Ziyarat to the Manzar of El-Shabazz: Space-Time Transcendence and Spiritual Guidance from the Grave

Malcolm and Betty Shabazz’s grave in Westchester, New York, as well as key sites in northern Manhattan constitute a funerary complex, in the global tradition of revered Muslim saints and scholars. Individuals visit throughout the year but on May 19 hundreds make pilgrimage and perform a ritual commemoration. The grave and visitation practices were created to activate an embodied, material interaction of reverence and relation to Malcolm and later Dr. Shabazz. I argue that Muslims who participate in visitations, even with contentions around its permissibility, maintain an ontological assumption that the dead are in active relation with the living. Visitations are then an interaction where remembrance brings the past into the present, activating the knowledge and spiritual power of ancestors to transform the self and the world. Finally, the open, collaborative nature of this site creation, including women’s leadership, has contributed to the continued multifaith nature of this religious site.