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THE LEGACY OF MUHAMMAD ALI: LESSONS FOR US
By Shaikh Abdul Hamid
The worldwide outpouring for Muhammad Ali, since he died fighting a disease he could not win against, has been overwhelming. Though he has been one of my three childhood heroes, I did not realize the admiration for him in the hearts of billions has been so overwhelming thirty-five years after he retired. What made him “The Greatest” is that “everyone else would tell you pretty much the same thing”. George Foreman – one of Ali’s great opponents – called him “The Greatest”. He said, “A part of me has gone forever with him”. Sylvester Stallone sharing stage with Ali at the 1977 Oscars, and nominated for his leading role in Rocky, said of Ali: “I just gotta say one thing. I may not win anything here tonight in the form of an Oscar, but I really feel it’s an amazing privilege to be standing next to a 100 percent certified legend and it’s something I want to treasure for the rest of my life.” Even Donald Trump tweeted. “A truly great champion and a wonderful guy. He will be missed by all!”
His life and struggle draws admiration and inspires people from all over: from the slums of Southeast Asia to the villages of Africa, and from the steppes of Siberia to the deserts of Sahara. He was admired by all. They projected themselves on him. In Ali’s struggles, people saw themselves struggling. In his victories they exulted. In his rare defeats they were dismayed. In Ali’s sufferings people suffered. He was a truly world citizen. What legacy and lessons does he leave behind?
1. In six years he came from obscurity to being the 1960 Rome Olympic Light Heavyweight gold medalist. In another four years he was the World Heavyweight Champion. He was 22. In few more years he was the most recognizable face of the planet. He exemplified that to achieve excellence in any field, one needs sheer hard work. By accident that he was introduced to boxing by a police officer. He trained with dogged determination. He lasted 25 years in pro-boxing – a sport that is most brutal. In spite of heavy odds he was three times world heavyweight champion by dint of his persistence, perseverance, and endurance. He did not love it, he simply endured, as he said: “I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion’”.
2. In 1966, two years after he was the world heavyweight champion he was drafted to the US Army to fight in Vietnam. Ali refused to join citing his conscientious objection to the war. He was reviled by many. He stood his ground at a time when it was unthinkable for African-Americans to oppose the war. Anti-war sentiment had not taken foothold. Kareem Abdul Jabbar, NBA’s all-time record holder in eight categories, wrote in his Facebook page day after Ali died: “At a time when blacks who spoke up about injustice were labeled uppity and often arrested under one pretext or another, Muhammad willingly sacrificed the best years of his career to stand tall and fight for what he believed was right. In doing so, he made all Americans, black and white, stand taller. I may be 7'2" but I never felt taller than when standing in his shadow.” Ali was stripped of his title, barred from boxing in the USA (and hence deprived of source of income), his passport was confiscated, and he was sentenced to five years in jail. Ali had this to say about his refusal to be inducted: "Shoot them for what? They never called me nigger. They never lynched me. They never put dogs on me. They didn't rob me of my nationality, rape and kill my mother and father. What do I want to shoot them for, for what? Why do I want to go shoot them, poor little people and babies and children and women? How can I shoot them? Just take me to jail." He was highlighting the hypocrisy of a country that was claiming to free people on the other side of the Pacific from the “domination of communism” whereas a segment of its own population lived under oppression. In a world where we too often we compromise our principles, Ali stood like a rock unwaveringly and unflinchingly. After nearly four years of legal battle the U.S. Supreme Court overturned his conviction by 8-0 vote. Ali maintained: “My principles are more important than the money or my title.” Ali’s refusal was a significant factor in fueling the anti-Vietnam War protests that reached crescendo in late 1960s.
3. During those four years Ali lived by lecturing at different campuses for which he was paid anywhere from $1,500 to $10,000. He spoke fearlessly against the war, against bigotry, against social injustice and inequality, and for human rights. The draft created a huge problem for him, but it also created great opportunity. Adversities challenge and bring out the best in the best among us. The world became his stage. Sometimes he would not have money to buy gasoline for his car. When he got paid he would find the nearest Western Union to send money to his parents and then to his family. President Obama wrote: “Ali stood his ground. And his victory helped us get used to the America we recognize today.”
4. Ali’s life exemplified there is no enduring success without failure. The nearly four years that he lost as a result of the draft made his comeback difficult. He lost couple of early fights. But he persisted and finally prevailed. He struggled with vocal stutters and trembling hands in 1979--early 1980. That caused him to lose his last two fights. He retired finally in December 1981. But his next and final round of fight started: against Parkinson’s disease. This fight lasted thirty-five years. The famous TV actor, Michael J. Fox, and a co-author, wrote: “There are stars, and then there are comets. Muhammad Ali was radiant; such a bright and fast light only rarely streaks across the sky. So it is odd to recollect that his incomparable athletic career ultimately played out in fewer years than the three decades he spent fighting Parkinson's disease.
5. Michael J. Fox (and his co-author) pointed out: “Countless people living with Parkinson's, including one of the authors of this piece, looked up to Ali as a role model of equanimity and fearlessness in the face of Parkinson's degeneration.” He did not give up on the ring, or off the ring. The disease ravaged his body but could not take the spark from his eyes.
