131

A Matter of Love: Muhammad Asad and Islam

Introduction
ISMA'n.mRAIitM NAWWAB
tho" nor how God SlriJm lIN par..bk of
A good 'UKTfd?- liler 4 good tf', firmly room/,
With br4ncoo """hing in/(! the sky,
II yields iN /11<;141 4U limrs
By the /raw 0/ its St4sl4irKT ....
(TM Holy Qur'On, Ibr.ihim 1-4,2+25).'
Two roads diverged in }krlin in the 1920$: a well-worn to wnt,
other, rarefy travelled, to the Leopold Weiss, a young gifted wriu.r,
tr.lvrUer and linguist with a thorough kno .... ledge of the Bible and the Talmud
and with dup roou in EUTOp"an cultu .... took the road eastward to Makluh ;>$
Muhammad Aw, a name tlut to stand high On the roll of twentieth-
ntury English_writing Muslim scholan and thinken.
The Story of how Asad walked out of Berlin and away from the West into
tM f.-.:<:dom of a new spiritual life il best told in his own wonU and in a simile
cast in the Old Testament:' "After all, it WllS a matter of love; and love is
composed of many thin!;S; of our desires and our londines., of our high aims
and our shortcomings, of our strengths and our weaknesses. So il W;>$ in my
Islam = over to me liu a robber who cnten a hollSC' by night; but,
unlike a robber, it enten.:! to remain for good".'
The bare outline of MuJ:tammad As:ad'. life is no less intriguing than the
twistS and turnS of an Ag:nha Christie mystery novel. It il an absorbing tale of
an inquiring mind who set off on a career in journalism, proceeded to search
'n. Mnup 0{ tho q".'';'', .,...,sI",,J md <Kplained by Muhammod Aud (Gibnlt= Dar
.!-Andalw., )76. modiflCd by th. ",,11>0,.
'Boinr; tho...,..y.Iy ... ned io "'" Hob, .... SibI<, Aud, imavrr at .im .... amko.ly dr. ....
upon iu po ..... fulliteruy 'UUU'''. io thi. caS< upon Obadiah 5 (Kinl Jama V<nioo.): If
thievn <om< to ;r roblw:fI by niplt .. .. A 0.,;";'" ornuld puh"!,, bV. bom me", f,mjli",
with !he N .... T ... :unmt'." ... thid m "'" .. i&ht .... Q 1' .... 3: 10) .
'A.ad. "fOR"""d, (19H), 'J..m oil tho Co_" f""n ..... th , ... edn. (Gibnltor. Dar al-
AndaIIlI, I!. (Fir. pubfub.d, Ddhi and Lahore: Anf .. Publication ..
for truth md ended hi, voy.gc of discovery by embracing Islam .nd
interpreting it to its Own adherents and to the West.'
Ail:lld's Early Yean
Asad w"" born Leopold Weiss in July 1900 in the city of lvov (lemberg),
Galicia, nOw in Poland, and then part of the Austrian Empire. The second of
three children, he w"" the d=ndant of long line of rabbis, which w""
broken only by his father who did nOt emu the nbbinate but became a
barrister. A.ad himself received a thorough religious education that would
qualify him to keep alive the fomily's r.bbinical tradition. At m early age, he
had become proficient in Hebrew and also w .. familiar with Aramaic, He had
studied the Old Testament in the original .. well"" the text and commentaries
of the Talmud: the Mishll4 and Gtm"T", He . lso had delved in the intricacies
of Biblical the T"rg"m'
His family moved to Vienna, where fourteeo-year-old A.ad ran away from
IiChool and tried unsuccessfully to join the Austrian army 10 fight in the First
World War, no sooner h.d he finally officially drafted, Ihan his juvenile
expectations of milimy glory faded with the coll.pse of the Austrian Empire.
After the Wu, he pursued philo.nphy and the history of an .t the
University of Vienn., but Ihese studies failed to quench his spiritual thirst and
he abandoned them 10 se..k fulfilment elsewhere.' Vienna .t that t ime was one
of the most intellectually and culturally stimulating European cities. It w"" the
engine of burgeoning .nd interrelated, new, glinering perspectives on man,
language .nd philowphy. NOI just in academic ifl$litutions, but even ;1$ calk
reverberated with lively debales centred On Psychoanalysis, logical positivism,
linguistic analysis and semantics. This w"" the period when the
views ond distinctive voices of Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler and ludwig
Wit'l,;efl$lei n filled the V;elUlese air, ""hoing round the world with a profound,
momentous effect on many ""pects of life ond thought. A.ad had. ringside seat
on these exciting discussions; though he was impressed by the originality of
those pioneering spirits, their major CQnclusion leh him umatilfied.
'rhi. i n .tump,.o .new .. ' ..... xpanded IIUdy 01 A...d'. lif<.nd Ii< .. , ...
:uulytic.J look at A...i and h;' '-'O,k. i. lono .. ed by on .ntholosr 01 .. ,,,,,'" compiled ..,d
<dit<d lrom h .... ,ttin&, from 1914 101m. Ih. b.lI<1 to . ' ''" ,ude, Ih. OI'1"'nuni,y '0
lill.D di,<Ct]y '0 Ad', unfolteml .-oKe.
Ruth ...... "Mulummad A..d: Amb .. <ado, of hI"",'. A .. bU. :no. fJ.mi< Wc.u
IttvWw. $q>t.mbe. 19!1. 59. 11. .. is 0 '<pOn of I wide ..... ""'" ",,,,lid in"",;'" with A..d in
."..,..]iv011 .nd bold ""V,in. th ....... i2w>ched from L>ndon by El)"ptw,.bom
Saudi ... ,it.r ... d publUbe' MulwIUDad Salih .1Din Ind edited by F .. 'Ushmin_ In
... of the nucuine. A..d !I<Y.ro] ,"C,.".bl< <rro,,- made in Ibe ' <pO"
and commen,ed On .. <h 01 Ihem. ra.,ification", Octobe. 1'181. p_ 4)_
Asad. :no. It...d '" 4[n , ... ..2. .. pl. (Gib,..] .. " Dor .J.A,"uh ... 19'1l), S!. (Fi'"
published. L>ndon, Mu R<inhor.t.. 19S4).
'"
Asm left Vienna io 1920 ond trowelled in Celllr. ! Europe, where he did
"oil manner of shori-livM job$"' bdo,", arrivinj\ in Berl in. Here, M inj\eniously
secured entry in t he world of journilism, when his determination led him-.
mere tdephonist working for a wire ISI:rv;(t--to a scoop that I"<'vealed the
presence in B..rlin of M.ks;m Gorky's wife who was On " steret mission 10
.ali,i! aid from the Wen for" Brobdingnagian famine ravaging Soviet Russia.
At this s\:lge, A,ad, like many of his generat ion. livM in the dark depths
of agnosticism, having drifted away from his Jewish moorings despite his
rigorous religious nudies. He left Europe for the Middle East in 1922, where
he came to know and like the Arabs and w;U struck by how Islam shone on
their everyday life wilh exisunti . l mnlling. spiritual strength and innu pc""".
He nnw hecarn<-at incredibly of 22-<>. for
Frank/urfer Zeirung, of most of Germ;my
Europe. As a jourrulin, he tr.lvdled extensively, intermingled with the
oornmOn ImIn, held discussions with the Muslim and met several
regional heads of Slate, in "the countrirs the lihy;m IXsert and the
snow-cowred peab of the Pamirs, bftwn the Bosporus and the Arabian
5..a":' Palestine, Egypt , Transjordan, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan.
Asad Embraces Islam
Duri ng his travels and through his readings, Asad' s inter"""t in, and
understanding of, Islam, its scripture, history and pwplrs hl1l, being
;U\ .gnostic, he could not :occept that God spoke to :>.nd man via
revelation. Back in Berlin from the Middle E;u!, and now married, all his
doubts were cleared in .. spiritual, of the
experience of some 01 the earliest Muslims-which he narr.lled in a nriking
pasS.1ge that he wrote $Ome thirty yem; .her this turning-point in his life:
One d'y-i, W," in September 1926-8$:1. and I found oun.lvd , ,,,veili n, in ,he
Berlin ,ub"""y. It wa. an upperd." compartment. My eye fell C"1su.Uy on . well
dr .... d man opposite me, apparently a ",eUt...oo.busine .. ma ... with. beautiful
bride .... on hi. knees and a large diamond ring on hi. hand. I thought idly how
portly figure of Ihis man fined into the picture of prosperity which one
encountered everywhere in Cent",1 Europe in those days: a prosperity the more
prominent:os il h.d come aftcr years of innation, ... hen.1l lile had
topsyturvy and sh.bbine .. of appc''''''''' thc rul . Mon 01 ,he pIple were now
well dmsed and ... ell led, and the man opposite me .... .s therelore nO exception.
But when I looked" his face, I did nOt =m to be looking"" happy bce. He
appeared 10 be worried, and not merely worried but acutely unh.ppy, with ey ..
storing v.cantly ahead . nd the COrne" of his mouth d",wn in as il in pain-but
not in bodily p.in. Not 10 be rude, I tumed my eY'" away .nd saw ntxt
'Ibid.. 62 .
" Fo" ... ord". C"",,",,,,,,,. !()..! I.
os.
to him. lady of SOme depnce_ Sh. .lso !wi ., .... ngdy unluppy txprnsion on
her os if conumplating or experiencing .omething that he, pain;
n ..... rthelen, her momh .... s fixed in th. stiff semblance of mil. which, I Wl.S
certain, must hav. been h.bin,a!. And then I bq.tn (0 look around .1 ill othtr
foe", in the computment_ faccs helon;ing ",ithoutexception 10 ",. lI..dr...w, weI!
fed people: and in almost every One of ,hem I could disam an up ...... ion of
hiddoon .uffering. .0 hidden th.t the 0"'''''' of the f. ce seemed 10 be quite unaw. r.
0{ it _
This was indeed stn.oge. I had never belo," _n '0 many unhappy f:lC<"S around
me, Or waS i, porlups that I had nev" before looked for wlul "'as now.o loudly
.pe.king in theml The impression wI. <0 strong ,1..1 I mentioned iliO FJ .. ; and
,he too began 10 look around with If", careful er" of painter accustomed 10
.tudy human f.ature . Then .he turned 10 me, aston;,hed, . nd said: 'You are
.. though th.y .... re .uff .. ing torments of hen .. .! wonder, do
they know them .. lves what i. going On in ,hem'?
I knew that they did nOl-for o.he ..... i ... hey could nOi go on ",osting their lives
hey did, without any faith in binding truths, ""ithout .ny goal beyond ,h.
desire to ra;.e .h.ir own '".nd.rd of livin,', ",ithout any hopes other than h.ving
more mater;. l amenities, more gadgets, and perhaps more power ...
When we '"turned home, I happened to gl ance at my dc$k On which l.y open
copy of ,he Koran I had been .. ading earlier. Mechonic.Jly, I picked . he book up
to put it away, but JUSt 01$ 1"'01$ .bout 10 d"... it, my eyes fell on the open page
be!o," me, and I read:
'Yo ... ,,'" oJ,..wd by g,..,.,J for .. ",,,. "nd ""'.-.
umil yo ... go down III YO"'T gr"....,;
Nay, bur yo ... will ",me to lenow!
A nd <met! "pin: N"Y, bIo. YO" wiN rom. to IenI"JUlI
Mry, if you bu. len.,., " with u,.. lenow/trig. of aruinry,
Yo ... """,/d indJ 1ft rk bJl YO" "". in.
In r;me, ind=J, you ""'II 1ft.1 ",jib tyt of arujnry:
And <m w.r D..y you ",ill be .. .JuJ.ro., yo ... b.wt do,", ,,>jlb:h. bocm of lifo'. '
For a moment I ..... $p<:hl .... I lhink lhat the book shook in my hand . Then
I handed it to EI ... ' Read thi . Is. it no! an anSwer to what w, ... w in the
.ub""ay'l
It was an an.wer so decisive that all doubt """ .uddenlya. an end. I knew nov,
any doubt , ,h.t it "''' a Godin.pired book I was holding in my hand: for
although it had been placed before man over ,hineen een,urie. ago, il dearly
anticipatfCI som ... hing that could have become true only in this complicated,
mechanized, phanlomridlkn age of <>un.
'Tit< Qur'in, 102: I_I. The .",,,,lotion of thi< .hon ,;'.oh .h pparn! oripWlr iD 1ht
R04d iD .... la'<r improved by A..d in hi< 1ht M .... g< ",tho q...\in. Tbe prCkDt
version i synthe';. of the ben of both lenderinp. (lIN'. note).
'50
At .11 tim .. people had known greed: but at no time before greed had outgrown
a eagerness to acquire thing. and become an obocssion <lUt blurred 1M sigh.
01 everything else: an ;rr .. i"ibl. <nvin, to to do, to contrive mo .... and
more-mO .... today than yesterday, more tomorrow than today: a demon
riding on Ih. neck. of men and whipping tbeir h ..... ,. forwud tow",i ,h.,
uuntingly gli"", in tbe di".nce but into contemptible nothingn ... as
SOOn OS they are ..... ched, al ..... Y' holding oul the promise of ne"" goal<
.head-go.!s iIl more brilli.nt, more tempting .. long as they Ii. n" the horiron,
and bound 10 wither into furth .. nothingness a. <000 a. they come wi,h;n grosp:
and dU.1 hun,. r, th.t insatiable hunger for ever new go.l. ",.wing 0' man', soul :
N..,. if)'<>1< but b"", it you u>ouid _ tht btll Y'>" ...... ill, ..
This, I $Ow, w:u nOt the mere human w;room of. man of. di,unt past in distant
Arabia. Howev .. vi.., h. may have been, such. man could not by himself
fo ........ n .h o,m.n, SO pKuliar 10 ,his ,,,,,.n,i .. h century. Ou, of ,h. Koran
.pok voice greater th.n th. voice of Muhammad ... "
Asad Migrates to the Muslim World
Thus it was that Asad beame . Muslim in 1926 and migrated to the Muslim
world bUI Ihe psychological and emotional dimensions of Asad's migration
were even more important than the physical ones. A.ad rq;:rnkd Islam not as
a religion in the conventional, Or Western, sense but as a way of life for all
times. In Islam he found a religious system and a practical ideology for
everyday living tn.t we .. halanced. appears to me like a
perfect work of architecture. All its parts are conceived to
complement and support e;r,ch other; nothing is superfluous and nothing
lacking; and the result is a .tructu .. of .bsoluu balan"" and solid
The range of his inlerest io the Muslim world was as varied as the reach
of his travels in the land. of Islam and he found a way of infusing a visionary's
m.gnific= into wrilings that lookM at and beyond contemporary His
interest in Islam and its followers persisted throughout his life and deeply
colourM his treatment of all issues touching the Muslims-religious, juristic and
political-and he had highly persuasive argurmnts for his views. Though he was
always ideological ly and emotionally committed 10 the Musli ms, his attitude
towards them rem.ainM sympathetic without being sycophantic, intelligently
critical but never condescending. Abo"" all, Am was dttply dediClotM to the
uachings of the Qur'an and the Prophn, independent in hi,
thinking, fiercely anti-sto..t!ar in hi. orienUlion, rigorously consistent in his
logic and always impatient with extremist thought or behaviour.
When he returned to the Middle East following his conversion, Asad spent
almost six ye.lrs in Arabia, where he was reo:eived warmly, almost daily, by the
legendary King Abo:! aI'Az'z ibn Sa'Ud (d. 1373/1953), the founder of modern
"A...d, J.OI_310.
"A...d, "Foreword", ero",....,JJ, I!.
''''
Saudi Arabia_" He wnsiderablc ti= in 1M holy citiC' of Mokk:oh and
M:>dinah, where he studi.-.:l Arabic, the Qur'in, the Hadith, Or the traditions
of the Prophet and Islamic hislOry. Those studies led him 10 "the firm
conviction that I<lom, OS a md social phenomenon, i$ still, in spite of
""I the drawbacks caused by the ddic;cncies of the Muslims, by far the greateSt
driving force mankind has ever uperienced"" and from that time, his imerest
"':1.$ "centred around the problem of il5 regeneration"" His academic
knowledge of d=ical Af:l.bic_ made easier by familiarity wilh Hehrtw and
Ar:unaic, sister l:utguages-was further (nhaneN! by his wide Iravd, and
COlllacU in A",bi. with Bedouins.
Iqbal in"itel Asad to Stay in India
To study Muslim communities and cululre!: further east, such os those of India,
Eostcro TurktStan, China :llId Indonesia, And departN Arabia for India in
1932. he met celebmN p<)ft-philosophu Muh:munad lqbil (d_
1357/1938), the towering Muslim Ihinker of the modern en and the spiritual
progenitor of Pakisun_ Iqbal And to chmge hi. pl:lll.! md Slay On
in India "to help elucidate the inullectual premises of Ihe fUlure IsliUllic S1ale
which w;u then hardly more Ihan a dream in Iqbal's visionary Asad
soon won Iqbal's admiration md wide public acclaim iUllong Nucated circles
with the publication of monograph on the challenges facing
modern Muslims. BUI Asad's w,", curt:.ilN when tM $<'Cond World
War broke Out in 1939. Ironically, though he h;oJ refused 10 accepl a p;usport
from N:ozi after it h:K! annexed Austria in 1938 and insiSlffi on
retaining his AuSirian cilizenship. the British Raj imprisonffi him on S<'Cond
day of the War as :llI "enemy alien" and did not rel= him till its end in
1945." He w;u the only WeSlern Muslim among Ihe Ihree-thousand-odd
European. round..d up for internment in India, the large majority of whom
were sympathiur1 of Nazism 'or Fascism; some have thought that the British
.uthoriti ... haru. 10 Aud w;u due to their irriution wilh a
Europem who always sided with the Indim Muslim community.
As:.d in the Service of the Emerging Muslim SUte of Pakistan
He moved 10 P.kistm .fter its creation in 1947, md was chargN by iu
Government with sening up a of Islamic Reconstruction whose
task was to the ideological foundations for the new Laler
"A!->d. M,"". I.
"AO>d. F"" ... " ",-. C ..... ,,..,..,J,. 12.
",.- .
......... CII.
"A!->d. Mc 1.
" A .. d, Author', NOlO", TIm Low of 0 .... nd Orb.-! G"...,. (Gib.-.lu" Do< .
19')}j. I. (I'icl1 publiilied 1987).
'"
was {r .. to the Pakistm Fortign Ministry 10 ht ad ils Middle E .... !
Div;sion, .,..here he to strengthen Pakistan', ties to other Muslim
countrin, He hi, diplomatic career by ..,rving as Pakistan's Mininer
Plenipotenti.ry to the Unitt<! Nalions." He ,.."jr;ntd this po<;t;on in 1952 10
write hi, autobi0l:nphy, .. work of slUnning ingenuity ;md unrivaUed literary
dfect .
Asad Passes Away
After writing this hook, he left New York in 1955 for placa and finoJly
in Spain. He did not = 10 write. At eighty, after all endeavour which
bsttd yUr>, he reolized hi, li fe's for which he felt all his life
till then w;oS an apprenticeship: a translation and exq:esis, or ti1fiir, of the
in English. He contin .. td 10 ""rve Islam till his death in Spain in
February 1992.
[fo the righ,eo<u God ..,ill",y:]
0 .owl R.,wm to dry SIt"",:"..,.,
WtllpitAw, wtllpI .... "'g!
r/,(l .. , rbm, "",ong My ",,,",nu'
YtA, ."r.... t/,(lu My I'<'",.J;..,,""
With his duth passed a journoJist, social critic, linguist, thinker ,
rdormer, diplomat, political theorist, translator and scholar dedic;ued to the
""rvict of God and humanki nd and to lewing the good life.
But death ..,ill not be the finoJ ch#pur in Asu!, dO'le rdatiomhip ..,ith th.
Muslims: his luminous works rnnain a living testimony to hi, great, enduring
love affair with Isbm.
Asad Represents a New Phenomenon
A,:>d, in fact, represems an outstanding example of a new phenomtnon of
modern times: the convusion, on both sides of the Atlantic, of several Western
writers and to Isbm and their passionau commitment to il5 vision
and way of li fe. The circumstancts and partiC\llan of their enlt ring the fold of
Islam may vary, but there are usuoJly Ihru overarching reasons common to
them: a in the divine origin of the Qur'in and in the prophethood of
Muhammw and in Islam's mtSl'lge to lead tM good life. Their Xl of faith has
mown to a wider Wesurn public ,hat, contrary to the misperception that it i,
quaim, fanaticoJ religion followed by wild nalives in remOIt regions, 1sJ..m's
message .nd teachings are rdn-ant 10, and appropriate for, reasonable and
" Asad. M= 2.
"Th< Qur'in. 27-J.O. ,,,,,<1<,<0;1 by in n.. Mro.<!<, uflb. ... d ,,,,;1\ I:>y
th, .... thor.
'"
thoughtful the most advanctd arc:os of the world. Equally ';gnifiClllI,
it h .. also "!kmomlrated that, at least among some fair-minded Westerners, the
cemurieHlld barriers of false images of Islam which wenl up with the Crusades
are falling down. Thil phenomenon i. all the mOrc rem:ukable in that often
coowns find way 10 the Mudim faith via a very un!ihly path:
literature On l.Jam md the Muslims produced in European languages mostly by
orienulists me majority of .... lIom emno! be accusro of being friendly to !shUll,
actually, some are orientaliru themsdves. Also, mOSt of thrs<' conversions h.""
taken pIa while Western powers were exerc;,;n); their full politicol and
military might in Muslim l:mds. The appeal of Islam 10 Western elites h .. nOI
Otto confined to :my one country. To mention just a few names: from Great
Britain have come, among others, lord Stanley of Alderley, m uncle of
Bertrmd the eleventh B:oron Headley (Umar al-Farooq), a member of
the of Lords and m activist believer, Muh:unm:ui Marmaduke Pickthall,
a ,up<'rb novelist and, !aler, a mU15latot of the Qur'an, Martin Lings (Abu Bakt
Sir.tj ai-Din), a p<'tctptive .cholar of mysticism, md Charles Le Gai Eaton, a
talented from France: Rene Guenon (' Abd a1-W:iliid Yahya),
m txpert in metaphysics, comparative religion md csotericiSffi; Vincent
Mamour Monteil, an orienta]ist, md Maurice Bucailie, m author; from
Gcrmmy: Mur:od Wilfried Hofmmn, a diplomat and writer; from Austria:
Baron Umar von Ehrenfels, m anthropologist; from Hungary: Abdul Karim
Gcrmmus, m orientalist; from Switzerl""d: Frithjof Schuon, described by T.
S. Eli ot as the most impressi"" writer in the field of comp:or:llive ",ligion he
had ever encountered, ""d patrician German Swiu Tim. (lbrihim) Burckhard.,
a scholar of mysticism and the son of sculptor Carl Burckhardt; from North
America.: Thomas Irving (al-Hajj T a'lim 'Ali), an Isl:unic scholar ""d (r""s!ator
of the Qur'in, H:unid Algar, British-born distinguished academic with special
interest in Iran, M"'l:aret Marcus (Mary.m J:IJlleelah), a writer, Cyril Glas";,
author of Islamic wor ks, Jeffrey Uog, " m"theffi:llician and writer on Isl:un,
and Michael Wolfe, a poet, novelist, and writer of travel books.
