
He died two years ago but Muhammad Ali’s voice still rings out every day, bringing immense comfort to his doting daughter. Hana Ali plays a tape of her dad reciting his morning prayers and draws inspiration from the man who was adored across the world. Ali, boxing legend and a figurehead for racial equality, was a devout Muslim and gifted his daughter 80 hours of recordings of him speaking. There are prayers, speeches and musings about his incredible life. Hana, Ali’s daughter with third wife Veronica Porche, has used the tapes to write a book in tribute to a man who dubbed himself The Greatest, a title no one ever argued with.

Hana, 42, said: “I play one recording on my phone in the car and it’s six minutes of him reciting the prayer.“He’s reciting and explaining and saying the prayer. Oh my God, what a gift. I feel like I am praying with him.”Born Cassius Clay in 1942, Ali changed his name when he converted to Islam in the 1960s. His faith would play a key role in the rest of his life.

The moving memoir charts Hana’s treasured memories of a man hailed as one of the first global superstars of the sport. He is the only man to hold the world heavyweight title three separate times. Two wins were over Britain’s Henry Cooper – which Ali proudly read about in the Mirror, as shown in the pic below.

Hana tells of the “excitement” of being mobbed by fans at airports and his incredible mission to free hostages from Iraq during the Gulf War of 1991. Then there are intimate moments: Ali teasing Hana over her first crush – and the time she ran into his office to draw all over important paperwork.

Sadly, Ali died aged 74 before the manuscript could be completed. Grief-stricken Hana couldn’t bear to finish it for over a year after he passed. She said: “I was on cloud nine when he gave me the recordings. They are beautiful. I read to him the prologue and the first chapter.“He didn’t see the end result, I was probably 60 per cent done when he passed away, but I had planned it for years. But it was a great story to share with his fans.”

Hana reveals that simple things keep the memory of Ali forever alive in her mind like watching the Western movies that he enjoyed. In the weeks after he died rumours swirled that his offspring were at war with fourth wife Lonnie over his £60million fortune.

It was claimed his nine children hate each other and only kept a fragile truce to safeguard their inheritance. But Hana insists this couldn’t be further from the truth, saying she loves all of her siblings and that they regularly swap pictures and tales via a group chat on social media.

She added: “The press writes silly things like we were arguing and fighting over the will, which was so funny because there was no conversation or argument between anyone about that will. I don’t know where that came from.“None of the siblings was arguing, fighting, fussing. Everyone got an equal share, in terms of money.

No one was treated any better, as far as the will was concerned, with his kids. It’s a tricky subject but the siblings weren’t fighting amongst each other.”In fact, she claims the only issues related to second wife Belinda Boyd, mum to four of his children. Belinda has claimed the marriage broke down because of Ali’s repeated infidelity.

But Hana, married to mixed martial arts star Kevin Casey, has decided to say very little on the subject out of respect for her half-brother and sisters. She said: “My father was an honourable man, he didn’t believe in embarrassing women or airing his dirty laundry, so he took the blame for things.

“Their love story just looked like he tired of her or decided to find another woman, but it wasn’t that way.“I love all my siblings and we’re close, I’m not going to embarrass their mother or talk bad about her.”

Ali died following complications related to Parkinson’s disease. But Hana, who has a shrine to her dad in the garden of her Los Angeles home, said she refused to worry about whether the condition that killed him is genetic.

She added: “Even if that was a thought among my siblings and I don’t know because we don’t talk about it nobody worries they might get it.“My father always taught that everything that happens on the Earth is about growth and he learned a lot from life.

“If anything happened, we’d know how to deal with it because he taught us early. He was constantly thinking and talking about whether the world would remember him, especially after he was no longer boxing and time would go by. I always told him, ‘Daddy, you will never be forgotten’. He was always so grateful for that.“So in the grief, I felt this happiness because I’d learned since being a child that my father was going to die one day, we are all going to die, it’s part of life.

It’s okay to cry and be sad, it’s a healthy emotion, you just don’t stop on them too long.“There’s no point cursing God or asking, ‘Why me?’“It’s just part of the chance you take when you come to the Earth. Good and bad happens.”