Another tribute to the legend Muhammad Ali would no doubt amount to some additional tributes overload! After the sobering but spectacular globally televised final farewell in Louisville last Friday, my reflection on the life and times of the iconic Ali is posthumously philosophical. Or better still academic for those of us still alive. First point is that with Ali’s exit, we are again confronted with the inevitability of death. With all his boasteriousness about his seeming invincibility (largely for entertainment value!) it is self-evident that all humans are mortal afterall including Ali.
One of Ali’s quotable quotes reads; “I’m so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark.” On Friday, June 3, 2016, at the age of 74 when death came calling, death outpaced Ali who claimed to be faster than speed of light. In fact like others, Ali death defied all doctors. (‘Innaa Lillaahi wa ‘innaa ‘ilayhi raaji’oon”, We are from Allah and unto Him we return!). Undoubtedly the three-time heavyweight boxing champion spanning rewarding some decades, did “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”.
But that was as long as he lived and the great eventful successful carrier lasted. Watching the hearse carrying the remains of Muhammad Ali last Friday leaving the funeral home for the funeral procession in Louisville, Kentucky it was clear that only a living butterfly and bee flies and stings respectively. Obviously we could see that “a dead bee makes no honey” much less stings. Of course a lifeless butterfly does not fly either. Graves are truly of varying sizes but the bottom line is that death is deaf to our wailings. With Ali’s death proves again that it does not recognize strength nor weakness.
Ali was remarkable for his clairvoyant predictions. He said with precision many times at what rounds he would fall his boxing opponents. However like any mortal he caved in to the unpredictability of death without his own predictions. Indeed all “our pomp the earth covers”.
Paradoxically, the week of the death and burial of Ali turned out to be what President Muhammadu Buhari rightly observed to be saddest week for Nigerian soccer. Two national coaches of Super Eagles, namely Stephen Keshi and Amodu Shuaibu, almost age mates, died in quick successions in the same city of Benin, in the same month. There is certainly equality in death, but it keeps no calendar, at every hour death seems near! May their souls rest in perfect peace.
Yours truly is observing the first Ramandan without my mother and wife in decades as both died late last year in quick succession! Thus my interest in the tributes to Ali by his wife, children and friends alike was a total commitment not partial. Would they be agonizing and wailing over a missed father, mentor and inspirer that Ali was?
The real tribute goes to the bagful of thoughtful tributes which commendably turned adversity of the death of the legend into opportunity to re-validate and legitimize his legacies of faith, compassion and better equitable world. Ali captured world imagination through his successful boxing carrier which conferred him fame and money. It is remarkable however that the takeaways for many including his family members as articulated in their tributes, are the compassion, charity and positive messages of a better world he left behind, not how many opponents he knocked down and how many medals he collected.
Ambassador Shabazz, Malcolm X’s daughter, in a powerful, tearful speech reminded us about Ali’s legacy of a unifying topic of faith; “an ecumenical faith, respect for all faiths, even if belonging to one religion or none, the gift of all faiths”. He repeated the message of unity of Ali; “We all have the one God. We just serve him differently. Rivers, lakes, plains, they all have different names – but they mean the same thing. Doesn’t matter if you are a Muslim or Christian or Jew – when you believe in God, you should believe all people are part of one family. Because if you love God, you can’t love only some of his children”. Lonnie Ali, the wife of Ali pointed to the lesson in the historic divine event that led to the transformation of young Ali. She told the story of how her husband had taken up boxing when Joe Martin, a local police officer, told a 12-year-old boy whose bicycle had been stolen that he could teach him how to fight.
Her insight resonated to the present day America where communities are at civil war with trigger happy local policemen. Lonnie Ali drummed home the point; “America must never forget that when a cop and an inner city kid talk to each other, miracles can happen.” Africa (which Ali held in high esteem), must learn from how Ali’s death and glorious exit offers another opportunity in recent times (after Nelson Mandela’s funeral) for deep reflections on rebuilding a better world. His daughter Rasheda lightened up the bereaved as if to tell all “Don’t Be Sad”. She said;. “Daddy’s looking at us now,” she said. “And he’s saying: ‘I told you I’m the greatest.’”
Talking about being “the greatest”, former Utah senator made a posthumous clarification. “His greatness” he said “relates to his ability as a boxer, his benevolence as a father and friend. There was something else that made him the Greatest. He pointed us to a greatness beyond ourselves, even Ali. He pointed us to greatness of God.” Senator Utah quoted Ali as saying: ‘He [God] gave me this condition (Parkinson’s syndrome!) to remind me I am human. Only He is the Greatest.’ No tribute is complete without a quote from Ali. Apparently through his good deeds and words, Ali had long written his tributes, such that we can only have a tribute to tributes.