Asad's Special Place
It would seem th:ll Western Muslims have been JUSt as earnest in their
devotion to Islam as Mulummad As...:!. So, why does And stand head and
shoulders above all other Western English.writing convertS? What is his secret,
He rose to unparallelled eminence among Western Muslims none
has contributed more th"" Asad to elucidating Islam as m ideology arid
conveying illl quintessential spirit in contemporary termS to Muslims and non-
Muslims :olike-not even Pickthall (d. 1355/1 936), "m Englishm"" of the
who can easily be credited with the most widely read trmslation of
"Quoted from P;':kthall", Suffo!k no ... ! u,*"",""_ {191l} in Pet Clark' , .... dl,<><.r<hed
.... ,("I,. Pid"J"Ji: B.itish MMJi", (Londo,,: Qwrtet B<KIa.. 199.). 7.
'"
the Qur'in by any English_writing convert," with brilliant writings
on Islam and with widNanging scrvicos 10 the Muslirru, sometimc.s rendered
a1 gre.lt personal s:Krifice.
A.:xl'. contributions resist =r summary, but we can as!: a glan", al hi.
writings and thought 10 pick Out the features On the landscape ,,!ther than
describe the in detaiL For an appreciation of his work, however, we have
to s it against the backdrop of his first V>CQumer wilh the Muslim world.
The Decline of the Muslims in Recent Times
And's introduction to the Muslim world took when he visitM a
turhulem, fearful Middl e East in 1M wm of tltt Fir$! World War. The th",,,!
that many Muslims pcrceivN coming from the West at Ihal time can IOday
hardly be remembered Or conceived of and is difficult to encapsulate in a few
semences, From the Muslims' perspective of the colonial Wen,
BJ.d. it uood.u nighl,
Finu., _/urin, ho/l,
And 1hocJr. .. Jr=J/,,/ dart"
at IsI:lIll iudf.
FOT tht pn.ViOUi two centuTito, m 2SCendant had rtmadt the map
of the Muslim wodd fTom the ihorto of Morocco On the Atlantic in the weil
to the fenile countryside of Mindanao in the Pacific in the e;l.5t, and from the
mounuins of Daghestan in the nonh to tht coconut-palm-fri ngw. beachrs of
the Maldi"" hlmds in tht Indi:m Ocem in the $Outh. lu military, political,
cultunl md <'Wnomic on.laught On the "",a had blown up like a hurric:me.
Tht glory of Ihe Mughal. of Indi. and S.bvids of Persia had p;I.5sed away; the
back of the once-formidable Onomm state had bttn broken; the Caliphatt-an
institution which, though reduCw. in statu" sti!! enjoyw. popular sappan-had
.bolished. The Muslims laggw. fill" bf,hind the Well in tht w.ucational,
industrial and technological and scientific fi elds. As the first decades of the
twentieth cemury wOre on, they felt at bay. Thty Wtn. dttply dividw.,
disheanenw. and Immili atw.. They had bun $0 weu taw. th.l SOme quaners
even harbored Iksigns to ring down the 1:lSt cunain on 1s\:lIII ;1.5 01 religion and
civilization.
Cross-Currents in a Tempntuous Muslim World
By the t ime A.ad came to the Middle E:ISt in 1922, these momentous changes
had loosened a storm of new values, concepts and socialilresses on the Muslim
"ruk,inl of th. Qur'''' n,. M<""i"K of';" GIo>-_, Ko"" ro ... 'pp<"eJ in
... h .. bn '<print! Bum",," tim ...
"John Mat"n. P.,.diJ< Lo.<'. Ilk. n. lin .. b7C-672.
, ..
world; of unprecdentM and it thre. teoM la sweep the
very foundations of Muslim society. Many Muslims scill chui,hM tn.:!ition.l
v.lues. Y ct, bro;><\ spectrum of competing, confusing trends .ppe.rd
;n the hl:unic world;>.j the of the West had left few Muslim coumries
untouched. There were mOvementS in suppon of rdij;iou, reform which had
their roou in Muslim tradition. Muhammad 'Abduh of Egypt (d. 1323/ 1905)
and !qbil this lund ;n the nrly twentieth cenUlry and their
influence remains $trong and alive. But t here were also Mlvoc.tes of the newly
imponed ide:lS of westuniution, nationalism, and sn:ularism who looked to
the West for inspiration. The sP<"'rhe<lds of these ideologies were Kern'"
Auturk (d. 1357/1938) of Tur key and Rez. Shah of Iran (d. 1365/1944) , As it
w ..... not po"ible 10 "Iu:ue anlipod:ol ide2.1 of Ir""ilion:ol Isbmic
with thost of ..ivocate5 of and s,""ubrism, a
rupture between them was soon fairly fully esublished.
Asad's Vision of His Primary Goals
And Saw it as his and duty to critic:olly the "'USCs of the
of the Muslims as wdl :IS the for= and pressing them and
to wake them from by Ihe = 1 of a reformer, As:w tried
to bridge the gap between Ihe trndilional and modern worlds. He w>s repelled
by what saw >s religioudy and wei.lly disruptive newfangled ideas
spreading in the Idamic worl d: s,""ubrism, nation:olism and
m.teri:oli,m. Like other writers and thinkers wllo Ilad in them "a spark of the
flame wllich burned in the heartS of the Comp:mions of Ihe Prophtt"!'
responded 10 to reconcHe religion and modunization and to
produce a wide-ranging synthesis of Islam, and nttds of the
society of the day.
A,ad lived in an era of ""ci:ol, imdlectu:ol and politic:ol cre.tivity.
While most other reformers shook the Muslim world with the thunekr of their
spirit, power of charisma and slrength of their popular suppon, he was
an intellectual who did nOt bc.l ong to .ny O'l:aniulion. As""', ohvious vinuC5,
Iho"" which nO can f;oil to see immediately, are depth of knowledge,
d.rity of re .oning and the meticulous and dissection of "'lumems,
even when he accepts their conclusions. It is his p<=.lli.r achievement that, with
high vinuosity and greal passion, he to make" whole of his
diver", concerns.
Asad's Intell ectual Vi gour and Reach
prim.ry sources of Asad's inspiration were the Quean and the traditions
of Prophtt. But he could not fail to be impressed by 'Abduh and Iqbil :rnd
'"
othrr thinktrs who h;od earlirr diognoKd the ills of MwHm K1dety and
prescribed simil", remedy for it. A vigorow promoter of Muslim ideology
and values and a precursor of thOR Muslims who were proud of their identity
and wanted to preserve it in a changing, tumuituol1S world, Asad instilled in hi.
public new confidence in the power and future of Islam. To do all this, he used
a powerful tool: his pen.
The re"",h, range, depth and reiev3IlCt of what he pen=<! were immen..,.
Asad's writings on Islam and tbe Muslims extend over half a century, from the
1920, to the 19805. His writings include: Morgmumd (coo. 1925);
!.I"m ". EM Cnmroads (193.); Sakih .. 'BuJrhiri: The urly Yean of IsLom (1935-
1938), an annotated tr.uulatioo; The R.....J /0 Mtcc" (19S.); The Prinei,*, o!SI4U
and Gow-rnmmf jn lJisun (1961); The of Ihe Qur'in (1964-1980), an
intuputation of, and a commentary on, the Muslim Holy Book; and This Law
o/Oun ,.nd O/hn Ess.ys (1987). Between 1946 and 1947 he also brought out a
journal, Ara/ .. t A Monthly Oitiqut of Mlluim Thoughl.
Asad's first book, Umlml4miK,," Motg",!Jmd [n.. UnTOm4ntiC Lut), basoeci
on his tnvels and ob..,rV:ltions as a correspondrnt for the Fr .. n/ifllrt" lntung
was publi.hrd. in the mid-l92Os. It showed an unusual insight into the Middle
East. Its title "was meant to convey that it was not a book about the romantic,
exotic outward picture of tbe Muslim East butntber an endeavour 10
to its day-by-day realities".
Afur he accepttd l:dam, Asad might have had as his motto the heading
undtr which George Orwell used 10 contribute his weekly essay to
Wriu as I Please". But, despite the fredom he enjoytd beau"" of his
independent status, he kept hi, focus on sub;rcrs to the spiritual
survival and well-being of the Muslim community.
Islam at tbt Crossroads
Asad's first publiClltion as a committed Muslim was IdAm .. t 1M CrosJTOMir,
published in 19}4. It heralded the arrival of a brilliant Eoglish.writing convert
with a bold, dynmtic visioo. A man uoafraid of controv .... y, he had One single,
enduring, driving goal: 10 help bring back the Muslims to the tWO original
sources which were the foundation of their spiritual and temporal grulneS'S, the
Qur'in and the Sun'l4h, the practice of the Prophet-"th.> only binding
npi.uwlion of the Qur'inic texhings".)l
The book did not claim to give a comprehensive answer to the many
ailments that had weakened and de$tabiliud the Muslim -world. Raising the
banner of revolt against the intellectual, social and political challenge posed by
an ever-cxpanding Western Weit.vlsch..llllng, the primary aim of lru.m .u 1M
CrosS1'04ds was to warn the Muslims against blindly imitating Western values
and mores, which Asad thought posed a mortal danger to Islam. It had an
'"
Iqb'!Jan spirit, and was ;U) incisive, sweeping-md, oftnI. a startling
but refreshing-response 10 a tide which had long flowed in favour of Wesurn
culmral ""d politicol hegemony. Moreover, it vivified a <kbat!: in on
twO of the fundamental concerns which exercised Muslim rdormen: the
perplexing problems of westernization and Muslim n:vival and the extent to
which it w .... for Mudims to follow the West's ways in order to
achieve progress.
A,od was mortifitd al the ineffable distance in ideals, goals and outlook
Islam and lhe (OnC"1'1 of weSierniUlion. hi, Isl"m ,,<I
the Crossroads crysu.l!ized :m uncompromising defence. of Islam's traditions and
values against the incursions of the westuniurs; it :lisa was a polffllical and
imp:assioned attack .. gainst imitators of the W= and detr.lCtors of uaditiona!
Islam.
Asad's Emphasis on the Qur'in :lnd Sunnah
He tSpOUsW adherenO! [n lcachings of the Qur'an md the SUT/"ah, without
which he thought Ishun and Mudim could nOt survive, He nys in
Islam al the Crossroads: "Many reform proposals have bn advanced dunng the
last deGldtS, and many spiritual dou ors have tried to a patent medicine
for the sick body of hbm_ BUI, unti l now, all h .. be<!n in vain, btc:.use all
tho .. clever doctors-at least those who get a hearing today_ have invariably
forgonen to prescribe, along with their medicine., tonics, and elixirs, the
natural diu On which the early development of the p:ni ent had been based.
This din, the one which the booy of Islam, sound or sick, cm positively
and assimilate, i. the Sunn .. h of our Prophet Muhammad". ""The Sunnah", he
emph .. ius "is the key to the undern<lnding of the Islamic rise more thm
thirtun cemun .. ago; and why .hould it not be a key [0 the understmding of
Our pr .. em degenu ation? ObservanO! of the Sunn .. h is synonymous with
Isl:unic existence md progrtSs. Neglect of the Sunn"h is synonymous with a
decomposition of md dec<ly of hl:un. The Sunn"" is the iron fr:unework of a
building; and if you remOve the framework em you be surprised if it bre:oks
down like a house of card."?/<
The salience of the Su""ah for Muslims is .u .. sW in mmy places in Is/am
al the Crossrruds. One such example is: "The t erm Sun"ah i, usW iu its widest
meaning, namely, the example the Prophet has set before u, in his anitudes,
actions and sayings, His wonderful life w:lS a living illustution md explmation
of the Qur'in, and we can do nO greater justi ce 10 the Holy Book t han by
following him who was the means of ,,"veiation".'"
167
He was receptive to the Muslims being open to tm, world, but insisted on
IMir maintaining Ihci' spiritual and cultural identity. Muslim muSI live
with hi, head held high", M writ es in this book. "Thi. does not mean tha
Mu.iiml shnuld Stdude themStlves from the voice< coming from without. One
may at all times receive new, positive influences from a foreign civiliz>tinn
without necessarily abandoning his own. An example of this kind was the
European There we have sn how readily Europe ;>r,;cepted Arab
influences in the mater and mel:hod of learrung. But it never imitated the
oulwud and the spirit of Arabian culture, and never 5<lcriflced its
own intellecmal and It u.ed Arab influence< only u a
fenilizer upon its own soil, just as the Arabs had used Hellenistic influen= in
their time. In both the result was a spiritual enrichmem, a strong, new
growth of an indigenollS civili:z.ation, full of self<onfldence and pride in itself.
No civiliution can prosper, or even exist, after having lost this pride and tM
oono=ion with its own past".'"
Asad was always steadfast in his beliefs. But in faimns to him, it should
be mentioned that, while he held steadfastly to his \)c,lief.., hi. views mellowed
with time. In a bter edition of [Jlfm Ifl the Crossroads, he softened his
occasional astringent on several issl1(5 he h..d r:aiid some four ckodes
carli er.
Widespread Impact of Islam at the Crossroads
Isllf'" Ifl tk CrossJ"Olfds contributed to the breaking up of the of Iftw",ie and
malaise prevalent in the Muslim world at the time. It received grea critical
acclaim and was a commercial success, which cannOt be <aid of all of Au.:!'!
books. But it can safely be said that it is one of Aud', works On which his
fame will rest. Iqbal-who outshone all other Muslim thinkers of 1M twentieth
ccntury-called it an eye-opener. It i5 perhaps Am's most widely re..d and
translated book. It5 immaculate Ar:abk version done by 'UfIL1r F.,.nikh (d.
1408/ 1987), a prominent Lebanese $Chol.,., and introduced by the eminent
al-Khilid" bad a wider readership than the original, which itself has
bttn rtprinted foun...,n timn." Interestingly, like Ciliu>J which was a
young Ol"$On Welles' seminal screen masterpiece, Isllfm at the CrossroadJ
caapulted Asad to grea fame at the start of his productive career, and like the
classic film, the brilliant critique of the westernization movement, was an act
that was hard for its author 10 foUow. But other writing themn and
i1Chievements beckoned the young Asad.
"'!hid., 79- 80.
',J.i M..["""'1,/T.",q (B<irut Dif .... 11m li1.Miliyin. 1946).
'"
Sahib a/BukJri
After 1,1.m al 1M CrosSTWd., Asa<! focused his On of earlicm
and most enduring of his concerns as a reformer: "to make real the voice of the
Prophet of Islam-real, as if he were speaking dirtly to us and for us: and it
is in the ""dith that his voice can b. most d e:lrly hew"." Like other Idamic
",formen, he thought th.t knowledge of the traditions of the Prophet-which
complement and amplify the Qur'an-was necessary for". new understanding
and. dim;1 appreciation of the troe teachings of IsLun".'"
In fact, he had bttn preoccupied with the Prophet'. Sun_h, or way of life,
from his Madinah days. Toward this end, and with the encoungement of Iqb>l,
he attempted a usk that till then had never wn undertaken ;n English. This
was 1M tnn,lalion of, and commentary on, the Prophet's aum.,nt;c tnditiol1.5
as carefully .nd critically compiled in ninth century-ovet a period of
sixteen yem-by tbe traditioniSl aI-Bukbiri (d. 256/870). BeI:""fttl 1935
and 1938, Asw published tbe lirst five of forty protected instalments of ai-
Bukhiri's celebraled work under Ihr litle, .{Bulman: Tht &rly Ye.,.. rf
Isl.m. BUI due to his internment during the Second World War, Ihe
of mmuscripts of his mnotalal rendering in the chaOI that follow..d the
partition of India md the prel5 of other intellectu"! activilie. aher the creation
of Pakistan, he was unable to tbe publication of this work," esteem..d
by mmy Muslims to be second only to the Qur'in in importance. Years later,
he described thr scene of the eod of hi. loving effort to m:oke the Prophet's
voice heard and undernuod in English, my own eyes I saw a few
scattered leaves of those manuscripts floating down river Ravi [now in
Indian Punjab] in the midst of tnrn Arabic books-the remnmts of my
librllry-and..!1 maImer of debris; and with tbose poor, floating pieces of paper
vanished beyond recall more Ihan l en years of intensive labour"." But the years
spent On this undertaking Were nOt spent in v";n; On Ihe contrary, they were,
OS himself recognize<!., ... preparation for a gre:ner task that was aw.uting
him. But of this later.
The Road to Mecca: Asad's Story of His Spiritual Journey
To the delight md benefit of his readers, bis next book, Tht Road Il) Mere.,
revuled tbe gems of literary talent in the secret casket of A,ad's genius.
In Tht ROMi /0 Mer"" published in 1954, Asad offers u, nearly 380
entbralling pages whicb revolve around the only love that captivated him for
"A .. d, "P .. !.e< to tho fint Edition". s..bih 111< e..rry Y ... ,., of IsLom (Gib ... lt->".
Dar al. AndaiU1. 1980), P v. (Fi<" ""bli.hed 19'5j.
"'Lx <n .
.!'Aud, to tit, S<cond Editm". Th< y",,, of l.L.m
(Gibral,,,,, D .. :oJ.And.hu, 1980), p . ...
))1.0<. <it.
.. ,
lik Islam. Hi. 'tory is ',imply", ,ays, Slory of" European'.
of Islam and of his imegralion within the Muslim community ," He wrote il
in 10 tho"" of hi, W=rn colleagu ... in New York who had bttn
baffled by his conversion and identifiCltion with the Muslim . Serving as
Pakistan', Mininer Plenipotentiary to t he United N;tt;ons, [ WilS n.t>.;rnUy in
1m, public tye and encoulllered a great deal of curiosity :mIong my Europem
:and Amer;e;m friffids and xquaint:m=. At first they assumed th.1 mine was
the case of " 'cxpen' employed by an E;lSlcm govemmem for 0.
specific purpoSoe, and that I h:ul oon""niently ;od'plM my",,]f to 1M way. of 1M
nation which I w:ll; ",rving; but when my activiti ... at the United Nations
il obvious that I identified myself not merely 'functionally' but also
emoom.l1y ;I,Ild intellectually with the polili<;:L\ :md cullural :tims of 1M
Muslim world in general, thty became somewhat perpltxed","
But what. rich ,tory:md how marvelously told! It covers Asw's life from
hi, begi nnings in Lvov;n 1900 to hi, lost dt,.,rt journty in Ar.bia in 1931. It
truts of van the=, a jouTnty in 'p.ce. :md in spirit, :m explorat ion of vast
gwgraphical dist:mces :md of the deep imuior recesse, of a man', psyche_
7he Road /0 Mtcc .. give, us a rounded portr:tit of a restltSll man in search
of wventure:md troth, It is part spiritual autobiognphy, p:m summary of the
author's intuitive insights into 1,1:un and the Arab., part an impressive
traveloglU. Spiced with a virtuosity of literary technique, a perfect prose style
fashioned fQr the purpose, and a Europtan storytdler's urbane smsibility and
infused with a genuine sympathy for the world it describes, Tht: Road to Meet ..
often telip"" the classic travel books On Arabia: those of Charles Dought y,
Richard Burton, T. E. Lawrence., Freya Stark and Wilfrid The,iger.
Puncruated with :lbundant wvemu,"", moment, of comempJ.tion, colourful
narrative, brilliant description and lively anecdote, Tht: Road to Mecca teI1, a
story that on all count.! is gripping but which necessarily suffen in a skeletal
condtnsing. It tell, of the upbringing of Muh:unmw A.w in his homeland as
Leopold Weiss, an Austrian Jew whn was desc:ended of orthodox rabbi,; of hi.
university day. in Vienna; of mu,ings on the human condition in the West; of
wanderings across Central Europe in search of a fulfil1ing life; of galeerashing
into the world of journalism in Berlin; of hi. txtcmive tnovels allover the
Middle East; of soul.stirring vi,itl to Jerusalem and C:tiro; of working as a
correspondent for one of the mOil; prestigious German newspapers; of falling
in love with Isl:un and the Arab.; of moment Ous conversion to the Muslim
f:tith and becoming MuI):unmad As:><l; of Ar.ohi. for six years and
being the guest of King 'Abd aI'Auz, the monarch who coaltsccd
tribes into a unified, peao:ful kingdom; of living like an Arab, wc...-ing only
Anob dres., speaking only Arabic, dre:uning dreams in Arabic; of travelling
with the Bedouin; of studying Islam', scripture and history in the holy citin
"A<ad, Mt-. t .
"loc. cit.
'"
of Makkah and M;odinm: of going On pilt;rimage; of enoountUS with people
belonging to rvery stc:ltum of society-the simple man in the street, the
oophisticated intellectual, tM ,hrewd men:hant and the powerful he..d of stale;
of going on a huardou$ mission to Itali:ut-occupied Cyrenaica to contact
and '.'!list 'Urnar :aJ-Mukhtir (hang,ed by the Italians in 1350/1931), the wurio ...
hUD of tm, COunlry'S freedom movement. And, throughout, there are two
motifs which an embroidered on every pand of this wonderfully crafted
tapestry: a dp faith in God and an overwhelming \0,,", for the Arabian
Prophet.
Above all, TIN Road /0 M=,. tells a human story, "story of" modern
man's restltsSnes< and londiot'$$, pOS$;Oos and ambitiom, joys and $OrrOWI,
aru:iety and commitmml, vision :md hummcness. In author comes nUl as
brilliant, exciting, lively, full of observation, immense charm,
tremendous zest for life and dttply hdd rdigious belieb. Significantly, he
triumphantly achieves hi, purpo", in writing 7hr ROoM! to MC4: nOne an re:od
it without getting a better appreciation of Isl:un. Resigning :os P.ki,un'5
ambassador to the United. Nations in order to devote himself to writing this
hook, he bo:c:>mt an ambassador of Islam to the West-and to many alienaltd
imdlectual5 and youths in Muslim lands.
This book is imeresting at any poim of emry. Like any dassic, Road
10 Mu has passages which never lose their flavour, despite nading.
Here is a breathtaking dispby of Asad's nligiou, feding and narrative ,kill. It
is also an unsurpassed nosulgic description of the pilgrimage of a bygone era:
On f:lajj
NOI far from here, hidden from my qn in il>< mid,t of ,hi. lir.ln. wild",n,,"
of '1:>11.)'1 and hill., lin ,h. plain of AUlal, on which all pilgrims who come to
Mecca :lSS<'mbl. on on .. day of ,he yeor a$ .... minder of ,hal La,t A.",mbly.
when man will lu.ve to answer to his Creator for all h. has don .. in life. How
often Iu.v .. 1 stood th ..... myself, bareheaded, in th. whit .. pilgrim prb, a
multitud. of white.prbed, barehe>eled pilgrinu from ,hr con,inents, Our faces
turned to .... rd the Jabal arRahma-th. 'Mount of Mercy' _which an",. out of Ihe
vasl plain: standing and waiting thro"", Ih. noon, throut/! th .. aft.rnoon,
upon that ineKapable Day, .... h.n you will be exposed to view, nOl on ..
