Muhammad Ali to be buried with a small piece of Canada
8 years ago an Ontario family gave the boxing legend his burial shroud
When Muhammad Ali is laid to rest, a small piece of Canada will be buried with him.
When it came to planning his funeral, Muhammad Ali was meticulous, taking the better part of a decade to work out the details.
Along the way, St. Catharines, Ont., resident Sallah Hamdani and his family's textile company were asked to provide a kafan, the burial shroud used to wrap the body.
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Hamdani remembers being somewhat nervous, wondering if he could provide something worthy of one of the greatest boxers of all time and a heroic figure in the Muslim world.
"What was beautiful is Muhammad Ali wanted the simple one, he wanted the simple shroud," Hamdani said outside Freedom Hall in Louisville, Ky., moments before Ali's jenazah, the Muslim funeral service.
"It's not a thousand-dollar suit, it's not a ten-thousand dollar suit, it's not anything made of jewels or gold or silver, it's a simple cloth," he said.
The kafan is a white cloth used to wrap the body before a traditional Islamic burial. Sallah's brother Hussein said the kafan is highly symbolic.
"The idea is keep it simple, that in the eyes of God, it's our character that matters not our worldly possessions," Hussein said.
The family is honoured to have a small part in such a big occasion, he said.
"To have the shroud from our family, from Canada, to be adorned by one of the greatest men we've known about, it is such a blessing for Canadians and our family," Hussein said.
The request for the shroud came about eight years ago from Timothy Gianotti, a close friend of the Hamdani family and one of a small group of advisers who helped Muhammad Ali shape his funeral plans.
Gianotti said Ali carefully planned his farewell to include people of all walks of life, to carry on his message.
"He's left us with a challenge, to curtail our mourning and to get on with the business of carrying on this legacy of inclusiveness and universal love and universal brotherhood and sisterhood and service to humanity," said Gianotti, a professor of Islamic studies at the University of Waterloo.
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