The Pilgrimage of Malcolm X
By Zaid Shakir | 2026-01-16T07:32:48.915659+00:00 | Topic: Muslim Identity
The Pilgrimage of Malcolm X
Imam Zaid Shakir
Opening and Introduction
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to God, the Lord of all the worlds. (السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ ٱللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ - As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh)
I'd like to welcome all of our hosts today to this talk, Muslim and non-Muslim. And it's really a tremendous blessing to be here in the Bay Area, especially during these blessed days, as you've just learned. I was born in this area. My father was in the Navy, and during his stint here on the West Coast, I was born in Berkeley at the Alameda County Hospital. I don't know if it's still down there. If it is, I'd like to go visit it, you know, for nostalgia's sake.
So it's a great blessing. It's a great blessing to be here at Zaytuna Institute, an institute that's been founded with a wonderful intention to bring traditional knowledge to bear on some of the situations we find ourselves confronted with in the modern world. And I think that's out of a recognition on the part of the organizers and founders of Zaytuna Institute, and we mentioned our dear beloved Shaykh Hamza Yusuf at the head of the list, that perhaps the ancients, they had a better idea of what was going on in terms of the human condition than the new people.
The Wisdom of Traditional Knowledge
They didn't have to change their mind or their program very often. And nowadays, everything that we were once told was the absolute truth, we're now told that they got it wrong and they have to reassess it. Even something as fundamental as margarine. They once said, this is better for you than butter. If you think it's butter, but it's not. What was it? Chiffon or something. Anyway, now they're saying, oh wait, well actually butter is better for you than margarine. So in things great and small, the moderns have kind of missed the mark.
So I think it's wonderful that we have an opportunity to benefit from what some of the more ancient and wiser people have said about the human condition and especially in the context of Zaytuna Institute on the basis of the classical understanding and formulation of Islam.
The Call of Prophet Ibrahim
But we're not here to talk about this today. I'm sure you've heard this particular discourse many times here during the past few years. We're here to talk about Malcolm X and to situate his life and to situate the significance of Hajj in his life. We'd like to talk about two other figures briefly before we move on to Malcolm X. The first is Abraham or Ibrahim as we say as Muslims or Arabs, Arabic speaking people.
Ibrahim, and as we say here in America, Abraham. Abraham was given an order from his Lord. Abraham was told:
"Proclaim the Hajj amongst humanity."
"And they will come walking, responding to the call, walking and on every means of conveyance, every lean camel, lean from the distance of the journey, the distance that's been traversed."
"And they will come from every deep and distant mountain pass."
So Ibrahim, when he was given this order, it's related by our commentators, the commentators on the Qur'an from prophetic tradition, that he said, "My Lord, how can I call them, all of humanity, when my voice cannot reach them? This is a great matter to call all of humanity."
And Allah responded, it's related by saying to, conveying to Ibrahim, "You give the order and I will cause your voice to reach them." And then it's related that Allah ordered the mountains to lower themselves and the earth became one great even plain and Ibrahim or Abraham's voice went out to all the far reaches of the earth.
The Unity of Humanity
So Ibrahim made that call and that call reached every human being during that time and subsequent times. And it found its way into a vessel that had been prepared to receive that call. And here there's an important point and this is something, an understanding that Malcolm X arrived at after having a different understanding for most of his life, for much of his life. And that is, and this is something we can immediately begin to look at the lessons of import for us as Muslims in what our brother Ramees referred to as a post 9-11 world, if you will.
And that is, in light or in response to those many forces, Muslim and non-Muslim who seek to have us understand humanity as a differentiated entity, that there are basic fundamental differentiations existing in this human family. And on the basis of those differences, some people have a greater right to life. And some people are more deserving of death.
And this isn't just on the part of non-Muslim peoples who want to see a world in terms of them and us. And that if one of us is killed, is worthy of a day of national mourning. And if thousands or tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of them are killed, then it's justifiable in the interest of preserving our way of life.
And there are Muslims similarly that want Muslims to see the world in these differentiated terms. That there are the Muslimun, there are the Muslims and there are the Kuffar. The non-Muslims or more notoriously translated these days, the infidels. That there's Dar al-Islam and there's Dar al-Harb. There's the abode of Islam and the abode of war. And these two are locked in an irreconcilable struggle.
And they forget the third category, Dar al-Hudna. The abode of a convened peace. And other complexities that Islamic law introduces into the discourse.
But Ibrahim was called to issue the call to all of humanity, an undivided, undifferentiated human society:
And Allah reminds us, and as Muslims we should let people know this. Because there are people putting out a different message, as we said.
The Divine Spirit in Every Human Being
We should let them know that this is a fundamental teaching in Islam. That before people are considered based on their religion, or based on their nationality or ethnicity, as Muslims we consider them based on their humanity. And Allah says about this human creation:
"Then We've made him upright."
