As we celebrate Eid al-Adha this year, let us think of the thirsty, the hungry, and the poor. Let the transformative spirit of Hajj make us come closer to the rest of Humanity in thought and deed. El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, also known as Malcolm X, wrote about this spirit after his pilgrimage in 1964:
“Last night I made my seven circuits around the Kaaba, led by a young Mutawif named Muhammad. I drank water from the well of Zem Zem, and then ran back and forth seven times between the hills of Mt. Al-Safa and Al-Marwah.
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 were all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in America had led me to believe could never exist between the white and non-white.
America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases the race problem from its society. Throughout my travels in the Muslim world, I have met, talked to, and even eaten with, people who would have been considered “white” in America, but the religion of Islam in their hearts has removed the “white” from their minds. They practice sincere and true brotherhood with other people irrespective of their color.
Before America allows herself to be destroyed by the “cancer of racism” she should become better acquainted with the religious philosophy of Islam, a religion that has already molded people of all colors into one vast family, a nation or brotherhood of Islam that leaps over all “obstacles” and stretches itself into almost all the Eastern countries of this earth.
The whites, as well as the non-whites who accept true Islam become a changed people. I have eaten from the same plate with people whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white-all the way from Cairo to Jedda and even in the Holy City of Mecca itself-and I felt the same sincerity in the words and deeds of these “white” Muslims that I felt among the African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana.
True Islam removes racism, because people of all colors and races who accept its religious principles and bow down to the One God, Allah, also automatically accept each other as brothers and sisters, regardless of differences in complexion.
You may be shocked by these words coming from me, but I have always been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experiences and knowledge unfolds it. The experiences of this pilgrimage have taught me much, and each hour here in the Holy Land opens my eyes even more….”
– Letter dated April 19th, 1964 from El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X)
The KARAMAH Family wishes you an Eid filled with family and many blessings. Eid Mubarak!
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