Praise and thanks be to the Creator

In the spring of 1964 Malcolm X left the United States to perform the Muslim Pilgrimage (Hajj). Malcolm X had already left the cult of the so-called “Nation of Islam” and rejected the blasphemous teachings of Elijah Muhammad. (Among Elijah Muhammad blasphemies was that he claimed the Creator of the universe was born to a white(!) woman in 1877.) Malcolm now professed his belief in the Oneness and Perfection of God (Allah).

Sadly, many people are confused about the religion of Islam. Many people still think that Islam teaches the hatred of white people. At the end of Malcolm X’s life, he knew better. He wrote back to America about his experiences during his Pilgrimage (“Hajj”). The following are excerpts of his “Letter from Hajj” in the Autobiography of Malcolm X (pages 340-341):

“There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world. They were all colors, from blue-eyed blond 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 white and non-white.

“America needs to understand Islam, because it is the one religion that erases from 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.”

Malcolm went on to say:

“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 and in the deeds of the ‘white’ Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among 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 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.”

Unfortunately there are many misguided factions and organizations that claim to represent Islam, but in reality these extremists groups give Muslims an undeserved reputation. Islam is first and foremost about the proper belief in God and the Prophets. For a person to be a Muslim, he or she must satisfy the condition of believing correctly in God and the Prophets.

Muslims believe in One God, and that God alone should be worshiped (“Allah” is the name of God in the Arabic language.) Muslims believe that the Creator is Eternal and Everlasting. God is Perfect and does not change. God is not in need of the creations and exists without time or place. The Creator has knowledge and power over everything. Everything is created by God. Allah is absolutely different from the creations. God is not a body, nor an image, nor a spirit. God is not grasped by the mind. Allah is not a product of the imagination, but rather, Allah is the Creator of our minds, and whatever we imagine, Allah is different from that.

Muslims believe that Prophet Muhammad, who lived fourteen hundred years ago, is the last Prophet and Messenger of God. Prophet Muhammad, like all the other Prophets, such as, Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus received Divine Revelation from God. All the Prophets came with the same belief–God is Perfect and does not change, and the correct belief in God does not change. None of the Prophets claimed they were God or the offspring of God–but the Prophets are the most righteous creations of God. The Prophets conveyed what God ordered them to convey, and they called people to the same religion—the Religion of Islam.

Like all the other Prophets, God gave Prophet Muhammad miracles. Among the hundreds of miracles God gave Prophet Muhammad were: the Qur’an (the Muslim Scripture), the springing of water from between his fingers, feeding many people from small containers of food, healing the sick and injured in an extraordinary manner, numerous accurate predictions about future events, and many other miracles.

Islam is a religion of moderation. Muslims do not teach racial hatred. Instead, Muslims believe that the merit of a person is not based on skin color but on obedience to God. The Qur’an says what means:

“O mankind! Allah created you from a single pair of a male and female (Adam and Eve), and made you into nations and tribes, that you may get to know one another. Certainly the most honored of you to Allah is the one who is the most righteous.” (Al-Hujarat, 49:22)

Prophet Muhammad said:

“Allah judges people not according to your bodies and faces, but rather according to your hearts and deeds.”

Prophet Muhammad also said: “The most noble of the people is the one who is the most pious.”

In Islam, human excellence is based upon sincere obedience to God—and not upon ethnicity or race or skin color. The person who earnestly learns and practices Islam will earn the greatest success, which is, to dwell forever in Paradise. For a person to become Muslim, one simply says:

“I BEAR WITNESS NOTHING IS WORTHY OF WORSHIP EXCEPT ALLAH, AND I BEAR WITNESS MUHAMMAD IS THE MESSENGER.”

May Allah guide us and grant us the best of this world and the Hereafter.

[Nota Bene: it is important to take note that Malcolm X (El-Hajj Malik Shabazz) was NOT a Muslim scholar–nor did he claim to be. Instead, after leaving the so-called Nation of Islam, and spending time in the Muslim world, he professed his ignorance of Sunni Islam. And as we know, he was murdered in less than a year after his return from Hajj. This is not to slander Malcolm, but it is important to know that if we wish to seek authentic traditional Islamic knowledge, we have to go to those people who have it. Our obedience to the Creator and safety and salvation in the Hereafter is contingent, in part, on acquiring a proper understanding of the genuine teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu `alayhi wasallam)].