Mortician Explains Muhammad Ali's Funeral & Burial (And Why It Took SEVEN Days)

He died on a Friday night in June 2016. He was not buried until the following Friday. In a faith that normally buries within a day, that gap is the whole story. Thirty-nine years in a Midwest prep room. I never met this man and had no part in this funeral. Published record only, and where it goes quiet I say so. 📕 My book, The Last Gift - plan your funeral now, so your family is never upsold one later ($24): https://ruthmercer.com/?ref=desc What I cover: Seven days from death to burial, and what a long hold asks of whoever holds the body The ritual washing - who did it, where, and why no funeral home ran it A case of embalming fluid flown 1,500 miles by private jet, per ESPN "The Book": the two-inch funeral plan he read for a week before signing, in 2010 The jenazah at Freedom Hall, where he won his last Louisville fight in 1961 Buried before the memorial began, and why that order was deliberate One word on the stone FACT-CHECK: Died 9:10pm MT, 3 Jun 2016, Scottsdale AZ, 74; septic shock, unspecified natural causes, per spokesman Bob Gunnell, who said Ali was admitted that Monday. Scholar Timothy Gianotti told the AP that he, two Phoenix-area Muslims and Imam Zaid Shakir washed, anointed and wrapped the body within a day; ESPN (Tom Junod) places that at a Mesa funeral home, names Ahmad Ewais as washer, and reports embalming fluid flown in from Louisville. Jenazah: Freedom Hall, 9 Jun, about 14,000. Procession and private Cave Hill burial 10 Jun; memorial at the KFC Yum! Center. "The Book" presented 2010 (Gunnell). Headstone set months later: black granite, "Ali". Nothing beyond the reported preparation is in the record, and none is claimed here. DISCLAIMER: General information and personal opinion. The narrator was not present, prepared no one named here, and claims no connection to anyone involved. Nobody is accused of wrongdoing. Cause of death only as the record stated it. Islamic practice is described as general practice and as this family's stated plan, never as a ruling; scholars differ.