"And then He's breathed into him something of His spirit." Not something of Allah that He's placed into him the divine essence or something. No. This is what we call (إِضَافَةُ تَشْرِيفٍ - idafat tashreef) something that's attributed to Allah, to the Lord. And by way of honoring and ennobling that thing. (بَيْتُ اللهِ - bayt Allah) the house of Allah, the Ka'bah. Allah doesn't live there, per se. But it's a blessed house that Allah attributes to Himself. (نَاقَةُ اللهِ - naqat Allah) the female camel of Allah.
So it says His (رُّوحِ - ruh)—this spirit, this essence that Allah has created. And He's placed in every human being. Every human being has something of this essence. That gives him or her the ability to aspire, to elevate themselves spiritually, to rise above their carnal nature. There's a special essence that allows the human being to become more than a brute animal.
"And then Allah says, 'And We've given you the faculties of hearing, sight, and perception.'"
"But little thanks does the human being give."
The Blessings of Perception
So Allah gives us the ability to look at this creation. Look at this day. This day, everything about this day, should awaken our perceptions of sight. When we see these color contrasts, the green of the trees, and the mountains, and the hills, surrounding this place, and the blue of the sky. The beautiful light of the sun, illuminating everything. The colors and complexions of the people. And hearing, to hear the noises. We hear the birds, we hear the children playing.
Of hearing, and seeing, and perception. And we perceive the spirit that unites us. We don't—no one in this audience feels any distance. You shouldn't, even if you're not a Muslim. Because there's something that is deeper than our being Muslims or non-Muslims that unites us. And that spirit pervades throughout this gathering.
And this is part of the perception, and the intuition that Allah gives the human being. But Allah says, little thanks is that they give. Because we don't use these faculties. We don't use these faculties to think, to reflect, to look at and appreciate the higher reality that all of this points to.
When we use our hearing, our seeing, our sight, our perception, it points out one reality:
لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا ٱللَّهُ
"There's no God except Allah. There's no God except God." There's no deity we worship except the one, indivisible, all-powerful creator of all this. The wise one who put all this together. Everything, the rock, you look at the rock. You look at the trees, you look at the birds, the children. You look at the diversity of this gathering. It should all say:
لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا ٱللَّهُ
If we use these faculties properly.
Those Who Don't Use Their Faculties
But Allah says, little thanks do they give for these faculties, for these blessings that Allah has given us. And as a result He says, by not using these faculties:
"We've created for the hellfire, many amongst the jinn and the human beings."
"They have hearts with which they don't proceed."
"They have eyes, but they don't see with them." They don't use their eyes to try to discover the underlying reality of all this.
"They have ears, but they don't listen with them."
He said, "These, they're like cattle." What does a cow do? You set them out to pasture, let them loose on this hay back there. It's for the archers yesterday. But the cows would appreciate it. And they eat it. They excrete it. And if you left them alone, they would go to sleep at night. And if the season came and they could find a cow of the opposite sex, they would procreate and maybe be a means to bring about some baby cows. And they would keep eating the hay until it was all gone. And then they would die.
And people who don't use these faculties to try to discover the underlying unifying reality of all this, they're like those cattle. Only instead of eating the hay, they drive up and down the highway to get their daily hay or their daily bread. And then if they're fortunate, they find a nice mate like the cow. And if they're blessed, they'll bring about some little babies. And then one day they'll die. Just like the cow. There's no difference. Just their lives are more complex. The cow, his life is reduced to its basic essential elements. But ours, if we strip away the facade, if we strip away the facade of all the trappings of this world, we are, many of us, by not using these faculties, are living like cows.
Only the cow gives more benefit because the cow doesn't make wars. The cow never invented a nuclear bomb. The cow doesn't know how to make or use napalm or white phosphorus or cluster bombs or nerve gas or biological agents. Cows never thought about anthrax or anything as deadly.
So Allah says the human being, he's like the cow but he's more astray because the cow gives benefit. He gives milk, he gives leather, he gives meat. Whereas these humans, rather than benefiting, they destroy. They devastate, they harm, they abuse each other and their environment. The cow even benefits the environment. He drops his manure and it causes the plants to grow more vigorously.
So Allah says:
"They're even more astray than the cattle."
"These are the ones who are heedless." Why? Because they don't use these faculties to search for the underlying reality.
The Response to Ibrahim's Call
So this is what the story of Ibrahim—he's making this call to call people to this reality. And what is their response when that call is received or that call is like a seed and then it's thrown out. Ibrahim threw it out. And then it settles into the fertile ground of the ruh. It settles into the fertile ground of the spirit, this human spirit. Then it brings forth a response.
And what is that response?
لَبَّيْكَ اللَّهُمَّ لَبَّيْكَ، لَبَّيْكَ لَا شَرِيكَ لَكَ لَبَّيْكَ
"We're responding, we're coming. Oh Allah, we're coming. You have no partners, we're coming."