KCJ"et of yours will remain ... "
And as I stand on the hillcresl and gut down toward ,he inv;.ibl. Plain of
Arafal, th .. moonlit blueness of the landscape befo ... me, so dud a moment ago.
suddenly C(lmes to lif .. with ,n., curren" of alllh .. human lives that have passed
through it and il filled ""ilh th. eerie voices of the millio,," of m<:n and ""omen
who have ""alked or ridden betwun and Arab, in over thirt .... n hundred
pilgrimages for OVer ,hirt .... n hundred years. Their voices and Ih.ir 'tep' and th.
"ce. The Qurin. ('90 U (UN', note).
A ...... TTElI Of LOIIE MUfl""'O MAD .... 0 ,SLAM
'"
voic and , h. Steps of t h. ir animal s re,,,,,. k.n and "",,,und .nn,; I st. them
w,lking . nd .nd .... mbling-all th.,.., myri. ds of whit' -K"rbed pilgrims of
thirteen hundred ye.,,; I he", the sounds 0/ ,heir pass.d..way wy.; ,h. win" 0/
the faiLh which h .. drawn them 'Of;ether '0 ,hi. land of rock. and sand and
seemi ng M.dn.,. M>t ag.in ... i,h .he ... >rm,h of lif. over the arc of an,uri ... , and
the mighty .... ingbe.t dr ... me into in orbit .nd d ... "". my own pa<sed-.w.y days
in.o.he p'O$<'n and onCe .gain I .m riding over .he plain-
_riding in a thundering OVer , h. pl.in, . midst .Muunds and ,housand. of
ihra ... ..,I.d beduin., returning from Ar;lfat to MKc.-a tiny particle ..,f ,h"
roaring. eart h-. h.king, irresistible Wave of cound .. , galloping dromedaries and
m.n, with the tribal bannen on ,h.ir high pole. Mating like drum. in the wind
and their tribal war eriet ",.ring through the ai" ,. Rawg..'! by which
.h. AtayN Iribcsmen evoke their .ncestor'. n.me, .n.wered by the A",j.,.
Aw/l of the Harb .nd Khocci by ,he almost Mfiant . Sh.:m ..... r. ,. Sh.:m"",,l
from the f",h .. t right wing of the column_
W. ride on, rushing. lIying OVer the pl . in, .nd to me i . ... ms .ho< ... e are nying
wi.h ,h. wind, abandoned '0 h.ppin ... thn know' neither . nd nOr li miL_.nd
the wind .hou<l ' wild pae.n of joy into my urs: 'Never .pin, never . g.;n, never
again will )'Ou be stnnger'!
My brethren on the right .nd my breth ... n on ,he leh 11 of them unknown to
me but none . 'tnnge" in the tumultuou, joy of our cha .. , we ar. Olle body in
pursuit 'of one goal. Wide i. the world before us, . nd in Our he.rt, glimm.rs a
.park of the name th.t burned in the heart' of the Prophet'. C..ompanions. They
know, my brethren on .he righ. and my brethren on ,he leh. that they h.ve
fallen .hort of wh.l was expe<:ted 01 them, and th .. in thelligh. 01 an.uri .. their
h. am have g,own . m.lI: . nd . the promi 0/ fulfil men' h not been uhn
from them .. .from us .. .
Som.one in . h. , urging hos b. ndon, hi. tribal cry for. cry of bith: 'We the
brethren of him who giv .. himself up .0 God'!- and another joins in: 'Allabu
A.U .. r'!-'GOO i, .he G.., .... tt-God alon. i. Great'!
And.ll the trib.1 detachment< uk. up this one cry_ They are no longer Najdi
beduin. in .heir tribal pride: they are m.n .. ho know th.t the ' K"," of
GOO are but wai'ing 10< them .. . lor w ... Amidst the din of thoU$J.nds of rushing
camels' feet and Ihe lIapping of a hundred bannen. their cry grow. into:>. roar of
triumph: AII.Jn. Air!..,.' !
It 110'" in mighty wav" over.he heath of the thousand. of gallC>pi ng men, over
the wide pl.in, to alilh. ends of the emh: Akb..,'! Th ... men h.v.
grown bey<>nd their own lin]e Ii" .. , .nd now th.i r fai,h , weep" them forward,
in Ollen.,., towa,d $Ome uncharted horizon ... l..onging n.ed no longe, remain
,mall and hidden; it has f<lund ill , w.k.ning,' blinding .unris. of fulfilm. nt. In
this fulfi lment , m.n ",ide Iong in all hi. God_giv.n .plondour; hi. ",ide i. joy,
.nd hi. knowledge i. Ireedom, . nd hi. world. ,phere wi.hout bounds ...
m
Th. smell of the dromedari .. ' bodi .. , th.ir JIIling and snorting. tilt thun<kring
of ,licit f<"ell .h. shouting of ,he men, ,h. clanking of Ih. rill ... lung
on saddI..,...", the dun and the sweat and the wildly foe .. around me; and
a sudden, glod stillness ..,i,hin me.
1 .um around in my saddle and see behind me Ih. waving, "'e.ving mass of
tbouunds of wh;, .. clad (id<"tl and, beyond .hem, I .... bridge over which J h.ve
com.: in end i.J just behind me ",hil. its bqinning is .lready lost in the mim of
di.tanu ...
Afutr p"rnung Ihis and other stimng spiritual experi.= in Aw, ;1
would ICCrn thn, with few excq>lions, reading ocher Muslims' accounts of their
encounter with Islam is like reading doggerel verse aher Milton. In another
arresting passage, Asad'. intense devotion to the Propha :and ,h. ambiance of
hi. wondrous spiritual pTntnu permeating M:uiinm i. portrayed:
On Madinah
I onler Ih. city and c""" lb. buge, opt" square of A[Manakha to the inner cily
..,..U; beneath .he heavy a",h of .he E&rptian .... hich the mone,..
cungo .. sit c!ink.ing their gold and .ilve, coins, ! $lOp into the main bazaar-a
otreet urdly t ... dve feet acrms, tightly packed with.hops .round which a small
bot eager pulsates.
Tbe .. praiu their ,oodo wilh ch..,rful son". Cay headcloths, silken .hawl.
and ,oba of Kuhmi, wool.""",t the ey<' of ,h. pu.erby. Silversmith.
crouch behind sm.1l &lou cases containing boduin jewellery-ann-,ings iUld ankJ ..
rings, necklaces and earrings. Perfume vendon display basin. filled with henna,
little red hap with antimony for colouring the ey<'lashes, multicoloured bottles
of oils and essenS, and heaps of spices. Tralkrs from Najd are s.lling beduin
gannents and camel .. addles .nd long-tasselled red and blue . addlebags from easte,n
A".bia. An .uction .... runs through Ih. stre.t, 'houling at the top of hi. voice,
with a Persian carpet and camel.ui, ,w",)'I' over hi. should .. iUld btu$
nmOvar under his ann, Floods of jX'Ople in bolh direclions, jX'Ople from M.din.
and ,he resl of A".bia and-as the lime "f th. pilgrim.ge has ended only a short
whil. ",<>--from all the coontri .. between th. East Jndies and Ihe Atlantic Ocean,
between Astraklun and Zanzibar: bUI in spile of the multitude of people and
narro"""ess of the street, Ih.re is nO hurried frenzy here, no pushin, and jostling:
for in Medina lime does not ride on Ihe wings of pursuil.
But ... ut might appear even mor< u".",e is that despite .he g=l variety of
humiUllypes .nd costumes th.t fill. them, there;' nothing of.n '.,.otic' medl.y
in ,he streets of Medin.: the variety of app<aranc .. rev.als ;tself only to the
,u, u detennined to a",lylte. It .eem. to me that.1I the people who live in this
city, 0' sojourn in it temporarily, very soon fall into one might call a
"Juad, MU, 17}-17S.
communi.y of mood and Ihw .100 of behaviour nd, .Imon. even of facial
cxpr<1sion' for.J] of lbem have f.llen under Ihe .pell of lbe Prophet, whose city
it once "' .. and ... hose gue<tS ,hey now ate ...
Evcn .fter thirteen cenmri" hi, spiritual prnl'nco i Imost .. aliv. here as il w ..
,hen. It "" .. only be<ausc of him thot the ",. ttered youp of vilbg .. one. called
Yoth";b be<::amc a ci,y >I,d h .. been loved by all Muslims down to this day as no
city anywhere ebe in Ihe world hu over been loved. Ir hu no. e"en a name of
itS o""n, for more Ihan thirt .. n hundred yean it has been caned ,,,,N,,bi,
'the Ci.y of ,h. PmphC'l . For more than thi", .. n hundred yea", so much love
hu converged here th.t all shapes and have acquired a kind off.mily
rcscmblanco. and all differences of appearance find ,0",,1 transition imo a
common .n.rmony.
This isth. happiness one always 1 .. 1. here-this unifying harmony. Althou,h life
in' Medina today h., only a formal. dinanl relationship with what Ihe Prophet
.imed at; altho"", the ' pirit",d .""aren,," of Mam bas been cheapened here. as
in many " th" p.trts 01 the Mwlim world: an indescribable emotion.1 link with
its gre.tspiritll.1l past has remained alive. N",,", I. .. any cily been so loved for the
,.ke of on. singl. penonality; n""er h ... ny m.n. dead f"r ""er .hi" .... n hundred
ye ..... htcn loved so penonally. and by so many," h .... ho Ii" buried beD .. ,h
'ht great ,!'<'<'n dom ....
Ir was precisely bee.Wle he "' .. only human. because he li"ed like ",h .. men,
.he pJ ... Ur<1 and suff.ring Ibe ill. of human cxi"enco, that those around
him could $0 eru;(>mpau him wi.h .hcir lovc.
Thi. lov. h .. outl."ed hi, &Oath and liv .. on in the hearts of hi. follo""e" like
,h. hilmoli! of a melody built up of many tones. It lives "n in Medina. It lpealc$
to you OUt of ""ery StoO<' "f the .nci.nt city. You can almost touch it with your
h.nds; bUi you cannot capeu .. it in words ... ""
And there il this inimitable jewel,
On tlx Desert
And now in thi, late summer of 19}2. ride U>gotht, ... so of,en in .he P''',
winding our lonesome way bet""een dunes, $lopping at on. Or antXh.r of tht
widely .paced wells and r"ting.t night under lhe $1 .... ; lhe ... r""llViisJ,..wU), of
the anim.l$ f .... over Iht hot .and; sometimes. during tb. march, loyd's'" husky
voice chanl;ng in rhythm with the camels' t=d; night camps. cooking coff .... and
rico and occ .. io"..] wild g.me; Ih. cool ,weep over our bodies .. we lie night
On ,he ... nd; l unri .. ovcr .and du"",,, red and violently buming like fireworks;
.nd $Ometim ... like today. the miracle of life aw. king in plant that hu been
walered by cbanu.
" A..d, M<><, 250-252.
"z.yd iba Ghioim, Asad' , ".ullin, oompanioa.
'"
We IwJ .topped for noon pray ... A. I ...... hed my lund., bee .nd Itt, from
>. 'Omerskin, >. fe ... drop:! .pilled OVer" dried_up tuft of V"" at my
mi ..... bl.li"l .. pl,nt, yellow.n<! withered.nd life! .... underth. h.rsh ray. of the
sun. But .... the "'''e, trickled On. it, hi"., ",.n, through Ih. ,hrivellod hluI .. ,
and I sow ho .... they .Iowly, tremblinr.lr, unfolded. A few mOre drops, .nd the
liul. bbdes moved .nd curled ,nd ,hen straightened them,elves .lowly,
hcsitol;npy, trembling .. J held my b ...... h .. I poured rnO,"" ..... ,er over .he grass
luft. h moved m" .... quickly. rna .... violently, .. if .ome hidden for w ..... pushing
it Out of ju dream of dc.th. Its bl.cks_what dtligbt 10 btholdl-contr.aM .nd
ul"nded like the arm. of starfuh, ov.,....he1med by hy hut
ir'ep ...... ibl. dolirium, re.l liltl. orgy of sen .. ,,,1 joy: .nd Ih", life
victoriously wlu.t. moment ago had oon as dead. en",rflI it visibly. pa"ion'ldy.
overpoworing and beyond in iu m.jesty'
life io iu m*sty .. . you fed it in ,h. dese",. a..:ausc il is on difficult 10
keep and '" h.,d. it i. alw.ys like a &ih . , ..... urc. and a surprise. For Ih .!e..rt
i. al""ays .urpri.ing. even ,hough you may have knn .... n it for yun. Som ... im ...
""hen you think you can , ec it in .11 its rigidity and . mptin .... i wakens from
i" d .... m. send< fo",h its br.ath_ and lender. p.le-veen grass mnd uddenly
wh .... only yest.rdoy the ... wos no'hing but und and 'pl in,.ry pebb)<"$. h $Cnd,
10"'1. iu breath again-.nd a flock of .m.1! birds flutlen through th. air-from
wh .... ? ""h ..... o? .... limbodied . longwinged. em.rald, ..... n: or "",m of
locum ri .. , up above .he ... ",h ""ilh rush and zoom. .nd ,rim .nd
.ndl ... like . horde of hungry "".rrion ...
Life in its majesty, majesty nf 'pan.nen. always surprising, h . .... in Ii .. the ... 1.01.
n.om,,! ... lanl 0/ Arabia. of nd desert. like thi. on and of the many othor
ch.nging landscape<.
Sometimes. i, is I.va vound. black and jaggcd: somctimes dunes without end;
<om ... im ... U!o<di be,ween rocky hill covered with thornbu.h .. oul of which.
"artl..! h .... jum?, .ero .. your ""'y: ",metimcs loose und wi,h ,rack. of goztllc.
and a few fi ...... bl""kened .toon over which long.lorgollen wayiaren cooked .h.i,
food in longfnrgotten doy<; som .. im., a village ben ... ,h p;>lm , ..... and the
wooden wheet. ovor the ""elh make mwi" and ,ing to you without stopping;
som ... im .. a .... ell in ,h. mid" of a dtsert vall.y. wi,h b.duin herdsmen busding
.round it to ""ater Iheir thi .. ty 'heep and .. mel,-they chant in chorus whil. the
"""c, is drawn up in large I ... ,her buckets and poured wi.h a rush into I ther
troughl' to Ihe delight 0/ the exci",d anima], . Thcn ag.in. therc is lon.liness in
steppes overcomc by a sun ""ilbout mercy; p.tchcs of hard. yellow grass and leafy
bu.h" .ha, era .... l ovor ,he ground ""ill. .n.ky branches off., w.lcome patture to
your drom.d..ries; a solitary acacia trec 'preads its branch" wide '!:-linn the "..,1
blue .ky; from between ... ",h mound nd stone ppe .... eyes doning right and
leh. and then vanishes like. ghon. the gold .. kinned liurd ... hieh. they uy. never
mir..:'" of re--binh ;. <nl m <ub1im. imat<ry and sono,w' "",rds m 'he
Qur"On (22: .. One oi ,h. m .... y ,"",' of God, po ... '0 ''''',rea th. <I<"!. (UN.,
nOtt).
'"
drink. w. t<r. In a hollow ".nd bl.ck ten" of g(>.lt h.ir; a hord of c.mel. is
driven hom.ward through ,h. ,ftern""n, the h.rdsmen rid. on young
"mel., and ",hen they call their .nim.11 th .. ,ilenee of th .. I.nd .ud . in their
voice nd Iw.lIows ,hem wi,hout ed'Q.
you Ott glimmering ,hadows for on the horizon: d ouru1 They
flO'll low, freq""ntly ch.nging their colour and po<i,ion. now !"CUmbling ,rey
brown mounlain.-but in the .ir, $om.""hat above the horiUln_.nd now, for oJl
the wodd 10 Ott, .hody groves of stone pin .. : but_in the .ir. And when they
come down lower and ch.nge into bk ... nd flowing nV<'rs ",hid, quiveringly
,..lleC'l ,he mount.ins .nd the trees in ,h.i, invitin& """ e", y<>u .ud<knly
recogniu ,hem for ... hat .My .... : blandi.hment of the jinns, the mi ... g. th.t h ..
$0 often led '''IVell .. n 10 bl hopes and $0 10 poeroi.ion: "nd your hand goes
involuntarily ,oward ",.u ... kin .t your .. ... '"
1M Road ro M=:tI covers As;od's life til! the point of his departure from
Arabi o India in 1932. His re;oders were left with. thint for the remainder
of his autQbiognphy. He did start working on a =juel, of the
Hu.rl, which promisM to unfold the rest of hi.. active and fruitful life, but it
was unfinished . t the time of his dnth."
Assessments of The Road to Mecca
The merits of Tht: Road /0 M=:tI were widely recognized when it appeared. The
Timn Liln"tI? Supplement "History teUs us of m;tny Europe;tn converts to
!dam, rome of whom have ri$Cn to high place and po .... in the lands of ,heir
;odoption ... But it is rare to find a cOnvert setting out, SlCp by step, the process
of his conversion: ;tnd doing ,his, moreover, in a narntive of great po .... er;tnd
beamy ... His knowledge of Middle E.sttrn pwplcs ;tnd of their problems is
profound: indeed in some respects his narnat;ve is at more intimate and
mOre penetrating ,h;tn that of Doughty' ." The revie .... er of ,he-chrjj/itln xuncc
Monilor .... rote: "[This) book is one which Ius burs, .... i'h str;tnge ;tnd
compelling authority upon the small fraternity of Wm:ernen .... ho kno ....
Anbi ... a book trench;tnt .... ith ;odventure m.gnifiundy describtd, ;tnd a
commentary upon the inner me;tning of Arab ;tnd Moslem life, helpful to all
who .... ould achieve. 'more accu .... te uoderstanding of the Arabs ;tnd their
lands."" "A very rare;tnd po .... erful book, raisM completely above the ordinary
"'AI><i, M=-. ll-ll
"Ah .. A..d, d...h, Polo H.mida A..d ",m .. lh .. Ihe The R...J '0 ....
only I""Ully compl ... " by him and .n.. m, herself would ompl .. , it. It "'ould b< c.J1od
0/ ,b< H'4". ", ,;,10: ... h"", ru: himself ruUCOtOd". H ...... Z;Uu, R.nim.
"Mub>JnJtUd ADd. V;'''''' .. y lllam., Schola,', 11 W.Ming'on R'/'M' "" Mi<ldu 'm A/J.j".
S<pI<mber l\l'/S. p ....
"24 December,
"Blurb of ,14"" reprint.
'"
by its candor and ... And what we gain is a cultural rffirienUlion
which should permamndy affect Our view 01 the world", said the NroJ York
Pm!'"
Assuredly, 111t' Road TO Marti is sa:uuly establishtd in the c:mon of
Arabian tTllvd. It is abo challenging poim of depanure for a new mode of
writing about Iravd in Muslim l.mIs.
Asad's Contributions to the Debate on Islamic Ideology and Reform
A.:ad's versatile talents and thought also nowcrcd findy in other dirt:etions,
including Islamic law, mariah, and Islamic politie>l tht'Ory. Bmh fields we..., of
p:lramount importonc<: to him as he fdt that the spiritual and temporal success
of the Muslim community, Or umm..h, depended largely on a correct
urniersWlding and application of Idamic law and on a sound political system.
He first nuted elaborating his ide:os On the l.Jamic and political
systems in 1M 1940s. His attention turned to these .. re'lS bro>.use os early as tru,
1930s he, along with Iqbal, began to work for the creation of Pakistan, where
the Indian Muslims could realiu tru,ir dream of leading their lives in
accordanco: with the ilkals and teaehings of Islam. Asad was one of the
distinguimed Englimwriting thinkers who contributed to building the
;ntdlectual and ideological. fr.unework for the new Islamic OIate. L:l.!u he
republished and developed some of hi, a rlier writings On this in Tk
Principlts of S/4U "nd Govnnmml in t.lam md Thil 1..."/1) of 0..,., and OtlNr
Essayl. The former h .. trmsbted in other languagn, iru:luding A""bic.
1A)n Islamic A,ad po.ilS in Prindp/n o[StaU and Got>nnmmr
in I,}""" not a goal or an end in ;tsdf but only a memo: the goal being the
growth of a community of peopl e who nmd up for equity and justice, for right
and against wrong-<lT, to put it more precisely, a community of people who
work for tru, creation and maintenance of such social condition, os would
enable the greatest possible number of human being. to live, morally as well
as physically, in accordance with tru, natural Law of God, Isbm"."
A,ad funher believed that for a state 10 be Islamic it must be firmly
mchore<\ to the teachings of the Qur'in and tru, Prophet. He also held that
modern and fut\lre Mll5lims had consilkrable flexibility 10 deal
crealively-througb.ijlib.id, iooependent thinking- with m ever-dunging world
and iu mendant challenges. But he believed that it wos \lpon them
when carrying out ijtih4d to be bo\lnd at all times by the twO fundamental
sources of hlamic law: the Qur'in md the ,urlnah. He believed that in all
matters which were clearly enjoined by the sb..rl'ah, sovereignty belonged to
God alone, but in most other areas, such as the form of the political. system to
"Blurb 01 /01< 1!19} rq>run.
"A..d, 7b. 0/ s..,. POd a-m"..,.,/ ',).,m, n< ... ..m. (Gibnlt ... DM aI_
AndaIw. 30. (Fi ... pubhshed 1961).
on
be w.optW, God in Hi. Wisdom gave the believers the right, and imposed On
them the duty, to excrciSt th";r reason to arrive at the appropriate decision for
their lime by mutual comululion. Asa<! laid emphosis on the Qu,'in;c
principle of coosul\<ltion; he gave no quarter to totalitarian systems of
government, which he thought we,.., p<:rnicious and anti-Isbm;c."
The emphasis that Awl and other reformers plactd on ijlibid bort its fruit
within his lifetime: .ever"! Muslim coumr;e. :utd international organiution,
have formed juristic bodies to exercise independent thinking in matters of
contempor:uy ""I=e f'"<juiring guidanct from titt Shari'''''. Such issues range
from organ transplants to from ;nurtstfr,"" banking to
mrurmce.
Asad's ruders art indebted 10 the dedication and industry of his BOSlon;m
wife Pol. Hamid. Asad who p...,,,,,med u. with m imdleCIual of
husband: gathered together various writings and radio talks of his md
persuaded him to publish them as 1hisLAw 0/ Our .. "d OtJ.er bsays. Some of
these had appeared in print before. This book represenu As.ad's work md
thought over fony yun from the mid19.os to 1987. In her fo,""word, she
points Out that the reader will be struck "not only by the extr:oordinary
timeliness and timelessness of these thoughts and predictions, but also by their
great coru;iltency"."
1hjj uw ofOun .. "d OtJ.er bJ4YS dcmOllStr.lIe5 As:od's lifelong f:.scination
with a wide range of subjeCIs which he deemed essential to bring to the
attention of Muslims. bookduls with Islami, and Western civi!iZ<ltions
and Muslim law. In particular, il dwells on role of ijlih.id and the
outlook of the Companions of the Prophet :md the g"",t jurists of Ihe p=
such as 'Ali ibn J:lazm of Cordoba (d. 4;(/1064) :md Ibn al-Qayyim aI-
.... uyyah (d. 7S1/1350) rcg..rding .he necessity for ind.,pendent thinking bued
on the Qur"in ;md the S"n."..h of the Prophet. It also oontains Awl's
perspective on the ideological basis of PakiSI:m as well as on Islam's enCOunter
with the West.
