Yousef Bakeer – Muhammad Ali’s Unwavering Faith in Islam

which means that we should be conscious of him. We should be

aware of him, and we should protect ourselves from his

punishment and his wrath. And we shouldn't allow ourselves to die

except in the state of la ilaha illAllah Muhammad Rasulullah

sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, I begin my hotbar by asking Allah

Allah subhanaw taala first and foremost, to send blessings and

prayers to our beloved prophet muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa

sallam along masala Soleimani mo barik ala Nabina Habiba Muhammad

wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa salim to steam and cathedra My Dear

Brothers and Sisters in Islam As salam o aleikum wa rahmatullah wa

barakato.

One of the beauty of our religion is the fact that

spreading this Islam is the responsibility of every single one

of us.

spreading our deen is not limited to the scholars and the machete

are not limited to a special or small group of people. We all

share that responsibility of spreading our deen

And subhanAllah in today's hotbar

I'm going to be talking about someone who is the most famous and

respected Muslim in the United States.

The most famous, a respected Muslim, who says La ilaha

illallah, Muhammad Rasool Allah, in this land in this country.

And this man

is Muhammad Ali.

And Muhammad Ali has a unique story since his childhood, in

today's whole bunch, Allah Tala, I'm gonna give you an overview

about his life. And then lessons that we can glean from his life

and time.

So he was born in Louisiana,

and the South deep south as an African American.

And if you were thinking about the 1900s, at that time was so hard to

be black,

was very hard to be black at that time. And Muhammad Ali,

one time he was riding his bike, and he got, you know, robbed,

Someone robbed his bike. So he picked up the phone, and he called

the police to report this incident.

And then

the answer he got is don't fight next time.

So Muhammad Ali, at that time realized that he lives in a world

where he has to step up for himself. He has to watch for

himself. He has to build up himself.

And so he got into boxing. And then, at the age of 18, Muhammad

Ali won his first Olympic gold medal. That was an, you know, an

earth shattering for so many people. He's an African American

Muslim, who's winning that medal. And that's something very unique.

And so, years after the past for a little bit,

Muhammad Ali got in a big trouble,

where he was stripped of everything he did the middle, he

was banned from boxing.

And I want you to just imagine this,

a lost child, or now he's 90 or 20

young man

who finally made it, and then all of a sudden, now he has to go back

to where he was.

No money, no fame, no success. Now he is struggling with a huge

financial crisis. Now, he everything is taken away from him.

years after he was 32. At that time, he decided to go back to

boxing. And everyone was telling him, You know what,

it's too late. You're getting older now. You will be slower, and

you will be weaker.

But Muhammad I was insistent to go back. So he actually went for a

final match

for the World Champion boxing against someone a big boxer at

that time with them.

Mr. Fraser, leverage every single one is telling him you know what,

you cannot make it, you will be defeated.

And so he started this match, and he actually lost.

So I want you to just think about your put yourself in Muhammad

Ali's shoes.

Oh, all of this injustice committed against me. And now I

wanted to start my career a very old age, and I get this first hit.

So everyone telling me like, you know what, this is a time for you

to actually retire. There is no way you can make it. That's it.

You're 33 now.

And you know, in boxing language, 33 is old age, they usually you

know, at the age of 20, early 20s, that's your peak. But 33 Now we're

getting you know, you're getting off that track of being a solid

boxer.

But Muhammad Ali did not give up.

And he did not give up. And this is I want your attention here.

Muhammad Ali did not give up because he loved boxing that like

so much and he wanted that career.

Boxing was not his ultimate purpose.

Boxing from Muhammad Ali was not his ultimate purpose. He had a

greater purpose than Boxing, boxing for Muhammad Ali was the

vehicle where he wanted to reach at some point, Islam to be spread

all over this country. That was his purpose. And so he started

this game, this this matches and he won't couple of matches. And he

started to get stronger and stronger. And one time

before this fight. In a press conference, the opponent rejected

to call him Muhammad Ali.

He kept calling him catches clay. And he told him this is not my

name. That's not my name. Don't call me catch clay. My name is

Muhammad Ali.

And he insisted to call him one more time, catches clay.

And he had so much pride, he took so much pride and honor in his

faith.

So he told him you don't want I will make you say my name in the

ring.

And in this in this fight, as he's knocking him down, he told him,

What's my name, say my name. I want you to watch that. And just

someone who's so proud of his identity as Muslim.

He wasn't shy to say, you know, his name in public. He wouldn't

shy to pray in public.