So Ibrahim was told to call to this sacred house. And he called. And then when that call settles and is received by that human spirit, it emanates and it brings about a response that we recognize the underlying reality. And we're responding to the dictates of that reality.
لَبَّيْكَ اللَّهُمَّ لَبَّيْكَ
The Ennoblement of Humanity
And it's predicated, it's predicated, the receptivity for it on that basic goodness in the human being. Allah says about this human being:
"We have ennobled the human being." And this ennoblement extends to all of humanity.
And this unity of humanity, this is an essential part of our Islamic faith and how we understand humanity. And this mitigates—someone might read, you know, an uninformed person, he picks up the Qur'an and "fight the infidels until there's no more disbelief" and say, "My God, this is a violent book."
And these divisions, but these verses that they're not quoting in the New Republic and other places. These verses mitigate and help us gain the full understanding of the other verses and then we create a comprehensive picture of the human situation. And this is why we're—it's one huge contradiction.
If Muslims believe, as some people say we believe, that we're supposed to fight the infidel and etc. etc. How have we had such a history of tolerance? Where did the Jews fleeing the Inquisition, where did they go? And where were they welcomed with open arms? In the lands of the Muslims. They went to Istanbul. They went to Morocco. They went to North Africa. And they were received with honor and open arms. Where did this spirit come from? It came from these, under these qualifying and mitigating verses and traditions that help us to form a full and comprehensive religious picture.
So this is what Ibrahim is making this call and we don't want to go any further with this. Because this is a separate issue. We want to move on to Ismail.
The Story of Prophet Ismail
Ismail, Ibrahim's son. Ishmael, as we say here in the West. His story is also intricately associated with the Hajj. And it's important for us to understand this also. Ismail—we say that the Hajj, the culminating event is Eid al-Adha. Where the Muslims who can afford to do so, they buy a sacrificial animal and they kill this, reenacting the willingness of Ibrahim to sacrifice his son, Ismail.
And people might say this is a cruel practice. This is a beautiful practice. Because ideally, the Muslim should not eat much of that meat. He should give it in charity. And this holiday, many of you haven't been to the Muslim world. You go to the Muslim world. This is the only opportunity a lot of poor people in our Muslim countries have to eat meat throughout the year.
The Consultation Between Father and Son
In Syria, we've gone to the outlying villages around Damascus. Even at the mosque of Shaykh Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi. And given this meat out and people are fighting for this meat. People are fighting for this meat. In Morocco, the people come down from the hills and the Atlas Mountains and descend on the cities and line up to get this meat. So this is the only opportunity they have to get protein into their diet. In many of these lands. And believe me, they appreciate this. So there are a lot of blessings in this law and this custom and tradition that has been prescribed for us.
But its origin, and we call this Eid al-Adha—the festival of the sacrifice. Remembering the sacrifice. Ismail, he was the son to be sacrificed. And this sacrifice, it took place right at the time when the father most appreciates the son.
"When he reached the age when he was able to begin benefiting from his father's guidance." Now, he can go with his father. Before, he was with his mother. And she was taking care of him and straightening him out. Our mothers sort us out. So, Ismail had been sorted out. As the British people say. Now he's ready to hang out with his father. He can go and hunt. And his father can begin passing on the wisdom that he's been given from Allah. At that very instance. Right, he's been waiting for years. You know, when is this boy gonna be able to understand what I'm trying to teach him. Right then, Ibrahim.
When he reached that ripe age. Now, he's ready. At that point, he's shown in his dream, he's to sacrifice him.
The Consultation Between Father and Son
And he said to him:
He said to his son, "What do you think about this?" And this is an important lesson for us. Allah tells us:
"The affair of these Muslims is mutual consultation."
And this includes the relationship between the parents and the children. And the best way, brothers and sisters, for us to get our children to act like adults, is to treat them like adults. And the best way—we say, you know, you should grow up and be more mature, and then we treat them like children. The best way to treat them like adults is to speak with them like adults. And the best way to do that is to consult them. What do you think about?
So, Ibrahim, when he said:
Ismail's Response and Patience
"I've seen in my dream, I'm to sacrifice you. What do you think about this?" He asked him, what do you think about this? So, he consulted his son.
So, brothers and sisters, we have to consult our children. And you'll see a big change in their attitude because, wow, he's treating me like an adult. Maybe I should start acting like one. As opposed to telling them to act like an adult, and then treating them like children. And dictating to them, "You're gonna marry this person from our village."
I'm starting to make trouble. No, Ibrahim says, this is something—this is an order from Allah that he has to do. So, this is a grave matter, despite that he consulted him.
"What do you think about this?"
Ismail's Response and Patience
Now, what did Ismail say? If he would have said, "You know, father, I'm too young to die, you know, we're just getting ready to bond, real, in a very healthy way, and why me, why now?" This would have weighed on his heart because he has to do this.