Awl was too cautious and .crupulou. a thinker 10 propose a progrwnme
of reform built on the Sh.t.ri'ah without constant refinement and attention to
recalcitrant, practical detail and without voicing his views vigoroudy. "Simply
talking aboutlhe need for a 're-birth' of faith is not much betuor than bragging
about our glorious past and extolling the greatness of our pn:de=sors", he says
in 1hil LAw of Ouf! OIM bJ4YS. "Our faith cannO{ be horn unles. we
""d",und what il imp/iel and 10 what pr:>ctical goals it will lead us. It will nOt
do us the least good if we an: glibly omured that the socioeoonomic prognmme
of Islam is better than that of socialism, communi,m, eapitalism {:.scism, md
God knows what other ';sm,' ... We ought rnher to be Jhoum ;n unminak:.ble
------ -
" CI. Mali .. Ruthvm. "M,,!umnud A..d: Amb .... do, of [!lam". p. 6-0 OItd p. 61 ... b.,..,
A..d d.nooo= de>potiom in modt,n Mullin> ..-orld.
"Pol. H:uIlid. M.d. "Fo_rd" On A..<I. EJ",.,,, p . i.
,,.
terms, wbat altcrnative the Wari'ah makes for Our social life, what its
true con",p! of society is, wh.1 views it putS forward wilh rtt;ard 10 individual
property =d the cornmun.! tood. bbour ;md production, capital md profit,
employu md employee, the state and the individual; what its practiCli
measuns are for the pnvent;on of man's nploiution by man; for an abolition
of ;&"oronct; and poverty; for obtainint; food, clothing and shd! er for <'Very
mon, woman md child ..... '
In another place, he returns to a cenlr1lllheme, the harmonious interaction
betwun body and soul and bttween faith and denis, which was one of the
main reosom he was mr:lCUd to Islam: ", . . this religion of ours would not
God's Message to man jf its foremost goal were not mon's growth towards
Goo; but our bodies and our souls are $I) intertwintd that we cmnol
of Oill' without uking the other fully into account ,
Specious sermonisinl; .bout 'f..ith' and 'sacrifice' and ',urrender to God', Will'
cannot le..d to the t'Subiishment of true Islam on earth unit'Ss we at<' shown
how to g..in f..ith through a insighl into God', plm, how 10 elevate our
.pirit by livint; righteous life, and bow to surrender ourselves to God by
doing Hi. Will as individual. and as a community, so that we might !'tally
become 'the best community thai has ever b""n brought forth for good of}
mmkind' ('UTah 3: 110)","
Asad's Magnum Opus: The Menage of the Qur'an
And;1 was God's lasl mess.lge to mankind, the Qur'iin, which seized A,ad both
for a moment and for a lifetime-ever since that f"teful Berlin subway ride on
m autumnal cLoy in 1926.
Many years of Aoo's young and mature life were spent in contemplating
tru: Qur' >n' $ meaning md of producint; new reodering of the Holy
Book with a commentary in the tradition of the great commentator. whose
scholarship enriched Qur'iinic studit'S. Even ten years that he h..d spent
l.bourint; On InIlsbtion of the Sahift ai-B"kbAn.- that was to be
irretrievably lost in Ihe walen of Ihe Ravi necessary part of hi. altempl
to comprehend the divine message: full familiarity wilh the Prophet', tradilions
was a requisite for understanding the Qur'iin.
In Message of tk Qur'.in, an Ent;lish.langu.ge translation of, md
commentary on, Muslim Holy Writ, Asa<! realiud his lifelont; dream . llh.
;>ge of 80. in 1960, a limited aiition of the first nine !u'ram, of chaplers,
of Qur'>n was published in 196-4, and Ih. complete edition was published
in a volume of 1,000 pag .. in 1980. [t was the creative eruption that c:lpped his
scholarly contributions and long ",rvice to Is\;U!l.
"A...d, ",ry., 69.
"!bOd.,69_70.
'"
The Hol y Qur'an and Its Translation
The Qur'"", revealed 10 the MuJ.i=nud rome founttn hundrd ye>rs
ago, is unique in the annals of "'ripm...,.. The Qur'in is ,he divine book
10 which more ,h. n One biltion Arab and non-Arab Muslims look for guidance
in their daily lives. It is recited pri"",eiy. chmu.d publicly, studied eJ<ten.ivdy
and memorized by young and old mOre than any other scripture. No other
seriplue<: has solicited as frequendy, day .her day, by its readers for an
on,wer to the a11imponant que,,;on, "How ,holl I lead a good life in this
world :md the world 10 co"","? No olher scripture h .. shaped ;15 adherem. or
innuence.:l world history to a similar ttlent. It bunched {men-growing
monotheistic religion and the fim ideological state. It made a single
nation of warring tribes and diven<: peoples and necs and impirtd Ihem 10
ch:umd Ihtir ahil ilifS inlO founding ntduring civiliution for many
W:L'l unriv .. Htd in its scientific, .. nd
:md agricultural achi noemcnts. The contributions civiliution
made during its dflorescencc helped the of thc and thc
mO<krn world in which We livc.
A. there wcre alre:ady some Ihirty renderings of the Muslim scripture in
English, why did Ao.ad undcrtake yt"t another imerpre-ntion of the Qur':i.n in
today's premi er int ernational longuagef Muslims believc Qur':i.n is thc
Word of God revuled in Arahic and untr:m$lauble into any other tongue.
Can, therefore, the Word of God be :adajuat ely tr:mslated at all? Wh"
chaHenge. f:ott il< interprt"ter and how an his success be me:lSured?
Furthermore, Asad not only rendered the Qur':i.n into English. He :L'lsumed
:mother heavy burden: he also WrOle .. taft;., or commentary, on it. But can
any time-bound commentary penned by a mcn: mortal do 10 God,
eternal Word? These an: some of the qUfStions which uise when considering
thc tr ansl:>tion and excge';, of the Muslim Holy Book.
Traductor Traditor
A tramlator of any litcrary text is faced with tWO immediate problems:
rendering thc meaning of Ihe original faithfully in a language Ihat i. idiomatic
.nd in a style tlut resonate. with Ihe unique linguistic t"";u and flavour that
an: the particular gr",e of every l;U\guage. Even the most "primilive" languagfS
have an awesomc beauty and richness of phr;lS(: that are untranslatable into
"advanced" tongues. The problems of translation are alleviated when the twO
l:mgoages involved an: cognate and have shared linguistic r00l5, lilet:lry
traditions and cultural concepts, such :as French :md Spanish, which are bot h
Romance: l:mguages ultimately derived from Latin. BUI even when tr:mdating
from into rd.tM languages with common tradiliOfl!!, it i$ extremely
demanding to keep a balance betw n faithfulness to the felicilY
of expr=ion in Ihe Ir:m.latM vcrsion. The btin a(b ge, which dubs u:mslators
'""
as traitors, (r"" .. a<n' I,..di/or, illust .... tn pointedly the age-old
of thr craft of translation.
In c:u.. of urukring Arabic into English the problem;! !V"ater
of the vaS! gap that h:os to be bridged between the different syntactical,
rhetorical, and linguistic worlck of A .... hic, a Senitic language, and " Wntero,
tongue. A. for the A .... bic of the QUT'an the challenge to the
t=tll!alor i. multiplied m:mifold for a variety of ",:!Sorn. First of all the bcaUly
and power of in language, rhythm and cadence m, inimitable. Second, though
Qut'anie diction is highly eUiptical and condensed, and expresses a world of
meming with pungent brevity, it ;, comprehensible to IhOSf' who understand
Arabic. But the translator of such dliptic:d C(lnnructions which "Me foreit;n to
mon other languages ;. for=<! to :add linking phrases to clarify hi. rendering
without usotting to a profusion of unwelcome interpolations into the Qur'iinic
text. Third, ... the most vigorous enant Semitic language, Arabic h ... pr .. erve<!
a lot of the hani-to-translate everyday imagery of an ancient world. Fourth, and
nOt le .. t important, the Qur'iin h ... coined numerOuS usage5 and tennS to
expTeSS new religious and monl concepts; it thus gave novel meanings to old,
familiar words. For all these re ... ons, it is a formidable task for even the most
talented bilingual scholars to tnnslate the Divine Word into a language such
... English.
Some English Translations of the Qur'in
The first transl.tion of the Qur'iin in a Western language w.,. done by the
English cleric Robertus Retenen.i. the instance of Peter the Vene ... ble,
Abbot of Cluny, for polemical completN in 114), it w.,. widely
circulated in manuscript for several centuri .. in the Latin Welt and exerci.sM
a negative innucnce on the understanding of Islam in Europe. But the first
English interpretation of the Qur'iin by European conVert appeared only in
1930, fifty years before As..d's rendering. In his justly celebrated translation,
TIH Me4n;"8 oj"fht Glorious Koran, Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall express..
some of the difficulties inherent in any effort to translate the Qur'iin: "The :lim
of work is to present to English re..ders what Muslims the world over hold
to be the me<lning of the words of tM Koran, .nd the n.ture of the Book, in
nOt unworthy aod concisely ... The Koran o;=not be translated. That
the belief of oldf ... hionN Shcykhs and the view of the present writer. The
Book is here rendered almoSt literally and tvery effort has heen m..de to choose
befitting language. But the result is not the Glorious Koran, that inimitable
symphony, the very sounds of which move men to t ... rs and ecstasy. It is only
an attempt to present the meaning of tM Koran-and peradventure something
'"
of the charm-in English. It can never uke pi""", of 1M Konn in Arabic, nor
is;t to do so","
The Eternal Word of God versus the: Ephemeral Word of Man
Th= are iKlm<: of the problrms confronting the translator. However, a
commentatOr on the Que'an, f:u:cs additional. difficultid. Fim, hi. qu:olifications
must r.mk even higher tbm of a trandalor in a Vllriety of Islamic fields,
r:rnging from Arabic linguistics to lexicogro.phy, l-j.uJith to hermeneutics,
history 10 heTeSiolo!;)" grammar 10 juri.prudmct, .Moric to dogmatics and
phonetics [0 biognphy. Another serious choiet tim the Qur'in-co=ntalor
bas to make is to decide which line of interpretation he wanu to follow, for
the scienct of Qur'inic exegesis is a rich one and has engendered many. at times
differing, scbools of interpmation. That this is ro, is only natural, for the
QUT'in i. with and imighu for those who contemplate it.
Scholan have in scaled new heighu in their undentanding of the
Qur'iin, but their interpr=tions, however deq> and however illuminating,
a prnonal, hunun, partial on the Word of God and His all-
enwmpassing knowledge and ha"", therefore, nOt beo:n considered binding on
other scholan or on the community. The Qur'iin is the Word of God, md
hence immutable, prrfect md eternal; commentaries by scholars are the work
of men whosoe vision must reflection of their time, environment
md personal bias, md sub;ec.: to errOr md change. While the work of
ob1ective trmslators and commentaton of the Qur'iin deserves it is not
sacrosanct or above criticism.
Asad's Translation and Exegesis of the Qur'in
Among the recent Western imerpreten of the Qur'iin, As:u:i was certainly the
most eminently qualified for the task. He had spent o""r Ihr decade, studying
the Qur'iin, the fja<irth and other allied Islamic disciplines. He had li....d in
Aro.bia and gained familiarity with Arabic through daily contact with its people
mOre extemively any other Western translator of the Qur'iin had ever
done. He had bttn in cont;>Ct with some of the most prrcepti"" Muslims of his
times. As an earneR convert, he treated the Qur'iin's text with the venero.tion
md humility of a believer and its with the passion of an intellectual on
rrn5510n.
Of the prim:ory aim of his translation, Asad says in the foreword to The
of u.. Q..r'.", "The work which I am nOw placing the public is
based on a lifetime of study and of many years spent in Arabia. It is an
!oOoT"miator', ForO'ord". n.. M .. "i", of rb. GI .... i"'" x .... "" <PI"",ory T"."J",;o"
by Mol .. mm<d M."""duk< P"'lnhall. II M ... tor Book. reprintin" (N .... Yor. , Th. N ....
lIrn<riem l..>bruy, 1961), p. Yu.
'"'
attempl_perhaps 1M first attempt-at a really idiomatic, expbnatory rendition
of the Qur'anic =S<l&e into a language"."
"But although il ;s impo'jSible to 'reprodu",,' the Qur'an :os such in my
other language", he adds, "il none the less possible to render it. message
comprehensible to people who, like most Westerners, do not know Arabic at
all Or->.I is the C:ISe with mosl of the educated nonAnb Muslims-not well
..,nouy. to find their way through it unaided"." With the humility of a
confessing scholar, he says: "And I am fully aware that my rendering does not
and could not really 'do justice' to the Qur'in and the layers upon lay= of its
meaning: for,
'if.1I .... Inn' ink lor my 5"'l.Oi".,.', .ht _ "",wid
inJ..d k '"' my s,.'uj" ... ., _rd .., aba".lm',
(Que'in 18: 109)"."
Another of the main aims of Asw's {n.n.btion was to penetrau: the veil
that over the years has envdoped the meaning' of some Anbic words due to
semantic change and to reveal them in their original connotations at the time
of the .-.:vd;uion of the Qur'in. He documenttd these semantic changes by
ca.-.:ful reference to the work of classic..l lexicographers philologistS and
nrliu commentat ors md thus brought. rare freshness and accuncy to his
rendering. He was .150 helped in this effort by the "intangible communion
H
he
had acquire<! with the spirit of the Arabic language through first-hand contact
with its people. While not going .long with tbe fashion of translating the
Qur'in into a modern idiom that may jar the solemnity Or nobility of tbe
Sac.-ed Book, he Jritd to minimiu the me of archaisms.
In his exegesis, Asad was edcctic. He benefited from the great cli1S'lical and
modern Qur'in-commmtators who rq>resent a broad nnge of exegetical
approaches. He acknowledges his debt to tbe commentaries of: Abu l.-far al-
Tabar, (d, 310/923), whose r..j,ir is unpanlldled in its scope,
depth and primary imporunce;Jir Allah MaI).mUd ibn 'Umar al-Zamakhsl=i"
(d. 538/1144), the Mu'tozili ntionalist whose work reprrsmt$ the culmination
of rhetorical and syn\;1(tical malys;,; Fakhr alDin aJ-Rui (d. 60611210), the
doyen of phi lowphic;oJ exegetes; the popular' Abd Allah ibn 'Urn.,. al.Bay(,!.iwi
(d. (4. 685/1286), who condenstd and ammded aJZamakhsbari's rationalist
interp.-.:utions; tbe wmprchensive Abil 'I-Fidi' ibn Kathir (d. 774/\373), who
represents the traditional approach to l4jiir, md MuJ.tammad 'Abduh, one of
the scbolars of modern Egypt whose exegesi, was continued by his
'"
disciple Muh:unnud Rashid &4 .. (d. 13-(5/1935)." Aud also
interpretations by the use of the most authoritative lexicoyaphical md
philolo&ica! resources, such as: ibn Manzur's (d. 71111311-12) Liw"
,J.'Arab, Abil olQasim aI. Righib (d. 50211108) ..JM"jr.td.i1 fi
(;harib IIlQur'.in :and Murtw a/.Zabidj's (1205/1790) Tij al 'AT"f Ii al
Qim';,. The wealth of material that Alad quoteS from cb..sica!
authorities-starting .... ith the Companion and cousin of the Prophet and the
father of Qur'inic (:leges; .. 'Abd Allah ibn "Abbis (d. , ... 68/(4. 686)-is one of
the fortes of his rmckri ng: in no other {"",slation of tltt Holy Book in English
there i .. as much wmrmntation and intuprrtation from the gimu of exq;esis
whose original work is normally ..:cessiblc only 10 .cholan of Arabic.
Though he .... as eclectic, Asad's bias;s clear as is shown by the authority
he most often quoted, the Mufti of Egypt Muhammad 'Abduh, whosc grcat
learning is unquestioned, but who did lean toward tbe ntionolist school of
ol_ZamolUuhari. This bi"" OCClSionolly Asad'$ tr:an.:lblion 10 Ihe fault.
Ihat the followen of lhis scbool are beir to. What perhaps impressed Asad most
about 'Abduh was that for the fint time in the modern en a very erudite
scholar and refonner viewed the Qur'in primarily as a book of divine guidance
for in manen concerning lheir life in Ihis world and io the Hereafter
when many for a long period had il merely as a SOurCe of Iheology Or
a model for the finer points of Anbic rhetoric or grammar."
"Th .... ork, on ,I>< h;"ory iUld d<Y.lop"'en, 01 OS/> .. , ,r. 00 nurtlt'ou. ,Iu, only. lew C.n
be mrn,ioned h .... Fo, ,h. v.now schoo" 01 Qur ..... "'OV';s.. ... MuI)ammod. Hu,,"yn al-
Obah.bi. ..., 1 'fOb . Jrd impr..oon (C.iro, M.lu.b" Wahbah.
14051/'185); Mul).amnud 1brihim Sl .. rif. J T.jJiIJ Ii T ,;;i, .U;.rim Ii M;"
(Coiro: DOr oJTu .... h. 1402/1912); J. J G. J ......... 7h< /nlnP"",;on <>/ 1M Kor,,, ;" Mud.", EVT"
(L:ido:n, E. J. Brill. 1914); Ignn Goldr.ihor. Dit Rill"'m,." In ;J",,,,iJ<hm Kor."",,"':-,. fir,.
priEl,iEI, rpo. (l.ciden: E. J. Brill. 1910). " ...... by ... bd oJHoJim M.Jh.iJriJ,.J
T,;;i, ,J./"",,,; (Cai..." M.k .. b" .... Khinii. 1l74/195S); J. M. S. BoJj"". M..w.. M.,lim KO'dn
"''''P'"':.lu", (1,1O-196()) (L:id<D' E. J. Brill, 1%1); Abdul KboJiq Km, Th. Growtb of
E><"V';'" in ,h. Fos...J..lions '" fUm. Ia. Z. f.r !ruq An .. ri ...d hmia Ibrihim N ...... ib
(f"nhcomin, UNESCO pub1;'"ion). A det.iIed 're.un.n, of oJZam.kII,)".;. int<rpmoti"" of
,b. Qurin i, .ISO ... ; .1J" .... yni". T4>" ,J.q.., . _ &?in
2nd tdn. (C>i..." D.i, oJ.M''rif. 19O5); for> pliminary introct..ct;.". to . Abduh, .... AM
oJ-Gh.ffO, 'Abd .... RoJ)im. ,J.,,..;. ... MMb,o""...,J .... bdMh _ l>t."IMi""" Ii 1 T..jii, (Coi..." oJMork",
,J:A .. bi Ii al-Th.qil.h ........ U1um, <00. 140011980). Ch"l .. C. Ad.,ns.. 1,J.o ... ..,J M..w..i,m;"
EDfJl (Lor>don: Ox/"rd Univ ..... i'y Pr .. ,. 19))) "'" .100 be pto/i"bly consul,.d on ,b ... " .. ;.oJ
ochool 01 Abduh "'" MuI)am..oo JWbOd RMji.
"CI. s.yyid Abi> oJA<l.i vWon of 'he Qur'im', m,,,,,,",,, . nd ,isnif", ... "" to
hWD1n ""'irty. N" o,h .. l4fji. in tho ' ..... n';.,h ntury ..... more m .. hodnlopally lito'''''' in
it> .mphaSl' on. and meticul .... , cl.bo",;"" of, ,b. Holy Book, rcl.vmc< '" oJl .>prtI. "I ,h.
Muslim. ."<,,,d.y life per"""'. doctrinal. etbicoJ. ",oJ. "",;'1, poIi'K:al, eduC";ODoJ, .Dd
economic. -Th. Iw",ion of T fbi'" i. no< .., d .... U P'imarJy 0' mainly on Ii" .. ", b< ... ,;" ",d
kgoliotic n;."o..-... hich h.a .. no< been ro d.v<lop :on W><l<rn:u>din, of the Quia..
,h ...... "" of ",idonco . Kb",ohOd Ahmad, Fo ...... .,...!, T ..... rJ, lJ>uUr,,,,nJjnr th< Qotr"".
,,,,n,l,,ion of To/hin> ,J.q..,."". <t . nd .d. z"f" bhaq An .. ,i (teice ... Th. ldami<
, ..
Mention;ng his high opinion of the EKYplian reformer's meriu, Asad SiOyS,
reader wi ll find;n my ""pbnalory notes frequent references to views held
by Mu\:t:unrnad 'Abduh (1849I'}OS). Hi, imponance in the modern cOntext of
the world of Islam can nevcr be surriciendy messed, II may be without
exaggct:>.\;on that .ingl" ,nnd in conternponry Islamic thought can be
tr.u:w buk to the infl""nce, dirN"! or indir=, of thi, ffiO<t outst:>nding of all
mo<krn Islamic thinu",".'"
Yet, As.:.d altimes m";nuined hi, intellectual independence and diugred
with his distinguished predecessors whenever he felt it was necessary to do so
to elucidate his own interpretation. However, thorough scholar that he W;IS, in
such cases Asw was not unbir to other view, Ihm his own: he would mention
the oIttrnative intcrpret:nion. in hi, note. and give ... ons to explain hi,
rnoi=. "If, on occ ... ion", he "I found myself constrained to
differ from the interpretations offered by the [clos,ical commentators], let the
rewer that the very of Quem consisn in the f:lCl
that the more our worldly knowledge and historical incr=, the
mOre me:mings, hitherto umuspe<:led, revcallhemselves in ils pagcs". "
Elsewhere, Asad g ... ccfully combines the and intellectual humility
characteristic of inspired of Divine Word with the promise of
spiritual and the world of hum:m
knowledge bkoning to the devoul extf;l'tc. "Whether One agrees Or does 1101
agree with my imerpretalions of Ihis or ,h"' t point, we should remember that
even the great classical QUNIl commenutors disagred" on m:my details, thus
increosingly and widening our understandi ng of the Holy Quran."
Found.tion. 1-1011(988). vol. I. pp . .. u_ .. v . Fo, M ..-dUdi. ... '0 Khunhid
Ahmad-whOle kno .. "f M ...,tUd;, ,h<>uV" ., uo, urp .. >ed-<be q..,.'" p .... nu
m<> .. inv;'.,: ,be ... hole hunun r>co '0 yin.> of , .. Ii,y .nd "",ioty. oOVn .... th.,.. .. hn
r<opood to ,hi. c.ul in,o >J1 idrolopc.u commun;'y .nd ,"join. upon ,hi, communi,y ,h.
n .. ';'y ' 0 ",iOf lor the "",;"-m,,,>1 ,on""",ion of hum .. it,. boIh individu.;Uy .nd
<ollcaively . Ibid.. p . i,.. [)<spire Ih, dilf"e",' in ,h, "''l .. ic,) oudook, of M ...dUdi .nd
A..d. the bn .. ohared. ,imil.t, dyo.mic .<.ion 01 , h, Qur ... not only with Abdult but.1so
... i,h M,wdUdl ",d h" Iqbil .... ho opeoed h" in ... i,h '"
inimit.bl. b,iIIi,,,u fl. .. h the q.. ...... , invi, .. ;",. to hum. nkind: "Th.
