I somewhat felt a fraction of the huge heartbreak, disappointment and lost, when he discovered the truth about the man he trusted most, served and would even die for, the last 12 years!
It gives me an insight to the question, how can some smart people follow a cult leader so obviously weird to others outside the cult. For him, it was because at the lowest point of his life, he was looking for something or someone to hold on to for meaning and purpose - and this person happens to be the one looking for followers.
The leader was easily believable because he combined the concept of goodness from Islam and promoted it, example to believe in One God, no drinking, gambling, stealing, fornication and forbidden to eat pork. But this person also says, he is the messenger of God. that person also stirred the emotions of the black facing racism, to gather followers.
Since Malcolm has never been introduced or exposed to the true Islam at that point of time - this is the 'best' he has heard and believed him wholeheartedly.
I cried when after he was backstabbed by the man he trusted most, and finally meeting real Muslims and discovering the true Islam when he performed his Hajj.
And now I have come towards the end of the book in the last chapter 1965. I find myself delaying to finish it because somehow I wanted to feel him still alive.
Isn't it amazing that he wrote about his whole life, and completed just before he was matyred in Feb 1965. Allaah's plans. He had the intuition that he was not going to live for long after death threats and attempts on his life instigated by the man he trusted before.
May Allaah forgive his soul and reward him abundantly.