But Ismail, he said, and this is a lesson for all the young people, be like these young people in the Qur'an. Be like the people of the cave, the companions of the cave. They were young people.
"They were young people who believed in their Lord. And We increased them in guidance."
Be like young Ibrahim. Be like this, be like Ismail. So he said:
"Oh father, do what you've been ordered to do."
"You will find me amongst those who are patient. You will find me amongst those who are patient."
So he said, do what you have to do. So brothers and sisters, young brothers and sisters, tell your parents, do what you have to do for this deen. I'll be patient. You know, I don't want to stress you out. You know, I don't want the new sneakers that I forced you to buy me last week. Take them back to the store. Send the money to Afghanistan. Huh? Is that what you brothers are going to do? In sha Allah? In sha Allah.
The Deeper Lesson of Patience
So this is an attitude. But there's a deeper lesson in this. And Shaykh Hamza touched on this in his Eid khutbah
yesterday. That is that patience, perseverance, acceptance of the orders of Allah, trying to understand the wisdom that the decree contains. This is the way out of our difficulties. This is the way out of our difficulties.
As we mentioned, there are a lot of ideas which have permeated our religion, which have no basis in Islam. And we have to accept this. That a lot of our movements, a lot of our political organizations have been permeated with the spirit of alien ideologies. And a lot of this occurred during the 20th century, after the breakdown of our traditional institutions. And this is why it's so important to reestablish those institutions. Because only by understanding Islam within an institutionalized context, that's built on sound knowledge, will we be able to gain a healthy and sound understanding of this religion.
As we said, the reformulation of Islam, to make it conform more to the liberational paradigm of Marxism, leads us to see the world in this Dar al-Harb, Dar al-Islam. And there's an irreconcilable conflict between the two. This is a Marxist idea. Where you have in the early parts of history, you had the slaves and the owners. And there was an irreconcilable antagonistic conflict between them. And then that inevitable struggle gave way to a new arrangement, between the serfs and the lords.
And there was an irreconcilable tension, an antagonistic conflict between them. They had to inevitably clash. And that clash was resolved with the creation of a new system, that again brought about an irreconcilable conflict between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie.
Lost Concepts: Peace and Protection
And a lot of people whose understanding of history, and understanding of social and political reality, was more shaped by these meanings and messages, because they hadn't formally studied Islam. Just look for an Islamic parallel to these ideas. So the idea of Dar al-Harb, Dar al-Islam, irreconcilable conflict, permanent revolution.
And the idea of Dar al-Hudna was lost. The idea of the land or abode of peace was lost. The idea of Al-Aman was lost. The protection that a non-Muslim enjoys in the Muslim realm, and the Muslim accepting to live peacefully in a non-Muslim realm, under the protection of that system. These ideas were lost, to the detriment of our ummah. And we have to revive this.
That there's a basis for peace between the Muslims and non-Muslims. Allah says:
"If those who are fighting you incline towards peace, you incline towards peace. And then put your trust in Allah. You incline towards peace, and then put your trust in Allah."
And they say:
"If they cease fighting you, then you cease. And there's no further transgression except against those who oppress."
This is our religion. The origin is peace. And the anomaly is war. As Shaykh Hamza mentioned yesterday:
The Reality of Modern Warfare
لَا تَتَمَنَّوْا لِقَاءَ الْعَدُقِ (Sahih al-Bukhari 2966)
"Don't anticipate meeting the enemy."
وَاسْأَلُوا اللَّهَ الْعَافِيَةَ (Sahih al-Bukhari 2966)
"Ask Allah for health, safety and security." Pray for safety and security. Because war is hell. War is hell. And now that hell disproportionately descends on the Muslims.
The Reality of Modern Warfare
Because we're no longer talking about spears. Where everyone can fashion a spear. The Muslim can make a spear just as well as the non-Muslim. We're no longer talking about swords. The Muslims can make a sword just as well as the non-Muslims. So there's parity.
Now we're talking about disproportionate force. And that disproportionate force cannot be marshaled by the Muslims. It can be marshaled against the Muslims. And it's becoming increasingly disproportionate. We're talking about they're working on weapons where you can push a button and scramble the brains of an entire population. And we have no viable defense.
Just as we have no viable defense against air bombardment. Why was Iraq bombed into the Middle Ages? They had a sophisticated modern state financed by oil money. Iraq was an OPEC oil exporting country. And they built a modern infrastructure. But they were powerless to avoid the destruction of that modern infrastructure. Because all of the weapons at their command were provided by the people fighting them.
Iraq didn't build the Mirages. They got them from France. They said they had chemical, biological capability. Nuclear, on the verge of developing a nuclear bomb. Where did they get all that technology from? They got it from Britain. They got it from American companies. That's where it came from. And the people who provided it made sure there was no effective deterrent against it being turned on them.
