While Malcolm makes his journey to Mecca, he is stopped before he can enter the city. The guards think he may be a fraud, and not a try Muslim, because he is an American. When Malcolm is waiting to be released from holding by the government someone tries to show him the proper way to pray. Malcolm could not get down as low as the man teaching him and he said in order to pray correctly that he would have sore ankles. Why is this? In this article, it shows you a picture representation of how a Muslim would pray-
http://muslim-canada.org/salaat.html . This picture,

shows you why praying would be so difficult for a tall man like Malcolm is. He must bend completely over while leaving his knees and feet on the floor and press his face against the ground. This would take some flexibility and practice in order to do. I understand why this would be very awkward for Malcolm.
When Malcolm puts himself in pain for his religion it reminds of some Jewish customs. Mainly, the holiday Yom Kippor. During this Jewish holiday you are suppose to fast for 1 full day. This can be painful for a lot of people. Not eating or drinking for an entire day is tough. One year my mom became very sick and had migraines because she had to fast. In the end, she kept the fasting because she knew it was important to her religion. I can connect with the pain that Malcolm feels while trying to pray correctly.
2 comments:
Josh, I really like that you explored something that confused you in the book in more detail here. Can you add anything else that would make this post a bit more revelatory of your own connections?
While I was reading the book I thought it was strange that Muslims in the East prayed lower to the ground than Malcolm. I thought maybe this had to do with traditions. Because I am jewish also, I have noticed the difficulty of fasting for Yom Kippur, although I have not done it myself. After Malcolm was in Mecca for a few days, however, he got used to bending down lower to pray, although I am sure it was not easy. Overall I thought, the topic you picked was very interesting
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