Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.

Ali casts life as a temporary lodging: we occupy “a room here on earth,” not a permanent possession. The “rent” owed for that occupancy is not money or status but service—practical care for other people. The metaphor turns ethics into a basic condition of living: to exist is to be indebted, and the way to pay that debt is generosity, solidarity, and responsibility. It also reframes success away from individual achievement (titles, wealth, acclaim) toward contribution. In Ali’s idiom, greatness is measured by what one gives, not what one wins.