And so more bombs than were dropped in the Second World War in every theater of war were dropped on the Iraqis. And the sewage treatment plants were destroyed. So the people had to drink sewage. Knowing this would lead to disease. Would lead to the deaths of those half million children that Madeleine Albright admitted to four years ago on 60 Minutes. As an acceptable consequence of the policy this country is pursuing there. And the number is far higher. That's what was admitted to, brothers and sisters.
The Nuclear Fallout
Literally, nuclear war. The Iraqis experienced the fallout, no pun intended, of nuclear war. Why? On the one hand, there was a weapon used against their troops that has the force of a small nuclear device. A fuel-air explosive device. And on the other hand, 100 tons of depleted uranium was put on the tips of projectiles to facilitate piercing armor. And then as it sliced through the armor like butter, like a knife slicing through butter, it vaporized. And then that vapor traveled throughout the air and settled in the dust. And then the dust was blown.
Now we see the babies born without eyes, without internal organs, with nubs on their arms. And increasingly so. And the same thing in Afghanistan. There's been a drought there. And the same weapons have been used. And
now that atomic radiation in the dust is blowing all over the place. And even in this country, we're experiencing the consequence of that. Gulf War Syndrome. The veterans associations are suing the Department of Defense. Because they're experiencing the fallout of this.
Hoof and mouth disease is rampant in Iraq. Why? Because the factory they had eradicated the factory that makes the vaccine for the animals. It wasn't destroyed in the war. It was destroyed by the United Nations. With the consent and encouragement of this country in 1994. Why? Because the vaccine could be used to make nerve gas. So now hoof and mouth disease is ravaging the livestock of Iraq.
Old world screw worm is rampant in Iraq. Old world screw worm attacks human beings. It starts on the mucous membranes of the human body. So that includes the mouth and the anal orifice. It attacks the sheep. But as it proliferates, it spreads to human population. All of this is confronting the Iraqi people. And we know it's confronting the Afghani people.
So people are saying, fight, fight, fight as Muslims. And who haven't taken one measure to develop any effective deterrence against these terrible weapons of mass destruction, of genocidal important implication against the Muslims, are engaging in the epitome of irresponsibility. And haven't understood Islam at its most basic and fundamental level. We have to address this.
The Salvation Through Submission
So Ismail said:
And this patience is what led to the relieving or the lifting of the trial that his father had been exposed to.
"When both of them had submitted their wills to Allah." Ibrahim showed his willingness to implement this law or order to sacrifice his beloved son. And Ismail, so this is a story of two people.
"When the two of them had submitted to Allah." And Ismail said, "I'm patient, whatever you have to do, I'm ready for it." Father:
He had thrown him on the ground and he was preparing to sacrifice him. What was he told at this point?
"And we called out, 'O Ibrahim.'"
"You fulfilled the vision. You've shown your truthfulness in implementing this order you've received in your vision."
And then Allah says:
"Thus do we save those who are true and good and sincere in their worship."
So what was the source of their salvation?
"When they had submitted themselves to what Allah had exposed them to of this trial." Then:
"Thus do we save those who are sincere and good."
"Verily this was nothing but a clear trial."
Life as a Test
This was a trial. So this life, brothers and sisters, we're going to be tried in this life. We're going to be tried to see how we respond to these trials. And we have to respond with patience, perseverance and wisdom. We have to respond with wisdom. And by doing so, the trial is lifted. That's the nature of this life. That's the nature of this life. And our response to these trials determines how we are going to live in the real life, the life to come.
This is only a test. This is only a test. And then we get the rewards for passing the test after the test. This whole life is a test.
"Blessed is the one who has in his hand the dominion of all things and He over all things has power."
"Who has created death and life and everything between these two ends to test you and try you to see which of you is best in deed. Which of you is best in deed?"
Which of you are going to continue to articulate the lofty principles of Islam? Or will we sell out to the corrupt and corruptible influences of this world? Will we turn and look for a way out in the ways of men who are like those described?
Like cattle, those who don't use the faculties Allah has blessed us with to try to understand the wisdom and the underlying realities that govern this existence, that govern this world. We look for their solutions? Their solutions are the solutions of people who are turned away from God. Their political solutions are predicated on power politics, are predicated on realpolitik.
Machiavelli, what happened when he issued his solution, his advice to the prince? The church, they excommunicated him. "Oh my God, how can a human being engage in politics based on these principles? This is an ungodly way of going about business." Are we going to be guided by those people? Are we going to be guided by people who submitted to the will of Allah?
"When they had submitted, the two of them."
So this is a lesson in the story of Ismail.
Introduction to Malcolm X's Journey
Now how does this figure in the context of Malcolm X? That's what we're here for, not to Ibrahim and Ismail, this is contextualization. Malcolm X was known at the end of his life as Al-Hajj Malik al-Shabazz. He was known as Al-Hajj, the pilgrim. So his story is intricately associated with these days that we are witnessing. Al- Hajj Malik al-Shabazz. This is what he was known as because of the impact of the Hajj. And his becoming Al- Hajj Malik al-Shabazz was predicated on his ability to submit himself to the will of Allah. To submit himself and to accept the dictates of Al-Islam. This is what led to that transformation.
