Malcolm in the Desert: A Spiritual Awakening with Dr. Ilyasah Shabazz
Take Back Your Mind
Michael B. Beckwith
5.0 • 826 Ratings
🗓️ 20 May 2026
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today, Michael welcomes Dr. Ilyasah Shabazz. Ilyasah is an award-winning author, educator, and social impact leader dedicated to advancing the legacy of her parents, Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz, through literature, public scholarship, and community leadership. She serves as Chairperson of the Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center and teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Worcester State University. Ilyasah is the author of several acclaimed books, including Growing Up X and X: A Novel, and her latest release, Malcolm in the Desert: Wisdom from the Spiritual Transformation of Malcolm X, which explores her father's spiritual evolution, pilgrimage to Mecca, and enduring message of compassion, consciousness, and liberation.
Conversation Highlights Include:
-Why this moment in history called for a deeper exploration of Malcolm X's spiritual transformation, compassion, and evolving understanding of humanity.
-A powerful reframe of Malcolm X not only as a revolutionary leader, but as a deeply spiritual seeker whose activism was rooted in love and moral courage.
-How Malcolm's pilgrimage to Mecca expanded an already compassionate heart and transformed the way humanity, race, and liberation were understood.
-An inspiring reflection on Dr. Betty Shabazz and the strength, resilience, and devotion it took to raise six daughters after an unimaginable personal loss.
-A conversation about pilgrimage not simply as travel, but as an inner journey of slowing down, asking deeper questions, and remembering who we truly are.
-How sacred disruption often arrives through grief, uncertainty, divorce, loss, or major life transitions that force us to grow beyond the familiar.
-A moving exploration of grief as a messenger that strips away the illusion of control and invites surrender, healing, and transformation.
-An honest conversation about surrender as a practice of deep listening that helps people stop resisting reality and begin evolving through it.
Next, Michael closes the episode with a guided meditation on self-examination, awakening from unconscious living, reconnecting with your True nature, and living with spiritual intention.
Please note: This episode was recorded prior to Ilyasah's book's release; the launch event mentioned has since taken place, coinciding with a special celebration honoring her father's legacy.
🪷 Connect with Ilyasah here - https://www.ilyasahshabazz.com/ and across social media. Malcolm in the Desert is available everywhere books are sold.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Well, I invite us, you know, the reader to see him as both to consider the possibility that he was so |
| 0:07.1 | powerful precisely because he was both. And to remember that his revolutionary heart was grounded |
| 0:14.6 | in a spiritual center. And one of the questions I've often returned to is, what gave him the endurance to keep going? |
| 0:23.9 | You know, you won't find this in most biographies of my father or any historical accounts. |
| 0:29.8 | But from a lifetime of research and years of my own spiritual practice, I'd suggest that it was my father's compassion that sustained him. |
| 0:40.9 | You know, his compassion that underwrote his profound commitment to freedom and justice. |
| 0:47.6 | And it's a word not usually associated with Malcolm X, right? |
| 0:53.2 | Right. |
| 0:53.3 | But for anyone to stand firm in the long- associated with Malcolm X, right? Compassion. |
| 0:54.3 | But for anyone to stand firm in the long shadow of racial terror and not be overcome by rage or despair, something deeper has to be at work. |
| 1:06.1 | And one aspect of my father's pilgrimage to Mecca, that often gets overlooked is how it deepened his compassion. |
| 1:15.3 | Peace and Rich's blessings. |
| 1:16.6 | I am Michael Bebeck into the spirit of domain. |
| 1:29.8 | Feel it, |
| 1:30.5 | be it. Peace and blessings, everyone, and welcome. |
| 1:45.0 | I am your host. |
| 1:46.0 | Michael B. |
| 1:47.0 | The founder of the International Spiritual Center. And and welcome to take back your mind. I am your host. Michael Bebeck with the founder |
| 2:01.2 | of the Agap International Spiritual Center. |
| 2:04.3 | And I'm privileged to get to speak to wonderful people |
| 2:07.5 | on a regular basis. |
| 2:09.1 | People who are making a mighty difference on the planet, |
... |
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