Qu'''' ;, book of .<1<<<1.' ... ." Iqb:d, -p,n",. /lmm,mK'Vm 0{ /I,figiou> 700..g/>'
in I,)"m, new <<In.., edited ond .nnot,,1 by M. s-d Sh,ikh (Lho,..., In .. ituu 01 I.urn",
Cultuff, In6), p. xxi. (Fin' pubhohed in .. U<,.,.,..,. "" ,I,t R""", ....... 'i.., of /I,/i!;"".
Tho"fJ>< in I,)"m).
"A,.,,!. For .... ord . n,. .'dt""t.' 0{ ,I,t p. v.
'"'Ibid.. p. yii.
,. A...d. i< nm rdring her, ' 0 dill,,,n,,,< 'OVrdint ordin.n",.I.M4m1 .. hich. "by
Ih,i, .ery n,m". >t. no< n,hjw ' 0 i.",t"""""'<; in /;"'. ,h.y ,,. in nn need of
''''rpro ... ,,;'''' ... h"oocv<r. ,bsolu,dy ,dl":on"inl .nd unombipo,,,". A....d. 5<.o ... mJ
G......,,""",. 12.
"A,,",, m",,",ed spirited dtf.n", of hi' inl<J"pm";"'" 01 cen.in conl<o,""" .. 1 i ....... , in
-C\.a,il"",,,io,,-. <1"bio.; Th< /,"",;, W"dJ II"",",,. Octol><, 1911. p. 4. Hi, ""'''' "'pm.nt...."
'h" in "'''Y "", .. her. r>ppon,"ts "isod obj..aion, to hi. vi< .... on .. ,m m.n.". h. had ",lid
" _ TTEA Of LOVE: ....w.NoO.D A$OO NIO ''''-'''''
'"
So it will continue, inshaAllah, untiltM of tir=. This has been and will
alway. tht spirit in which' approxh me Message of the Holy Quran
and [he erernal heritage of the last Prop her. May God judge us all in His
infinite wisdom and r=rcy".U)
The of Qur'anic taj. i, will cont inue to confront the of
,ucett<!ing generations. As did Asa<!, SOme of them will own
lengthy individual rout" to re.u;h the shor" of undemanding. Only time will
tell which interprerations of tM Divine Word are likely to benefi t their readen.
Certainly, only God can truly judge their ultimate worth.
But The MMJagt' <>/ lhe QuT'in was not only a prodigious work of u<"gesis
huta!so of translation into the imerfl3tionallanguage of day par "",,cellence.
Moreover, English was not Asad's mother tongue and his renduing
after The K'mm Inl"prerM (1955), a two.volumeelegant ""nion by the versatile
and fair. mindM s<: holar A. j. Arberry (d. 1%9), the doyen of orientaliS!
translators of modern Thi, us of the Pol ish Joseph Conrad
(d. 192-4) who learoM his English as a se:unan but IIIrnM out consummate
novel, in English thaI, after a hundred yean, are still fasci nating. So, how did
the Austrian Asad succeM in attaining the ufl3nainable or the
untranslal>1ble? Asad's main COnCern in translation was to go ouUr
,hdl of nulter'" and clarity of "",,pres:sion in a
idiomatic English while grappling to a5 much a5 of
ultimate of expression"" that the Word of God represents in the
original. "' makt no claim", he says, "to having reproduced anything of the
indescribabl e rhythm and rhetoric of the Qur'an. No who has truly
experienced its majestic beauty could eVer presumptuous enough to makt
such a claim or even [ 0 embark upon such an attempt.' And, so, what is t be
cri[;,,' judgment on 71N Mfflagt' <>/ Q,.,'.rn, his annotatM rendering of the
Quean in English? It recc.ived favourable review. from discriminating scholars
.u,hority in on. or mo .. of ,h. promin.o, Qur .... roo""" .... 'on, ,",en ., 'Abel Allib 'b ..
Abb.U. Mujihid "bY Jarir al.Tabor" fakhr ;dDin ;d.R.lr.i and Muhamnud "bduh.
"'A..d, "darif"""ion", A,..bi.: WQ,u Octob<, 19$1. p. c./. thi< w,th
tb. vi ..... tb .. S.yyid Abii ;d.".1> M.wdiidi-<>flO of ,b. most ooflurnti.al ",hola" 0/ th. mod.rn
Mudim ""'rld-apr ...d in tbe in,roduc,ion to h'" Urdu <J/iir, T.p.im "j.Q,lin (1950-1971).
"n.. r.ader may .... . .... rod w, ,h. Qur ... " "'" oppoW to dill.,=, within the f."",ewo.k
of '""""" OJI. the fundamental, of lda:n ...d the b,"'" unity 01 ,be ItI>mic
community" .... me. M ...!i.di. "',roduaion". T-.i, /Jndm",",ding tht q..rlin. I: 29. "Forthi,
kind 01 di$;opumeot .ho .... ,h .. . communi.y is not Iackint in the c.>JW'ity for thO<lp.t. for
<..qW", and inve>tiptioto. lor " .. Or wrrn1int with the problr"" it face . .. And it prove
thai the community i. follo";"t.he l0i.kn p>th of mod<: tion. Such mod<: ... io<t p .... rv .. it>
unity by broad a, rttmmt OJI. furuIarn.nt.b .... d .. the lOme time provide< it. IChol .... ond
think .... fun Irordom 01 ro",ity ><> that tb., may ilCb;"y< in,ip." ... d new
mt<rpr ... tion, within tho fram"",,"k 01 the /wubm'Dtol principl .. 01 1.1"",". Ibid . lO.
"" .. <I. "Fo,e_nf", n.. M.....,. of'''' Qoorlin. p. >0.
"' ... . , ..
0 ..... , p. "-
'"'Ibid., p. vi;;'
'"
and English.reading general readers." Gai Eaton, a leading British Muslim
thinker and author of Islam ami !fts/i,,'Y of Man, one of the major works
which explore and illuminate m:my aspts of is\;lIII, ")'1 of 71>t of the
Qur'in after poiming Out some of the limitations of the r3lionalist approach:
"In practical terms this is the most helpful and instructive version of the
Qur':.n that we have in English. This remarkable man has done what he set Out
to do, and it may be doubted whether his achievement will ever be

Bill there wiU never be an unsu'l'.ssable rendering of the Qur'an. Awl.
hims.elf, while ple:osed with Ihis judynent, would nOi ruove accepted ;t in it$
entirety, for he that the Word of God could MYCr be entirely
encomp;uscd by a transbtor or commentator and that, in the Qur'in's own
exprell';on, .w., "' .. _,.ld iMeM bt aha,..retJ- bf.fore God'. words were
exhau,ted. In fact. had the meticulous Asad li ved longer it is that he
would have kept on improving his rendering, for as Ile said: -The longer I
worked on this holy ask. The more I realized how distont any human intenect
i.--:md alwaY' will be-from a complm undemanding of the Word of
This is also borne out by comparing the verses Ile had trandaud in TIH Road
to M""" with the s:ome verses whm he cune t o render tru.m in "Tbt- Memlge of
1M Qurin. A,ad', translation. like all othu Muslim tronslations of the Qur'in
in any longuar;e. are .ineeTe, dedic-ned-yet only Ir.Ul,iem and in no way
completely utidactory. attempt. at interpreting what is tsSCntiaily
unintcTJ>retabl e: the Wor<! of God revealed in Arabic. Another translator of the
Qur'in in En!;Ii,h. 'Abd Allih Yiisuf 'Ali (1373/1953)" perhaps .-ummed it up
best, wilen ;n reply t o a question about the best En!;Iish translation of the
Qur'in-the young inquirer had expected Yiisuf 'Ali to mention his own
highly acclaimed and wi dely read rendering-said. "My son. the best tramlator
of the Qur'in i.
"In hio ,,,-,,,, rho W",k( (Now York <nd o.ford Oxford Un;"<r>ity Pr ....
122_12J. M.J ... Rutbvrn_ . noo.opwin. ducat..! !re<Jaoc. writ.r-b compar.d tpifoc
Qur ... ic r= rendered by A. J. Arbcrry. 'AbeI Allah Yii.su! Ali ...d Asad for cl.rity ...d came
out .. in f>YOUr of tho ...,.,jon by Asad. Thr .. y ....... 1;"'. b. hod paid Pow",; tribu ..
to n. M .... 1l' 0/ rho .. . Muh:unmod A...i .. Iu. co"," .. noor ..... yonr to .... kin; tho
divino t<1:t intdlipblo to moo.m r..den 01 th. Eocliolt l ... pav. That io ... :teb;""em<nt for
future ,cntnlK>D' 01 Muslims ""d nonMuslim. m .... alw.,.. be Ir M. MaI.i .. RuthVftl,
"Mub:unmod Aoad: Ambanador 01 W .... , p. 62.
"G.i Eaton, Roy;' ... of n. M,""l:'" 0/ "" Q.' "n '" Spw"'. 7 J"". 1980. p. 11. I om
u.d<bt<d to my I".rut Robcn. Atndr.. th .dilo, of AT""""" m.,.,.u.<. 10, tho
.. of ,hi, ",view lor mr.
Qur'u., II , 109.
"'),!.I.i .. Mun.mmul Aud: Amb.....:Io, of IlIam". p_ 1.>1_
"On <Abel AUih W"uf <Ali .... M. A. Sh .. if. Sur</,;nlfi>. Sd..u: A Bior-t<pb, 0/
Y",4 Ali. 0/"" Qut.in (K,.w.lumpu" Jilimic IIook TN". 19'U).
"'I> .. "",al rKO!kctioo> of Haroon N .... boo of Cu'''P;p.. M ... ,.;.;., .. told to th ",ho, in

Asad's Legacy to Posterity and His Views on Leading Muslim
Reformers
What, and how l;!.Sting, is Muhammad Asad's legacy, one is bound 10
It is no =y lask to ,ummariu his many astounding
without doing him injustice. AsaJ was the foremost Paladin of w . i'ah
among Western converts. His life Slory, work and thought filled many educated
Mudims with the aromatic spirit of hi, f.ith rnd genius. was a man
who received his chief nourishment from the Qur'an rnd ,unnah of the
Prophet and his On the of the of Idam :md th"
identity of the Muslim umm .. h. He held that Islam's spiritual and cultural
achievements remain across the centuries a brilliant and moving spectacle, but
he was internted in Muslims carrying :m not only of past glory but of
continuing greatnns :md serving a. a model for ,,!l nations.
Ohen he seemed 10 be ahead of his contemporarin in forcefully pointing
up the necessity of a dynamic approach to solving problem. of tbe Muslim.
by the use of 'jt,},ad based On the twO ultimate authoritin in Islam: the Qur'an
and the authenticated traditions of the Propbe!. He a'l\ued passionately thai
following this rugged patb was tbe only way to ensure a sucressful revival in
the Muslim world. In his insistence on th. rrcourse 10 independent thinking be
drew inspirati on from such luminarin of the classical, medieval and modern
period. as the secood Caliph 'Umar ibn . 1.Kha!!ib (d. 23/644), 'Ali ibn J:la<:m
(d. 4S61106(4), Fakbr alDin alR>z.i (d. 60(,/1210), Taqi alDin ibn Taymiyyah
(d. 728/1328), Ibn al-Qayyim al -Jawziyyab (d. ';98/13';0), Jamal ai-Din ai-
Afghani (d. 13 14/ 1897) and Mubammad 'Abduh (d. 1323/1905). was deeply
respectful of th" achievement. of tbe greo.t scholars of the past, but was critical
of blind to individual opinions which according to Islamic principln
cannot be regarded as infallibl e. He thought tbat all qualified Muslims were
entitltd and 10 exercise their judgment on a wide range of
issun tbat arise in every age and had not been determined by divine revelation
or authentic Prophetic traditions. In 5Upport of his position, Asad would
frequently cite tbe Prop betic tradition that, if one exercised his judgment and
was right, God would reward him doubly, but if he turned Out to be wrong,
God would 5till give him a reward. Today, many distinguished schobn endorse
the concept of .jr.hid enthusiasticolly.
Asad's di senchantment with secularism and materialism W;!.S the child of
his very intimate, personal of the West. This disappointment was
deeply felt, searchingly scrutinized and trenchantly expresseO. The impact of his
devastating iconoclastic critique of thne trends reoriented many Muslims away
from defeatism to pride in their Muslim identity and beritage. Asad's
cautiooary and trailbla<:ing examination of the debiliwing dfw. of secular and
materialistic thought on socie-ty has ltd to the 01 excellent
".
studi .. on the A1.0, tht prMictions Asad mw wme siXlyfive yraTS
ago on the effea of this thought On Muslims ha"" not wide of tht m:lrk.
Apart from very brief p<erioos when he was pan of team, And always
worW on his own. he held SMlenl leaden of modern blamic ",form
movements in high esleffll, he was 100 independent a thinker not 10 question
their intellectual and political currency: he could not grind anybody',
ideological or political axe. He never belonged to any organized mOvmlent, nor
did he wish to form a rocio-political o,!aniution to promote his _dormin
idn!. Pm of Ihi, aversion of his W<l.'l because Auoi had little sympathy for the
intolerance that often accompanies group partisanship; probably, he also felt
that the consuming demands of organizational efforts had detrimental effecl.5
on c=t;ve writing. But become he WH, and ",mained, on intellectual and oe"".
b=te an activist Or:l. of:l. pmy, M did nOt leave ..ny disciples who
could carry on :md develop his thought.
For reasons just Asad kept aloof from affiliating with
mainstream movements working for the common goal of Islamists: the
rL"'lurg<:ru:e of Idam. He, however, knew ond reSpecle<! the leaders of the major
Islamic orgonizations and mainuined amicable personal relations with them. He
paid tribute to them when the occasion called for it but also spoke up in
defem:e or cried in lamentation whenever misfortune touched any of them. For
example, though he disagreed with "certain points" of Jama'ati Mimi's
he thought of it as "a legitimate movtment". He
C(lnsidered the Jama'at's founder, $ayyid Abu 1A'I' Mawdiuii (d. 1399/1979)
"nOt only a gre:n Idamic schol:l./" hut also a dr ... ""rsonal friend of many years'
stonding". He :KIm: "Although-as i. clear from his ..nd my writings-we did
not concur on all points, our goal ond was always 1M same: a
deq>ening of the Islamic faith ..nd Muslim culture". He also had greal affection
and admir:nion for J:lasan aIBanna (d. 1368/1949), who launched in the late
1'.l20s the Arab world'. mOSt powerful Islamic movemem, aIlkhwin aI
MuslimUn. He considered. alBanni "truly greal($( spiritual guide of our
time, although his thoughts and his programme have often been deliber:ltely
misrepresented., in the Muslim world as well as in the W($(". Asad denouru:ed.
strongly the execution of the gifted writer :md Qur'in-comment:nor Sayyid
Qutb (1386/1966)>0 by Egyptian President Jamil 'Abd alNisir (1390/1970)
whose "mindless and ferocious ""rsecutionof the Brotherhood" was this
heinous act, which violated. the lOW($( Slamlani! of decency and justice ..nd
"'so"", <OUT"'l <epon [h .Lie 01 Qutb. d .. ", .",",oouoly. The", .n: ,I!< co,>>.
rorrobontodd.! . 'Umar R.01i K>l)J)ilah. 'JJ,. .. (B.,,,,!: M,, ...... ,
al-RiWah, HHil9'J3) I, p. 104. mont ...... 111711967 and;" ",ron" 10 ,!., '" on. pl=,
7Jw Oif<m/ 0( 'M Mod.,.., ,,14mit: W",/J (N .... York.; O>:lord Odor<! Univ,,,;"y
P ..... 19'JS) cb<el rditor, John 1.. ElPo';'o. I, )07
'"
nunned the entire Muslim world. " ... 1 mourned his death as did every believing
M .' " ." meum ....
But Asad went beyond men: prailS<' of perwru he nspnoted and public
protest against the evil deeds of tinpOI despots-whether they sprang up in the
E:lS1 Or the WeSl. He actively participated in supporting the Sunisiyyah
movement in iu heroic fight against It.lim foscisl colonialism in Cyrntaica. In
1931-tow:rnls Ihe end of hi, sojourn in Madinw.-he cooperated in a bold
clandestine ye,nure Wilh Sayyid olSmUsl (d.135 1/ 1933), the grear
spiritual leader of the movement. In n:.pons<e 10 the S.yyid's nquest and .t
!;=It personal risk, Am lravelled incognito across the Red Set and Egypt to
the thelllre of war in His goal was to offer =;st= to {he val;m!
and soonto-hc-mMtyred mujihid 'Urn .... ol-Mukhtir, who was trying 10 keep
the Ian embe .. of minance .Iive in what by then had become a futile attempt
to Kave off the extinction of armed struggle against Mussolin;'s forces!'
Conclusion
Though Asad did not leave an orvnization or d;lCiples, posterity will continue
to btnefit from his n<liant thought through the written legacy he left in many
field" travel and autobiography, s,,"'"/fh and shAri'ab, jurisprodena! and
Qur';inic elCegesi., <tCUlarism and westernization, political theory and
constitutional law. Sadly,:os is the C:OSe .... ith most writings, which only bt
a portrait of their author's age, A$;ld's, tOO, will eventually dared. As:w',
translations and interpretations of the Qur'in and SahiJ? /f/B"J.h.iri will in lime
bt supplanted, his v;e .... s on <tCularism and wesumization .... ill re-examined
and modified. his successful espousal of ij/ibid will become potssi, and his
proposals for politico.! md constitutional reform will be enacted. BUI one work
of Asads promises to escape the earthly obl ivion that i. the frntuent hte of
.lmost all human en<kavour-hi, unequalled, dazzling masterpiece, Jh.t- R04Ji
10 Merr/f.
But only God knows the future. Mtanwhile, the passionate love affair of
a great and splendid European with Islam i. in<klibly inscribed into the annals.
For, on", upon a time, t .... o roads diverged in Ikrlin, and he, Muhammad Asa<!,
took the one less t"'velled by. He lOok the road to Makkah--and tlul h:os
made all the
......
"AU quo<., ...... in p ... ,,:oph "ofrom Aud. CI.uilicatioll". Arob.,: no: fd..",ic W",/J
RnMw. CIao!> .. 1911. p. 4.
"A ..... M. 112-1H.
"So< Robert Fro,,, deceptivdy "'y, momonbl< d . .. i", "'Th< Road No< T.k ... -, found
in molt .,,'holol .... of En(lidt von<.
,.,
"NEVER AGAIN WILL YOU BE A
An Anthology of Extracts from Mui:t:lll1mad Asad's
Writings [ 1934-19&7J"
Compiled and edit ed by hmi'illbrihim N;lwwib
Unique ;u a pel"SOn and gifted as a and a Europe ... wovert to
Islam, Muhammad Asad's literary and ime!lectual contributions spanned
He =t a wide, ambitious net and =e up with a nre, rich
=ch. Hi, writings includtd a spiritual odyssey, the classic tbe Road to Mecca-a
maylificcnt stylistic and intellectual/our de fora and period piece, with dcgant
narratives of powerful observati on and daring adventures and with penetr:l.ling
inughts into the Middle E;ut and Isbm that ohen surpass those of such
illuSlr;ou uthon On Arabi. as Sir Richard Burton, ChMles Doughty, and T.
E. Lawrence. His much-tr.msbted Islam at the Cro"ro.ub was a ..,minol
contribution to the Muslim world's debate on westerniZ<ltion
and identity. He with from the Ar.>bic portions of
s..;"h a/Bukh.iTi, One of the bw; collections of tho, auwnticated tn>ditions of
the Prophet MuJ:tammad and WrOl c on Islamic law and on the Islamic
state. His life's work Teached its scholarly culmination in his seventeen-year-
long labour of love and research; his English Tendering of, and commentary on,
the me:ming of the Muslim Holy Writ, The MelSagt of tk Qur''''''
From Mewge of the Qu.'';n
The ImpOlct of the Qur':in
Rud '" """,. O/!hy SU'i.mr, who J,." <:YCI.ltd-
<:YCI.ud ma" ou! 0/"
Rud_/or thy SU'/aimr u Mosl &umiful 0,.,.
who h.." /aughl [nunl '"'' 0/ ptm-
tAugh! ma" ..m..1 did "et k...,.,...
With thrse optning ve=s of the su .Ji-with an allusion to
humbl e biological origio a. weI[ as to his consciousness and
imdlta-b<'"gan, e:u-Iy in the seventh century of the Christian era, the
Tevelation of the Qur'>n to tho, Prophet Mul}:lI1lmad, destinNi to continue
''Th. " .. "Iimiooo. of Arobie ... m .. oruI "",rd" atld <>pi,.Jiu60n of .. rm. deri.ed fr om
A .. bic .'" nOl "",,'; ... n .... A..d, ""'rh . ... hieh """,.. ... rinen 0'" """'Y Y""" .o>d publ;.bed
by ""riou, ""b!;,bin, h ........ W '" her. quot;"& him ... ;d,ou, ..,y <hoo&<,. Wh<r< bro.f
.xplatl>lion r< r<""i<l '0 "'" on .,.rpt ... '0 ",,,,,,,,iv<. ,b.y or. placed ... ith ... """' ..
!"'.nlh ..... 0<. if roe, 5ed. .r< footnoted. For .h. mv.nim<. of tho """'" "",ion hud"'&, hov
... """'.
'"
during the twemy-three years of his mini,try >n<I 10 end, shortly his
dnth, wilh """" 181 of the sccond SUtah:
And bt CO"";"II. o/Ihe 0., on which yoH Jhall t.. /waUghl Nd:
unfo God, whtm.pon """'" h,,,,,,,,, bring"lf bt ..."..id in f .. 1/ lor
"""'I bt b.< d"J no"", sh./I bt wronged
Between th..,., first and last verses (the first ""d the last in the
chronologicil order of their Ttvelation) unfold. a hook which mOrt dun any
other single phenomenon known to us, has fund:unemally affected the
religious. sOcial and political history of the world. No other sacred scripture has
ever had similarly immediate impact upon the lives of the people .... ho first
heard its message, and, through them and the generations that followed them,
on the emire cou"" of civiliwion. It ,hook A""bia, and nude a nation out of
iu peunnially w:ming tribes; within a few decade" ;t spread its world-view far
kyond the confines of Arabi. and produced the first ideological society known
to man; through irs ins;<tenct on consciousness and knowledge, it engendered
among its followen a spirit of intellectual curiosity and indepondent inquiry,
ultimately resulting in that splendid era of learning and scientific research
which distinguished the world of Idam at the height of its cultural vigour, and
the culture thus fosterM by d", Qur'in ponttralM in counrless way. and by-
ways into the mind of medieval Europe and gave ris.e to that revival of western
culture which we call the Renaissance, and thus became in the course of time
largely ro:sponsible for the birth of what is described os the "age of science"; the
oge in which we are now living. '"
On Translating the Qur'an
... 1 do not claim to have "trandatecl" the Qur'in in the sen"" in which, say,
PlatO Or Shakespeare Can be translated. Unlike any other book, its meaning and
its linguistic presentation form one unbreakable whole. The position of
individual word. in a scnteno:, the rhythm and round of its and their
syntactic construction, the man""r in which , metaphor flows almoR
imperceptibly into a pragmatic statement, the uSC of acoustic !treSS not meuly
in the s.ervio: of rhetoric but OS a me:uU of alluding to unspoken but de<lfly
implied idea:j: all this make, the Qur'in, in the last resort, uniq\U" and
untranslatable-a faa that ha:j been pointed Out by many earlier translators and
by all Anb scholan. But although it is impossible to "reproduce" the Qur'in
"'"Focovord", 1M M"",K' of ch. ,,,,,,>1 .. 1 ... d by Multammod AI><I
(Gibralt= D" .J.Aodaluo; Loodoo, E. J. gciD, p. i .