So we want to look at him. And we want to look at the transformation he undertook. And we want to look at the causes of that and the implications for our situation. Malcolm X, for much of his life, he was a racist. Racists come in all colors. Racism is an equal opportunity employer. It doesn't discriminate. On the basis of racism, we discriminate. But racism itself doesn't discriminate. Racism is an equal opportunity employer. No discrimination.
So we have white racists and we have black racists. We have brown, yellow, and red racists. Malcolm X was a racist. And we cannot blame him. Because America made him a racist. Not America herself, but a lot of the socio-political realities of America, that were found in America during his youth, led him to be a racist.
Malcolm X's Traumatic Childhood
What did he experience? And a lot of this is relevant for us today. First of all, he experienced his family's home being burned to the ground by the Ku Klux Klan. He experienced that. So a child living through that horrific reality, what sort of impression do we think that would leave on his consciousness, on his heart, and in his mind?
He lived with the reality of his father being murdered. Again, by racist forces. His father was spread out across a train track, and then tied down or held down until the train cut his body in half. And then they said it was an accident. That a strong, intelligent, dedicated man, dignified man, with no apparent mitigating or precipitating factors or causes, would commit suicide in that manner. He was murdered.
And Malcolm and his family, his mother and brothers and sisters, and the community there in Lansing, Michigan, understood that he was murdered. So having your father murdered, again, by racist forces, what kind of imprint or impression does this leave on your consciousness, on your being, towards those forces?
And again, this is relevant for us, because a lot of our children today, their fathers are being murdered. Some in the streets, not necessarily by racist forces. Some in the streets, drug battles, gang banging, etc. Many, many children have to grow up with the realities of their fathers being murdered, today in America. So Malcolm X experienced that.
The Impact of Malcolm's Mother
He experienced his mother, who was an intelligent, dignified, upright, very conscientious individual, and her life is under study. If you want to read a brilliant study of the role and the impact of Malcolm X's mother, read a book called Ghost in Our Blood, or In My Blood. And by, what's his name? Allah, I've read this book, but a few years back. Teaches, I think, University of Wisconsin. Allah, it'll come to me, insha'Allah. But look up that book, Ghost in Our Blood. And the central story in it, one of the themes, central themes, is examining the impact of Malcolm X's mother on the person who will become Malcolm X.
So, she was a brilliant lady. She used to be one of the writers for Marcus Garvey's journal. She was a writer for Marcus Garvey's journal. She was a strong, intelligent lady. And she raised their children to be strong, and encouraged them to develop their intellects.
But Malcolm, he lived, as his brothers and sisters, they lived to see their mother, after the death of his father, humiliated by the degrading reality of a so-called welfare system. With the father gone, she had to go on welfare. And she was humiliated by this experience. And how many of our mothers have to go through this experience? Because of the social realities prevalent in many areas of this country. Humiliation. And some of them are Muslims, unfortunately. Our Muslim sisters experienced that time in New York.
The Humiliation of the Welfare System
And this is a shame on the brothers. We were living over here, and Malcolm was saying how, this was the pre- Hajj Malcolm, how in Alabama, a group of African-American men were standing around watching an African- American woman be beaten by Bull Connor's police force in Alabama. And not doing nothing. He said, "This is humiliation that these men are putting the women through."
And our women in New York were humiliated. Muslim sisters, by welfare. Because the fathers were not bearing responsibility for their children. And were encouraging the mothers to go and register for welfare. Instead of getting a job and taking care of those children.
So where is the humiliation? The sister, as you know, in America, this is—in Sweden, you don't just show up and get some money. You have to have a cause. And one cause or program like AFDC, Aid for Families with Dependent Children. And to be eligible, you have to not know where that father is. Or who that father is. Otherwise, they'll go after him and take the money. Because the state is not benevolent. "We're not going to give you anything if we know who the father is. We're going to garnish his paycheck."
So sisters are filling out forms and applications for welfare. And it comes: the child's father unknown. So you know what they started calling our sisters? The holy whores. The holy whores. "You're coming down here with all this garb and hijab and niqab and long clothes on. But you don't even know who your father, your baby's father is."
So our sisters were humiliated. And referred to as the holy whores. So this is a degrading and degrading system. And Malcolm saw his mother dragged through the murk and the mire of that humiliation. Until she lost her mind. And had to be confined to an insane asylum.
Crushed Dreams and Aspirations
He had to live through being told as a black boy in America that he couldn't aspire to be a lawyer. Which was his aspiration. That he couldn't develop his mind. He had to learn a manual trade. Because that was his lot in life. As a black man. So his dreams and aspirations were crushed.
