Reflections from Mecca: How Hajj Changed Malcolm X’s View on Brotherhood

As-salamu alaykum. Many of us who have been blessed to perform Hajj speak of how it can change your life - for some people that change is deeper than for others. Al-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) was one who found a new clarity during his pilgrimage in April 1964. Earlier, as a spokesman for the Nation of Islam, he had believed in strict racial separation and harsh views toward white people. After leaving that movement in March 1964, his Hajj opened his eyes and altered his thinking about race and racism. In a heartfelt letter to his close supporters in Harlem, he described what he witnessed on that blessed journey and how it forced him to rethink many of his prior beliefs. Keep in mind he wrote this during a time when African Americans were struggling publicly against centuries of oppression. He wrote that he had never seen such sincere hospitality and true brotherhood as among people of all colors gathered in the Holy Land, the home of Ibrahim (peace be upon him), Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and other prophets. He said he was speechless and deeply moved by the graciousness shown by people of every color. He described performing the rituals: circling the Kaʿbah, drinking from Zamzam, running between Safa and Marwah, praying in Mina and on Mount Arafat. Tens of thousands of pilgrims from around the world - from blue-eyed to dark-skinned - joined in the same rites, showing a unity he had thought impossible between white and non-white. Malcolm observed that Islam has the power to remove racial attitudes because its teachings focus on the Oneness of God and the brotherhood of believers. He met and shared meals with people who in America would have been called “white,” yet the “white” attitude was gone in their conduct because of their faith. He saw the same sincerity in the actions of white Muslims as he did among black Muslims from Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana. He admitted that these experiences forced him to discard some earlier conclusions. Though he had held firm convictions, he said he was a person who tried to face facts and accept new realities as they emerged. During those days he ate from the same plate, drank from the same cup, and prayed to the same God with brothers whose eyes were the bluest and whose skin the whitest, and felt true equality. From this he hoped that if white Americans embraced Tawhid (the Oneness of God), they might also accept the Oneness of Humankind and stop judging and harming others based on color. He warned that racism was like a cancer in America and urged that spiritual solutions should be considered to heal it, to prevent the nation from suffering the fate of societies destroyed by hatred. Every hour in the Holy Land, he said, gave him greater spiritual insight into America’s racial divide. He argued that the American Black person’s anger was a reaction to four hundred years of conscious racism, and that younger white people in colleges might recognize the truth and turn to a spiritual path that could stop the country’s decline. He also spoke of humility and unexpected honors he received - even being offered a hotel suite by a man who in America would be called white - and he ended praising Allah, the Lord of all worlds. Because of what he saw on Hajj, Malcolm X rejected his earlier blanket condemnations of all white people, saying he no longer subscribed to sweeping indictments of any race and was striving to live as a true Sunni Muslim. He declared he was not a racist and sincerely wished freedom, justice and equality for all people. All praise is due to Allah.