The autobiography of Malcolm X is recommended reading in academic circles from grade school to college, and it is sure to feature in the reading lists of Black Studies Departments across the country. It is a gripping expose of how religion can bring about radical change in an individual’s life, and how the cruel realities of racism in America and harsh racial rhetoric it engendered in response can be transcended to encourage tolerance for differences that exist within the human community.
 
This, without sacrificing the fight for equality and justice was Malcolm X’s terminal position. Malcolm X was known for calling a spade a spade. In so doing, he established a public platform constantly at odds with a system that perpetuated many of the flagrant as well as the more subtle wrong doings of a white racist society. Even now, racism is so engrained that the need for the struggle Malcolm and others fought more than half a century ago is just as dire today. Thus, the continued activism of the Civil Rights movement, the Black Lives Matter movement, and any other movements intent on addressing the plight of the oppressed in American society. After Malcolm X’s assassination, the Black Power Party (BPP) tried to fill the void but itself experienced systematic targeting by the white power structure with little attempt to address the conditions that were the predicates for BPP’s emergence in the first place.
 
The Black Lives Matter movement of our time is the reemergence of response of the black and brown communities to the continued victimization of people of color across the United States. These movements are fueled by the black experience and empowered by concerned people of all races who see the need for the kind of social change Malcolm X sought. Why is the situation much the same more than 55 years later? Injustice, racial prejudice, and adherence by many to white supremacists’ views to strengthen their hold on the power structures of government persists allowing implementation of only minimized change.
 
Despite Civil Rights advances since emancipation and continued piecemeal satisfaction of demands of the struggle, political and judicial conditions seem impermeable to the meaningful systemic radical change required. As a result, two systems of justice still exist, one for white Americans and another for black and brown Americans upheld by an approach to policing unfavorable to people of color. ii The focus of this book is to suggest that a completely new paradigm is necessary to bring about the kind of change that would be beneficial to all Americans regardless of color, and that would be enduring at the same time. This book hopes to utilize a chance meeting with one, maybe the only remaining survivor of Malcolm X’s entourage of bodyguards, to introduce such a paradigm. Despite the existence of multiple religions and philosophies hopeful of redeeming mankind and providing remedial solutions to the innate human need for security of both body and soul, the absence of true knowledge of the spirituality that makes mankind truly human compounds the situation. The Mapping of Trajectories of The Soul diagram included in this book provides some insight, but it is a mere skeletal framework for revival of knowledge of the human soul and its immense spiritual potential. The methodology of Sufism from which inspiration for this map is drawn is used to enable prediction of the path Malcolm’s life might have taken had his assassination not taken place. The trajectory of his religious life at the time of his death shows that Malcolm had turned away from a mentor he perceived as hypocritical, Elijah Muhammad, to one whose hypocrisy may have been more subtle but equally dangerous. This apparently favorable change, though essential for Malcolm’s evolution, may not have been enough on its own to have been his ultimate salvation according to the paradigm outlined here. The Tenth Lieutenant gives us a chance to imagine where the second possible trajectory may have led Malcolm since he too had experienced similar exposure to practitioners of Sufism before his death. The reader is asked to imagine that Malcolm’s insatiable intellectual curiosity, extensive contact with Sudanese culture, which is inseparable from Sudan’s Islamic tradition and Sufism, together with his sincere search for truth at the time of his assassination would have led him to embrace Sufism which his bodyguard, apparently serendipitously, found more than half a century later. The encounter with this bodyguard provided a unique opportunity to bring the science associated with the ancient practices of Sufism into new focus and to inform the reader about this tried trusted relevant and much needed methodology for human character reformation. The intention here is to motivate the reader to look in this same direction for this verified methodology for transformative change. iii It is hoped that this book would provide insight into the motivations of the individuals associated with Nation of Islam as they experienced the historic events from the 60s to present. Discussing their interrelationships and pointing out their convergence to Sufism is what the writer hopes the reader would grasp. Invaluable pearls of ancient knowledge of the way to truth are scattered throughout. They are not the author’s pearls, but enduring jewels of Sufism, and more specifically of Tariqa Burhaniya, available to those who sincerely seek the truth as Malcolm did. The writer’s perspective is shaped by teachings and experiences to which he has been exposed as a practitioner himself. It is hoped that the reader will read with an open mind and heart, and entertain the suggested convergence as a credible extrapolation from past to present events. It is further hoped that the reader will consider the proposed schema for humanity’s rescue from spiritual oblivion worthy of deeper thought, analysis, contemplation, and action. Information from various existing sources have been incorporated into this text.
 
All credit for these excerpts goes to their original owners. This includes written as well as Internet material, photos, videos, and articles researched and employed here to help frame the historic elements needed to tell this story from this new perspective. Where deemed necessary, some transcriptions have been utilized in the interest of making the material handier for the reader, and bringing the context into sharper focus. It is suggested that the reader makes a point of watching the videos at the URLs presented throughout these chapters. The total viewing time required should be about eight hours. Together with the other cited references, they provide windows into the relevant history that has shaped the world that we know today. An addendum on the Inquisition, viewed as the font from which atrocities of western civilization legally flowed, is included with proof less we forget. Several Sufi terms have been referenced throughout. A simplified glossary has been included at the end for the convenience of the reader.
 
It is hoped that Malcolm’s impressive legacy would be further enhanced by the writer’s extrapolation to what might have been and what is currently developing relative to Sufism in America. Any misrepresentation of Sufi terms or aqida contained are solely the writer’s while credit for any truths contained solely belong to the mushaykh from whose knowledge and teaching the writer gained inspiration. Thanks for giving this perspective your time and consideration.