Reflections from Mecca: A Journey That Changed a Life, As-Salaam-Alaikum

As-Salaam-Alaikum, brothers and sisters. Many of us who have been blessed to perform Hajj say it changes you - for some people that change is especially profound. One example is Malcolm X (Al-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz), whose pilgrimage in April 1964 opened his heart to true Islam. Previously a public voice in the Nation of Islam, he had held very harsh views about white people. After leaving that movement in March 1964, his Hajj completely shifted his outlook on race and humanity. He wrote a heartfelt letter to close aides in Harlem describing what he experienced during the pilgrimage. He explained how the rituals and the people he met broke down his old assumptions about color and brotherhood. Remember, this was written during a time when the struggle of African Americans was very much being fought and debated in public. "Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colors and races here in this ancient Holy Land, the home of Ibrahim, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and all the other Prophets. For a week I was speechless and awed by the kindness shown to me by people of every color. I was blessed to visit the Holy City of Mecca, to perform the tawaf around the Kaʿbah, drink from the Zamzam well, run between Al-Safa and Al-Marwah, and to pray in Mina and on Arafat. There were tens of thousands of pilgrims from around the world - from blue-eyed to dark-skinned - and yet we all took part in the same rites, showing a unity and brotherhood I had thought impossible between white and non-white. America needs to understand Islam, because this is a faith that removes the race problem from society. In my travels through the Muslim world I met and ate with people who in America would be called white, but Islam had taken that racial attitude away. I had never seen true brotherhood among all colors like this before. You might be surprised to hear this from me. But what I saw on this pilgrimage forced me to rethink many of my earlier conclusions. I have always tried to face facts and accept reality as new knowledge comes. During these eleven days I ate from the same plate, drank from the same cup, slept on the same rug, and prayed to the same God with Muslims whose eyes were the bluest, whose hair was the blondest, and whose skin the lightest - and I felt the same sincerity in them as I felt among black Muslims from Nigeria, Sudan, and Ghana. We truly were brothers because belief in One God removed the white from their minds, behavior, and attitude. If white Americans accepted the Oneness of God, perhaps they could accept the Oneness of Mankind and stop measuring and harming others by color. With racism eating at America like a cancer, even those who call themselves Christian might do well to see a proven spiritual way to heal this destructive problem. Perhaps the younger generation in colleges will see the signs and turn to a spiritual path of truth - the best hope to avoid the disaster racism leads to. I was deeply honored and humbled. A man who in America would be called white, a UN diplomat and companion of kings, offered me his hotel suite and bed. Things like this, honors that in America might be reserved for a king, were being given to an American Black man. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the Worlds." Malcolm X described how generosity, open-heartedness, and genuine brotherhood toward different races touched him and led him to reject racism. He later said he was no longer a racist, that he had been used in the past to make broad condemnations, and that his pilgrimage had brought spiritual enlightenment. He aimed to live as a true Sunni Muslim and wished freedom, justice, equality, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all people. May Allah grant us hearts that open to truth and unity, and accept the Hajj of those who make it. Ameen.