 4 and 5 next to each other in the Islamic symbols? The Ka'aba is a cube structure, based on the physical concept of 4. To fulfill the Umra ritual we have to go around the House with our left shoulder nearest to it, as in a circle. So, in effect we are making a circle around the Ka'aba. The number 5 is written as a circle in the Arabic language.
So, then 4 and 5 together is speaking to the moral fate of man. The combination, the conjoining of correct material and spiritual perception and reality, that brings humanity to its moral conclusion -the awareness of the moral purpose in the conscious mind and in the realities of human society. This is the 4 and the 5 together. This is the 4 plus the 5. 9 is the completion, is it not? 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9... then back to the beginning -man at his original purity to begin his existence again in a new reality. It is the Day of Expectation. The Day of Fate. The Day of Accounting and Conclusion. The Day of Judgment. The Day of Religion.
I could teach this concept in many ways. But, as I said I wanted to keep it as brief as possible for now. We don't have to display all of what we have, because we must keep in mind, that when G'd announced his creation of man, there was one existing that opposed. There was one existing that had a .45 caliber pistol in his hand to murder man's purpose. He takes the same 4 and 5 reasoning to hurt man and to take him out of his dignity. He wants to make every truth, a falsehood. He wants every Guidance, to be a misguidance. He wants every possibility, to be a fault, and every strength a weakness. He wants to take what Allah has made good to enable man, a weapon against man. So there is a false 45 too. We don't have to look far to see the reach of his influence. It is not the man. It is the influence.
I am praying to Allah that this will help you and all of those it reaches.