Muhammad Ali and his family had been planning his Muslim funeral for 10 years

(Image credit: AFP/Getty Images)

published 9 June 2016

Boxer Muhammad Ali's Muslim funeral service Thursday is an event 10 years in the making. Long before news broke last Friday that the boxing great had died at age 74 of septic shock, Reuters reports that his family, as well as Ali, were already planning a funeral that would honor his Muslim faith.

Ali joined the Nation of Islam and changed his name in 1964, and, in the 1970s, he converted to Sunni Islam. "To be properly prepared for burial, prayed over, and then buried is a right owed to every single Muslim," Imam Zaid Shakir, who will be leading Ali's service, said in a statement issued by the Ali family spokesperson. "If no one fulfills those rights, then the entire community has fallen into sin. In the case of someone of Muhammad Ali's stature, to leave any of those rights unfulfilled would be a crime." An estimated 15,000 people are expected to attend Ali's public funeral at Freedom Hall in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky Thursday.