Now a young man developing in this milieu. What do you think? Can you blame him for being a racist? Can you blame him when at every stop in the road, the person putting up the road block is a European American? He hated white people. And we can't blame him. And it was a deeply entrenched hatred.
So when he heard the teachings of the Nation of Islam, that the white man is the devil, this struck a responding chord within him. And a lot of us are familiar with the rest of the story. So with this sort of background, it's no wonder that he was a racist. We can't blame him. If we're intelligent and compassionate. And are able to empathize with the plight of other peoples and other situations than our own. We can't blame him.
Rising Above What America Made Him
But he was able to rise above what America made him. And this is a challenge for all of us. We have to all reach down within ourselves and rise above what we've been made. And respond to that call of Ibrahim. To become something higher and something bigger. So we can lift this country up. So that this noble historical mission— the mission that has been described for this country by the so-called founding fathers. Now we can be tripped up on what they did. Say "Well you're talking about these people like they're something special. They were a bunch of slave owners. And they didn't even recognize the humanity of an African slave. He was chattel. He was three- fifths of a man in reckoning the population."
We can get tripped up on that. And not look at the vision that informed what they were trying to bring about. Because the vision was bigger than those particulars. So they might have been bumping into a lot of trees. But the forest they described was something—a very noble human project. And if we can all collectively reach down and transcend what the country has made us, then we can use that vision to make this country and make this world a far better place to live.
Malcolm's Response to the Ancient Call
So Malcolm was able to do that. He was able to transcend and go beyond what America had made him. And why was he able to do that? He was able to do that because he was able to respond to the ancient call:
ARABIC TEXT (CRITICAL - PRESERVE EXACTLY)
Malcolm's Journey to Hajj
He said, read his autobiography. He said in the preparation for creating an organization he named Muslim Mosque Incorporated. So he said, "There were many preliminaries I had to do to make this organization work."
And then he says (رَحِمَهُ اللهُ - rahimahullah) may Allah have mercy on him. He said in his autobiography, page 317, he said,
"There was one further major preparation that I knew I needed. I had it in my mind for a long time. As a servant of Allah. As a servant of Allah."
And brothers and sisters, don't let this world forget that Malcolm X, al-Hajj Malik al-Shabazz, was a dedicated Muslim. He describes himself here as a servant of Allah. And Betty Shabazz herself, his late wife, Dr. Betty Shabazz, in New York City in 1992, before her untimely demise, she told me, she said, at the 96th Street Masjid, she said, "We Muslims have a responsibility." She said, "The nationalists are letting the world know about Malcolm the Nationalist. And the leftists and socialists are letting the world know about Malcolm the Socialist."
She said that the Muslims have a responsibility to let the world know about Malcolm the Muslim. And he says here, he said, "There was one further major preparation that I knew that I needed. I had had it. I had it in my mind for a long time. As a servant of Allah, I said, I want to make the pilgrimage to Mecca." This was the last step that he felt he needed in order to make this organization work.
The World of Brotherhood Malcolm Discovered
And when he made that pilgrimage, he saw a whole other world. He saw a whole other world. He saw a world of brotherhood. And we can argue this was an idealized picture of the Muslim world. That, you know, it's not like that, as some of his critics have said. It's not like that, but in Mecca at Hajj it's like that.
And the Hajj, as human beings, ideals are what raise us to a higher level. We aspire towards an ideal. And by aspiring towards ideals, we are able to create a better reality, which if it doesn't attain to the ideal, at least it approximates the ideal. But when we can no longer aspire, what hope do we have as humanity, as human beings?
And this world, they want to strip us of our ideals. They want to make us people who can't aspire to anything higher. This is the whole premise of Francis Fukuyama and the forces behind him. The end of history. "This is it. We can't do better than liberal democracy and free market capitalism." Then we're in bad shape, brothers and sisters. But this is the thesis they're trying to put. "This is the end of history. This is it. It doesn't get no better than this."
The Attainable Ideal of Hajj
And we have to continue to aspire towards ideals. Hajj is a reality. You can go there and see what Malcolm saw. Even if that reality represents an idealized representation of Islam vis-a-vis the reality in many of our Muslim countries, it is an attainable ideal because it's attained every year in Mecca. Where those people from all of those corners where Ibrahim's voice reached respond to the call:
"We're coming Allah, we're coming. We're responding to the call."
"We're coming, you have no partners."
No Partners with Allah
And we have to tell this world, Allah has no partners. And many things have been made partners. Money has been made a partner to Allah. So when we talk about idolatry, we're not just talking about statues that the old pagans used to carve from wood and stone and worship. Anything can be made a partner with Allah.
The Prophet ﷺ in Sahih al-Bukhari says:
(تَعِسَ عَبْدُ الدِّينَارِ وَالدِّرْهَمِ وَالْخَمِيصَةِ - ta'isa 'abdu al-dīnāri wa al-dirhami wa al-khameesah) (Sahih al-Bukhari 2887)
"The worshipper of money and clothes is ruined."
