ABSTRACT
This chapter details the ziyarat (pilgrimage) that I took to visit Muhammad Ali's grave in Louisville, Kentucky in the Fall of 2022. As a Muslim and a scholar of pilgrimage in Islam, I visited the grave as a personal, religious obligation. In Islam, visiting graves is a tradition that dates to the time of Prophet Muhammad (Arjana, 2017). One of the questions I address in this chapter is how Muhammad Ali functions as an important figure for American Muslims who are situated outside of the African American Muslim community. As a white Muslim convert, Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X stand as important figures for my family, functioning as positive examples for my children. As an athlete, civil rights activist, and humanitarian, Ali is an important American historical figure. For Muslims, he is also a teacher whose commitment to social justice reflects Islamic commitments to the poor and oppressed that are expressed in the Qur'an and other texts.
