Rivers, ponds, lakes and streams - they all have different names

“Rivers, ponds, lakes and streams — they all have different names, but they all contain water. Just as religions do — they all contain truths,” said Muhammad Ali, the champion whose strength was not only in his fists, but in his spirit. In this simple, luminous statement, Ali reveals a truth as deep and flowing as the very waters he invokes: that divine truth is not confined to one name, one temple, or one scripture. Just as every stream returns to the sea, every sincere path of faith flows toward the same eternal source. The rivers may differ in color and current, but their essence is the same — water, life-giving and pure. Likewise, the world’s religions, though adorned in different symbols and languages, are united by the same spiritual current — the yearning of the human soul for truth, love, and peace.

The origin of this quote reflects Ali’s lifelong spiritual journey. Born into a Christian family and later embracing Islam, Ali experienced firsthand the power of faith to transform and unite. He saw that religion, at its best, is not a wall but a bridge — not a reason for division, but a call to compassion. In the heat of fame, controversy, and persecution, he found peace not by rejecting others’ beliefs, but by recognizing their shared foundation. His words were not spoken from a scholar’s podium, but from the heart of a man who had faced the trials of both body and soul, and emerged seeing unity where others saw difference.

To say that religions all contain truths is to honor the wisdom of humanity’s many spiritual traditions — from the Vedas of the East to the Gospels of the West, from the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad to the meditations of the Buddha. Each faith is a vessel carved by history, culture, and revelation, yet all are filled with the same living water: compassion, humility, forgiveness, justice, and reverence for the sacred. The forms differ, but the purpose remains: to awaken the divine within man. Ali, in his simplicity, captured a truth that sages and mystics have proclaimed for centuries — that truth is not owned, but shared; that God is too vast to fit inside one religion.

History, too, reflects this wisdom. In ancient India, the emperor Ashoka, once a conqueror drenched in blood, found redemption through the teachings of the Buddha. Yet, instead of forcing his new faith upon his people, he honored all religions, engraving on his stone pillars these immortal words: “One should honor the faith of others, for by doing so, one strengthens one’s own.” Like Muhammad Ali, Ashoka saw that the sacred river flows through every land. He understood that tolerance is not weakness but wisdom, that when one drinks deeply from another’s faith, one tastes the same sweetness of the divine.

Ali’s metaphor of water carries profound symbolism. Water nourishes all, without discrimination; it softens the hardest stone, cleanses the unclean, and reflects the sky. It adapts to every vessel yet loses nothing of itself. So, too, is divine truth — boundless, shapeless, eternal. The tragedy of humanity lies not in the diversity of faiths, but in the blindness that sees the container and forgets the content. Men quarrel over rivers, not realizing that their waters are drawn from the same rain. To recognize this unity is to dissolve the illusion of separation — to see, as Ali saw, that all faiths are languages through which the soul speaks to God.

Yet Ali’s words are not mere philosophy — they are a call to humility. He teaches that to love one’s own religion truly is not to despise others, but to respect them. For if your faith teaches you to hate, then it is no longer faith, but pride disguised as piety. True religion, like true water, purifies; it does not poison. It calls us not to argue about whose river is greatest, but to drink deeply of what gives life. When love becomes the current that connects us, no creed can divide us, and no difference can drown the human spirit.

So, dear listener, what lesson shall we draw from the wisdom of Muhammad Ali, the warrior of peace? It is this: seek the water, not the well. Do not be so attached to the name of your river that you forget the ocean to which it flows. Walk into every faith with open eyes and an open heart, for the truth you revere may wear a thousand faces. Let your love of God be wide enough to hold the prayers of others beside your own.

And when you encounter one who worships differently, do not fear — listen. See their devotion as a reflection of your own. Remember that all rivers, though they wander through separate valleys, are destined to meet in the great sea of divine unity. For as Ali reminds us, the forms of faith are many, but the essence is one — and that essence, like water, gives life to the world. Drink from it with gratitude, and your soul will never thirst again.