![Lonnie Ali, wife of Muhammad Ali and co-founder of the Muhammad Ali Center (MAC), and Muslim Chaplain at Harvard University and Instructor in Muslim Studies, Imam Khalil Abdur-Rashid](/sites/g/files/omnuum5526/files/styles/hwp_21_9__1920x825/public/2025-11/Ali-Event-Image-001.jpg?h=5670d28d&itok=qHGczy7C) # Exploring Muhammad Ali’s Spiritual Legacy at Harvard Divinity School Recent conversation with Lonnie Ali spotlights Muhammad Ali’s life, legacy, and the mission of the Muhammad Ali Center. November 21, 2025 [ Emma Scharff, HDS News Correspondent ](/news/news-stories/emma-scharff) On November 12, 2025, Harvard students, staff, and faculty gathered in Swartz Hall for a discussion between [Lonnie Ali](https://alicenter.org/about-the-center/team/lonnie-ali/), wife of Muhammad Ali and co-founder of the Muhammad Ali Center (MAC), and Muslim Chaplain at Harvard University and Instructor in Muslim Studies, [Imam Khalil Abdur-Rashid](https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/khalil-abdur-rashid). One of the event’s student organizers, Liam Kenney, MDiv ’27, introduced the program by noting the relationship between the athletic and the spiritual. In framing the conversation, he asked, “How do sports serve as an arena for the embodied practice of many of our own religious values?” As the conversation began, Ali described the first time she met her husband, and noted that his spirituality was “always visible.” This was evident, Ali said, both when Muhammad famously prayed in the ring and in the countless moments beyond it. “\[Muhammad\] believed God put him here for a higher purpose and gave him this platform to not only spread Islam but to also spread that act of compassion, of humanity, of reaching all people,” Ali said. Imam Abdur-Rashid noted the relevance of compassion to the Islamic tradition in particular, which includes “a lot of texts about compassion, and especially in the Sufi tradition, universal compassion, the idea that compassion is one of the divine names of God, the Compassionate One, the Merciful One,” Abdur-Rashid said. “It strikes me as very powerful that this is the one major value that you're continuing articulating as deeply ingrained in Muhammad's legacy.” Ali observed that this was a lesson from Islam that Muhammad “learned well,” sharing that he regarded compassion, not as a feeling, but as “a muscle” that “can be flexed every day.” This work continues at the MAC, which exists to “preserve Muhammad's legacy and promote it around the world,” Ali said. The event included a brief video from the [Muhammad Ali Center](https://alicenter.org/) highlighting the Center’s recent initiative, which is focused on consciously cultivating compassion and developing understanding across difference. The speaker in the video—Lonnie Ali herself—quoted Muhammad Ali: "Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth.” "Muhammad was a spiritual being on a sports journey." Lonnie Ali The MAC is now engaged in research and in the creation of the Muhammad Ali Index, an initiative that surveyed residents and gathered data to “take a snapshot of compassion throughout the United States,” said Ali. The first iteration of the study examined 12 cities—Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Jacksonville, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Louisville, New York, Phoenix, San Antonio, and Seattle. Ali noted that the index identified many factors that were characteristic of compassionate cities, including having “policies that address homelessness, childcare, health care, mental health, and that create green spaces.” Such factors are crucial, she said, because they create and sustain healthy communities, moving compassion beyond self-care and familial love to include those we don’t know personally. Audience questions ranged from the role of the Muhammad Ali Index in shaping public policy to Muhammad’s childhood beginnings in boxing, his anti-war stance, and his final years with Parkinson’s disease. Rather than being an athlete simply engaging with the spiritual, Ali said, “Muhammad was a spiritual being on a sports journey,” and that spiritual commitment defined all aspects of his life. Regardless of topic, the conversation returned over and over to compassion, and to the roots of Muhammad Ali’s compassion in his spirituality. As the event closed, Imam Abdur-Rashid implored the audience to carry on Muhammad Ali’s spiritual legacy as it had been defined over the course of the evening: “Be compassionate.” *Banner photo by Kristie Welsh* See also:- [ Student Activities and Interviews ](/discover-stories-about/student-activities-and-interviews) - [ Islam ](/featured-topics/islam)