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Messenger Elijah Muhammad’s Pilgrimage to Mecca

By Messenger Elijah Muhammad

    Reprinted from SALAAM, July, 1960

‘This I’ll Never Forget’

    On my arrival in Jeddah, Arabia, December 23, 1959, it was almost a
necessity that I go to Mecca. The next day was  Thursday,  December 24,
1959, and the authorities made ready a car to take me and my two sons
over the little forty mile distance  from Jeddah to that ancient city,
  which is the glory of the Muslim  World of  Islam.  It is the only
city on our planet that is divinely  protected and made sacred and  
inviolatable — almost  surrounded with black hills of stone and sand.

   We  were dressed in what is called Ihram, which consists  of  
two sheets of flesh towel-like material —   one  to cover the upper
part of the body leaving the right arm exposed, and the other one
 covered the lower  part of the body. We also wore a  pair of
sandal-like slippers. These were the only clothes that we wore from
Jeddah to Mecca.

 Washed Hands And Faces

    On our arrival, we were taken to a hotel where we washed our
 faces and hands again, and a guide  was brought to us. He was an old
man –tall and very slender. He had been informed of me, and he took me
by the hand like a father leading his child.

    As we began  walking from the hotel to that sacred mosque of
Islam, he made us recite after him in Arabic, the prayers   and some
verses from the Holy Qur’an every  step of the way. On entering that
holy and  magnificent place, he  proceeded with us to the court where
stands the Kaaba and that  prophetic sign, the Black   Stone, that the
builders rejected, placed in one corner of that great black veiled
monument that stands in a circle.

   Seven Circles Around  Kaaba

    Our  guide made us remove our sandals  before circling it, and
they were left  outside with an old Muslim sister. Then we began making
the seven circles around the Kaaba repeating  prayers at every step of
the way, and stopping at two of its corneeers on every trip around,
 raising our hands toward it while repeating a prayer and then  saying,
“Allah-u-Akbar”, which means  ”Allah is the greatest.”

   Thousands  of Muslims In Court

There were between five and ten thousand Muslims inside the court of the
mosque. Such a prayer service I have never witnessed before — being with
these thousands of sincere worshippers of  God, His religion,  and
Muhammad, His prophet.

   On encircling it for the last time, the pilgrim makers asked to kiss
the Black stone. There before my eyes were many hands of pilgrims trying
to reach for that stone.

      This  I’ll Never Forget

    After  circling the Kaaba seven times and saying  prayers, our
 guide then made us go and make the seven runs between the hills of Safa
and Marwah. He never  let my hand go, except to raise his hand in
prayer. I cannot forget it. I will not ever forget Allah for blessing me
to make the pilgrimage, and for my faithful followers in America. Some of
them who may never be fortunate to make such a  pilgrimage, divided
their  wealth to make it possible for me and those  whom I chose to
make this never to be forgotten  pilgrimage. May Allah forever  bless
them.

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