Clay Set Severe Rules for his Self-control

in Preparation of Climbing up the Glory Ladder

The World Heavyweight Boxing Champion :

“I started to learn the Islamic principles from

Elijah Muhammad’s Group”

   The faith journey which led Muhammad Ali -the most famous sportsman in the world and the greatest boxer in the twentieth century- to Islam was not easy ; rather, it was a difficult one. In a way, this journey constituted for him the steps he was destined to make on the road of life, searching for spiritual salvation, getting rid of spiritual vacuum, hoping for true happiness and reaching the haven of security and safety. On more than one occasion, Muhammad Ali said that the happiest moments of his life were the ones during which he announced his conversion to Islam and tasted the sweetness of faith.

Before his conversion to Islam in the 1960’s Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) was likely to be accepted by the white Americans and adhere to their values. He was not white but in the whites’ view he was the best of black people at a time when racial discrimination was prevalent in most of the United States. Clay was a tall and good-looking, popular young sportsman. His ambitions in life were great. Similarly, wealth and the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship were awaiting him. While Americans considered Clay as a black toy to be discarded after its entertainment value had finished; the matter was not as such, for it became more complicated. In the first press conference he gave in Miami after his victory over Sonny Liston, his answer to questions about the match was brief, but he talked much about the values he believed in and the principles he outlined for himself.

Clay’s victory over Liston was not unexpected for the new champion; he defeated Liston because he was the better boxer in that match. Clay’s voice started to be slow and soft for the first time in his answers to the journalists’ questions, for he started to talk about himself and his values, saying : “I am a lone child, I haven’t committed any offence in my life, I haven’t gone to prison or been taken to court, nor have I joined an extremist organization. I don’t give any attention to white women who try to seduce me, nor do I impose myself on people who don’t want me. Whenever I go to the house of someone who doesn’t welcome me, I feel uncomfortable and I leave. I like white people and my people (the black people), too. I think that they can live together without provoking each other. You shouldn’t condemn someone who wants peace ; if you do so, you are condemning peace itself. The cock cries when it sees the light of dawn and I am now crying to call for peace.”

The American journalist Robert Lebsty said : “I have spent most of my professional life in sports and in journalistic work. The press conference given by Clay in 1964 was the greatest press conference I had ever witnessed. I liked the way Clay dealt with the press since the beginning. He made us all partners in his publicity campaign, and in complete awareness of what he was doing, and he fulfilled his mission in the best way.”

Lebsty continued : “After Clay’s victory over Liston, the press had to follow the story to the end ; the press could not easily overlook Clay’s words in his press conference after his victory over Liston. The press did not have a choice in dealing with Clay. The story contained elements of the journalistic sensationalism that newsmen usually run after. Most of the sports critics, particularly the veterans, felt more at ease with the vociferous group surrounding Liston than with the group of Muslims surrounding Clay. Some of them described Liston’s defeat as the worst in the history of boxing. Clay’s star started to rise after that match, for he became a hero for the American youth of the time.

Before Clay’s appearance in the ring, the heavyweight boxing champion in the US was always deemed to be black and more often than not poor; he thus constituted a model for the religious classes in American society. Boxing was the way through which whites encouraged blacks to find an outlet for their energy so as to entertain them, as well as win championships, glory, and fame. The whites’ purpose was to turn the attention of blacks from crime to boxing rings as an outlet for the latter’s hatred and anger. Besides, the whites considered this as a means of entrainment for themselves when they watched blacks boxing with utmost violence. These boxers got millions of dollars and bettered their social conditions by buying luxury cars, going out with beautiful women and drinking alcohol. In the end, they destroyed themselves by themselves. Nevertheless, all this changed all of a sudden when Clay declared in a press conference : “I don’t have to be as you like me to be, I am free to be me.”

