Episode 06: The Universal Title
Episode Description:
Ali’s career boasts three-time Heavyweight Champion of the world, the first to ever do it, 56 wins, 37 knockouts, and an Olympic gold medal. But the title that would mean the most to him had 0 to do with boxing. In fact, in a riff he did with radio hosts in 1966, he first imagined it as the title win from a match in outer space, with an alien opponent. The Universal Title in this series, however, is symbolic of universal human excellence. We’ll look at how Muhammad Ali won that Universal Title and why this standing is so important to his legacy.
People:
Hana Ali, the third youngest child of Muhammad Ali and author of three books about him, the latest being At Home with Muhammad Ali: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Forgiveness.
Lonnie Ali, wife of Muhammad Ali for 30 years and co-founder of the Muhammad Ali Center.
Muhammad Ali (archival audio), the Champ.
President Bill Clinton (archival audio), the 42nd President of the United States of America.
Dr. Reverend Kevin W. Cosby, Senior pastor at St. Stephen Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, and president of Simmons College of Kentucky.
Janet Evans (referenced), American swimmer and four-time Olympic gold medal winner.
Dr. Timothy J. Gianotti, Islamic scholar and president of American Islamic College.
Saddam Hussein (archival), former president of Iraq, 1979-2003.
Dr. Sherman Jackson, Distinguished Professor, King Faisal Chair in Islamic Thought and Culture and Professor of Religion and American Studies and Ethnicity.
Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani (referenced), Islamic scholar and founder of the Naqshbandiyya-Nazimiyya Sufi Order of America.
Shaykh Ahmed Kuftaro (referenced), the former Grand Mufti of Syria.
Rabbi Michael Lerner, political activist, editor of Tikkun magazine, and rabbi of Beyt Tikkun Synagogue in Berkeley, California.
Chief Oren Lyons, Faithkeeper of the Wolf Clan, Onondaga Council of Chiefs of the Hau de no sau nee, or Six Nations — Onandaga, Seneca, Cayuga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora.
Daniel Pearl (referenced), South Asia Bureau Chief for the Wall Street Journal kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan in 2002.
Dr. Intisar Rabb, professor of law and history at Harvard University.
Jason Rezaian (archival audio), the Washington Post Tehran Bureau Chief held in an Iranian prison for 545 days.
Imam Mansoor Sabree, Deputy Director for IMAN in Atlanta, Georgia, and former imam of the Atlanta Masjid of Al-Islam.
Ambassador Atallah Shabazz, oldest daughter of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz, actress, author, diplomat, and motivational speaker.
Selected Places:
Burden Auditorium in Burden Hall at Harvard Business School where Muhammad Ali delivered the Class Day speaker address in 1975.
Safa and Marwa, the hills Muhammad Ali would have journeyed back and forth between when he performed his hajj rituals in the early 1970s and late 1980s.
The Muhammad Ali Center, the six-story museum and cultural center located in Louisville, Kentucky, co-founded by Muhammad Ali and Lonnie Ali, opened to the public in 2005.
Selected Events:
In a 1966 interview with Illinois highschooler and radio host Michael Aisner, Muhammad Ali riffs about traveling to Mars to fight an alien opponent there for the Universal Title. The timeline he gives in the story lines up with some of the most life-changing moments in his spiritual journey toward universal human excellence.
In March 2015, Muhammad Ali appeals for the freedom of Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post Tehran Bureau Chief being held in an Iranian prison. In January 2016, Ali shares heartfelt remarks upon Jason’s release.
After his death on Friday, June 3, 2016, Muhammad Ali receives the Islamic funeral (June 9, 2016) and interfaith memorial (June 10, 2016) service he long planned for and that he’d wanted to be teachable moments.
In February 1985, Muhammad Ali travels to Beirut in the midst of the civil war and valiantly, but unsuccessfully, argues for the freedom of four Americans being held hostage there, including including a university librarian, a Presbyterian minister and a Roman Catholic Priest.
In November 1990, Muhammad Ali travels to Baghdad and appeals directly to Saddam Hussein for the release of foreigners being held hostage there. He goes despite failing health, ridicule about his physical condition, and criticism about his optimsm. He successfully gains the release of 15 Americans.
Muhammad Ali lights the Olympic flame at the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games even as he shakes uncontrollably from his Parkinson’s. Where he’d once been a pariah in many segments of American society — for his approach to fighting for religious freedom and human dignity and rights of Black people — he becomes an even more powerful symbol of resilience and how far America has come.
Muhammad Ali pleads passionately for Daniel Pearl’s life after he is kidnapped in Pakistan in January 2002. Daniel’s father, Judea, later says of Ali’s plea, “Ali did not hesitate a minute and issued a plea that only Satan could resist; it was published next day in Pakistan. Ali further called me by phone and insisted on being invited to the party once Danny was released.”
Artifacts:
A photo of Muhammad Ali praying inside al-Masjid al-Ḥarām in Mecca during his hajj journey in January 1972.
Footage highlights and photo of Muhammad Ali as the Class Day speaker at Harvard University in June 1975.
News coverage of Ali in December 1976 returning to uplift the souls and spirits of the people at one of the churches his family used to attend in his old West End neighborhood in Louisville, a church where he’d donated hundreds of thousands of dollars that same year to feeding the poor.
Images of Muhammad Ali’s dawah efforts, including promoting the book Prayer and Al-Islam, which he signed and gave away many copies of in hopes people would read it.
Archival audio of Hanif Khalil of Crescent Sports Media interviewing Hana Ali about lesser-known stories of her father.