Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men...It's a dare... Impossible is potential...

Muhammad Ali 1942 - 2016, born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. Professional boxer, activist and philanthropist. Named after his father and raised in a traditional working class family, the great Ali began boxing at the age of twelve and quickly showed promise. As we know and admire the man who defeated every top heavyweight in his era, those who know the sport know that while stamina is crucial, it is not just a case of physical strength, since anyway the fighters are classed into weight categories, neither is it just about agility. Every boxer has his own style, be that ducking and diving, bobbing and weaving, dodging and wearing your opponent out, or putting on relentless pressure, raining on the blows and denying them a look in, or confounding by expertly executing dazzling combinations. Boxing, like many sports is psychological, and Ali was a master of that, rhyming and trash-talking and intimidating from the moment he entered the ring, and long before! Ali had a mindset that he intended to win, indeed that he was the winner, even before he started a fight, and he believed that, not because of superior strength or fitness, but because of self-belief he was invincible. He won his first Olympic gold medal already at age eighteen, became the world heavyweight champion at just age twenty-two. Ali once said, "Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing." Religion Clay senior was a Methodist Christian, though he allowed his sons to be raised Baptist, but Ali/ Clay Jr. converted to Islam at a young age, in 1961, and subsequently changed his name to reflect that faith which he held to until his death. He adhered to Sunni Islam, the most mainstream and popular denomination of the Muslim faith, in which the prophet Muhammad is regarded as the messenger of God and the holy scriptures of the Qu'ran are taken as the complete and finished word of God. With a strong ancestry of activism and coming from slavery, Ali too was opinionated and outspoken and a supporter of racial integration and racial pride movements for African-Americans. A Conscientious Objector to the Vietnam war, meant he was stripped of his boxing licence. After the war Ali was soon reinstated, came back right on form and rocketed up to the top of his sport. Ali did not lead a model life in everyone's eyes, having four marriages in total and a number of extra marital affairs, also resulting in children. Additionally he was embroiled in a sexual assualt lawsuit, but he supported his wives and children and adhered closely to his religious beliefs. He requested strict religious compliance of his wives, with regards to dress and the like and had not only strong but extreme religious views, which you can read in more depth here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religio... He was a believer in Sufism, which is a mystic form of Islam that, while being quite fundamental in it's foundational views, supports universalism rather than separatism, promotes selflessness, and the view that to hurt any other human is to hurt yourself and to hurt all of mankind. Ali was honored with the annual Martin Luther King Award in 1970 and was praised for being, "a champion of justice and peace and unity" also for abstaining from fighting in the Vietnam War. He was a humanitarian and philanthropist, keen to give charitably and speak out for causes close to his heart. In his amazing roller-coaster life-time he met numerous presidents and strove for rightness in the world and to make a difference wherever he could with the command that he respected, bridging religions and races and nations. He travelled to meet Saddam Hussein before the Gulf War securing the release of American hostages, and journeyed to Afghansitan as a 'messenger of peace' in 2002. Ali was a devoted pacifist. Parkinson's Disease was the ultimate cause of his death, while he lived with it for many years and refused to stop his activism, he additonally campaigned for awareness of that, to fund research for a cure in the future. I like the story of Muhammad Ali because he shows us that even when we make mistakes in our personal lives and are far from perfect, it doesn't mean we should hide in the background, but lift our heads and continue to strive for goodness and rightness and a better world, in the only way we know how. This man epitomises what faith is, whatever divinity you may look to, peace must prevail and faith in your divinity must be coupled with faith in yourself to conquer your obstacles and achieve your goals and dreams. Something is only impossible when you say it is, because that is your belief, that is your expectation and you will not strive to achieve what you have no faith in. On the other hand, if you insist that something is possible, you will always aim for it until you achieve it, even if you fail sometimes, Ali also lost fights once in a while, but failure, as they say, is just the lesson that teaches us and refines us, it is just another step on the road to success. "Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it..." Ali is an example of what a man can achieve through mental strength and determined faith. Muhammad Ali contributed to changing our world because he only believed in the possible, because he believed in exploring the power he was given to make changes where he could and as a popular, public figure he was able to influence many men, who might otherwise have believed in violence, to also prefer peace.