As we said on these pages last week,the Ides of February are, to this writer, more ominous than Shakespeare’s Ides of March. We discussed how, during the month of February, three heroes Imam Hasan Al Banna, Malcolm X and Murtala Muhammad were assassinated. Today, the 21st day of February, is the exact date of the murder of El-Hadj Malik el-Shabazz, better known as Malcolm X, arguably the greatest African-American ever. Born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925, Shabazz was killed a few weeks short of his 40th birthday. But what eventful 39 years he lived!
Malcolm’s biographer, Alex Haley (author of Roots), narrates what happened that fateful day of February 21, 1965 at the Auduborn Ballroom in New York City: “[Malcolm] walked out onto the stage into the applause...then came his familiar ringing greeting: ‘Assalam Alaikum brothers and sisters!’ ‘Alaikum Salaam!’ the audience responded. Just then, about eight rows of seats from the front, a disturbance occurred. In a sudden scuffling, a man’s voice was raised angrily: ‘Take your hand out of my pocket!’ The entire audience was swiveling to look.
“Hold it! Hold it! Don’t get excited,’ Malcolm X said crisply: ‘Let’s cool it,
brothers.’ With his own attention distracted, it is possible that he never saw the gunmen. One woman who was seated near the front says: ‘The commotion back there diverted me just for an instant, then I turned back to look at Malcolm X just in time to see at least three men in the front row stand and take aim and start firing simultaneously. It looked like a firing squad...I saw Malcolm hit with the shots, with his hands still raised, then he fell back over the chairs behind him...”
Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un! So ended the life of one of the greatest humans in history. Muslims believe there can never be another prophet after Muhammad, upon whom be peace. But Allah still sends gifted people as reformers who make a difference on this earth one way or another. Malcom X was one of them, as Imam Hasan Al Banna was another (as Dr. Yusuf Al Qaradawi was quoted in last week’s piece).
In a recent tribute to Malcolm, Melissa Harris-Lacewell, Professor of Politics and African-American Studies at Princeton University, said: “As we stop to reconsider Malcolm X...we should reaffirm our own commitments to creating a more just and fair world. We should express to his spirit our gratitude, not for his perfection, but for his courage and for the lessons he imparted to us, to light the way for our struggle.” She was spot on: Malcolm was the one who, more than anyone else, opened the door through which President Barack Obama strode to become what he has become today.
Therefore, let us visit vintage Malcolm in his own voice:
“[In Accra, Ghana] I went down to my hotel’s restaurant for breakfast. It was full whites discussing Africa’s untapped wealth as though the African waiters had no ears! It nearly ruined my meal, thinking how in America they set police dogs on black people...and now, once again in the land where their forefathers had stolen blacks and thrown them into slavery, was that white man...I made up my mind that as long as I was in Africa, every time I opened my mouth, I was going to make things hot for that white exploiter – it had been her human wealth the last time, now he wanted Africa’s mineral wealth.”
At the University of Ibadan, Nigeria: “...I was made an honourary member of the Nigerian Muslim Students’ Society. Right here in my wallet is my card: ‘Alhadji Malcolm X. Registration No. M-138.’ With the membership, I was given a new name: ‘Omowale.’ It means, in the Yoruba language, ‘the son who has come home.’ I meant it when I told them I had never received a more treasured honour.”
At other places:
“Stumbling is not falling.”
“Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.”
“Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery.”
“Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you’re a man, you take it.”
“Power never takes a back step - only in the face of more power.”
“You don’t have to be a man to fight for freedom. All you have to do is to be an intelligent human being.”
“I believe that it would be impossible to find anywhere in America a black man who has lived further down in the mud of human society than I have; or a black man who has been any more ignorant than I have been; or a black man who has suffered more anguish during his life than I have. But it is only after this deepest darkness that the greatest joy can come; it is only after slavery and prison that the sweetest appreciation of freedom can come. I do believe that I have fought the best that I could, with the shortcomings that I have had. I know that my shortcomings are many.”
“It is a time for martyrs now, and if I am to be one, it will be for the cause of brotherhood. That’s the only thing that can save this country.” (February 19, 1965, just two days before he was murdered).
May Allah’s mercy be upon His great servant Abdul Malik Shabazz (Malcolm X).
No comments:
Post a Comment