MUHAMMAD ALI’S SOUL OF A BUTTERFLY

” Myths are about gods, legends are about heroes, and fairy tales describe the endless words of magic and dreams. This book is neither myth nor fairy tale, but the story of a legend with unwavering conviction.” Words of Hana Yasmeen Ali who collaborated with her legendary father to give us his reflection’s of his wonderful life’s journey.

I have gathered some of the pure reflections of “the Greatest.” Enjoy!

1. “We spend more time learning how to make a living than we do learning to make a life.”
2. “Many of the philosophies, stories, and ideas that have touched my soul and inspired my heart I learned from the study of Islam.”
3. “Spirituality is recognizing the divine light that is within us all. It doesn’t belong to any particular religion; it belongs to everyone.”
4. “The more I study about God and Islam, the more I realize how little I know. So, I am still studying, and I’m still learning because there’s nothing as great as working for God.”
5. “Though some people may see themselves as better or more important than others, in God’s eyes we are all equal, and it’s what is in our hearts that matters.”
6. “I believe we can only be generous when we expect nothing in return.”
7. “At night when I go to bed, I ask myself, “If I don’t wake up tomorrow, would I be proud of how I lived today.”
8. “ We all have the same God, we just serve him differently, Rivers, lakes, ponds, streams, oceans, all have different names, but they contain water. So do religions have different names and they all contain truth, expressed in different ways, forms, and times.”
9. “I studied life and I studied people.”
10. “Where is a man’s wealth? His wealth is in his knowledge. If his wealth is in the bank, he doesn’t possess it.”
11. “My soul has grown over the years, and some of my views have changed. As long as I’m alive, I will continue to try understand more because the work of the heart is never done. All through my life I have been tested. My will has been tested, my courage has been tested, my strength has been tested. Now my patience and endurance are being tested. Every step of the way I believe God has been with me. And, more than ever, I know that he is with me now. I have learned to live my life one step, one breath, and one moment at a time, but it was a long road. I set out on a journey of love, seeking truth, peace and understanding. I am still learning.”
12. “A heart enlightened by love is more precious than all of the diamonds and gold in the world.”
13. “It is the heart that perceives beauty.”
14. “Think well of all, be patient with all, and try to find the good in all.”
15. “Hating is wrong, no matter who does the hating. It’s just plain wrong.”
16. “What happens to any of us anywhere in the world had better be the business of us all.”
17. “Little Black boys and girls had no public role models. We didn’t have any heroes who looked like us. There was no one for us to identify with, and we didn’t know where we fit in.”
18. “Somehow, I was going to make a difference in the world.”
19. “God would not place a burden on a man’s shoulders knowing he could not carry it, nor would he give a person purpose without significance.”
20. “I had faced my fear and gained the self-respect and self-confidence I needed to continue my boxing career.”
21. “I realized that we are only brave when we have something to lose and we still try. We can’t be brave without fear.”
22. “There are little choices we make every day that set the standard for the rest of our lives.”
23. “There comes a time in every person’s life when he has to choose the course his life will take. On my journey I have found that the path to self-discovery is the most liberating choice of all.”
24. “What really matters is how you feel about yourself.”
25. “Our lives are a journey during which we must find our own answers and make our own paths.”
26. “The man who views the world at fifty the same as he did he was twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.”
27. “The day I met Islam, I found a power within myself that no man can destroy or take away. When I first walked into the mosque, I didn’t find Islam; it found me.”
28. “The slum wasn’t in the neighbourhood; it was in the heart and soul of the people.”
29. “I hoped to inspire others to take control of their lives and to live with pride and determination. I thought perhaps if they saw that I was living my life the way i chose to live- without fear and with determination- they might dare to take the risks that could set them free.”
30. “I had to loud, proud and confident.”

 

 

 

