Malcolm X: His life and lessons to be learnt

48 years ago today, on February 21, 1965, Al Hajj Malik El-Shabbazz, better known to the world as Malcolm X was assassinated. As he began to address the Organization of Afro-American Unity in Manhattan’s Audubon Ballroom, two men, members of the organization he himself was a part of a year ago, gave his body 21 gunshot wounds to put an end to his mortal life. Today 48 years later, we remember Malcolm X, a revolutionary, a leader, a hero, and most important of all, a seeker of truth.

Malcolm X was born Malcolm little on May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. His father was a Baptist minister and a follower of Marcus Garvey, a Black Nationalist leader, who preached race pride and separation from whites. When Malcolm was six, his father was killed by a street trolley; Malcolm believed he had been assassinated, his mother reportedly suffered a nervous breakdown, and was admitted to a mental institution.

The America, in which Malcolm grew up, was racist and having been denied opportunity from his earliest years, he embraced a life of crime, inevitable for a black youth like him in those days.

At the age of twenty-one, he was arrested for armed robbery and sent to prison. During his incarceration, Malcolm underwent a spiritual and intellectual transformation.

Malcolm had never been religious in the strictest sense, and being in prison, and experiencing the brutal realities of life, he developed a strong antagonism towards God, the Bible, and all things religious. So when he started receiving letters from his brothers about a religious leader named Elijah Muhammad, he was reluctant and angry. But as the letters and personal visits from his brothers became frequent, Malcolm became fascinated with the doctrine taught by Elijah Muhammad. He was particularly affected by Elijah Muhammad’s teaching that white people as a whole were literally “devils”. The “devil” part was answer to all his questions. The reason his father was killed, the reason his mother became insane, he getting separated from his brothers and sisters, the reason he became a criminal and getting jailed, was all because “of this white devil”.

As he began to absorb the new teachings, he simultaneously began educating himself. He read voraciously, and even copied the entire dictionary, when he was finished, he “could for the first time pick up a book and read and now begin to understand what the book was saying.”

After being released from prison, Malcolm embraced the ‘Nation of Islam’, and received his “X” symbolizing his unknown African tribal name.

The ‘Nation of Islam’, was a religious cult, whose leader Elijah Muhammad preached, apart from Black Nationalism, that he was a “messenger of god” and god was a “human being” whose name was Wallace Fard Muhammad, who mysteriously disappeared in 1934.

Malcolm soon became the organization’s most articulate spokesman, and under him it grew rapidly, and he himself rose to national prominence. He was concerned with the social injustice and institutionalized racism practiced by “white America” against his people and wanted to eradicate it by “any means necessary”.

Malcolm X’s oratory was fiery, powerful and was uncompromising in challenging white authority and its cruelty. His increasing popularity though, was seen with jealousy and resentment from the leadership of the Nation of Islam, including Elijah Muhammad himself.

Malcolm was sidelined in the organization, and after falling out with its leader amid threats of violence and revelations of sexual misconduct on part of Elijah Muhammad he left the ‘Nation of Islam’ in 1963.

He then embarked on a pilgrimage to Makkah, where he learnt the true teachings of Islam and willfully submitted to it. It was here, that Malcolm’s views did a turnaround after having “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”.

The Hajj not only changed his religious views but also his approach to the problems of racism and oppression of blacks in America. He saw as he told to author Alex Haley, “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…”

After returning from Makkah, threats against him intensified and his home was firebombed. Malcolm’s new universal message was American establishment’s worst nightmare. Not only was he appealing to his people, but to intellectuals of all races. But just when this ‘new’ Malcolm had started to communicate his new ideas, his worldly life came to an abrupt end.

Malcolm X was “political” but not a “politician”. He did not believe in getting inside the house caught in fire, to stop the mayhem from spreading across the neighborhood, instead he tried to extinguish it from outside. He stood for justice, and did not turn his other cheek for its accomplishment. And anyone who is serious about changing the present reality of Muslims in this country should consider this point.

Too often, we look up to the so-called “Muslim leaders” of this country or to some political parties to help us out of our “deplorable conditions”, and too often have we failed to understand that political parties are only interested in our votes, and “Muslim leaders” of these parties only happen to be leaders who are Muslims.

There needs to be a concrete and thoughtful method to bring in change, and that change is possible, and if anyone is doubtful, then they only need to look into the life Malcolm X, and many like him.