Autobiography of Malcolm X

Muhammad. Standing between the stage and the audience were Fruit of Islam guards. Others
were prowling the aisles, scanning rows of faces, with intermittent peremptory demands for
identification, "What mosque, brother?" Still more Fruit of Islam men were inspecting the
coliseum's vacant balcony, backstage, downstairs, and rafters and roof.
The ghost of Malcolm X was in the coliseum. First, in a high drama for the Muslims, Elijah
Muhammad's son, Wallace Delaney Muhammad, who once had sided with Malcolm X, faced the
audience and begged forgiveness for his defection. Next, two brothers of Malcolm X, Wilfred and
Philbert, both of them Black Muslim ministers, urged unity with Elijah Muhammad. Said Minister
Wilfred X of the Detroit mosque, "We would be ignorant to get confusedand go to arguing and
fighting among ourselves and forget who the real enemy is." Said Minister Philbert X, of the
Lansing mosque, "Malcolm was my own blood brother, next to me.... I was shocked. No man
wants to see his own brother destroyed. But I knew that he was traveling on a very reckless and
dangerous road. I made attempts to change his course. When he was living, I tried to keep him
living; now that he is dead, there is nothing I can do." Indicating the seated Elijah Muhammad,
Minister Philbert X declared, "Where he leads me, I will follow"-and then he introduced the Black
Muslim leader to make his address.
Only the head of Elijah Muhammad was visible above the grim-faced Fruit of Islam men in a living
wall, Cassius Clay among them. Crescents, stars, moons and suns were in goldthread
embroidery on the small fez that Elijah Muhammad wore. He said in his speech: "For a long time,
Malcolm stood here where I stand. In those days, Malcolm was safe, Malcolm was loved. God,
Himself, protected Malcolm.... For more than a year, Malcolm was given his freedom. He went
everywhere-Asia, Europe, Africa, even to Mecca, trying to make enemies for me. He came back
preaching that we should not hate the enemy.... He came here a few weeks ago to blast away
his hate and mud-slinging; everything he could think of to disgrace me.... We didn't want to kill
Malcolm and didn't try to kill him. They know I didn't harm Malcolm. They know I loved him. His
foolish teaching brought him to his own end... ."
Both physically and emotionally worked up, often Elijah Muhammad would begin coughing. "Take
it easy! Take your time!" his audience pleaded with him. "He had no right to reject me!" Elijah
Muhammad declared. "He was a star, who went astray!... They knew I didn't harm Malcolm, but
he tried to make war against me." He said that Malcolm X would have been given "the most
glorious of burials" if he had stayed with the Black Muslims and had died a natural death;
"instead, we stand beside the grave of a hypocrite!... Malcolm! Who was he leading? Who
was he teaching? He has no truth! We didn't wantto kill Malcolm! His foolish teaching would bring
him to his own end! I am not going to let the crackpots destroy the good things Allah sent to you
and me!"
Elijah Muhammad drove his frail energy to speak for about an hour and a half. He challenged any
would-be assassins: "If you seek to snuff out the life of Elijah Muhammad, you are inviting your
own doom! The Holy Quran tells us not to pick a fight but to defend ourselves. We will fight!" It
was mid-afternoon when Elijah Muhammad turned back to his seat with some three thousand
Black Muslim men, women, and children shouting "Yes, sir!... So sweet!... All praise to
Muhammad!"
In the Unity Funeral Home in the Harlem community of New York City in the mid-afternoon, the
public's viewing of the body of Malcolm X was interrupted by the arrival of a party of about a
dozen people whose central figure was a white-turbaned, dark-robed elderly man whose white
beard fell to his chest and who carried a forked stick. When reporters rushed to attempt
interviews, another man in the party waved them away, saying, "A silent tongue does not betray
its owner." The man was Sheik
Ahmed Hassoun, a Sudanese, a member of the Sunni Moslems, who had taught in Mecca for 35
years when he had met Malcolm X there, and then had soon come to the United States to serve
as Malcolm X's spiritual advisor and to teach at the Muslim Mosque, Inc.
Sheik Hassoun prepared the body for burial in accordance with Moslem ritual. Removing the
Western clothing in which the body had been on display, Sheik Hassoun washed the body with
special holy oil. Then he draped the body in the traditional seven white linen shrouds, called the