Muhammad Ali, Part IV: Racism and Religion: Spirituality and Compassion

Muhammad was reviled and castigated throughout America for his stand against being drafted to fight in Vietnam.  He, like Joe Louis before him, was offered the opportunity to avoid jail by entertaining and inspiring the troops with demonstration boxing matches.  Louis accepted that offer.  Ali would not.  He was opposed to the war and would do nothing to support it.  It was a “principled” stand, based on the non-violence he believed essential to his faith.

It is difficult to this day to understand how a man so hated could eventually become one of the most beloved of Americans, both in this country and around the world.  No doubt one of the heights of that adoration was the torch ceremony at the Olympics held in Atlanta in 1996.

No one knew who would be the final receiver of the torch, the one who would light the official Olympic cauldron for those games.  Not even TV host, Bob Costas, knew.  He was simply told by his producers that the person would be instantly recognizable.

Costas was wrong.  Up to the cauldron ran Janet Evans, renowned American swimmer, who had won four gold medals at the previous two Olympics.  When Muhammad appeared to receive the torch from her, she had no idea who he was.  And then, as he appeared, she heard the growing roar, and then the stands began to shake like she had never heard or felt before, and she knew she was in the presence of someone special, someone revered.

The reason for the change in attitude towards Muhammad cannot be found simply in the fact, as mentioned in my last blog, that our nation was becoming increasingly disenchanted with the Vietnam War and the situation of Civil Rights in this country, especially after the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Bobby Kennedy in 1968.  I believe the key to that change in attitude is primarily due to who Muhammad was at his core: a very spiritual man who increasingly became a person of love and compassion in general, and one who increasingly moved away from believing in the separation of races.  [For a summary of Ali's remaining fights, see **at the bottom of this blog.]  

When it comes to race and religion, or any moral, political, or theological issue, an important philosophic concept is that of “the orthodox fallacy.”  In short, it is the conviction that whatever I personally believe is the standard by which the world shall be judged.  This fallacy leads to a self-righteous fundamentalism in which we “don’t want to be confused by the facts.”  The problem is that this view is blind to the relativity of cultural, theological, and philosophic commitments.

What can break it?  Many things, but one of the most common ways is travel.  This happened for Muhammad.  Shortly after winning the heavyweight title the first time, Muhammad went on a trip to Ghana, Nigeria, and Egypt, which would be the start of a lifetime of worldwide travel.  Two important things happened on that trip.

Osman Karriem explains the first: “that trip to Africa . . . . is where I saw Cassius Clay become Muhammad Ali.”  He tells of driving down a rural road in Ghana and out of seemingly nowhere there appeared lining the road people beating drums and yelling out “Ali!  Ali!”  “Do you have any idea what it must have been like for him to see thousands of people materialize out of nowhere and know they were there just for him?”  [in Hauser, Muhammad Ali,112]

This adoration would continue throughout his life.  Biographer Thomas Hauser writes: “Muhammad Ali is the most loved person in the world.  Everywhere he goes, wherever he goes, people of all colors and religions crowd around, hoping to get close to him.  I’ve seen it happen so many times. And each time, I ask myself, ‘If we can all get together and have a meeting of the minds on Ali, why can’t we all get together, period?’”  I look at this man and I say to myself, ‘God is trying to tell us something.’” [Hauser and Ali, Healing: A Journal of Tolerance and Understanding, back cover]

Travel is what led Ali to realize that God might be calling him to a unique role to break down religious and racial barriers and thereby bring people together.  His spiritual journey led him to reject the separatist ideology of Elijah Muhammad and embrace this new way of seeing the world.  In his words, “Hating people because of their color is wrong.  And it doesn't matter which color does the hating.  It's just plain wrong.”

And Muhammad never quit trying to learn.  He said, “I set out on a journey of love, seeking truth, peace and understanding.  I am still learning.”

Another part of this growing spirituality is the way in which Ali’s faith and trust in God continued to deepen over the years, not only now leading him to see the commonality of all humans, each being loved by God, but providing the strength and courage to persevere through his many trials.

As he was facing prison for refusing to be drafted, several other prominent athletes gathered to advise him, including Jim Brown, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Boston Celtic great, Bill Russell.  After their meeting, Russell stated: “I envy Muhammad Ali. . . . .He has something I have never been able to obtain and something very few people I know possess.  He has an absolute and sincere faith.  I’m not worried about Muhammad Ali.  He is better equipped than anyone I know to withstand the trials in store for him.  What I’m worried about is the rest of us.” [in Hauser, Muhammad Ali, 179.]

