praying, chanting pilgrims, moving seven times around the Ka'ba. Some were bent and wizened
with age; it was a sight that stamped itself on the brain. I saw incapacitated pilgrims being carried
by others. Faces were enraptured in their faith. The seventh time around, I prayed two Rak'a,
prostrating myself, my head on the floor. The first prostration, I prayed the Quran verse "Say He is
God, the one and only"; the second prostration: "Say O you who are unbelievers, I worship not
that which you worship... ."
As I prostrated, the Mutawaf fended pilgrims off to keep me from being trampled.
The Mutawaf and I next drank water from the well of Zem Zem. Then we ran between the two
hills, Safa and Marwa, where Hajar wandered over the same earth searching for water for her
child Ishmael.
Three separate times, after that, I visited the Great Mosque and circumambulated the Ka'ba. The
next day we set out after sunrise toward Mount Arafat, thousands of us, crying in unison:
"Labbayka! Labbayka!" and "Allah Akbar!" Mecca is surrounded by the crudest-looking mountains
I have ever seen; they seem to be made of the slag from a blast furnace. No vegetation is on
them at all. Arriving about noon, we prayed and chanted from noon until sunset, and theasr
(afternoon) and Maghrib (sunset) special prayers were performed.
Finally, we lifted our hands in prayer and thanksgiving, repeating Allah's words: "There is no God
but Allah. He has no partner. His are authority and praise. Good emanates from Him, and He has
power over all things."
Standing on Mount Arafat had concluded the essential rites of being a pilgrim to Mecca. No one
who missed it could consider himself a pilgrim.
The Ihram had ended. We cast the traditional seven stones at the devil. Some had their hair
and beards cut. I decided that I was going to let my beard remain. I wondered what my wife Betty,
and our little daughters, were going to say when they saw me with a beard, when I got back to
New York. New York seemed a million miles away. I hadn't seen a newspaper that I could read
since I left New York. I had no idea what was happening there. A Negro rifle club that had been in
existence for over twelve years in Harlem had been "discovered" by the police; it was being
trumpeted that I was "behind it." Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam had a lawsuit going against
me, to force me and my family to vacate the house in which we lived on Long Island.
The major press, radio, and television media in America had representatives in Cairo hunting all
over, trying to locate me, to interview me about the furor in New York that I had allegedly caused-
when I knew nothing about any of it.
I only knew what I had left in America, and how it contrasted with what I had found in the Muslim
world. About twenty of us Muslims who had finished the Hajj were sitting in a huge tent on Mount
Arafat. As a Muslim from America, I was the center of attention. They asked me what about the
Hajj had impressed me the most. One of the several who spoke English asked; they translated
my answers for the others. My answer to that question was not the one they expected, but it
drove home my point.
I said, "The brotherhood! The people of all races, colors, from all over the world coming
together as one! It has proved to me the power of the One God."
It may have been out of taste, but that gave me an opportunity, and I used it, to preach them a
quick little sermon on America's racism, and its evils.
I could tell the impact of this upon them. They had been aware that the plight of the black man in
America was "bad," but they had not been aware that it was inhuman, that it was a psychological
castration. These people from elsewhere around the world were shocked. As Muslims, they had a
very tender heart for all unfortunates, and very sensitive feelings for truth and justice. And in