Clothes have been made partners with Allah. Money has been made partners with Allah. And all the things money can buy have been made partners with Allah. But those who understand and respond to the call, they say:
"We are coming, we're responding. You have no partners. We're coming."
And they come. Every year they come. The black, the white, the brown, the yellow, the red. Everything in between, they come. And Malcolm saw that and that changed his whole view of race and the race problem. That cured his racism.
Malcolm's Famous Letter from Mecca
And he says, when he wrote his famous letter, which everyone should copy and read. The letter he wrote to
many different people. And this belies the argument that this was a political stunt. First he said, "I mean this from the bottom of my heart." And he wrote to his wife. He wrote to his former associates. He wrote to his friends. He wrote to some of his enemies about his experience. And the message was the same.
And at the heart of this message, he says, may Allah be pleased with him and have mercy on him. He says that concerning the attitude of the people he saw, who he described as being the blondest of blondes and having blue eyes and white skin. He says that at that Hajj, he said, "We were all truly all the same brothers. All the same brothers. We were all truly all the same brothers."
He said, "Because the belief in God had removed the white from their minds"—from these white Muslims he saw—"and the white from their behavior and the white from their attitude." And then he said, "If America could understand the oneness of God, perhaps Islam would cure America of the race problem."
The Mission to Cure America's Race Problem
And this is a message all of us as Muslims collectively have to bring to this country. And it would be the greatest—because this is the one nagging issue which prevents this country from living out the true meanings and implications of that mission that was drafted for her. This is the nagging problem. James Baldwin talked about it. The Fire Next Time. "There's going to be a fire next time if we don't get beyond this issue."
Malcolm talked about it. Many social and political commentators have talked about it. The problem of race. Brzezinski talked about it. As we were discussing with Shaykh Hamza this morning, speaking of Brzezinski talked about it. Many commentators understand that this is the nagging issue that this country has to resolve.
And it would be one of the greatest travesties of history—and understand me well, because Malcolm was trying to move beyond this—it would be one of the greatest travesties of history if the Muslims who are the only people that can bring this message to America are torn and separated and sunk into the quagmire of racism ourselves. This will be a betrayal of the mission Allah has been moving us towards.
History's Culminating Moments
History moves towards culminating points. Marxists, they call it revolutionary moments. Others have described it in other ways, but history moves towards culminating events and points and moments. And the culminating moment for Islam in this country, the destiny of this Muslim community, as Malcolm understood from the Valley of Mecca, is to cure America of the race problem.
And if we as Muslims let any force, Muslim or non-Muslim, transform us into racists who are incapable of bringing this message to America, we have betrayed Islam and we have betrayed Malcolm. We have betrayed Malcolm. If Malcolm said that perhaps if America could understand Islam, she could be cured of the race problem, who will teach America Islam if not the Muslims? Who will teach America Islam if not the Muslims? Brothers and sisters, don't betray this mission Allah is bringing us forward to engage in, to undertake.
The Need for Change and Flexibility
So in conclusion, brothers and sisters, many of us understand that to, as Muslims, to exercise or undertake this
mission, we have to change the way we have been going about our business. We have to change the nature of our discourse. When Shaykh Hamza said we have to change the nature of our discourse and started changing the nature of his discourse, people turned on him. They condemned him. They said "He's selling us out."
How come no one said Malcolm was selling us out? When he went to Mecca and he changed the nature of his discourse. Or if some of us were alive back then, would we have told Malcolm he's selling us out? That he's cowing under to the pressure of the system? Or he's afraid now that the heat is on?
Malcolm said, he responded to his critics and he responded to the critics who are putting forth the same message in these times. And this is what I will conclude with. He says that discussing the honesty and flexibility necessary to change in the face of new realities. He says, "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 the truth."
Final Words: Seizing the Historical Moment
Brothers and sisters, we have to understand that tactically nothing is etched in stone. We have to have the mental and intellectual flexibility to analyze our situation in the light of new facts. And we have been presented with an overwhelming array of new facts within the last few months. And if we do not adapt and change and demonstrate the flexibility that Malcolm demonstrated in the light of new facts, then we will not be able to seize this historical moment that Allah has opened up before us.
So like Malcolm, brothers and sisters, we have to rise up. We have to have the courage to reassess our situation. And if the circumstances require it, we have to have the courage to change in the light of new facts. And if we are able to do that, we shall, insha'Allah, if Allah so wills, we shall seize the moment. And history will never be the same.
So I leave you with that thought and I thank you for your attentiveness on this beautiful Sunday afternoon. Jazakumullah khairan.
And despite the grave situation Malcolm found himself in, he never lost the ability to smile. And those of you familiar, you know exactly what I'm talking about.