'"
as ruch in any other language, l! is none the less possible to rtrukr its message
comprehensibl e 10 people who, like rnO>! Westerners, do nO! know Arabic at
all or-as is the case wilh mon of the educated non-Arab Muslims-nol well
enough to find their way through it unaided.'''
The Qur'an: -Its Own Best
Firstly, the QUT'an muSt not he viewed as a compilation of individual
injunctions and exhortations bill as one intrgr"l w!.oie, that is, as an exposition
'of an ethical doctrine in which every vene and sentence has an intimate bearing
on olher verses and sentences, all of them clarifying and amplifying one
another, Conscqurntly, its real mnning C2J1 be gnipM only if we co"",iale
every Ont of in 51aUmenU with what has been stated d sewhere in in pages,
md try to explain its ide:os by meanS of frequent cross-references, always
subordinating the particular to the generlll and the incidental to the intrinsic.
WhmtVf:r this is faithfully followM, realize that the Qur'in is-in the
word. of [modern and uegete of Ihe Qur'in]
'Abduh-"its own best commentary",
Secondly, no pan of the Qur'in should be viewM from a purely hinorical
point of view: that is to say, its references to historiCl! circumstances and
events-both at the time of the Prophet and in =lier times_ must be rcgordM
as illustration. of the h"",.,m ((mdil;"" and not as ends in themsdves. Hence,
the considcrnion of the historical occasion On which a panicular ""ne was
rc""a1M-a pursuit so dear, and legitimalCiy so, to the hearn of the dassical
commentators-must never be allowed 10 obscure the un<krlying purport of
that verw and its inner relevance to the tellChing which the Qur'in,
taken as propounds."
.. .. ..
Examples of Asad's Translation and Exe[;esis
The following arc As",,;I's renderinRS of, and commentaries on, two Qur'mic
VCI'it'S, They reflect some of his translation and skills and provi<k
a glimpse of the r.ilCh of hi s scholarship as well as the exegetical influences on
him,
"GMitU us tht W',,,,ht 1N)',
tht tva)' of IhtM "pon ",hom Thou h..u Thy bim;n",
not of rhose who b.tw iJ" ",dmtned [by Th",,}, "Or of rhose v;h<J go a<lnry"!
""Fo .. ""or<!", TIw Mru.tf.' of tl>< p, .. .
11:ot Mru.tgt of /1>< Q.'',i". p. yii.
'"
As:>d explains: "Ae>rding In almost all tht God's
'condemnation' (gha4ah, lit., 'w"'lhl is synonymous",;th the consequences
which man brings upon himself by wilfully Goo's guidance and ...:ting
contury to His injunction . Some commenUtoN (e.g., Z.m.khsh.ri) interpret
this p ... soge ., follo ... s; ' . . . Ih. way of thost' upon whom Thou hast bestowM
Thy who have not been condemned [by Thee), and those who
do not go astray', in other words. (My rcg;ud Ih. ]Olli( two expressions as
defining 'Iho"" upon whom Thou host beslowed Thy blessings' , Other
commentaton (e.g., B.ghawi" and Ibn Kathir) do not subscribe to this
interpreution-which would imply th. u"," of nq;alive ddinitions- and
undrnund th. laS! ver ... of the ,imfh in th. manner rendered by m .. above. As
rq;ards 1M IwO calegoriO'S of people following a ... rong course, some of the
greatest Islamic thinkers (e.g., a[Ghallli or, in recent times, MuJ:tamm"';!
'Abduh) held the view that the prople described as having incurred 'God',
condemnation'- that iI, having deprived them..,lves of His grau-are those who
have bome fully cognizant of God', mess>.ge .nd, having understood it, have
,..,j=ed it; while by 'those who go astray' are meant people whom the truth
has either not reached at all, or to whom it has come in so garbled .nd
corrupted a form as to mok. it difficult for them to recognize it as the truth
(Stt 'Abduh in Manir I, 68 ff.)". "
5.ry [0 Proph"'l, 7bi. i. my w.zy: R."i"g "p<J" m",icu. ;migbr TO
[ ... , ..
I .... all unto GoJ-1 and tht:y who folio", "'t'
As,..;! comments on the just-mentioned verse thu,; "It i, impossible 10
render the expression 'al .. b..,irah in a more conei.., mannn. Derived from the
verb b..!"ra or b..s;r .. ('he bec.me seeing' or 'he $;Iw'), the noun b..lirah (as al$O
the verb) has the abstract connotation of '>eeing with one', mind', and it
'the faculty of understanding bas.ed on conscious imight' as well "",
tropicolly, 'an accessibl e 10 the imell=' or 'verifiable hy the intcl1=' .
Thus, the 'call to God' enunciated hy the ProphC'l i. describal in th. above
vcr.., as tM outcome of a conscious insight accessible to, and verifi able by,
man's rCllSOn, a sutemcnt which circumscribes to perf=ion the Qur'>.nic
appro..ch 10 an questions of faith, ... hies and moTlllity, and is echoed many
limes in like 'so that you might uSC yQur reason' (la ... lI .. k"",
r..'qi/un) or 'win you nol, then, use your r. :lSon'? (a fa'! .. /a'qi/,.,,), or '$0 that
they might understand Ithe truth], (! ..... lIah,,'" ya/qahun), or 'so that you might
think' (I .. ' .. I!d.k"", tataj.kkani,,); and, finally, in the oft-repeated declantion that
" AbU .. y .... 1B.>th .... , (d <4_ 51Ml122). Hi, <OfDm<1It .. y 0fI th. Qur'iwt
i, <ntitkd Mg'.ilim (lIN', "",,)_
"'n. Mruow of ,I.. 2, "",. 4 .", " ,r4h [. ;"'7_
" ..
the mc .. agc of the Qur'm ... such i. mc:uU specifico.lly 'for people who think'
(li-q.cwmin Y"!4fo."""""n)".'"
.. .. ..
From The Principles of State and Gowmment in Islam
Praying for
Countless millions of Muslims p .... y 10 God five times a day: us the
straight way_he way of those upon whom Thou h",,! bestOWM Thy
Thus, everyone of them invokes the Creator On bclul of ..II men
and wOmen who HC willing to bdieve in ",. -and not merely On
of hi=lf or herself alone: consciously or unconsciously, a Muslim who
recites these words of the opening sUTah of the Qur'an is asking God to show
the "straight" or "right" way 10 the community as a whole. In further anilysi.,
this amounts to p .... ying for glIidan<x not merely in or ethical concerns
but :.Iso in everything th:at pertains 10 the community's pr.tClicaJ ways-that is
10 say, iu social configur:alion and political behaviour."
.. .. ..
Differences of Opinion
Unavoidably,""",," of my coneiu,ions will rlK 10 controversy; but 1 have
always believed-and believe now mon: than ever-rna wIlhout a ,timulating
dash of opinions then: can be no intellectual progress in Muslim society; and
that the Prophet's saying,
differences of opinion among the learned. of my community an: a sign of
God's grace", has a positive, creaive value which has only too ohen been
overlooked in the courK of Muslim history-to the &trimmt of Muslim social
progress,'l
.. .. ..
"'no. 0/ "" QMT'.in, lSi, no .. 1G4 on "",J, [2, lin.
"Autho,', N",.", no. Pri""iph. 0/5",,,.,,J Cowmmm. i" /'um, nn.' In. (Gib,.t.."
D., .!.And>.lus, 1950). p. v. (Fir .. publi.h.d. to. An"l", Univ.ni,y of California Pre ... 19M).
u.p,-d"",", Slat< 4"" pp. x;..x;;.
'"
and
No doubt science can, and does, guide uS to a kuer understanding of the
world around and within us; but, being solely concerned wilh the observlltion
of the facts of nature, and with the analysis of the law. that to gOYffn
the interrelation of thost focts, it cannot be called upon t o deliver a verdict :os
to the purpose of human life and, thus, to provide us with valid directives as
to the social behaviour we ought 10 :odopt. It is only indirectly, through
reasoning on the basis of certain established {:leu, th>! science can
attempt 10 :advi ... '" in this I"<'Sptcl . But science is always in a State of
f1ux-<llways subject to 1M di scovuy of new {:lell of n2tuTe and,
to an unceasing reinterpretation and revaluation of :astcrtainw. sets
of facts-its ..Jvice is hes itant, spasmooic, md, al times, quite contradictory to
trnderw advice: which, in a nutshell, amounts 10 saying Ih<ll sciena
is never in a position to lay down with certainty what man should do or leave
undone in order to wdl-being and happin=_ And for this reason
science cannot (nor it re:ll[y mempt to) foster moral con",iousn= in
man_ In shon, the problems of ethics and morality 2fe not wilhin the !!COpe of
science, They on OIMr hand, entirely within the ",ope of re[igion."
.. .. ..
The Islamic State and the Shari'ah
If we examine objectivdy tM politi",,[ ordinances of Qur'''' and Sunnah, we
find that they do nOt by down any speCIfic form of Slate: that is 10 say, the
sJiari"ah does nO! prtsCribe any definite paltern to which an Islamic state must
conform, nor does it elahorate in detai l a constitution:ll theory. The political
law emerging from the COntext of Qur'an and Sunnah, i" not an
illusion. It ;s very vivid and concre1.e inasmuch as it gives us the dear outline
of a political ",heme capable of reolizalion at all times and under all conditions
of human Ii fe. But prtcisdy it was meant 10 be ",alized at all t imes and
under all conditions, that scheme hos bttn offered in outline only and nOI in
dMI. Man's political, sociol, and economic need, a", t ime-bound and,
therefore, extremely variable, Rigidly fixed enactments and institutions could
not possibly do iust ice to this natural trend toward variation: 50 the shari't.h
does not attempt the impossible. Being a Divine Ordinance, it duly anticipateS
the fact of hinorical evolution, and confronts the believer with no more than
a very limited number of broad political principles; beyond that, itleave5 a vost
field of dlly-tCKIay legislation to the Ijrihad of the time concerned.
'"
With ",fertoC<" to the problem liS. one may ""fely s.y th.1 there ;.
not only One form of the Islamic SI.le, bUI m:>ny; :>nd it is for the Muslims of
every ptriod to disco"". the form most .uiuble 10 their nttds-<lo the
condition, of course, th.1 the fann and the institutions mey choose are in full
agr=mem with the explicit, unequivocal sb4r'i laws relating to communal!ife.
These political shar'; laws .. .found thtir full exprtSSion in the administrative
institutions ""d methods th.1 prevailed .1 the time of the Ri&ht-Gui<kd
Caliphs-and therefore their state W;l5 Islamic in <:very sense of tbe word,
we must not fOlirt thaI in the uowrinnl constilU!ion 10 which the
Islamic Commonwe.lth conformed in those days, there were, side by .i<it with
the explicit maT'> laws relating to s\aleCraft, certain other laws cnane<! by the
rulers of the t ilm' in =rd:anct with their own interpreution of Qur' in and
Sunnoh-that is to oay, dt rivN through ijrihad. Apart from these, we encount er
in the ptriod of the Right.Guided Caliphate many other administrative and
1eg.i.Iati"" enactmentS .... hich were oeither directly oor indirectly derived from
Qur'in or Sunnoh hut from purely commonsense of
governmental efficiency and puhlic intertst (os, for example, 'Vmar's
tSlab!ishment of tlv di"",n, Or treasury office, :.ner a Persian modd, Or his
prohibiting wamors from Arabia to acquire landed propeny in the newly
conquered t erritories). Inasmuch ;is such en;octments .... ere promulgaud. by the
Itr;itimau government of tht day md were, moreover, nOl contrary to the
spirit or letter of any w..y'i la .... . they had full Itr;al validity for that time. But
this docs not mean th .. t they mUll remain valid for all times."
The Right of ljtihad
Without in the least impairing Our revereoce for the Companions, we may
safely admit that all findings obtainM through 'iribid, by ho .... ever great a
p<'rsoo, are invariably conditioned hy that person's environment and sme of
knowlMge: and knowledge, especially in matters of social concern, depends nOt
$0 much On the loftiness of a man's chanaer ;is on the Sum tOtal of the
historical experience availahle t o him. There C;l,l1 b-e no doubt that the historical
experieoC<' available to uS is, without any merit 00 our pan, very much wider
than that .... hich was available to the Companions thim'cn centuriCI ago.
Indttd, .... e have only to think of the immen", developmmt in the intervming
centuries of so many scimtific oonC<'pu in order to r. a1izt that in <orne respects
we are even better equipped 10 grasp tlv inntr purpon of Ihis or that
socioeconomic proposition of lsl:un than the Compmions could possibly have
b.-..n: simply we cm draw nnt only upoo thei r expcrit nce:s, but also
'"
upon the ;>ccumubled historic.al and intelln:tllol experienC<' of thost chirtttn
cnItUrie. which, 10 them, still by shrouded in the impenetrllble mist, of the
future.
We should never forget that the message of lshun ;5 eternal and must
therefore always remain open to the se;u-ching intellect of nwt. The very
grt';l.tness of 1M Qur'in and of tru, Prophn'slife-n:rnlple in the fact that
the mOre Our knowledge of the wodd progresses, the we can understand
the wisdom of the Law of Islam. Thus our right to independent ijlihlid on the
basis of Qur'On and Sunnah is not but mandatory: and
p:micul:arly .., in 1Il:ltten on which the >han'ah is either entirely sil ent Or has
given uS no more than general principles.
It is obvious that our conclusions as to the best means of acb;ev;ng
administrative efficiency and safeguuding social tquity "'" conditioned by the
time and the soc;QtWnomic environmrnt in which we ro, logically,
quite a big proponion of the legislative enactments in an Islamic state must
vary from time to time. This cannot, of course, thoS<' dements of
legislation which au clearly ordainal in of Qur>::. and Sunna!. and
au the...,fore unchangeable from the viewpoint of the bdiever; nOr can it
the essential proviso that all such variable, nonsh..., enactments must not run
counter to existing, unequivocal,"""; injunction$. With all this, however. there
an b.. not least doubt that an Islamic constitution to be evolved thirteen
aher the Right-Guided Caliphs may legitimately differ from that
which w:lS valid in and for their time.
It is, however. not even necessary to visualize an interval of thirteen
<:enturie> in order to understand that the political requirements of one time
ohen differ from the requi...,ments in this of an earlier period. Even
within the mon span of a few dec..d.es. the Right-Guided D1iphs themselves
varied their system of administration-or. as we would say today. the
constitution of the state-in many. point. A. an illustration, let us take the
problem of choosing the head of the state,
There was. naturally, no difference among the CompaniOT15 concerning the
principle of deaive government as such. for. as We shall se.., the s""ri'ah is
perfwly de.r on the How ..... er, although it is beyond doubt that the
chi ef atclltive of an Islamic state must be electal, the Law doe, not spe<Oify any
particular metbod of election; and roo rightly, the Companions regarded the
method of ( lwion as romething th.t lay outside the $COpe of the sh..r;'ah and
could, therefore, legitimately be varied in accordance with the b..st of
the community. Thus the firn Caliph, Abu Bah, w:lS dected by the chiefs of
the mll","p" and present at Malina at the tiIm of the Prophel:'$ demise.
On his deathbed, Abu B.I.r designated 'Umar as his successor, and this choice
' 'In. footno, . A<ad .. -,II< "'..hi; .... ... r. ,he Mtcad Muslim< who occompmied
,h. p,opIt .. on hi. hiP";'. o. mit; .... ion. from Mecca '0 Medina: the -..rr Oiundly "h.lpcr11
.... t. tbOk ... ho ,>Ilia! to ,he Propbet On bi' .m...! in u..;, ' 0""'".
".
w.., .ubscquemly ratified by the community (ratificat ion being, in this inst=,
equivalent to do:ction). When 'Urn",", in his turn, ""os dying, he nominated an
electoral body composed of ux of the most prominent Companions of the
Prophet ;lfId enlrusted them with choosing hi. SUCCdWr from among
themselves. Their choiCt fell on ' Uthman, ..,ho was thereupon recognized by
the community as 'Unur', rightful suc.;essor. After 'Uthman's death, 'Ali was
prodaimed Caliph by a congregation in 1M Prophtt'. Mosque, and the
majority of the community thereupon pledged their loyalty to him.
Hence, under each of these four reigns which ""C describe:l.'l
the constitlltion of the Slate differed on a most important point; for il cannot
he Iknied that tM mnhod by which the head of the state is eleaed i. a
constitutional question of great import:mu. The tre>tment accorded
by the Companions to this question-with regorn:! to both the oomposition of
the electonte and the dectonl procedure-shows that, in their opinion, the
constitution of the could he altered from time 10 time without makint; it
any less "Islamic on this accOunt.
Apart fmm this, it is a mistake to believe that the enoovours of the Rit;ht.
Guided Glipru reprt'SenteQ the fulfillmml of all Islamic aims, indudint; those
relating to statecnft. Had it been so, Isl:un would be no more than a call to
eternal repetition, for nothing would h:IVe been left to us but to imitate the
doint;S of our predecessors. In r"",iity, however, Isl:un i. a cal! to eternal
progress, socially as weI! as spiritually, ""d, therefore, also politically."
Objectives of the Islamic ShU
... an Islamic is not a t;oal or an end in itself bUI only a means: the goal
being the growth of a community of prople who stand up for and
justi"", for riyu and against wrong-or, to put it more precisely, a community
of prople who work for the creatioo and mainunance of such social conditions
:as would enable the possible number of hum"" beings to live, monlly
:as well :as physically, in accoroan"" with the natur.tl Law of God, IsI:un."
From bLtm at the Crossroads
Asw's Early Interest in Islam
And about myself- beuuse the Muslims have a right, when a convert
speaks to them, 10 know how and why he h:as embraced Islam.
"Stat<" 4n4 G"...,."m"". l(,.-l' .
"Stat< 4"" Cowrn"""'. 30.
'"
In 1922 I left my native country, Austria, to [nve] throu!;h Africa md
As; a as a special correspondent to SOme of the leading Conlineoul newspapers,
and spent from that yeo.r onward nearly the whole of my time in the Islamic
Ean. My interest in the nations with which I came into oonlact was in the
that of an outsider only. I uw b.,for .. me a social order and an
outlook on life differtnt from the European; and from the very fim there
in rue a sympathy for the mo,.., tronquil_ l mould rather say, more
human--<onception of lik as compared wilh the hasty, mechmiud mode of
living in Europe. This sympathy gradually led me to .n investigation of the
muons for such a difference, and I bame interested in the religious teachings
of the Muslims. At the lime in question, that interest was not yet strong
enough to draw me into the fold of Isbm, but ;1 opened 10 me a new vista of
a progressive human society, organized with a minimum of imernal connias
and a maximum of real brotherly ...
The more I understood how concrete and how immensely practiGl the
teachin!';! of 1sJ:..m are, the mOre eager became my questioning as to why the
Muslims h..d abandoned their full application to real life. I discussed this
problem with many thinking Muslims in almost all the countries the
Libyan Desen and the Pamirs, betwun the Bosporus and the Arabian Sea. It
almost became an obsession which ultimately overshadowed all my other
intellectual interests in the world of Islam. The questioning stc:ul.ily grew in
emph""i. until I, a nonMuslim, talked t o Muslims :as if I h..d to defend Islam
from their ... ce and indol en"". This progress was imperceptibl e to me,
until One day-it was in Ihe mountains of Afghanistan-a young provincial
governor said t o me: -But you art a Muslim, only you don't know it yourself".
But when I relUrned 10 Europe once again in 1926, I ...,alized that the only
logical of my attitude was to embra Islam."
......
Falling in Love with Islam
.. .1 have been :;uked, time and time again: "Why did you emb",ce Islam? What
w:;u it that altracte.:! you I must confess thn I do not have
any single satisooory answer. It w:;u not any /",rric,,/ar t eaching that attncted
me, but Ihe whole wonderful, inexplicably coberent structure of mon! teaching
and prilCtical lif .... programme. I could not say, even now, which >spect of it
appeals to me more than any other. blom appears to me like a perfect work of
architecture. All its pans are harmoniously conceived to complement and
suppon each other; nothing is supernuoul and nothing lacking; and the result.
,o-Fom .,nl.", (t9J.4), I,/;,m '"' ,;,. 0-"-',. /oult< ... ,h "y. edn. (G<b<2l'ar. 0., >1-
A,,,:W,,s. 1982), 9-!!. (FiN! pubhshed, o.""..,d Lab.,r" ",,,fat PubI"'",ion>. 19J.4).
200
is a ,truelll'" of absolute and solid composu,.." Probably this fling
that everything in the teachings and postul,! ... of Idam is -in in
had created the strongnt impl"<'Ssion on me. There have along with
it, otM. imp....ssions:l! well which today ;1 is difficult for me 10 analYle. Ahcr
all, it "":os a matter of love; and love is composd of mmy thing5; of our
and our loneliness, of our high aims and our shorte<:>rnings, of Our and
our weakn=el;. So it '''':is;n Isb.m Came over 10 me like a robber who
enten; a house by night; but, unlike a robber, it entered to f"<'moin for good."
.. .. ..
Is[;lm and Changing Times
History uU, uS that all human cultures and civiliutions a", organic entities md
resemble living beings. They run through all the pha, ... which O'l:anic life ;$
bound to pass; they are b.;.rn, they have yOlllh, ripe age. md the end comes
decay. Like p!mts tim wither md fal l to dun. cultures die the end of their
t im<: and give room to other. newly born ones.
Is this the case with Islam? It might appe:u '" the fim superficial glmce.
No doubt. Islamic culture h .... had its splendid ris.. and its blossoming age; il
h:ad power to inspire men to deeds and sacrifices. it uansformM narions and
changM the face of the earth: and later it stood still and became st"l;nant. and
then it Ixcame an empty word. and a1 p..,senl we witness ils uner debasement
and dec;,y. But i. thi m
If we bdieve that Islam i. nol a mere culture among many oth.-rs. not a
mere oulcome of human thoughts ;md endeaVOUr!. but a
force-a u.w by God Almighty 10 be fO\lowM by humanity al all
times ;md everywhere-then the aspect changes completdy. If Islamic culturt
is or was the result of our following a ...,,,,,alM Law. we CUI never :admit that.
like other cultur .... it is chi ned to the laps.. of time and limitM to particular
period. Whar .ppean to the dt'Cay of Islam is in reality nothing bUI the
duth and the emptiness in our heans. which art tOO idle and tOO insensitive
to he.r the eternal voice. No sign is vi.ible that mankind. in its Pre$l'nt suture.
has outgrown Islam. It has not been able to produce better system of ethiC$
Ihan that expressed in Islam; it has nOt been able to PUI the idea of hurrun
brotherhood on a pnctical foot ing, as Islam in its supra-national concepl
of the ummah; it has not been . ble to crate a social structure in which the
conflicts frictions its memh-e1"S ..., as efficiently rMuCM to a
minimum as in the social plan of Islam; it has nnt bttn .hle 10 enhance the
dignity of man. his fu ling of sa:u.rity, his spiritual hope-and last. but not
least, his h'ppin..,s.
