During the acceptance speech, Ali dedicated his win to his grandmother and said:
“I want to dedicate this to my grandmother, who has been in my ear my entire life,” he shared. “Telling me that if I first I don’t succeed, try, try again. That I can do anything I set my mind to. Always, always pushing me to think positively.”
“I know that I would not be here without her, that she’s gotten me over the hump in a lot of ways,” he added.
The star also thanked his wife and daughter for their support.
He scored his first Academy Award for best supporting actor for “Moonlight” in 2017. He is also the second African-American actor to win multiple Oscars, after Denzel Washington.
Ali, born Mahershalalhashbaz Gilmore to a Christian mother in Oakland, California in 1974, converted to Islam in 1999 and in 2001 joined the minority Ahmadiyya Community, a movement seen as heretical by other Islamic sects.
Fellow Ahmadi Muslims, including UK Minister of State, Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon took to Twitter to congratulate the actor.