Lebsty thinks that Cassius Clay chose to join an organization called the "Nation of Islam" and a man named Elijah Muhammad. Elijah Muhammad was born in Georgia in 1898 ; his father gave him the name of Elijah Poole, but in 1923 he went to Detroit where he settled. After living for eight years in Detroit, he was visited by a salesman from the East, whose name was W.D. Fard, and who was half-black and half-white, i.e. a half-caste coming from a black and white mixed family. Fard was able to be accepted by the blacks in the US and to become their leader. He taught Elijah Muhammad the principles of Islam.

There are stories and legends about the origins of Fard. His conversion and his initiation to Islam occurred in Makkah at the hand of a black man called Ya`qub. There is no need to relate in detail such extraordinary legends. We only mention here that Clay started to attend secretly the religious courses offered by Elijah Muhammad in the early sixties.

Muhammad Ali said : “I first heard about Elijah Muhammad during a sports competition organized in Chicago in 1959. Before going to the stadium I had a look at a copy of “The Nation of Islam” newspaper, but I did not give it enough attention, as a lot of things were going on in my mind. I remembered that when I was a child, a little black boy by the name of Emit Tell Sesby was killed because he whistled at a white woman.

Emit Tell was my age. Though the killers were arrested, they were not punished. Things like this were on my mind all the time. In my private life, there are places where I can go and places where I can’t eat out. I won a gold medal in the Olympic Games as a representative of the U.S. in these games, but when I returned home I found them still treating me the way they treated blacks. There were restaurants which refused to serve me, and some people still called me ‘boy’. In Miami in 1961, I was training in preparation for a boxing match, and I met a follower of Elijah Muhammad by the name of Captain Sam, who invited me to a meeting. After that my life changed.”

Since Muhammad Ali’s meeting with Captain Sam was a turning point in his life, let us shed some light on the life of Captain Sam. His name was Abdurrahman Sam, formerly known as Sam Saxon. He said about himself : “I was born in Atlanta in 1931 ; the first time I heard about the teachings of Elijah Muhammad was in 1955. There was a brother by the name of James sent by Elijah Muhammad to Atlanta to teach people the Islamic religion. He taught me the principles of Islam. I was a sportsman who practiced sports and attended sports events. This was the life I was leading then. But the first time I heard the words of Elijah Muhammad I knew that they were the truth. I was convinced of the fact that God sent us Elijah Muhammad to save us from perdition. After that I moved from Atlanta to Los Angeles. My wife got a job in teaching with Elijah Muhammad in Chicago, where we stayed for three years. In 1961, Elijah Muhammad told me that there were too many good people in Chicago and that he wanted my help in another place. Since I was one of those who knew his teachings, he sent me to Miami. The person in charge of the organization in Miami was Ishmael Sabakhan, Elijah told him to make me his assistant. My job consisted in offering the group’s members some sports training so as to keep fit and teaching them how to be good for their families and how to lead a righteous life. When you become a Muslim, you have to teach so I was in charge of helping anyone wanting to learn in the mosque. Not many people attended the lessons regularly. Actually, we were more than thirty people who converted to Islam in Miami, but only thirty people attended the lessons in the mosque in 1961”

Sam continued : “I think I met Muhammad Ali in March 1961 when I was selling the newspaper : “Muhammad Speaks” in the street. He saw me and said to me ‘Hello, brother’ and started to talk to me. He asked me whether I was a follower of Elijah Muhammad ; I answered yes, adding that I was not used to going to the headquarters of the Group, but I knew what he was talking about ; then. He introduced himself, saying :  “I am Cassius Clay and I will become the world heavyweight champion soon. I told him that I knew him and that I had met him at the Olympics. Next, he asked whether I wanted to go with him to the hotel to show me some of his old books. I went with him to his hotel room and found out that he was sharing it with another boxer. I found that the books were full of articles about him. I had a look at them and noticed they were good, indeed. He gave much attention to himself and to Islam, too. We talked about the two at the same time. I found that he knew some of our teachings though he did not study or learn them before. I noticed his readiness to learn more of these teachings. I realized that if I showed him the truth, he would follow it and become an important figure ; this is why I invited him to our following meeting in the mosque.”