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In 1984, Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. (Parkinson’s disease is a disorder of the nervous system that affects movement and speech.)
The diagnosis may have sent someone else into seclusion, depression, or worse. But not Ali. He saw it as something that helped him see life from a different point of view. “Maybe my Parkinson’s is God’s way of reminding me what is important. It slowed me down and caused me to listen rather than talk,” he said. Even before his illness, Ali was very clear about his role in life. “My main fight is for freedom and equality.” Ali spent the rest of his days doing just that.
◀ Ali lived his values long after he stopped boxing. In 1990, he went to Iraq and helped negotiate the release of 15 American hostages there. Here, he is seen traveling home with some of the freed hostages. That same year he met with the children at the Our Children’s Foundation in New York City. (Our Children’s Foundation is an after-school educational and recreational facility in Harlem, New York.) According to news reports, he told the children, “The sun has a purpose. The moon has a purpose. The snow has a purpose. Cows have a purpose. You were born for a purpose. You have to find your purpose. Go to school. Learn to read and write. . . . Find your purpose. . . .”
▲ There was no shortage of recognition for Ali’s contribution to sports. In 1990, he was voted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. In 1996, he was asked to light the Olympic flame. Three years later, he was named Athlete of the Century by the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame. That same year, Sports Illustrated named him Sportsman of the Century, while the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) named him Sports Personality of the Century.
On September 11, 2001, the United States was attacked by terrorists who were Muslims. After the attack, Ali agreed to record announcements to be aired in Muslim countries to show that the U.S. remained friendly to people of Muslim faith. And In 2002, he traveled to Afghanistan as a United Nations Messenger of Peace. His goal was to make the world aware of Afghanistan’s needs and what the United Nations was doing there to help. Ali is shown here with Hamid Kharzai, Afghanistan’s president at the time. ▶
▲ Ali was also recognized for his work as a statesman. He received the Presidential Citizens Medal of Honor from President Bill Clinton in 2001 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush in 2005. Also that year, Ali was awarded the Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold for his “lifelong engagement in the American civil rights movement and the global cultural emancipation of Blacks as well as his work as a U.N. Goodwill ambassador.” Years later, in 2019, the Louisville, Kentucky, airport was renamed in his honor – Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport.
◀ Be Great: Do Great Things. This is the motto of the Muhammad Ali Center, which opened in 2005 in Louisville. The center includes cultural and educational programs, as well as an interactive museum dedicated to the life and legacy of Ali. The annual Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Awards were created in 2013 “as a way to publicly recognize and celebrate the greatness of people from around the world.”
Muhammad Ali organized his life around six core principles. These principles have inspired the exhibits and programs at the Muhammad Ali Center since its beginning. Here is how the center defines those six principles:
▲ Belief in oneself, one’s abilities, and one’s future.
▲ A firm belief that gives one the courage to stand behind that belief despite pressure to do otherwise.
▲ The act of devoting all of one’s energy, effort, and abilities to a certain task.
▲ To present voluntarily without expecting something in return.
▲ Esteem for, or a sense of the worth or excellence of, oneself and others.
▲ A sense of awe, reverence, and inner peace inspired by a connection to all of creation and/or that which is greater than oneself.
Think Piece!
What is your reaction to Ali’s six core principles? What are some examples of ways to act on these principles?
◀ After a 32-year battle with Parkinson’s disease, Muhammad Ali died in 2016, age 74. Ali has been the subject of over a dozen books and eight films. One of the books about him is over 160 pages of his quotations! Here are a few you might find interesting:
• Love is the net where hearts are caught like fish.
• Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth.
• Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn’t matter which color does the hating. It’s just plain wrong.
