In this column, on 16 June, 2024, during that year’s Hajj, in an article titled “The Hajj experience,” key aspects of Hajj and their significance were highlighted. As the 2025 Hajj rites are ongoing and in continuation of the celebration of the centenary of Malcom X’s birth on 19 May, 1925, let’s look at one of his most profound life-changing experiences – his pilgrimage to Mecca, in Saudi Arabia, in 1964.
In 1952, in the context of extensive racism against blacks in America, Malcolm joined the Nation of Islam which was led by the charismatic Elijah Muhammad. About Malcolm’s protégé, Muhammad Ali, in a 5 June, 2016 report in the Independent (UK), Adam Lusher reported: “The whites of America, said Ali, had ‘lynched us, raped us, castrated us, tarred and feathered us … Elijah Muhammad has been preaching that the white man of America … is the blue-eyed, blond-headed Devil! No good in him!’”
Malcolm also noted: “Elijah Muhammad had told us that the white man could not enter into Mecca … and all of us who followed him … believed it; and he said the reason he couldn’t enter was because he’s white and inherently evil. It’s impossible to change him. And the only thing that would change him is Islam, and he can’t accept Islam because by nature he’s evil. And, therefore, by not being able to accept Islam and become a Muslim, he could never enter Mecca.”
Malcolm further reasoned: “Being friendly and being a friend, I think, are two different things. … The fox acts friendly towards the lamb and usually the fox is the one who ends up with the lamb chop on its plate. The wolf doesn’t act friendly, and therefore the wolf has more difficulty in getting the lamb chop in its plate. … The white liberal who usually poses as the friend of the Negro … actually differs from the white conservative … in the same way that the fox differs from the wolf: their appetite is the same, their motives are the same. It’s only their mannerisms and methods that differ.”
It was in this atmosphere of racial distrust that Malcolm X set out to perform the Hajj. On 25 April, 1964, he wrote a letter home from Mecca, detailing his Hajj experience. The letter read in part:
“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 Mecca. I have made my seven circuits around the Ka’ba, led by a young Mutawaf named Muhammad. I drank water from the well of the Zam Zam. 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 blonds 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 re-arrange 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 in the same bed (or 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 actions 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, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X).”
This means that, on his 1964 Hajj, Malcolm had a direct experience of the following Qur’anic injunctions on racial equality: (a) Chapter 30, Verse 22: “And of His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth and the diversity of your languages and your colors. Indeed in that are signs for those of knowledge.” (b) Chapter 49, Verse 13: “O humanity! Indeed, We created you from a male and a female, and made you into peoples and tribes so that you may get to know one another. Surely the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous among you. Allah is truly All-Knowing, All-Aware.”
These Qur’anic injunctions are more explicitly specified in the following excerpt from Prophet Muhammad’s last sermon, which as IslamReligion.com states, “was delivered during the Hajj of the year 632 C.E. [10 A.H.], the ninth day of Dhul Hijjah, the 12th month of the lunar year, at Arafat, the most blessed day of the year”: “All mankind is from Adam and Eve. An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab, nor does a non-Arab have any superiority over an Arab; a white has no superiority over a black, nor does a black have any superiority over a white; [none has superiority over another] except by piety and good action. Learn that every Muslim is a brother to every Muslim and that the Muslims constitute one brotherhood.”
The Prophet’s last sermon also admonished, concerning the treatment of women, a theme dear to Malcolm’s heart: “O People, it is true that you have certain rights with regard to your women, but they also have rights over you. Remember that you have taken them as your wives only under a trust from God and with His permission. If they abide by your right then to them belongs the right to be fed and clothed in kindness. Do treat your women well and be kind to them for they are your partners and committed helpers.”
In Mecca, Malcolm moved away from the fringe version of Islam practised by the Nation of Islam, back home, to mainstream Sunni Islam, and took the name El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. In a 1964 interview in America, he noted that Malik El-Shabazz was a name he had always had on his passport, but which he used only in the Muslim world, and that he had merely added “El-Hajj” (‘one who has performed the pilgrimage to Mecca’) to it.”
The Hajj experience purged Malcolm of the anti-white stereotypes he acquired from his unquestioning followership of Elijah Muhammad. In one interview, he said: “I think you’ll find that if Negroes ever have to resort to any kind of physical action to defend themselves, many white people will be on the side of Negroes. Many white people are fed up with what the Negroes suffer. And this is what I had to become aware of on my pilgrimage to Mecca.” The interviewer then noted: “You have changed your attitude about the white man in the United States to some extent.” Malcolm responded: “Well, I’ve broadened my scope. Travel broadens your scope, gives you a wider understanding.”
Malcolm X’s travels were also opportunities for building a strategic international consensus preparatory to approaching the United Nations, as an interviewer put it, to “ask that charges be brought against the United States for its treatment of African Negroes.” Unfortunately, this incremental strategic movement was terminated with Malcolm X’s assassination on 21 February, 1965.
