1. The mystique of the movement is that Muhammad met and knew Allah--Fard. Thus it follows that the flesh and blood of Muhammad has inherited the magic of that encounter. Muhammad will be raised to sainthood, and the Muslim gospel will continue to be prefaced with the phrase, “The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us....” Thus the new Messenger should be a physical reminder of Elijah. 2. John and Sharrieff are sensible, practical men. They know the impact Malcolm has made on the American scene, and they will keep him precisely where he is, for this is the only way they can stay where they are. 3. Finally, I am persuaded of the morality of these Black Muslim leaders. Think of their doctrine what one may, I am convinced that they would no more fight publicly over the question of leadership than would the cardinals of the Roman Church. Indeed, I feel the conclave will move just as the Catholic Church has often moved, that the question of a new leader will be overshadowed by a debate over policy. I see Malcolm, then, not as the maximum leader, but as prime minister and behind-the-scenes policy maker. This is no cause for rejoicing. Akbar Muhammad, who I suspect will be the new Messenger, is steeped in traditional Islam. He will bring to the maximum-leadership post the zeal and determination one associates with the early Mohammedans. Followers of Allah have always been strong on internal brotherhood and notoriously short of patience and mercy toward outsiders. Those of us who have studied the movement have had to stand muster before Raymond Sharrieff, and to a man we are agreed that we would not enjoy tangling with him and The Fruit. Once Elijah is dead, I suspect the prospect of tangling with him will be even less inviting. “I’ll be honest with you,” Malcolm X said to me. “Everybody is talking about differences between the Messenger and me. It is absolutely impossible for us to differ. What he says is law; that is what is done. But I’ll tell you this,” he added. “Mr. Muhammad was with Allah, and he has been granted divine patience; he is willing to wait on God to deal with the devil. Well, the rest of us have not seen Allah; we don’t have this divine patience, and we are not so willing to wait on God. The younger Black Muslims want to see some action!” For the first and, to my knowledge, only time Malcolm deviated from the Messenger’s position when he said that. Malcolm X means it, he is not alone: Akbar means it, John X means it, Sharrieff means it, and Wallace, another son of Elijah’s, means it. These men are waiting for integration to fail. This republic would do well to take them seriously.