An image of Muhammad Ali in the ring. “Terror In Orlando: Ali Bomaye!” by Professor A.L.I. (Professor A.L.I.)
I was prepared to continue mourning the loss of Muhammad Ali in private, with my family and local community, and then this morning I awoke to the the horror in Orlando, and I just wanted to scream.
I am a Muslim. I am a Muslim in large part due to Muhammad Ali, who was a childhood hero of mine, long before I knew anything about the faith. He remained a hero into young adulthood and into this present day, because he represented many of the things I also rep for, such as Islam, blackness, social justice, humanity and love. He took two holy names and made them a part of global lexicon, so much so that people throughout the world scream Muhammad and Ali in unison, just as they had once had in Ghadeer Khum in the middle of the desert for only the faithful and historians to hear.
Muhammad Ali represented many things. Those who condemn the participation of many at his funeral, who they feel are incongruent with the politics of Muhammad Ali, have themselves “flattened” Muhammad Ali to a sliver of his robust and intricate persona.
Imam Nadim Ali delivers the closing remarks during an interfaith memorial service for Muhammad Ali at the Atlanta Masjid of Al-Islam on Thursday, June 9, 2016, in Atlanta. (Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
He was many things and his funeral was attended by many people, and his Islam was a global Islam, evolving beyond the backwards “fatawa” (plural of fatwa) of Saudi clerics who label anything new an innovation and associate it with “shirk” (polytheism), in order to destroy it, so that they can further manipulate and control the faith. Muhammad Ali also represented Islam better than anyone without the surname Shabazz in the West and, like Malcolm X, who was his mentor, Muhammad Ali continued to evolve and grow, becoming a better human being day by day.
This is what I know of Islam and why I became a Muslim, and this is why I hate what happened in Orlando and mourn it doubly.
What happened in Orlando is sick and it has no faith, let alone Islam. If you think it has something to do with Islam, then check your own timeline for posts about Muhammad Ali and have fun trying to reconcile those two very disparate things. Muhammad Ali represented Islam, what Orlando represents is faithlessness. Today the community in Orlando is mourning, and I mourn with them. The LQBTQIQ community is reeling, and I too reel. Gun owners feel they are being homogenized with terror and I too feel the same. Yet there is a sliver of hope and it is named Muhammad Ali, for even in death his memory destroys the argument that this is Islam—it knocks out bigoted polemics and stands victorious, so that we all can chant “Ali Bomaye!” while facing terror with the poise of this unique and singularly powerful soul.
Muhammad Ali walked away at his prime, because he did not want to kill. His stance, which cost him dearly, represents Islam greater than any singular bomb blast or mentally unstable individual with an Islamic name. No one has ever done that in my memory. Imagine Lebron James, Steph Curry. stepping away from the sport of basketball, or Joe Cool walking away from the field in the late 80’s because he did not agree with the Gulf War. My Bay Area pride aside, no one has ever come close. Mahmoud Abdur-Rauf, whom I had the opportunity to meet in 1996 at a Muslim Unity Conference, came the closest in my opinion, but even he never walked away from sport for his beliefs—and as ill as he was with the rock back then (check tape if you are Steph Curry fan), he was never the G.O.A.T.
Professor A.L.I. wearing a Muhammad Ali t-shirt. Ali is holding a newspaper with the headline “Allah is the Greatest.”
I never got to meet Muhammad Ali and it will remain an unrequited item on the bucket list. I was lucky to go to Louisville last year and visit his museum, walk through a street named after him and imagine as a squinted the segregation of the city in which he was bred. Last year as I visited his city, I was mourning Paris, events in Nigeria, Syria, and Yemen. This year I add Orlando to the list—as we as a human population try to heal, while we are baited into a never-ending conflict of us versus them.
Like “Ali versus Frazier,” one side versus the other, where victory can only come when bodies hit the floor—and yet, if we understood Ali, we would know what “Ali versus Frazier” truly was. Frazier supported Ali as he took his moral stand and walked away from boxing, financially and stood by his side—these weren’t enemies caught in a never ending cycle, but two human beings who stood beyond the sport of boxing and became friends. This is the Islam that Muhammad Ali represented and this is the Islam I know.
So I ask you, if you have been reading this, to invoke Muhammad Ali in your mind. Let him fill your consciousness and allow his memory to knock out the media fabricated mythology of the Islamic terrorist. Islam is about justice, peace and the evolution of the human being to become a better human being; that is why you love Muhammad Ali and why in that love we have to have to battle bigotry and hatred as he once did, in order to rise.