6. Ali was ferocious on the ring – as well as graceful and beautiful as he was – but off ring he was a kind and charitable man who for most of his life gave away his fortune – and without fanfare. He once said: “I wanted to use my fame and this face that everyone knows so well to help uplift and inspire people around the world.” He further said: “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth”
7. President Obama wrote hours after Ali’s death: “…Later, as his physical powers ebbed, he became an even more powerful force for peace and reconciliation around the world. We saw a man who said he was so mean he’d make medicine sick reveal a soft spot, visiting children with illness and disability around the world, telling them they, too, could become the greatest.” Bill Clinton wrote: “Along the way we saw him courageous in the ring, inspiring to the young, compassionate to those in need, and strong and good-humored in bearing the burden of his own health challenges. I was honored to award him the Presidential Citizens Medal at the White House…” George Bush presented him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005. The awards and recognitions he received are too numerous to mention.
8. Ali was not blind to the hypocrisies and brutality of boxing. David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker writes: “The source of his fame was a sport in which race was often an ugly element of its history, a contest in which one man tries to beat another senseless, tries to inflict temporary brain injury (a knockout) on another. Ali reaped millions of dollars from the fight game, and yet he was, at times, ambivalent about that history and the lurid spectacle of one man fighting another, particularly one black man fighting another.” Ali himself said: “Boxing is a lot of white men watching two black men beat each other up”. Sports Illustrated crowned him Sportsman of the Century. A BBC poll named him Sports Personality of the Century receiving more votes than the other contenders combined. He defeated every top heavyweight of his time which has been dubbed the golden age of heavyweight boxing. He did that by combining his boxing acumen, “dancing like a butterfly, stinging like a bee” strategy, “rope-a-dope” strategy, and “trash talk”. He was “The King of Trash Talk”. Ali fueled Liston's anger and overconfidence before their first fight which caused sports writer, Paul Gallenger to comment: "The most brilliant fight strategy in boxing history was devised by a teenager who had graduated 376 in a class of 391."
9. Ali declared to the whole world about his conversion to Islam at a time when it was unthinkable that the heavyweight world boxing champion would be a Muslim. It reflected the strength and resolve of his conviction. He said: “I know where I'm going and I know the truth, and I don't have to be what you want me to be. I'm free to be what I want.” He also said: “It's the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.” Ali was seen as the face of real Islam.
10. In spite of all the bragging he did time and again saying in these lines: “I'm the greatest thing that ever lived! I'm the king of the world! I'm a bad man. I'm the prettiest thing that ever lived” Ali showed grace and humility when he said towards the end: “I used to tease Joe Louis by reminding him that I was the greatest of all time. But Joe Louis was the greatest heavyweight fighter ever.” In spite of all the taunting he hurled on Joe Frazier, he finally said: “I always bring out the best in men I fight, but Joe Frazier, I'll tell the world right now, brings out the best in me. I'm gonna tell ya, that's one helluva man, and God bless him.” He even said: “I'm no leader; I'm a little humble follower.”
11. To reach far in life we should have goals. To reach the sun, we should aim for the moon. Ali said: “What keeps me going is goals”. Yet he also was aware of the fact that “Life is so short. Bible says it is like a vapor.” And Ali was also aware of what will follow after life: accountability: “I didn't want to submit to the army and then, on the day of judgment, have God say to me, 'Why did you do that?' This life is a trial, and you realize that what you do is going to be written down for Judgment Day.” He spoke up against injustice and inequality because he saw the light: “A rooster crows only when it sees the light. Put him in the dark and he'll never crow. I have seen the light and I'm crowing.” He had multiple goals in life and one of them was (in his words): “I had to prove you could be a new kind of black man. I had to show the world.” Different not only in deeds and words, but also in looks. When he said “I am the prettiest thing in the world” he implied even black can be beautiful.
12. Ali lived a life of integrity and moral high ground and showed that through sheer will-power and dogged determination one can rise from obscurity of Louisville, Kentucky and leave behind an exemplary life of legacy for others to follow. To quote David Remnick once again: “What a loss to suffer, even if for years you knew it was coming. Muhammad Ali…was the most fantastical American figure of his era, a self-invented character of such physical wit, political defiance, global fame, and sheer originality that no novelist you might name would dare conceive him….Eventually, Ali became arguably the most famous person on the planet, known as a supreme athlete, an uncanny blend of power, improvisation, and velocity; a master of rhyming prediction and derision; an exemplar and symbol of racial pride; a fighter, a draft resister, an acolyte, a preacher, a separatist, an integrationist, a comedian, an actor, a dancer, a butterfly, a bee, a figure of immense courage.” He shook the world in many ways – and not just the world of athletics. He showed that even an athlete can be a social and political change agent – and an inspiration for people of all walks of life – all around the world. He was not just the greatest boxer, and greatest entertainer, and greatest showman, and the greatest trash talker the world ever had.
Muhammad Ali showed that life without some higher purpose, and even life as Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the world, is not worth living. We do not have to be a Muhammad Ali to be like him – there will not be another Ali. But we can always persist and excel, get up after every failure, live up to our convictions, live up to a set of principles, speak against injustice and inequality, live a life of integrity and morality, take care of the disadvantaged, and make the world around us a better place than we found it. Obama wrote: “But we’re also grateful to God for how fortunate we are to have known him, if just for a while; for how fortunate we all are that the Greatest chose to grace our time.” After a life of continuous battles, may the greatest of them all rest in peace!
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