The Thoughts of Muhammad Ali

Beside a great fighter in the world, Muhammad Ali also a great speaker. He can talk for hours without making his audience get bored. Some of Muhammad Ali's sayings also very inspirative.

At first, Muhammad Ali join the Nation of Islam lead by Elijah Muhammad which was very racist. Full of hate with white people. Then in 1975, Ali converted to Sunni Islam, the mainstream of Islam along with Warith Deen Muhammad who take over Nation of Islam after the death of Elijah Muhammad.

In 1972 Ali had gone on the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. There, just like Malcolm X, meeting people of different colors from all over the world giving him a different outlook and greater spiritual awareness. Ali met people with different colors. Whites, Yellows, Browns, and Blacks all brothers and sisters there. All colors is the same.

After went Hajj on 1988, Ali become interested in Sufism. It's Islamic teaching which taught about clean heart, manners and attitude, and how to become close with God (Allah).

These are some of Ali's sayings:

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. 

I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.' 

“Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It's not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything.” 

 "Man, I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong. Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?

“If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it - then I can achieve it.” 

“Don't count the days, make the days count.”

“If they can make penicillin out of moldy bread, they can sure make something out of you.”

“It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.”

With all those quotes, I can say that Ali is a great philosopher too.

From white hater (because the whites abusing the blacks), Ali love people with all colors. Ali said:

“Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn't matter which color does the hating. It's just plain wrong.”

Ali once made some mistakes e.g. for being racist. But he realized his mistakes soon and fixed them. His convertion to Nation of Islam, and then to Sunni Islam, and then to Islamic Sufism, is a proof that Ali is always searching for the truth.