BY SAMMIE JONES
God never gave Islam it’s name, according to Mohammed Ali’s daughter.
His daughter Hanna Ali, told CNN that ”there is only one religion, and that’s the religion of the heart. God never named it Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism. Man gave the titles, and that’s that what separates and divides us, he said. My dream is to one day see a world that comes together and fight for one cause”, the boxing legend often said.
The third daughter of Mohammed Ali’s nine children, recalled her father’s words when expressing disgust at the Orlando killings that claimed 52 lives on Sunday. Addressing the biggest single mass killings in U.S history, committed by mentally unstable Omar Marteen, the beautiful daughter of boxing’s most respected world champion told CNN:
”Our father would be profoundly saddened and disappointed by the cowardice and heartless displays of inhumanity shown by the so-called Muslim gunman who took the lives of so many innocent people in the name of a religion which has as its very meaning: peace.”
His funeral had been a celebration of his life where world leaders and religious faiths came together in the spirit of peace, love and religious tolerance.
Our wonderful father is admired, celebrated and respected for many reasons, and perhaps more than anything else, for his ability to keep love in his heart despite all the upheavals of life. Through the ups and downs, the prejudice and injustice, through trials and it is especially during these times that we need to let our heart guide us. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family members of those who lost their lives — all of the brothers, sisters, sons and daughters. May your hearts remain unhardened by this senseless act, and may your spirits always thrive in the light of love and forgiveness.
Ali, who lost a long battle of Parkinson’s disease after several decades, was mourned internationally in a widely attended funeral with special guests and top dignitaries from all over the world. He is known to have converted to Islam as a heavyweight champion, and openly stated that he had done this to depart from Christianity, which he regarded as a slave religion.
RELIGION
However, it seems Ali believed in the religion of the heart, but took on Islam as the religion with which he intended to practice the purification of the heart. Ali told his daughter that God was too complex to understand, quoting a scripture from the Quaran where it says ”if all the oceans were ink, and all the trees were pens, it will not be enough to writ about God. Ali was implying that there is no prescribed mechanism for worshiping God, the most important and defining quality in God’s eye being the heart.
Her condemnation of the attacks is part of the country’s rallying together in solidarity, to condemn the attacks targeted at a gay club in Florida. Ali’s comments about ”the religion of the heart” however signifies the fact he joined the nation of Islam to have an identity, and found peace in doing so.