Religious views of Muhammad Ali

Malcolm X is credited with playing a critical role in the evolution of Ali's religious views by steering him towards the Nation of Islam.

[4] By the time of the first Ali-Liston bout, Nation of Islam members, including Malcolm X, were visible in his entourage.

This led to a story in The Miami Herald just before the fight disclosing that Ali had joined the Nation of Islam, which nearly caused the bout to be canceled.

According to these teachings, which Ali said he believed in, there exists a space platform operated by "men who never smile" which orbits the Earth at the speed of 18,000 miles per hour.

The platform contains bombs which would be dropped at Armageddon which would begin after a threshold in the earth's collective guilt had been breached.

According to Plimpton the "bright light darting in the sky", seen by Ali and Jones, was probably either Venus or Jupiter.

[11] On being probed further by Plimpton, Ali explained that according to this belief system the first inhabitants of the Earth were blacks.

[14][15] According to Ali, "hearts and souls have no color", and it was wrong of Elijah Muhammad to have talked of "white devils".

Farrakhan continued advocating the "racial separatism" of Elijah Muhammad, and reportedly considered Wallace "a soft minded heretic.

[21]Ali later moved away from Inayat Khan's teachings of Universal Sufism, towards traditional Sunni-Sufi Islam.

Muhammad Ali received guidance from Sunni-Sufi Islamic scholars such as Grand Mufti of Syria Almarhum Asy-Syaikh Ahmed Kuftaro, Shaykh Hisham Kabbani, Imam Zaid Shakir, Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, and Dr. Timothy J. Gianotti, who was at Ali's bedside during his last days and ensured that his funeral was in accordance with Islamic rites and rituals.

"[6] According to Dennis and Atyeo:Malcolm X firmly implanted in Ali's mind the belief that he was invincible which must have been of enormous psychological advantage to a young fighter facing the awesome Sonny Liston.

Conversely, the thought of having to face a dreaded "Black Muslim" must have been at the very least a slightly daunting proposition for many of Ali's opponents, especially the ones he christened "Uncle Toms.