Muhammad Ali

31. “But sometimes all you had to do is to breathe, and people will have an opinion on how you drew that breath.”
32. “I have been curious about the world around me and my place in it.”
33. “That’s when I learned how self-promotion and colorful controversy could draw in the crowds.”
34. “I am beautiful. I am the greatest. I can’t be beat. I’m the fastest thing on two feet, and I float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. If you talk jive, you’ll fall in five.”
35. “People who criticize usually talk about what they wish they could do. So I never paid much attention to critics about anything negative.”
36. “The critics only made me work harder.”
37. “I talk to God every day, if God is with me, no one can defeat me.”
38. “A worldly loss often turns into a Spiritual gain.”
39. “The greater our level of understanding, the harder the tests becomes. The more we master the challenges, the deeper our faith becomes.”
40. “When God is with you, no one can defeat you.”
41. “There is a door to the heart of every man; it is either open or closed. When we value material things more than we value the well-being of mankind, the door to the heart is closed. When we are decent to others and share ourselves through kindness and compassion, the door to the heart is open. The greatest truth in life is that the happiness and peace of each can be reached only through the happiness and peace of all.”
42. “The greatness of a man does not depend on his material possessions. Regardless of how wealthy he may be, if his heart is not pure, he cannot be great.”
43. “Service to others is the rent we pay for our room in heaven.”
44. “I always try to make time for the poor and powerless, the young and the old. So that is why.”
45. “Muslims aren’t supposed to trick people and I try not to do that.”
46. “True success is reaching our potential without compromising our values.”
47. ”You have to work your way up.”
48. “In order to reach the top of the mountain, you have to climb every rock.”
49. “We must always be mindful that each day is a gift from God that can be lost at any moment.”
50. “Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something deep inside-a desire, a dream, and a vision. They have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.”
51. “We create our own realities according to our thoughts and beliefs.”
52. “Outrun the people who quit when they feel discomfort, outrun the people who stop because of despair, outrun the people who are delayed because of prejudice, outrun the people who surrender to failure, and outrun the opponent who loses sight of the goal. Because if you want to win, the will can never retire, the race can never stop, and the faith can never weaken.”
53. “Age was mind over matter- as long as you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”
54. “My toughest opponent has always been me.”
55. “It’s the heart that makes a man great-his intentions, his thoughts, and his convictions.”
56. “Every day is different, and some days are better than others, but no matter how challenging the day, I get up and live it. And it is the combination of will and faith that helps me do it.”
57. “There are signs all around us, most of which go unnoticed, but when we do pay attention to the little things, we witness how even the smallest of creatures have challenges and obstacles to overcome, and then our own don’t seem insurmountable.”
58. “Whatever the future holds, I will come out on top.”
59. “Islam has changed my life in every way. It pulled me up and kept me clean as a human being.”
60. “We must always be grateful, even for the hardships we have known.”
61. “It is through selfless acts that we inspire change.”
62. “If the angels who are entirely spiritual could fulfill the purpose of creation, God would not have created man.”

 

THE TROUBLE WITH AFRICA

“In this book Chinua Achebe broke silence at the time of the 1983 Nigerian elections. The style and wit in part cover his deep desperation.”

Though the book was written to reflect Nigeria several years ago, it captures and highlights the problem with Africa at large in these modern times and beyond. It is a handbook for every true African who wishes to see his continent rise above the political iniquities of our time. So it is better captured ” the trouble with Africa.”

I have captured some of the statement therein for you to savor and relish. Enjoy!

1. “The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian character. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else. The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are the hallmarks of true leadership.”
2. “Nigeria is not beyond change. I am saying that Nigeria can change today if she discovers leaders who have the will, the ability and vision. Such people are rare in any time or place. But it is the duty of enlightened citizens to lead the way in their discovery and to create an atmosphere conducive to their emergence. If this conscious effort is not made, good leaders, like good money, will be driven out by bad.”
3. “Why is it that our corruption, gross inequities, our noisy vulgarity, our selfishness, our ineptitude seem so much stronger than the good influences at work in our society?”
4. “One of the commonest manifestations of under-development is a tendency among the ruling elite to live in a world of make-believe and unrealistic expectations.”
5. “Nigeria is not a great nation. It is one of the most disorderly nations in the world. It is one of the most corrupt, insensitive, inefficient places under the sun. It is one of the most expensive countries and one of those that give least value for money. It is dirty, callous, noisy, ostentatious, dishonest and vulgar. In short, it is among the most unpleasant places on earth.”
6. “Nigerians are what they are only because their leaders are not what they should be.”
7. “A true patriot will always demand the highest standards of his country and accept nothing but the best for and from his people. He will be outspoken in condemnation of their short-comings without giving away to superiority, despair or cynicism. That is my idea of a patriot.”
8. “Quite clearly patriotism is not going to be easy or comfortable in a country as badly run as Nigeria is. And this is not made any easier by the fact no matter how badly a country may be run there will always be some people whose personal, selfish interests are, in the short term at least, well served by the mismanagement and the social in equities. Naturally they will be extremely loud in their adulation of themselves off as patriots and to vilify those who disagree with them as trouble-makers or even traitors. But doomed is the nation which permits such people to define patriotism for it. Their definition would be about as objective as a Rent Act devised by a committee of avaricious landlords, or the encomiums that a colony of blood-sucking ticks might be expected to shower upon the bull on whose back they batten. Spurious patriotism is one of the hallmarks of Nigeria’s privileged classes whose generally unearned positions of sudden power and wealth must seem unreal even to themselves. To lay the ghost of their insecurity they talk patriotically. But their protestation is only mouth-deep; it does not exist in their heads nor in their hearts and certainly not in the work of their hands.”
9. “ One shining act of bold, selfless leadership at the top, such as unambiguous refusal to be corrupt or tolerate corruption at the fountain of authority, will radiate powerful sensations of well-being and pride through every nerve and artery of national life.”
10. “Let us take a hypothetical case where two candidates A and B apply to fill a very important and strategic position. A has the right qualification of competence and character but is of the “wrong” tribe, while B, less qualified, belongs to the “right” tribe, and so gets the job. A goes away embittered. B throws a party and then messes up the job. The greatest sufferer is the nation itself which has to contain the legitimate grievance of a wronged citizen; accommodate the incompetence of a favored citizen and, more important and of greater scope, endure a general decline of morale and subversion of efficiency caused by an erratic system of performance and reward.”
11. “We have displayed a consistent inclination since we assumed management of our own affairs to opt for mediocrity and compromise, to pick a third and fourth eleven to play for us. And the result: we have always failed and will always fail to make it to the world league.”
12. “Without peace no meaningful social programme can be undertaken; without justice social order is constantly threatened. And the reason is simple. A normal sensible person will wait for his turn if he is sure that the shares will go round; if not he might start a scramble.”
13. “These are the real victims of our callous system, the wretched of the earth. They are largely silent and invisible. They don’t appear on front pages; they do not initiate industrial actions. They drink bad water and suffer from all kinds of preventable diseases. There are no hospitals within reach of them; but even if there were they couldn’t afford to attend. There may be a school of sorts which their children go to when there is “free education” and withdraw from when levies are demanded. The politician may pay them a siren-visit once in four years and promise to give them this and that and the other. He never says that what he gives them is theirs in the first place. The things that are uppermost in their minds are basic, like clean water. The politician agrees; but there is financial constraint now. The plans are drawn by my government; water will be flowing by 1986. Meanwhile I give you the most modern television station in Africa. Surely this will make you smile.”
14. “Dear reader, you may think I over-draw the picture. Let me assure you that I have only sketched in the tip of the iceberg. As a class, you and I and our friends who comprise the elite are incredibly blind. We refuse to see what we do not want to see. That is why we have not brought about the changes which our society must undergo or be written off. We have no option really; if we do not move, we shall be moved. The masses whose name we take in vain are not amused; they do not enjoy their punishment and poverty. We say thoughtlessly that politics is a game of numbers. So it is. The masses own the nation because they have the numbers. And when they move they will do it knowing that God loves them or He would not have made so many of them.”