He wouldn't, you know, be embarrassed to say my name is

Muhammad.

My name is Mohammed. My name is not Mo. I wouldn't embarrass to

you know, say my full name. I would say my full name. I'm a

Muslim and a pride of being Muslim.

So Muhammad Ali had that mentality on every single conversation.

Muhammad Ali has to bring Islam has to bring Islam in the

conversation. We're talking about 1900 Brothers and sisters, no one

even know what Islam is. In America. That's something not

really popular.

Some people didn't know what what this guy is talking about.

And he did not shy away from them.

So fast forward a little bit. Muhammad Ali.

That was that was his peak towards the end of his career. Muhammad

Ali understood the words of Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi

wa sallam, when he said Hyrule ness and follow holiness, the best

amongst you are those who are beneficial to others. So he said,

I will go one more time, because I lost from Fraser now my last

opportunity, or I'll go for a final match for a final match. His

age now is 33.

And he is going to play

and fight against who? against George Foreman.

For those who are you know, have knowledgeable boxing. You guys

know what I'm talking about? George Foreman is a is a fighter.

He's solid. He won 40 games before that game. And every single game.

He went with a knockout in the second round. And he actually won

Fraser, the one who actually, you know, beat him Muhammad Ali

and George Furman before that game before that match, he said, You

know what, I'm gonna kill Muhammad Ali.

I want everybody to be scared to face me and fight me.

And Muhammad Ali did something very unique.

He actually decided to have that match in Africa

to have this match in the year, one of the poorest country of

Africa. And like everybody was like, why is he insisting to have

that match in Africa. He said, This is my only condition.

If you guys want to meet it to go and to fight for that match, it

has to be an African. And he was very smart. Because he went to

Africa to stay here.

And then, you know, in the pre fight, build up, everyone, you

know, usually the fighters speak, you know, against each other all

that there wasn't concerned about all of this. He was actually

talking about the struggle of the Africans and the struggle of the

people, if they're

in the media, he was talking about them.

Remember, boxing was not his purpose, was not his ultimate

goal.

He wanted to help and spread Leila and help people. That was his

passion. So he started speaking about the struggle of the people

of the year. And people of the year loved him so much as his

training 1000s of people following him 1000s of people you know,

wanted to say salaam to him, they want to take a picture with him.

1000s of people loved him so much. Gersch, Furman, after this match,

he said, I was not scared of Muhammad Ali the boxer.

I was scared of Muhammad Ali, the person, the power he has inside,

not the physicality.

Not the physicality, I was afraid of him. He said I was afraid of

who he is, the principles he stands for. It's just unique. So

Muhammad Ali started, you know, that was a big match. I wanted to

go and to look at the documentary, Muhammad Ali's beautiful, the

actual you don't have an engineer, you don't have proper, you know,

rings for that for that kind of matches. So they decided to have

this match in the soccer stadium.

Around 60,000, people came to watch this match.

And some statistics say that almost quarter of the population

of the world got to watch this match match in the TV.

They want wants you to imagine this.

And he started this fight. And again, Hamid Ali put all of his,

you know, all of his power, his passion. He was just in that

match. He was just, you know, going for something far greater

than just just a match.

So, you know, the match has started. And then George Foreman,

he was well known by this left punch. And when he got his first,

you know, left punch, Hamid, I looked at him and said, Is this

all yoga?

And then eventually, Muhammad Ali defeated George Foreman, in this

match.

After the match, he said, Look, listen to Hamid Ali's words after

the match. He said with the power of Allah, we can achieve

everything

with the power of Allah, we can win anything. And then he said,

I'm here to say that this people in the year are struggling.

I'm here to say that I'm actually going to get a sell my gloves, and

he actually sold his gloves with $100,000. And he gave all of this

money to the people of their

Muhammad Ali made people made the insincere people to see his

sincerity.

He made the most racist people in the world, mentioned the name of

Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam with respect. This is

what Muhammad Ali did. This is what Muhammad Ali achieved. He

made people see that the pride of Islam in this land Subhanallah

towards his his, towards his, you know, final days and when he

passed away, the world leaders attended his funeral. I remember

even Bill Clinton at that time, attended his funeral. Speaking

about his legacy, calling him the greatest, the greatest in the

1900s is being called to an African American Muslim brother.

That's his achievements. You Allah subhanaw taala

A bless his soul and may Allah subhanho wa Taala make us among

those who follow that legacy. I mean I'm in trouble Allah Minako

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