'"
In all thin" achievements of the human r..:e fal l
oonsick""bly short of the Islamic progr=c. then, is the justification
for saying that Islam is 'out of date"? Is it only btUu", its foundaiion! are
purely religious, and religious Oriemalion is OUI of f>..lhion to<hy? But jf We S
that a bued on religion has hem able 10 evolve a practical
of Jife mOre more concrtte and more congenial to man's
psychological constitution than anything else which the human mind h .. bun
able to prod .. ,,", by way of reforms and proposals-is n01 just Ihis a very
weiPtty "'"l"mem in favour of a rdigious
Islam, we have every reason 10 bdiev.., Ius bun fully vindicated by the
positive :ocbi evements of man, because;1 has envisaged lhem and pointed thc,m
out as desir2hle long before tMy wcre attained; and equally well it has been
vindicated by tM shortcomings, errors and pitfalls of human <kvelopment,
b=lwe it has loudly and dearly warned against them long mankind
recognized them as erron. Quite apart from one's religious t here is,
from a purely intellectual point of view, every inducement to follow
confidendy tM practical guidance of Islam.
If we consider Our culm", and civilization from this point of view, we
necessarily come to the conclusion tim its revival is possible. We nm not
"monn" Idam, ali some Mwlims it is already perfect in itself.
What we must rdonn is Our alii tude towaros ",Iigion, our lazi ness, our self-
conceit, our shortsightedness-in shon, Our defectS and nOI some supposed
defecu of Islam. In oroer to attain to an Islamic revival we nm nOi search for
new principles nf conduct from outside, but have only to apply the old and
forsaken ones. We ceruinly may receive new impulses from foreign cullUJ"f;S,
but we (;2OlIot SIIbstitute the perfect fabric of Islam by anythiog non-Islamic,
whether it comes from the West Or from the East. Islam, as a spiritual and
social in$lirution, cannot "improved". [n these circumstances, any change in
its conceptions or its social organiution caused by die intrusion of forrign
cultural influences i. in r=lity retrograde and drstructive, and to be
deeply A change therr must be; but it should be a change from
"<Dirhi" ou",,/vn-and it should go in tM dirrction of Isiam, and not away from
it.'"
From Sai?0 al-Bukh.iri: 71x Early Years of Islam
The Duty of Ijrihad
The piety and the religious ardour of tM Muslims may be lower in our days
than in the earliest centuries of Islam; but certainly not our means of
understanding. The interpretation given to the teachings of Islam by the Last
202
Prophet will forever remain binding on a Muslim, hut beyond this, he is
fl'tt-in fact, "'I";-'-to u"" his Own intellfi:t :ond his owo wnsc;ence. This,
and nothing else, was the aIlitude of the IV""l Isl:unic thinku. whom we
describe:l.S imamJ They never pretended to be infallible; they wen:
learned men devoted to the sc:.rch for troth, and thq knew that the duty of
thinking could never Ct:ut to be a duty for man. It was a duty for [early
Muslim theologian and jurist] Abu l:Ianifah" as weI! as for (medieval Comovan
thinker ;ll1d t heologian) Ibn J:I"'lffi or [famous twelfth..:entury Spanish
polymath, Rushd: for olGhaz:ili OS weI! as for [nnowoed
medieval .-elipous reformer) Ibn T..imiyym Or for [eighteemh..:entury lruli:on
theologian and fefnnner) Shih Wal, Allih and it is a duty for you and for me."
-> .:- -+
From Thi$ UW of Oun dnd Other EsS4Js
Obligation to Think Anew
... we must begin to Ihink :lllew Islam, il rtolly signifies,
its rtaI laws are; fOT we stOpped thinking about these .. for a good
m:llly u nturies and merely relied on what previous genenlions of
Muslimsthought .. bo"l Islam. In consequence, our currmt theology (k../'<m) :llld
C:lllonic;o.] jurisprudence (/iqh) nOw resemble nothing SO much :os a vosl old
do,he< shop where ancien, ,hough'garmenu, almo ... unrecogni .... blc as '0 ,heir
originol purpon, are mech:lllicall y bought and sold, pau:hed up and rMold, md
whert the buyer's only delight in praising lhe old tai lor's skilL
We cannOI go On like Ihis at a lime when the Muslim world i. in the
throes of a crisis which may make or unmake Islam's ""'idilY :os a pnctical
proposition fOT nuny centuries to come. Never was theu mOrt urgent
for heart-searching and brain-searching. One does n01 require particul .... ly sh:up
eyes to _ that, set :os we are in the midst of ch:lllging world, our
society, tOO, is subject to the WIle inexonble law of ch:lllge. Whether we like
it or nOI, a ch:lllge there will be: it is, indeed, already being enacted before our
eyes. The Muslim world i. in tr:lIl$ition-<l bet that i$ as obvious :os it is
pregn:llll with tremendous possibilities for better or worse. For better or Worse:
sinu we muSI not forget thai "change" is bUI :lllother word for "movement",
:llle!, within a social organism, movement can be crealive:os well :os destructive.
But where:os there is no powu on eanh which could now k""p Our society
" AbU H:.Difalt .! Numi,n am Thibi, (d. lS0/761) undonook > cri,ic.! ..,aI,..io of ,he
kLunic IqaI .yltem. 'hom.y ,b. fin. of tho four Swm; ",bool. of bJ:unic
;"'ioprucltnco. (UN., ""'.).
" 'P,<f>e< 10 tho F;"" F.,bt"", > (193'). J (I"lJ"iri: Th< EA.,ry y"",., 0/ fJa",- ,r.uul .. ed
and .. ploined by Muh:unm.td Aoad (G;b,alta" D" .!.AntWw., 1980). p. vii (Fi,." published
19)8).
from changing, still to determine dim/ion which this change
should it is still up to uS 10 decide whether we shall build our future On
the real values of Islam-or entirely drift away from Idam and become p;usive
campfollowen of other civiliUlions."
......
Criticism of Put Mist,.].;..,.
Let u.s be honest with ourstlves :me! admit that have strayed far away,
indud, from the i<kology provided by the Qur'm:md the Sunnm. Oun is the
old, old story of the rich m:m's SOn who has squandered his splendid patrimony
and nOw wallows in the guuer. Centuries of intellectual lethargy, of dumb
adherence to formulas, of the me:utest internecine wr:utglings, of laziness,
superstition and social corruption have dimmed almost beyond recognition the
glorious promi:;:e held out by our beginnings. Centuries ago we ceased to
exercise: Our wit5 in the :;:earch for knowledge, although our religion had
entoinee! it upon US as " ...cree! dUlY; we talked of Al-Far;ibi :utd Ibn Sina, of
AIBanini md Ibn I:Jayyan- md wmt complacently to over their
achievement<. We talked about the wondrous social progr:unme of Islam, about
the equity md n.turalnes. of its tenets-:md all the while we new at each
othd$ throau, t'Xploited One :mother or, alternatively, submitted in squalid
CQntentment to every kind of exploitation at the hands of unscrupulous rulers.
We alwaY' pretended to believe that the Qur'an is a sure guidmce in all matters
affecting man's life-and nevertheless we grew accuSIomed to regard it as mere
edifying literature, good enough to be recited in prayers :md On ceremonial
occasion.:meI, wrapped in a silken ghi/.;j;" to ernbellim the upper_mOil melves
in our rooms, but not good enough to be foUowed in practice. We claimed that
Islam is a religion of re;uon (which, in fact, it i.)- and none the lcss we meekly
>grud to,:md sometimes even welcomed, suppression of re;uon by myoru: who
just happened to in power: for most of our ',,{a"";' were telling uS thaI in
matters of religion independent thought is heresy, md that only he can be "
true Muslim who blindly repeats the formulas evolvrd in olden days (and
evolved by .. who wt re hum:m, and therefore liable lo err), like a P;ll"rot
which h:as learnt its lesson once and for all."
.. .. ..
"11>U L.. ... 0/ 0.. ..... M 0"- E-" (Gibroltar: oor !'1')3), 1\-12 (Fin!
publiWd !917) .
.. Aud ;. ,of,,,;"S to th< pu", ...... t vnppin, modo of fobric 'hot i ..... n esp<cially f",
c"pie< of tho Qu, ..... It h b"m uO! in RWly Mu.Jim . o<i<lic. not only., ';V' of
v,nuation fo, th, Divin. Wo,d, but .110 to prot..:! 'ho Holy !look ...... ODd t ....
I"'nirubrly ;., . .. 00 day< ..b.D ",pu .. "' .. .
"""1'> 13-H.
No Muslim Community is Oln ExemplOlr
There are many hundreds of millions of Muslims in the world today-but
among all these millions thert! is not Ol community dux rully lives
according to the lenet. of Islam; not a single community could show, "" m
example to the world, how Islam solves the social md economic problems
which nowadays worry mmkind so much; not a single community that could
produ<x, in the rulms of $Cien"",, arts or industry, anything than my
Western community; or thai could, culturally Or politic:al.ly, at least compete
on equal term. with my Western community of comparable size. All the
blu5luing talk of our past glories, all our assertions as to what JsI:uI1 n:mds for,
cannot chmge the fact of our present humiliaion."
......
Muslims and Foreign Ideologies
We must always remember th:n Islam is nOt concerned with spiritual principles
for, unless they have a counterpart in practical rules of conduct, spiritual
principles lend themselves to most cont..wictory interpretations, md thus to
a variety of social (or mti-5ocial) conditions. A typic:al. example of this can be
found in Christianity, which contents itself with preaching beliefs md morals
without bothering about their transformation i.nlo a definite wei,.} schemr, and
.., it remains content with being m accompminu:nt 10 a socio-economic $late
of affairs tha has not lhe remotest connection with Chrinian ethics. But,
unlike Christianity, Islam does not content itself with merdy demmding a
cen.ain spiritual attitude that could be adjusted to all mmner of cultural, social
and economic settings, but insins on the beli,""er', accq>ting iu own ..:heme
of praclie"} life as well. Within the fnmework of this scheme, which is called
';"'riah, 1s1:ul1 h"" iu Own views on progress, il$ own definition of social good,
and iu own pattern of social rebtions. In the measure, therefore, tlta! concepl$
borrowed from <mOlher civilisation md mother outlook on life become
dominmt in the sh:..ping of Muslim society, they deprive Isl:ul1 of iu function
as a society.dupingpower; and in the measure with which we wiUingly submit
to such outside influences, we imply that blam has no ..,al claim to tha
function.
And this is the kernel of our problem. In the conKious and subcon:>cious
readiness of SO many of our brothers and sinef1; alwaY' to imitae the social,
political and economic forms of the within the COntext of
endeavours aiming at the re-<:stablisrunent of a rtally lsl:mtic polity-lies a
involunury implication th:..t 1s1= has nO ..,al claim to being a
"e-,., !4.
'"
Natu....!l), SO' for if our views ... 10 how man should arrange his affairs
Me derived from sources other than Islam, we implicitly deny to Islam :my
right t o dictate our scheme of life. n.., most one does concede to Islam in such
a case (and the most thaI, in fact, is beior; conceded to il in many contemporary
Muslim communities) is to provide a SOrt of spiritual music which may
accompany our practical endeavours, but must on no :account interfere with
them!"
......
The $h4ri',W is Binding; Jurists' Judgements are Time-Bound
As every student of Islam knows, only a part of the laws comprised in what
today goes by the name of the sharrah is derived from injunctiolU laid down
in a direct, unequivocal manon in the Qur'On or in the Sunnal.. By fae the
b'tcr part of those .upposedly ""'T71a"", is an outcome of Ihe drductions and
Ihe subjective reasoning of the ,rear of our past-deductions and
conclusions, 10 be sure, conscientiously basoed on the context of the Two
Sources, but none tru, 1= subjective in the sense that they were deurminW by
each i"'lih', individual approach to, and individual interpreution of, problems
not laid down unequivoc:.J.ly, in terms of law, in eitru,r of those Two Sour<:es.
Whereas the unequivoc:.J. injunctions of bnth the Qur'in:and
t ru, $unnah are and must forever remain valid for Ui and cannOt be subject to
any amendment, no such finality:and validity can legitimately be attributed to
deductions :and conclu$ions .ubjcctively reached by ""1 perKIn below the
Prophet. In other words, nO .uhj..aive daiuainn, Or conclu";on
touching upon any problem of la .... arrived at by means of the ijrih.iJ
(individual reasoning) of any, even the greatest, Muilim scholar can ever be
binding on the community."
.. .. ..
Ideological Foundations of Muslim Civi li ution
Frnm the very outset, Muslim civilisation was built on foundations supplied by
ideolcgy alone. It has never had anything to do with the of race or
nation, and 10 it lacks the cement of racial or national homogeneity which was
:and is 10 decisive a factor in all other civili.ations. Ours has alwaY' ba.n an
ideological civilisat ion-with the l..:I .... of the Qur'in as its lOurCC and, mOre
than that, as its only hinorical justification. To speak of the Muslim u:mmah as
.. \1>-17.
"buy . 23-24.
of something politically juStified and culturally V21uable (and therefore to be
cru,rished and defended) and, in the same breath, to question tru, of
Istuni.: Law as the form-giving in our life is hypocritical or,
alternatively, an outcome of For what values remain in that much-
vaumed ummah if we resile from its mar'i background? not a social
philosophy worth the name: for that is b:=d on the concept, derived from the
si>ari'ah. of a divinelywilled order in human relatiOn!. And certainly not its
ct:hics: for, tru, only political ideal which has distinguished the Muslims from
the rest of mankind was the revolutionary concept of brotherhood united not
by ties of blood or T1lCC but by their consciousness of a cOmmOn outlook on
life and common aspiratiolU': a concept realised ne>.rly fourteen centuries ago
in the eStablishmm! of the bl:un.i.: Hmmah-a community open to every man
and woman, of whatever race Or colour, who accepted this common idcal, and
closed to everyone, even one's nc>.rest kinsman, who refused to accept it: in
brief, a rcaI social contract ...
Islamic uw Essential for Survival of Muslim Society
But whereas in other civilisations ... it may be thcorct:ically possible (although [
personally doubt it) either to retain institutional religion or to diocard it
nutrigh, withoul destroying that civili$;Otion'. St .... ngth and continuity, we
Muslims have no such alternative. For us, .... ligion has never juSt one of
the contributing faaors of cultural development: it has always tru, very
root and source of that devdopmcnt. So far as we are concerned, an
elimination of religious thought and, specifically, of Islamic Law from tru,
.... a1m of economics, politics and social life would imply the 1= of all cuhuril
dire.;tion. Hence, in the measure that Islamic Law ccases to be a practical
proposition in our c1ay-to-day life, Islamic civilisation muSt necessarily become
a contndiction in terms, and Muslim socict:y a society of cultural mongrels and
spiritual half-c;tltes. '00
The Detrimental Effects of Taqlid
In the purely intellectual field, the principle and the practice of raqliJ into
which tru, Muslim community has bun driven op<'ned the way to a moSt
deplorable development: namely, that blind worship of "authorities which has
'"
ever since pervaded Muslim society and was destined to have such. paralysing
.,ffect On Muslim cultunllife in the p:ast ""ntur;. Similar to the of
the Christian Chun::h, we have in Muslim history tru.t lalte (if nOt SO cle:lrly
outlined) group of [(:orne<:! men as IfhI ""<414 ",""rly, pious
the Muslims have been to regard as :dmost
infallible. By giving d,rm a common designation, the illus;on hilS been created
that their views w er C mOTe or I ... identical; but nothing could farther from
the truth, Among those great and pious men, who certainly have . endued mOS!
vol"abl e services 101M caUSt of Islamic learning, there existed the deepest
diffu"nces of opinion in a1most:oI1 qu .. tions of importance. For, every ooe of
those early schobt$ of lsl:un tried to reach, in the of hi. own
undersunding, conclusions as 10 the LawGiver's ..ims with regard to moral
and pnctical bduviour of the Muslims. ThOR conclusions were oft en
contradictory-for,.s I repntrdly conditioned by the
individual working of mOst di""'R intellect! and by the .ocial environment and
the philosophical notions of their own times. But most of the scholars of lat er
grnef:ltions, a1m<)St drowned in the width to which {Jqh and lu.l.im had
attained in the COurR of few resolutely to the time-
bound quality inherent in man's thoughts. They set themselves to the usk of
an "harmonisation" of the ideas expressed by the ahl ANAtaj
and unquestioning rdiance on their into "postulate" of Islam
itself. Since then, the overwhelming of Muslims have bffn practicing,
and believing in the neccs:sity of, laqtiJ; and even scholars who by virtue of
their t....ining are in a position to reach independent opinions in the domain of
Law, modestly ,""erve for therruelves the right of iirihad only on
questions of minor detail within the framework of one Or another of the
established madh.ihib.
Locked in habitual WJlid, Muslim intellectual and social life from the
fourth century A. H. onwards, into complete stagnation. Religious concepts
ce.sed to "conceive.:l": they were simply token oW!" in a Slereotypt<i form
from generation to Whatever errDr of thought one Or of
tbeahl "'-54laj ",.aiih might have committed w.s unquestioningly incorporated
in the structure of con""ntionaljiqh, and hardly a door w.s left open for later
corrections. To the m.s.ses of common people this must have been very
convenient. But it is almost incomprehensible how so many 'ulami could have
indulged in this orgy of blind imitation. It does not to have occurred to
them that however grelt those "early gene!"11!ions" of Muslim scholars might
been, later times might bring forth intellects of equal brilliance which
would have at their dispow not only all the material and all the scholarly
apparatus which had bn to the "early gcnCf:ltions" but would ha"",
in addition, greater amount of historical, psychological md scientific
experience upon which to df:lw.
Under the impxt of the principle of tJtqIid, clothed in tho, garb of
""nef:ltion of the early ,cholan, the rmge of Islamic ide.s w.s fon:: ibly limited
208
1810l0I:11. 'BR.l.HiM .... wMa
to tMt in fint three or four centuries of Islam; and the justifiable
respect which every Muoiim fecls for those great and righteOWl men of d.e past
was made into a vehicle of, and an excuse for, intellectuallariness in problems
of theology and bw. In any other civili5l1Iion, this would have merely
diminished the imponan"" of as a form-t;iving element in social life,
but in Islamic civilisation, which had been built on religious considerations and
ideas to the exclusion of everything tiS", the pttrifacr.ion of rdigioul thought
W3S bound to suffocate the very spirit of lik'"
......
The Companions' Outlook on Ijtihad
It cannot be doubted that the Companions of the Prophet looked upon the
observance of the shari'4b as the indivisible, guiding principle in a Muslim '$ life.
We h>ve Sft'll that whrntver they could not find a .... 5$ ordinance
illwninating a particular poim of law in either the Qur'an. or the $unnah, they
exerted their common sense in order to a decision which would
conform to the spirit of the Law; but they never comminni the minake of
regarding their own ijlihad as being valid for everybody and for all times. On
the understanding tha the Law itself wos pucise and they identified
[Wfh with a person' S ability to exercise his intelligen in matters where no sm.r'i
provision was availabl e. in .dmining the po .. ibility of legitimae in
opinion- apo .. ibilityamply iIlustralni even in the e:u-li es! hinoryof Islam-the
Companions made a cle:u- dinincrion bet .... een the Elemal Law of Islam, the
lm.ri'ah, and all based on individual deductions from the
Two Sources. If they ever considered iimi.' in this conlext, they did so only in
the sense of an agrttment on a panicul:u- course of action, and "01 i"
.s 10 wm.1 should be "'w. for t o them Law, being based on .... was self--evident
and unequivocal and therefore required no interpretation, no ijm.i', no qiy.is,
no r.'y-in short, nO ij/ibid of any kind. ''''
......
Enthusiasm of Indian Muslims for Pakistan
Some of you .... ill perhaps ... point to the great enthusiasm which the Pakinan
idea has among the Muslims of this :ruboontinent. You will say-and
rightly SQ-{ha the Muslims of india ruove at last awakened from their political
torpor and ruove achievni a greater unanimity of purpose than ever that
they have become fully conscious of having a srparate cultu,"", identity based
on their being MuslimJ' that the foremost slogan of the Pakistan movement is
IA i/Aha ill'll/Lib; that they are imbued with the <ksire to establi.h political
form.! in which the Muslim worldview, Muslim ethics and Muslim $<)Cial
concepu could find their full nprnsion, and you will a.<Ik me, in a somewhat
aggrieved voia, whether I COunt all this for nothing from the Islamic point of
view?
As a m:nter of fact, I do not - count all this for nOlhing"; I COunt it for
very much indeed. I do believe (and have believed for about fourteen years)
that there i. no future for Islam in India until Pakistan bKOmes a reality; and
dw, if it becomeo a reality here, it might bring about a spirituil revolution in
the whole Muslim world by proving that it is possible to establish an
ideological, Islamic ?Olity in OUr times no leos than it Wa.<l possible thirteen
hundred years ago. But ask yourselves: Are the leook ... of the Pakistan
movement, and the intelligentsia which form.! its spearhead, quite serious in
their avowal. that Islam, and nothing but Islam, provideS the ultimate
inspiration of their struggle? Are they really aware of what it implies when
they say, -'I'M obja:tive of Pakistan is Li iJAh. ill'lllliih? Do we all mean the
same when we talk and dream of Pakistan-?"
Uniqueness of Pakistan Movement in the Muslim World:
Its Ideological Basis
As as the Muslim masses are concerned, the Pakistan movement is motM
in their instinctive feeling that they are an ilkologkal community and have as
such every right to an autonomous political n;'tence. In other words, they feel
and knnw that their communal existence '5 not-as with other
communities-based on r.acial affinities or on the conscinusness of cultu,"",
traditions held in common, bUl only-exdusively-onthe fact of their common
adherence to the ideology of Islam: and that, therefore, they must justify their
communal existence by errcting a socia-political structure in which that
ideology-the ,hari'ab-wou!d become the visible expression of their
nationhood.
This, and not a solution of the a11India problem of Muslim minorities, is
the real, historic purpose of the Pakistan movement, In 50 far as there win
always rem';n nonMuslim minorities in Pakistan a.<I well as Muslim minorities
in the rest of India, Pakistan cannot be said to solve the minorities problem in
iu entirety. But is precisely the point which we-arJd our
op?Oneots-would do well to understand: the problem of minorities, however
, ... &..". (Reproduced frocn Arofot. Lahor<, May 1947).
,oo
Important in .II considerations of India's political is, in itsdf, nOt
fundamentally for Pakl,un but is rather :on
iru:idnJl4f :>ccomp=imcnt to the movement', intrinsic objective-the
establishment of an Islamic polity in which our ideology could come to
practical. fruition. Only thus can we understand why the Muslims in, say,
Bombay or Madras-who of cmoO! thei r provinces would
Nco...., pan of Pakist:w-= as much ;mer.,,"ted in iu realisation as are the
Mullim. of the Punjab or of Bengal. They are ;ntcrt,ted in Pakistan not
because they hope to come within its orbit in a territorial S"osc. but beauS<'
they fed, as intensely os their hrtthren in the so-called "Muslim majority"
proviners, tha the birth of an 1s1:unic polity in Pakistan would vindicate the
clai m that Islam i. a p.-..aiC<ll proposition,;l%1d the Mudim,--J.erause of their
being Mudilll$- are a n.:u:ion unto irrespectiv.. of their geographical
100000t;on. And if non-Muslims ooject to this dum on the grounds that nowhen
else in the world-.-nOt even in the nst of the Muslim world-does any group
of people nowadays to :separate nationhood oy virtue of its nligious
beliefs alone, we are entided to answer them, "In thot case, we are unique. So

So what? Should we concede to others the right to decide what should and
what should not constitute our nationhood? Should we be ashamed of the fact
that our political ideals are entirely different from the pns..nt-day ideils of the
Turks, lhe Egyptian!, the Afghans, the Syrians or the Iranians) Should we not,
rather, derive pride from the thought thar we alone among Muslim peoplo::; are
now finding the way back to the of the ummah enunciated oy the
GnateSt Man?
