The heroic mystique of Muhammad Ali

In accordance with the concept of ideal citizens in ancient Greece, Muhammad Ali embodied a wonderful blend of sporting excellence and the beauty of the arts. In the classical era of Greece, interest in sports and games was viewed as an essential quality for one to be regarded as a complete man. Even the citizens engaged in serious philosophical and literary pursuits were expected to be physically sound. This emphasis on the coalescence of sporting spirit with artistic refinement used to play a supreme role in the making of a perfect inhabitant of Greece.
The legendary sports icon Muhammad Ali (1942-2016) was quintessentially an artist, an epitome of the qualities that invoke beauty in all its dimensions. All through his boxing career, he remained both an indomitable fighter and an artist bubbling in creativity. It was him who had brought out a breathtaking sporting confrontation from a virtually primitive fight involving ferocious assaults. He singularly transformed the savage fisticuffs into a sport-fight requiring deftness, subtle skill and quick reflex. He has made the sport elegant by adding lyricism to it. He has introduced to boxing the sing-song tactic: "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee." Only a poet at heart can do this. And he was one. He proved it several times in his dramatic, eventful career. It became evident in his resolve, the penchant for breaking away with the conventional, his perseverance and his humanity.  Thus the last century saw in Muhammad Ali the birth of a sporting entertainment exuding beauty and talent. And, of course, boxer Ali personified poetry, unique to him only.
   With Muhammad Ali picking boxing as a life-long passion, the sport did not remain the same. A youth nurturing latent creative spontaneity and the artist's skill, young Ali had eventually emerged as the one shaping the fight as something steeped in heroism and artfulness. The slow rebirth of boxing with Muhammad Ali resembled the evolution of the sword fight into today's fencing. Watching fencing in the Olympic Games in the modern times, few can imagine its savage nature in the Middle Ages.
The death of great Muhammad Ali in fact speaks of the exit of an unparalleled sport-artist, a symbol of indomitableness, a rebel --- and a crusader of peace.
The boxing hero was born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. in Louisville in Kentucky, USA, on January 17, 1942.    Notwithstanding the laurels he won for his World Heavyweight boxing championship title for three times (1964, 1974, 1978), Muhammad Ali's saga kept just progressing. His path to superstardom was strewn with seen and unforeseen challenges and adversities. Muhammad Ali faced up to these hazards with a heroic spirit nurtured by the protagonists of Greek epic poems. And finally he had emerged the uncrowned king of boxing. To many, he was one of the greatest sportsmen of modern times.
Ali could have remained confined to his own domain of the sport throughout his career, and spent time honing his skill and guiding the younger generations. This is what the average sports persons of genius do normally. Muhammad Ali did not fit into this group. From his conversion to Islam in 1964 to his outright refusal to join the Vietnam War in 1967, to his activism in the Black civil rights movement in the USA, dozens of acts on the part of the charismatic global icon proved his inborn opposition to conformism.  The boxer had to go through bitter times due to his non-conformism. Ali was convicted of draft-dodging, stripped of his boxing title and banished from the ring. However, he was allowed to restart his boxing career (1970), but the situation remained hostile.  On an in-depth look at the boxer's chequered career, one feels inclined to classify him among the word's great dissidents. Finally, it is his uncompromising stance on many mundane and ethereal issues, which had endeared him to people cutting across social and racial divides.
The wide admiration that he enjoyed among people both ordinary and influential began pouring in after the boxer said goodbye to the ring. By that time he had to go through many trials and tribulations destiny had kept for him. At long last he found the long-cherished space to think about his fellow Black Americans --- and the suffering humanity in general.
For championing the cause of the Blacks while at the zenith of his career, Ali later earned his deserved kudos. "Ali helped to internationalise Black consciousness as much as anybody," said Reverend Jesse Jackson while highlighting the role of the boxer in the fight for Black cause. "He has given people all over the world a sense of pride," said Andrew Young, civil rights activist and former US ambassador to the United Nations. By saying this, Young was evidently referring to the deep concerns of Ali for the oppressed globally. "Oppressed people and people of colour have been able to identify with him," the 84-year-old politician and diplomat added.
As time wore on and wounds were mostly healed, the mystique and heroic appeal of Muhammad Ali prompted global organisations and influential people to recognise him formally. He had by then retired from boxing. The farewell occurred in 1981. Ali found the time favourable enough to assume lots of mediatory roles and responsibilities they warranted. He appeared at the opening ceremony of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, where he lit the cauldron. In 2005, President George W. Bush honoured Ali with the President's Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the USA. Ali had by then been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. But his public life continued in full swing.
Earlier, in 1998, the boxer was named a UN Messenger of Peace. In fact, the global peace and humanitarian missions of Muhammad Ali have only added to his stature as a perfect world figure. With the ease of a troubadour, he transcended the narrow boundaries of the ring and his national frontiers. This part of his life began in 1980, when he visited five African countries as an overseas envoy of President Jimmy Carter. In 1990 he travelled to Iraq on a private visit, and met President Saddam Hussein to advocate no-war in the region. The spectre of the Gulf War was then looming over the Middle East. During this historic mission, Ali demonstrated his diplomatic acumen in securing the release of 15 US hostages. He also visited the post-Taliban Afghanistan in 2002.
Muhammad Ali placed the issue of Parkinson's disease to the US Congress in 2002. He called for sufficient funding for research on the disease. For two decades he had been engaged in various charitable projects and campaigns like promotion and state patronisation of boxing --- his life-long passion.
Given the hero's inborn sensitive nature soaked in pure empathy, his visit to the 7-year-old new nation of Bangladesh came by effortlessly. During his 5-day stay in the country, Ali experienced the extent to which the Bengalees could go in offering their love and admiration for a person lodged in their heart. The visit of the hero to Bangladesh will go down in the country's history as one of its most memorable events.      
Despite the smooth sailing in the last three decades of his life, Ali had been witness to many injustices and pains inflicted on him. He did not complain, nor had he ever thought of hitting back. He simply looked forward and garnered strength from his firm faith in truth, and peace. That's what made Ali an epitome of great human virtues.
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