This deep faith led him to feel compassion for all people.  In spite of the violence of the sixties in America, and the assassinations of so many leaders; in spite of the growing terrorism throughout the world in the seventies and eighties, Ali scorned security precautions and insisted on moving freely.  His training camps were open camps. Anyone could stop by and chat, or have a meal.  His homes, much to the consternation of his families, had an open door policy.  Anyone could stop by to say hi or obtain an autograph.  And he insisted on mingling among the crowds wherever he was in the world.  He once stated, “I don’t need no bodyguards or guns.  God is my bodyguard; Allah watches over me.  If I walk into a stadium with a hundred thousand people, no human can keep somebody from putting a bullet in me.  But I can’t be worrying about things like that.  A man filled with fear don’t live and enjoy life.  So I trust in God to look after me.” [Ibid., 287].

Muhammad Ali began each day at 5 am, rising from bed, washing himself with clear running washing, as mandated by the Qur'an, putting on clean clothes, facing Mecca to pray, and then reading the scriptures.  [See ibid. 13]  Each day, every day. 

Thomas Hauser tells of a trip to Indonesia, where at the Grand Mosque in Jakarta, a crowd estimated at 200,000 people waited to greet Muhammad.  They surrounded the car, yelling "Ali!  Ali!"  Ali beseeched the driver, "Go slow; please, don't hurt anyone."  

After 10 days there, they began the flight back home through twelve time zones.  Hauser drifted off to sleep and awoke several hours later. Outside the plane it was pitch black.  The cabin was dark: everyone was asleep, except Muhammad.  His overhead light was on and he was reading the Qur'an.  Hauser writes: "And in that moment, bathed in light, he looked stronger and more at peace with himself than any person I've ever known." [Ibid., 516]

As the years went by Muhammad became more and more interested in Sufism, a dimension of Islam that seeks inner, mystical peace.  And he found that peace.  His daughter, Hana Ali, wrote shortly after Ali’s death:

“If you could have borrowed my eyes and seen my father in the calm of his later life, you would not have mourned what he lost.  When we observe the source of true strength, we find that the power of a hand is best measured not by its weight but by the amount it can lift.  Muhammad Ali’s vitality came from a place deep within.  It came from his courage to fall and his will to rise.  It came from his awareness that every moment under the sun has a purpose and a time.  If you could borrow his heart, you would not question what he sacrificed but rather pray for the peace of his gentle soul.” [ESPN Magazine, 6/27/19, p. 95]

**Summary of Ali's remaining fights.
As stated in the last blog, Muhammad was not allowed to fight in the US or anywhere in the world for nearly 3 ½ years, from March 1967 to October 1970 (from ages 25 to almost 29).  The journey to reclaim the heavyweight title for the third time would be long and difficult.  His first attempt, in the “Fight of the Century” against Joe Frazier at Madison Square Garden, would end in a loss by Unanimous Decision after 15 brutal rounds. (3/8/71).  He would beat Frazier in their rematch 14 fights later (1/28/74), but by then Frazier had lost the crown to George Foreman.  His next fight was against Foreman, in the “Rumble in the Jungle,” (10/30/74) in Zaire, which would finally give Ali his title back with a Knockout in Round 8, having used his new “rope-a-dope” strategy to weather Foreman’s punishing blows.

He would defend that title in his third fight against Frazier, the “Thrilla in Manilla” with a TKO in Round 14 (10/01/75).  It was a brutal fight fought in near 100 degree temperatures.  Afterwards an ailing Ali said: “It was the closest thing to dying that I know” and he declared Frazier “the greatest fighter of all times next to me.”  When asked later if he had ever watched the video of the fight, he exclaimed: “Why would I want to go back and see Hell?”

He would continue to retain that title for six more fights, until he finally lost it to Leon Spinks on 2/15/78.  Yet once again he reclaimed the title in their rematch seven months later.

Most everyone thinks Ali should have retired at that point, if not much sooner.  However, two years later he lost his title to Larry Holmes in a match in which he was pummeled relentlessly (10/02/80).  That was followed by another needless beating a year later at the hands of Trevor Berbick (12/11/81), all of which has led to considerable speculation about the effect these final bouts had on Ali’s long-term health, including the onset of Parkinson’s Disease in 1984.

In the next, and final blog entry, we will discuss Muhammad Ali's legacy.