It is why we have to build bridges and not walls, to paraphrase Billie Crystal, and why we have to stand for justice, instead of giving into the easy path of hatred and indiscriminate blame.
Let us mourn those who we have lost and let us stop this cycle of hatred, by reminding those who would terrorize us that we will no longer give into their greatest strength, which is bullying us into conflating our hatred of them with a billion innocent Muslims.
Because these Muslims are represented by Muhammad Ali and nobody can’t beat the G.O.A.T.
Professor A.L.I. is a spoken word and Hip-Hop artist and educator; in his piece “The Pen” he immortalizes Muhammad Ali with these words, “or channel Sonny Liston with devil intuition and fight Muhammad, then, pen becomes a prison.”
Originally published by Professor A.L.I.
Content posted to MyMPN open blogs is the opinion of the author alone, and should not be attributed to MintPress News.
Why do you say Orlando is “Faithlessness”
As I recall, Muhammad Ali’s funeral service was at an Ahmadi Muslim mosque. “In his later life, he had taken an interest in Sufism, which he referenced in his autobiography, ‘the Soul of a Butterfly.'” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali
Unfortunately, Ahmadi Muslims are murdered, all over the world and are viewed as not being “real Muslims” because they embrace a prophet after Muhammad. Su’fi Muslims are referred to as “the inventors” because they invent doctrines not found in the Koran or the Hadiths. They are also frequently murdered and their mosques attacked.
Still, Ali will have the last word, whether I believe he represents the majority, or not: “After the September 11 attacks in 2001, he stated that “Islam is a religion of peace” and “does not promote terrorism or killing people”, and that he is “angry that the world sees a certain group of Islam followers who caused this destruction, but they are not real Muslims. They are racist fanatics who call themselves Muslims”. In December 2015, he stated that “True Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so-called Islamic jihadists goes against the very tenets of our religion”, that “We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda”, and that “political leaders should use their position to bring understanding about the religion of Islam, and clarify that these misguided murderers have perverted people’s views on what Islam really is.”[112]”
Id.
Here’s the problem. From the Hadiths of the Islamic prophet Muhammad:
Sahih Bukhari
“Narrated Ibn ‘Abbas: The Prophet cursed effeminate men; those men who are in the similitude (assume the manners of women) and those women who assume the manners of men, and he said, “Turn them out of your houses.” The Prophet turned out such-and-such man, and ‘Umar turned out such-and-such woman.”
Sahih Bukhari 7:72:774
“Narrated Ibn ‘Abbas: The Prophet cursed effeminate men and those women who assume the similitude (manners) of men. He also said, “Turn them out of your houses.” He turned out such-and-such person out, and ‘Umar turned out such-and-such person.”
Sahih Bukhari 8:82:820
Abu Dawud
“Narrated By Abdullah ibn Abbas : The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: If you find anyone doing as Lot’s people did, kill the one who does it, and the one to whom it is done.”
Abu Dawud 38:4447
“Narrated By Abdullah ibn Abbas : If a man who is not married is seized committing sodomy, he will be stoned to death.
Abu Dawud 38:4448
“Narrated AbuSa’id al-Khudri: The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: A man should not look at the private parts of another man, and a woman should not look at the private parts of another woman. A man should not lie with another man without wearing lower garment under one cover; and a woman should not be lie with another woman without wearing lower garment under one cover. ”
Abu Dawud 31:4007
“Narrated AbuHurayrah: The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: A man should not lie with another man and a woman should not lie with another woman without covering their private parts except a child or a father. He also mentioned a third thing which I forgot.”
Abu Dawud 31:4008
“Abu Dawud said: From here I remembered this tradition from Mu’ammil and Musa: Beware! No man should lie with another man, no woman should lie with another woman except with one’s child or father. He also mentioned a third which I have forgotten..”
Abu Dawud 11:2169
“Narrated AbuHurayrah: The Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) cursed the man who dressed like a woman and the woman who dressed like a man.”
Abu Dawud 32:4087
“Narrated Aisha, Ummul Mu’minin: Ibn AbuMulaykah told that when someone remarked to Aisha that a woman was wearing sandals, she replied: The Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) cursed mannish women.”
