A Muslim Convert Once Before

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ 1981 was the last year of Muhammad ‘Ali’s ( r.a. ) career as a professional boxer.  And it was an eventful year.  In mid-January of that year, a 21-year-old man threatened to jump from the ninth floor of a building in Los Angeles.  The police had tried to talk him down to no avail.  A psychologist was sent, and even a chaplain.  It looked like he was going to jump.  But a superhero was in town.  Muhammad ‘Ali ( r.a. ) popped his head out the next window and said, “You’re my brother.  I love you, and I wouldn’t lie to you.”   The man was distraught because he could not get a job and he had tensions with his family. He wept in Muhammad ‘Ali’s ( r.a. ) arms.  He was sent to hospital for psychiatric evaluation and recovered.

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   Hadhrat Muhammad ‘Ali ( r.a. ) lived through segregation in the South.   When he won an Olympic gold medal for boxing, White America embraced him.   But when he went back to Lousville, Kentucky; there were places that did not serve “Negroes”.   He turned to Islam as the religion of his ancestors and became an exemplary Muslim, coming via the Nation of Islam.   He opposed the Vietnam War and this is what he said: “Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?   No, I’m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over.   This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand ...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The late  Hadhrat  Muhammad ‘Ali ( r.a. ) said, “The word ‘Islam’ means ‘peace’.   The word ‘Muslim’ means ‘one who surrenders to God’.   But the press makes us seem like haters.”