Thousands attend Muslim funeral for Muhammad Ali

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A Muslim funeral for Muhammad Ali on Thursday drew thousands of admirers to the boxer's hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, where mourners prayed over the body of a man who battled in the ring and sought peace outside it.

An estimated 14,000 people, representing many races and creeds, attended the jenazah, or funeral in Arabic, where he was repeatedly feted as 'the people's champion.”

Ali, a three-time heavyweight champion known for his showmanship, political activism and devotion to humanitarian causes, died Friday of septic shock in an Arizona hospital. He was 74.

'The passing of Muhammad Ali has made us all feel a little more alone in the world,” said Sherman Jackson, a Muslim scholar at the University of Southern California.

'Something solid, something big, beautiful and life-affirming has left this world,” he said of a man who was forced to give up more than three years of boxing at the height of his career for his refusal to serve in the military during the Vietnam War.

Jackson praised Ali for advancing the cause of black Americans during and after the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Others admired him for making Islam more acceptable and giving U.S. Muslims a hero they could share with the American mainstream. Imam Zaid Shakir, a founder of Muslim liberal arts school Zaytuna College in Berkeley, Calif., led worshippers in prayers such as 'Allahu akbar” ('God is greatest”) over Ali's body, which lay in a casket covered with a black and gold cloth.

Ali and his family planned his funeral for 10 years, making sure it would honor his Muslim faith while also adapting to the demands of Western media-driven culture.

He is due to be buried today, after a funeral procession and before one final goodbye when thousands more will gather for an interfaith service.