15.” There is no provision in the laws of Nigeria or the constitution which says that a man who comes first to a public counter should be served before the man who comes later. But our sense of natural justice and our intelligence tell us that it should be so because (a) it is only fair and (b) experience has shown that any other way is liable to create disorder and delay.”

16. Discipline does not invite supervision by an external force but is imposed by the individual from within. Indeed discipline is either self-discipline or it is nothing at all.”

17, ” Leaders are in the language of psychologists, role models. People look up to them and copy their actions, behavior and even mannerisms Therefore if a leader lacks discipline the effect is apt to spread automatically down to his followers. The less discerning among these (I.e the cart majority will accept his action quite simply as “the done thing,” while the more critical may worry about it for a while and then settle the matter by telling themselves that the normal rules of social  behavior need not apply to those in power.”

18. ” Fortunately for society power does not only entice, intimidate and subdue, it may also incite to resentment and rebellion.”
19. ” In summary the indiscipline of an ordinary citizen, regrettable as it may be, does not pose a fatal threat to society because it can be generally be contained by his fellows or, at worst, by a couple of policemen. But the indiscipline of a leader is a different matter altogether. First, he has no fellows to restrain him, and the policeman who might have done it are all in his employ. Second, power, by giving him immunity from common censure, makes the leader the envy of the powerless who will turn him into a role model and imitate his actions of indiscipline. An explosive of such actions occurring all over the place at once brings the whole society under a climate of indiscipline. Third, and fortunately, a leader’s undisciplined actions can also incite to anger and rebellion.
20. ” One of the penalties of exalted power is loneliness.”
21. ” In antiquity we read, for example, of Harun al Rashid, an eighth-century caliph of Baghdad, who frequently disguised himself and went unaccompanied into the streets of his city by sat or night to see the life of his subjects in its ungarnished and uncensored reality.”
22. ” Nigerians are corrupt because the system under which they live today makes corruption easy and profitable; they will cease to be corrupt when corruption is made difficult and inconvenient.”
23. A few years ago a new cultural facility was opened in London by Queen Elizabeth 11. It was called the Barbican Center and it cost the British tax-payer £150 million, which is roughly equivalent to Ñ180 million. It was such a magnificent structure and that one account described it as the Eighth Wonder of the world We know that Nigeria in the last decade has built many structures worth more (or rather that cost more) than 180 million Naira. But show me one wonder among them, unless it be the wonder of discrepancy between cost and value.”
24. ” The test of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised.”
25. ” But to initiate change the President of this country must take, and be seen to take, a decisive first step of ridding his administration of all persons on whom the slightest wind of corruption and scandal has blown. When he can summon up the courage to do that he will find himself grown overnight to such stature and authority that he will become Nigeria’s leader, not just its president. Only then can he take on and conquer corruption in the nation.”
26. ” Why do you seek political office? Why do you want to rule?”
27. ” We have stood too long on the side-lines; and too many of us have adopted the cynical attitude that since you cannot beat them you must join them. Our inaction or cynical action are a serious betrayal of our education, of our historic mission and of succeeding generations who will have no future unless we save it now for them. To be educated is, after all, to develop the questioning habit, to be scriptural of easy promises and to use past experience creatively.”