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She told us how Muhammad Ali would spend days outside her house. He even stayed overnight outside once. I was 16 and I said, What do you want, man! He said, Well, youre going to be my wife. I said, But you didnt ask me? He said, I found out that if I ask you, youll say no, so I dont want to ask you! When he proposed to her and asked her parents for her hand in marriage, her dad asked, Do you have a job? Muhammad Ali had just been banned from boxing and his titles were taken away. He said he had no job but he had a car! Everyone laughed. Khalilah, talking about a legend in the making, whispered to her father, Dad, hes got potential. I think were going to be all right! The gathering laughed again. My Dad said to me, youre not supposed to marry someone who hasnt got a job. But I change my mind. I asked, Dad, why did you change your mind? he replied, Because when you make up your mind you dont change yours, so I changed mine! So we got married.

Khalilah remembers her husband as warm and funny. He had the ability to make everyone feel happy and he was kind to everyone. She was married to Muhammad Ali for 10 years and has six children by him and her eldest daughter is a writer and a poet. In the gathering there were at least three people called Ali. Khalilah held them affectionately. She signed a picture of herself and Muhammad Ali as newlyweds.

She reminisces, I asked Muhammad Ali once, everyone admires you and wants to be like you, but who do you admire? he said, I wish I could be half as strong as you. She added, He always supported womens rights. He was not a misogynist. Khalilah too was a role model for Muslim women and for womens rights, acknowledged Doreen.

When the world finds out that Muhammad Alis wife visited Pakistan, they will know the reality that it is safe here. We dont like the misperception of Pakistan as an incubation of terrorism. Part of the trip is to bridge the gap between this terribly mean misperception. Every nation has its fringe group. Parts of Chicago are so dangerous, said Mahomed, to which Khalilah added, Its so dangerous there, people eat on the floor because you can get shot. However, Mahomed assured, But of course, this is not the image of America. After a pause he added, USAID, USIP, etc, fund good projects in Pakistan like orphanages and peace projects, which shows they care. This is the real spirit of America. I think that America and its people are very diverse and beautiful people, just as Pakistan and Pakistanis are both diverse and beautiful. No one side should stereotype the other.

At a time when the Pakistan-US relations seem to be utterly fragile, Khalilahs visit highlighted the unity and warmth that can be possible between people of different nations. What touched me also was that Khalilah was so humble. She reached out to everyone, regardless of who they were. When young waiters of Khiva Restaurant, who were catering that evening, came up to her for a photograph she politely obliged. That evening there were no divisions between the rich and the poor, between Pakistanis and Americans there was affection, there was trust, there was friendship.

Blessed are the peace-builders as they are the bridges that help heal our shared, but troubled, world. Muhammed Ali and Khalilah also represent the finest in Islam they are people who embrace others with genuine warmth and affection; Muhammad Ali is revered not only in America, but across the world. Perhaps he is loved not so much for his trophies as much as for his outstanding character as he understood the human need to accept others as they are and reach out to them.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 21st, 2017.
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I am Kely.
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