Al-Huda
Foundation, NJ U. S. A
the Message Continues ... 5/122
Newsletter for October 2011
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The Pilgrimage To Makkah
By Al-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X)
Makkah, Hijaz
"America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem. Throughout my travels in the Muslim world, I have met, talked to, and even eaten with people who in America would have been considered white-but the white attitude was removed from their minds by the religion of Islam. I have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colors together, irrespective of their color."
-- Malcomm X El-Shabazz
The Pilgrimage To Makkah
By Al-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X)
Makkah, Hijaz
When Al-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz was in Makkah, he wrote a letter
to his loyal assistants in Harlem... from his heart:
" ...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 Abraham, Muhammad and all the other Prophets of the
Holy Scriptures. For the past week, I have been utterly
speechless
and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me
by people of
all colors.
I have been blessed to visit the Holy City of Makkah, I have
made my seven circuits around the Ka`bah, led by a young Mutawaf
named Muhammad, I drank water from the well of the Zamzam. I ran
seven times back and forth between the hills of Mt. Al-Safa and
Al-Marwah. I have prayed in the ancient city of Mina, and I have
prayed on Mt. `Arafat.
There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the
world. They were of all colors, from blue-eyed blondes to
black-skinned Africans. But we were all participating in the
same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that
my experiences in America had led me to believe never could
exist between the white and non-white.
America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one
religion that erases from its society the race problem.
Throughout my travels in the Muslim world, I have met, talked
to, and even eaten with people who in America would have been
considered white-but the white attitude was removed from their
minds by the religion of Islam. I have never before seen sincere
and true brotherhood practiced by all colors together,
irrespective of their color.
You may be shocked by these words coming from me. But on this
pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to
rearrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to
toss aside some of my previous conclusions. This was not too
difficult for me. Despite my firm convictions, I have always
been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of
life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. I have
always kept an open mind, which is necessary to the flexibility
that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search
for truth.
During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have
eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept
on the same rug-while praying to the same God-with fellow
Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the
blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And
in the words and in the deeds of the white Muslims, I felt the
same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of
Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana.
We were truly all the same (brothers)-because their belief in
one God had removed the white from their minds, the white from
their behavior, and the white from their attitude.
I could see from this, that perhaps if white Americans could
accept the Oneness of God, then perhaps, too, they could accept
in reality the Oneness of Man-and cease to measure, and hinder,
and harm others in terms of their “differences” in color.
With racism plaguing America like an incurable cancer, the
so-called “Christian” white American heart should be more
receptive to a proven solution to such a destructive problem.
Perhaps it could be in time to save America from imminent
disaster-the same destruction brought upon Germany by racism
that eventually destroyed the Germans themselves.
Each hour here in the Holy Land enables me to have greater
spiritual insights into what is happening in America between
black and white. The American Negro never can be blamed for his
racial animosities-he is only reacting to four hundred years of
the conscious racism of the American whites. But as racism leads
America up the suicide path, I do believe, from the experiences
that I have had with them, that the whites of the younger
generation, in the colleges and universities, will see the
handwriting on the walls and many of them will turn to the
spiritual path of truth-the only way left to America to ward off
the disaster that racism inevitably must lead to.
Never have I been so highly honored. Never have I been made to
feel more humble and unworthy. Who would believe the blessings
that have been heaped upon an American Negro? A few nights ago,
a man who would be called in America a white man, a United
Nations diplomat, an ambassador, a companion of kings, gave me
his hotel suite, his bed. Never would I have even thought of
dreaming that I would ever be a recipient of such honors-honors
that in America would be bestowed upon a King-not a Negro.
All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of all the Worlds. "
Sincerely,
Al-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X)
(From the AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X with assistance from Alex
Haley, the
author of ROOTS) courtesy: Sr. Amina
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