Last year this month Mohammad Ali died…it is fitting that we look back on the life of this famous American…..
On how Muhammad Ali’s death started a debate on anti-blackness within the Muslim community.
It came as a shock to all of
Last year this month Mohammad Ali died…it is fitting that we look back on the life of this famous American…..
On how Muhammad Ali’s death started a debate on anti-blackness within the Muslim community.
It came as a shock to all of us. A man who seemed invincible could not defeat his own mortality. He was known to be suffering from poor health, but it was no less of a blow. And for many Muslim communities around the world, his death was a particularly scathing event.
Muhammad Ali died on June 3 last year, only a few days before the month of Ramadan began, a holy month within the Islamic calendar observed through fasting, prayer and charity. Ali chose to live his life according to Islam, and he left this world as the holiest month of his religion began. His funeral was a global event full of traditional Islamic rites, so much so that his spiritual adviser and imam, Zaid Shakur was reported to have said at the time that “Muhammad planned all this … and he planned for it to be a teaching moment”.