Abu Dawud 32:4088
Al Tirmidhi
“Whoever is found conducting himself in the manner of the people of Lot, kill the doer and the receiver.”
Tirmidhi 1:152
“It was narrated by Jaabir (may Allah be pleased with him): “The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: ‘There is nothing I fear for my ummah more than the deed of the people of Loot.'””
Tirmidhi 1457
Ibn Majah
“It was narrated from Abu Hurairah: that the Messenger of Allah cursed women who imitate men and men who imitate women. (Sahih)”
Ibn Majah 3:9:1903
“It was narrated from Ibn ‘Abbas: that the Prophet cursed men who imitate women and woman who imitate men. (Sahih)”
Ibn Majah 3:9:1904
“It was narrated from Ibn`Abbas that the Messenger of Allah said: “Whoever you find doing the action of the people of Lut, kill the one who does it, and the one to whom it is done.” (Hasan)”
Ibn Majah 3:20:2561
“It was narrated from Abu Hurairah that the Prophet said concerning those who do the action of the people of Lut: “Stone the upper and the lower, stone them both.” (Hasan)
Ibn Majah 3:20:2562
Al Muwatta
“Malik related to me that he asked Ibn Shihab about someone who committed sodomy. Ibn Shihab said, “He is to be stoned, whether or not he is muhsan.””
Al-Muwatta 41 41.111
Miscellaneous
“It was narrated that Ibn Abbaas said: “The Prophet Muhammed (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “… cursed is the one who has intercourse with an animal, cursed is the one who does the action of the people of Loot.””
“Narrated by Ahmad, 1878: Classed as saheeh by Shaykh al-Albaani in Saheeh al-Jaami’, no. 5891”
“Ibn Abbas and Abu Huraira reported God’s messenger as saying, ‘Accursed is he who does what Lot’s people did.’ In a version…on the authority of Ibn Abbas it says that Ali [Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law] had two people “burned” and that Abu Bakr [Muhammad’s chief companion] had a wall thrown down on them.”
Mishkat, vol. 1, p. 765, Prescribed Punishments
If this guy was a practicing homosexual and was made to feel guilty about it, I know who helped:
“If two men among you are guilty of lewdness, punish them both. If they repent and amend, Leave them alone; for Allah is Oft-returning, Most Merciful.”
Qur’an 4:16 (also see Tafsirs of this verse below)
“We also (sent) Lut: He said to his people: “Do ye commit lewdness such as no people in creation (ever) committed before you? For ye practise your lusts on men in preference to women : ye are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds. And his people gave no answer but this: they said, “Drive them out of your city: these are indeed men who want to be clean and pure!” But we saved him and his family, except his wife: she was of those who legged behind. And we rained down on them a shower (of brimstone): Then see what was the end of those who indulged in sin and crime!”
Qur’an 7:80
“”Of all the creatures in the world, will ye approach males, And leave those whom Allah has created for you to be your mates? Nay, ye are a people transgressing (all limits)!” They said: “If thou desist not, O Lut! thou wilt assuredly be cast out!” He said: “I do detest your doings. O my Lord! deliver me and my family from such things as they do!” So We delivered him and his family,- all Except an old woman who lingered behind. Then afterward We destroyed the others. We rained down on them a shower (of brimstone): and evil was the shower on those who were admonished (but heeded not)!”
Qur’an 26:165
“(We also sent) Lut (as a messenger): behold, He said to his people, “Do ye do what is shameful though ye see (its iniquity)? Would ye really approach men in your lusts rather than women? Nay, ye are a people (grossly) ignorant! But his people gave no other answer but this: they said, “Drive out the followers of Lut from your city: these are indeed men who want to be clean and pure!” Then We saved him and his household save his wife; We destined her to be of those who stayed behind. And We rained down on them a shower (of brimstone): and evil was the shower on those who were admonished (but heeded not)!”
Qur’an 27:54
“And (remember) Lut: behold, he said to his people: “Ye do commit lewdness, such as no people in Creation (ever) committed before you. “Do ye indeed approach men, and cut off the highway?- and practise wickedness (even) in your councils?” But his people gave no answer but this: they said: “Bring us the Wrath of Allah if thou tellest the truth.” He said: “O my Lord! help Thou me against people who do mischief!” When Our Messengers came to Abraham with the good news, they said: “We are indeed going to destroy the people of this township: for truly they are (addicted to) crime.””
Qur’an 29:28