For, in this nspect, the Pakistan movement is truly unique among all the
political m:1.S5 movements now evident anywhere in the Mudim world. No
doubt, in the va<! turitories that go by this name there are many olhcr lovers
of Islam besides us; in almost every Muslim country there are selfless people
who endeavour to propagate the Prophet'$ tc""hings and to raise the moral
level of the community: but nowhere in the modern world, except in the
Pakistan movement, has a whole Muslim nation :set out on the march towards
Islam. No mass movement anywhen el:se in the Muslim world owes its origin
to a similar, Islamic inspiration on the part of the people; nor has any of the
existing Muslim states a similar objective in view. Some of those states ... ue
explicitly anti-Islamic in their governmental aims, and openly declare that Islam
Ihould he eliminated from politics and from the people's social life. But even
those Muslim SlaUS in which religion is still being valued-in varying
degrus_ a spiritual treasure, are "Islamic' only in sO far as Islam is the
religion professed by the maiority of their inhabitants: while their political aims
are nOt reilly governed by Is!.unic considcflltions but, fllther, by what the rulers
or ruling classes conceive as "national" interests in exactly the sense in which
national interestS an conceived in the West. It is, therefore, impossible to
expect of such political organisations .. ,any clear impetus in the dim:tion of
...... lTER OIF lOVl!; .. U, ..... ..., IoJSNJ .... 0 'SI.AM
'"
Islam. Thi. d'XS not, of CQurse, aU the or ruler. of
thost countries art indi fferent 10 Islam as such: it mtmS no more and no less
dun thai: al:ladun"nt 10 blam-;:enuinc in many =-has, for various
histOrical reasons, no direct relation 10 the foons of their states and the aims
of their
Dangers Facing Pakistan
It is ... quite l"1litimatt to .ay the Pakistan movemcnt contains a
promist for an 1s1:nnic revival; and as f:or as I can see, il offus almost the only
hope of such a reviv.ol in a world that is slipping away from the ideals
of Islam. But the hope i. justified only so long as our leaders, and the masStS
with them, kttp the true objective of Pakistan in vitw, and do nOt yield to the
temptation to r"1lard their movement as just anotiltr of tbe many "national"
movemenu so fasbionable in tilt prtSent day Muslim danger which,
I is very imminent. I do nOt mean a nationalism based On ...cial lintS,
as we oce it elstwhere (for such a tendency is impo$$ible among Indian Muslims
who, as a community, are composed of most r;>cial clements), but there
is an ;>Clne danger of the Pakistan movement being deflected from iu
ideological courSt by tOO much Slress on a cultural." nationalism-on a
community of imeresu arising nOI so much from a common ideology as from
the desirt to preserve certain cultural. tr1UU, social habiu and customs and, last
but not least, to .:ofcguard the dcvdopment of a group of people who
happen 10 M "Muslims" only by virtue of their birth. Nobody can doubt that
the cui.ural ,ndi,ions and immediate requirements of .he Muslim
community are elClremely important in Our planning the Muslim future on
Islamic lintS. But this is just the poin!: Ihry ,hould never be viewed
independently of Our ideolo-gical goal-the building of Our future On Islamic
lines.
It howrver, that the majority of our are about to
commit just Ihis miSlake. When thty talk of Pakistan, thry often convey the
impression that the "actual" intcrell.S of the Muslim world could viewed
independently of what i. dtScribed as the 'purely ideological" intcrtSts of Islam;
in other words, that it is possible to be a good Pakistani without being
prlm4Tiiy interested in Islam as the basi c reality in one's own and in the
community's life.
I hope 1Iut my readers will agree with me that sucb an division
Mween "Muslim" and "Islamic" intertSts is sheer nonStosc. Islam is nO[ just
one several. ch=ristics of Muslim communal uistence, but its only
74_76. (Rq><oduad from Lalwr., May 1941).
m
,- ..
"""" .............. _m'
historical cause and justification: and to consider Muslim interests:as something
apart from Islam ;s !ike considering a living bf,ing ... something ap:m from tm,
fact of iu lik Bllt non""ruical such an attitude may appear to "-
thinking p<'ISOn, there is no going round the fact that most people (not
excluding moS! of our intelligentsia) are in the habit of never thinking :o.{
aiL.' ..
+ + +
The Soul and Body: No Bifurcation in Islam
Suning with the premiss that all life ;5 God-willed and, therefore, positive,
Islam implicitly refuses t o draw a dividing. line between m:m's "soul" :md his
"body" in the &elm of their bring an inhuent conflict between his physical,
emotional and spiritual requirements. In other words, Islam tC:IoChes u5 that we
need nOl desp;"" Our sensual urges in order to :u:hieve spiritual fulfilment. By
virtue of man's nalllre, hody and soul ,,'" to be rq;arded :os mumally
complementary, equally valid elements of entity described as humm
ptoonality," md bet of their coexistence and insepanbility is conceived as
the namral basis of human life as such. In thi. way, Islam enables man to
panicipae in all manner of worldly activities as well as go through whole
rmge of his Own bodily needs and urges and at the WIle time to remain
conscious of the moral imperatives to which all that worldly and all
urges md emotions must be subordinated. Thus, the innermost of the
Islamic message consists in guiding the human heing to a form of
existence in which both his spiritual desires and hi. legitimate physical and
social urges could find a maximum of without offending again$!: the
rights or feelings of other human beings. Man's desire to live as fully as possible
in hi. body as well as in his spirit is not only recognised as a posi/iw instinct
but is even endowt:d with the quality of:ln ethical postulate: tim is 10 say, man
is not merely allowed to make the fullest possible u:;:e of his God.given life on
earth, but is dury-ool/.nd to strive for it. ConKquently, the Qur'in explicitly
rejects every form of :;:elf,mortification and euggerated asceticism: and the
Prophet Muhammad summed up, as it were, this Qur'inic teaching in his
famous saying, "There is no wodd.Jenial (rahWniY1"h, lit., "monkishnessj in
Islam." Without doubt, both the Qur'in and the authentic sayings of the
Prophet are full of admonitions not to ascribe undue importance to our earthly
life and always to mnain conscious that this life is no more than the fin. stage
of human existence: but precisely because it is the first-and therefore the
formativC"-$tage, man is enjoined to utili:;:e all iu P"Ositive, legitimate
possibilities to the full, md thus to become really worthy of the hliss which
awaits the righteous in the life to COme. Hence, a Muslim is aware tlut he does
not offend again't the true faith if ht-()T she-finds ple;l5ure, with moder.ttion
and dignity, in the beautiful things of the world of maner: for, in the words
of the Prophet Muho.mmad, "God loves to Ott on his worshippers signs of His
gnce".'"
.. .. ..
From The Road 10 Mecca
The West and Other Civilizations
Accustomed ;l5 he is to writings which depict the culture or discuss the
problems of his own civiliZ'l.Iion in gr=t detail and in vivid colours, with little
mo", tban side glances here and there at the "'st of the world, the average
European or American cosily succumbs to the illusion that the cultur.t!
""pericnces of the Wffi ""' not me",ly ruperior but out of all proportion to
thoS<' of the rffi of the world; and thus, that the Western way of life is the
only valid norm by which other ways of life could be adjudged-implying, of
course, that every intellectual concept, social institution or ethical valuation
that disagrees with the Western 'norm' belongs ipso to a lowct grade of
""i.slence. Following in th. foomeps of the Greeks and Romans, the Occidental
likes to think that all those 'other' civilizations arc or We"' only SO many
stumbling experiment.! on the path of progress ro unerringly pursued by the
West; or, at best, (os in the case of the 'ancestor' civilizations which preeNed
that of the modem Wtst in a dire<:t line) , nO mOre than consecutive chapters
in one and the s>.me book, of which Western civil ization is, of course, the final
chapter. '01
The Majesty of the Desert
Life in it.! majesty: majesty of sparsenrss, alwaYI surprising: herein li es the
whole n>.meless =t of Ar.tbia, of .and d=m like this onc, and of the many
other changing landscapes.
Sometimes, il i5 l;ova ground, black and jagged, romim'" dunes wilhout
end; somHimes a wadi rocky hills, covered wit h thombushes Out of
which a startled hare jumps across your way; sometimes loose sand with tracks
of gazelles and a few fir .... blackened StOnes over which long-follotten wayfa","
cooked their food in long-forgotten ohys; sometimes a village palm
t rees and the wooden wool5 over the wells make music and sing i o you
''''Es..". Ilt- 1l2.
'"':n.. ROM! to (to"""", M .. Reinh.rdt, 19s-1; maoy pri",.). J .
'"
without stopping; sometimes a weI! in the midst of a desen valley, with heduin
herdsmen busding around it to water their thirsty .http and
chant in chorus while the water is drawn up in large leather buckets :md
poured wilh a rush into le:nher troughs 10 tbe delight of tbe excit ed mim.J.s.
Then again, there ;$ in SlepP<'s overcome by a sun without mercy;
of hard, yeUo,,", gnss and le;l;fy hushes that enwl over the ground with
snaky branches offer welcome pasture to ynur dromniari .. ; a $<lEary ;>C;lC;a
tree spreads its branches wide against the steel-blue sky; from oowttn earth
mounds and stones "PP<'alS, eyes daning right and left, and then vanishes like
a ghost, the gold.skinned lizard which, they say, never drink. water. In "-
hollow nand black tents of goat hair; a of camels is being driven
homeward through the afternoon, the hudsmen ride on oarebac:ked young
ume!s, and when they cal! their animals the ,ilmce of the land sucks in their
voices and ,wallow, them without echo.
Sometime. you see glimmering shadows far on the horizon: are tru,y
clouds? They float low, frequendy changing their colour and position, now
resembling grey-brown mountain_but in the air, somewhat abo"" the
horiron- md now, for all the world to =, shady groves of stOne pines: but-in
the air. And when tMy come down lower md change into lakes and flowing
rivers which quiveringly reflect the mountains and the trees in their inviting
waters, you suddenly recoROiu them for what they are, blandishment of the
jinns, the minge that has so often led tnvellers to false hopes md so to
perdition' and your hand goes involum.rily toward the Waters kin at your
s:><idle ... ''"
Elu
In t ru, slarlil silence of the desen, with a tend"" lukewarm wind rippling the
sands, the image. of pan and presem imenwine, sepante again and cal! to onc
another with wondrous sounds of evocation, backward through the hack
10 the beginning of my Arabian years, to my first pilgrimage to MecC\l and the
thaI overshadowed those day" to the of the woman
[Asad', first wife, Elsa] whom I loved as I have loved no woman since and who
now lies buried under the soil of Mecc., under a simple Slone without
inscription that marks the end of her road and the beginning of a new one for
me: an end and a beginning, a call and an echo, stnngely intertwined in the
rocky valley of Mac ... ' '''
'"
The Home-Coming of the Heart
My coming to thi.land was il n01, in trulh, a Home-coming of
the he:ut that h"" e'pin! it. old home backward over a curve. of thousand, of
years and now recot;Jlius this sky, my sky, wilh painful rejoicing? For this
Arabian sky-so much darker, higher, mOre festive with ilS stars man any other
sky_vaullM over the long Ink of my :mct<tors, wandering herd.rntn.
wnriors, when, thousands of years ago, they set Out in the power of their
morning, obsessed by greed for lmd:md booty, toward the !enile country of
Ch;dde;r. and an known future: that small beduin tribe of Hebrews, forefathers
of that man who was to be Ix>rn in Ur of 1M Ch.Id=<. III
Muslim Worship in Jerusalem
During that autumn [in the early 19205) [ was living in my uncle Dorian'.
house just inside Ihe Old City of rnnw. ilmo't every day and, not
being able t o go out much, I ohen Sat at tht window which ovnlooked a larte
yard the house. This yard belonged to "'" old who was c..J loo b.Jji
because he had performoo the pilgrimage to Mecca; he rental out donkeys for
riding and carrying and thus made the yard a kind of
Every morning, shortly before dawn, loads of vegtt abltS ","d fruits were
brought there on camds from the surrounding villages ","d sem Out on donkeys
imo the narrow b=r StreetS of the town. In daytime the he>vy bodies of the
camels could be seen resting on the ground; men were always noisily .. tttnding
to them ","d to the donktys, unless they were forcoo to take rduge in the
stables from the streaming "";n. They were poor, ngged men, those camel and
donkey drive .. , but they k haved like great lords. When they :sat together at
meals on the ground and ate flat loaves of wheat bread with a little bit of
chet$( Or a few olives, I could not but admire the nobility ","d e;lSe of their
bearing and their inner quiet: you could SC<' that they had respect for
themsdves ","d lhe everyday things of their livts. The &jji, hobbl ing around
on a stick-for he sufftred from anhritis ","d had swollen knees-was a kind of
chidtain among them; they appeared to obey him without question.
times a day he assembled them for prayer and, if it WitS not ... ining too hard,
they p ... yal in the open: all the men in a single, long row ","d he as their imam
in from of them. They were like soldiers in the precision of their
movements-they would how together in the dirtion of Me<:C:I, rise again, and
then kned down ","d touch the ground with their foreheads; they s=nal to
follow the inaudible words of their leader, who ktwttn the prostrationS stood
'"
bardoOi on hi. prayer urpet, eyes dosed, arm. folded over his chest,
soundlessly moving his [ips ond obviously lost ;n ekep absorption: you could
see that hc W:IS pr:l.ying with hil whole roul.
It somehow mC 10 see SO re.l a pnYCf combined with almost
mech:mical body movements, and one day I asked the hajji, who understood
a little Englis h:
'Do you rwly believe that God exptcts you t o show Him your 1"Q'p( by
repeated bowing and knttling :md Might it nOI be betler only 10
look into oneself ond to p ..... y to Him in the st illness of one' s heart? Why all
these movemen!$ of your body'?
As soon :ll; I h:ad Ul1CrN thtse words 1 felt remOrie, for I had nOI imended
10 injure the old man's religious But tbe hajji did not appear in the
]=\ offended, He smiled with his toothless mouth and replied:
' How (he {ben should we worship God? Did He nOI CrCale both, soul and
body, And this so, should man not pray wilh his body as well
as wilh his Listen, I will tell you why we Musli ms pray as we pray. We
tum toward the Kaaba, God's holy temple in MeCCl., knowing that t he faces of
all Muslims, wherever thry may be, are turned 10 it in prayu, and thaI we:off
like Ont body, with Him as t he cemre of our thoughts. First we stand upright
and reci te from the Holy Qur'an, remembering that it is His Wo rd, given to
man that he may be upright and ste..dfast in li k Then "'y, "God is tM
Greatest", reminding that no One deserves to be worshipped but Him;
;md bow down deep beCOluse we honour Him above all, and praise His power
and glory. Theruher we pmstrate our< .. lv.,. on our forehead. boo>u.e we fed
that we are but dust ;md nothingness before Him, Ihat He is our Creator
and Susu.iner on high. TMn w" lift our f""", from the ground and remoin
,iuing, praying that He uS our sins and bestow His u?On us, and
guide us aright, and give us health and Then we agoin prostrate
oursdves on t M ground and touch the dust with Our foreheads before the
might and the gl ory of the One. After that, we remoin siuing and pray that Ii<'
bless th': Prophet Muhammad who brought His message to us, jun as He
blessed the earlier Prophets; and that He ble", uS as weli, and all those who
follow the right guidance; and we a. k Him to give uS of the good of this world
and of the good of the world !O come. In the end we turn our heads to the
right and to the left , saying, and the grace of God be u?On you"-md
thus grI'et all who are righteous, wherever they may be.
'It was thus tIm Our Prophet used to pray and taught hi. followers to pray
for all times, SO thar thry might willingly surrender themselves to God-which
is what.Is/am means-md so be at poe""" with Him md with their Own destiny' ,
The old man did not, of course, USe "":>cdy these words, but this was Iheir
meaning, and this is how I remember them_ Years latcr I realized that with his
si mplc explmation the hajji had opened to me the first door (0 Islam, but even
(hcn, long before any thought that Islam become my own faith entered
my mind, I began to feci an unwonted humility I saw, as I did,
a man standing barefoot on his prllyer rug, or on a strllW mal, Or On the bare
eanh, with his arms folded ovn- his chest and hi, ht.>d lowered, entirely
submerged within himself, oblivious of what was going on him,
whet her it was in a mosque or on the sidewalk of a busy St.=: a mID at
with himself,'"
Encounter with Chaim Weizmann
Although ()f Jewish origin myself, I cone<:;ved from the Olllset a strong
objeuion 10 Zionism. Apm from my sympathy fo r the Anbs, I
considered il immonl that immigrants, assisted b)' a foreign Great Power,
should come from abroad with the avowed inuntion of attaining to majority
in [PalntineJ and thus to dispossess the whose country it had ,in
time immemoriaL Consequentl)', I was incline<! to uke the side ()f the Anb,
whenever the JewishArab question was brought up- which, of course,
happened very often. This attitude of mine was be)'ond the comprehension of
pr.octicall), all the Jews with whom I came in cont"'t during those months.
They co .. ld not understand what I saw in the Arabs who, according 10 th<'m,
were no more than a mass of backward pfflple whom the), looked upon with
a feding not much different from that of the European settlers in Central
Afri"", They were not in the leaSl intert$ted in what the Arabs thought; almost
nOne of t hem took pains 10 learn Arabic; and everyo"" accepted without
question the dictum that Palestine w:as the rightful heritage of the Jews.
1 .till remember a brid discuion I bad (in Jerusalem in 1'122) on this
score with Dr. Chaim Wei:unann, the undisputed leader of the Zionist
movement.'" He h.d come on One of his periodic visits to Palestine (his
permanent residence was, I in London), and I met him in the house of
a Jewish friend. One could nOt but be impressed by the boundle e""rg), of
this man- an energy that manifested it,df even in hi, bodily movements, in the
long, springy stride with which he paced up and down the room-and by the
power of intellect revealed in the broad forehe.d and tM penetrating gl:mcc. of
his eyes.
He was talking of the financial difficulties which were besetting the dream
of a Jewish N;>tional Home, IDd the insufficient response to this dream among
pfflple abroad; and I had disturbing impression that even he, like most of
the other Zionists, was to transfer the moral responsi bility for all that
" 'M ... ., 81-89.
"'Chaim Auio] W.;."....,n (1IH_195lj, wo lot"'..-u '0 become 1 ... ..,1"1 lim p""idmt .
..... ,h. Z;"";'" kad., ployod. crucial role in >urine from th. B,iti'" "", .. nmm' ,he
&.I/o...- D1''''Uon whi.ch p,,,,,",od tho .... y 10' tb ..... bb.bm.n' 01 J"",ith Ita .. in Arab
P.kstin . (UN', nOlO)_
happening in Palestine to the 'omside world', This imJUUed me to bru k
through the deferential hush with which an the other people present werC
listening to him, and to ask:
'What about the Arab,'?
I must have committed afaux pas by thus bringing a jarring nOu' into the
conversation, for Dr. turned his face ,lowly toward me, put dO'llln
the cup he had be<:n holding in his hand, and repeaud my questioo:
'What about the Arabs .. .'?
'WeU-how Can you ever hope to make Palestine your homeland in the
face of the vehement oppositioo of the Arabs, who :after .11, are io the majority
in this country"
The Zionist leader shrugged hi s shoulders and answered drily: 'We expect
they won't be in "majority after .. few yean'.
'Perhaps so. You ha"" be<:n de:ding with this problem for years and must
know the situation better than I do. But quite apart from the political
difficulties which An.b opposition mayor may not pm in your way-doC'S not
the moral asp= of the question ever bother you? Don't you think that II "
wrong On your pm to displace the people who have always lived in this
country'?
'But it is Ollr country', replied Dr. raising his eyebrows. 'We
are doing nO more than taking back what we have been wrong:ly deprive.:! of'.
'But you have been away from Palestine for nearly two thousand yean!
Before that you had ruled this country, and hardly ever the whole of it, for 1=
than five hundred yea,.,. O<>n't you think th:n the Arab, could, with equal
justificotion, demand Spain for ann all, they held sway in
Spain for nearly hundred yun ond lost it entirely only five hundred
ye:us ago'?
Dr. Wciunann had visibly impatient: 'Nonsense. The had
only mqun'ffl Spain; it had never be<:n their original homeland, and so it was
only right that in the end they were driven out by the Spani:mb'.
'F0rP"" mc', I retort"'!, 'hut it seems to me tha, there is SOme hi>lorical
oversight here_ After all, the Hebrews also came as conquerors to Palestine.
Long before them were many OIher Semitic and nonSemitic tribes settled
here-the Amorites, the EdomitC'S, the Philistine., the MoabitC'S, the Hittites.
Those tribC'S continued living here even in the days of the kingdoms of Israel
and JudID. They continued living here the Roman, drove our ancestors
They are living here today. The Arabs who in and Palestioe
after their conquest in the seventh century were only a small minority
of the population; the rest of wh>! we describe '" Palestini:m or Syri:m
"Arabs" are in reality only the Arabi:mizcd, original inhabitants of the country.
Some of them Muslims io the course of centuriC'S, Othe,., remained
the Muslims naturally inter-married with their co-religioniSts from
Arabia. But can you deny that the bulk of those people in Palestine, who spe;1k
Arabic, whether Muslim, or Christians, dir=-line desetnd:mts of the
'"
original original in of having livw. in this country beforf
tht Hebr.-ws came to it'?
Dr, Weizmann smiled politely at my outburst md turl1M the convers,uinn
to other topics.
I did not 1 happy . bout the OUiCOmf of my intervention. I h:ul of
COllrii<' not txpft1:M any of t hose present-leasl of all Dr. Weizmann
himself-to subscribt to my conviction that the Zionist idea was highly
vulnefllble on the moral plane: but I had hoPftl that my defence of the Arab
ouse would at least give rise 10 SOme son of une.siness On the pm of the
Zionist leaduship_an uneos;nen which might bring about more imrosption
:and thus, perh.p', a greaur rewiJ\e$S to admit the existence of a possible mnn!
right in the opposition of the Anbs ... None of this had come about. Instead, J
found myself facing a blank wall of staring eyes:. censorious di ... pproval of my
which dared qutStion the unqutStionablerigln of the Jews 10 the land
of their fordat he .....
How W;1.5 it possible, I wondered, for people endowed with .0 much
,,,,ati,,,, intelligence as the Jew, to think of the Zioni$l. Ar:ah conflict in Jewish
terms alone? Did they not rulize that the problem of the Jews in Palenine
could, ;n the long run, snlved only through friendly co-oper:ation with the
Ar:ab,? Were they SO hopdessly blind to the painful future which their policy
must bring/-to the struggles, the bille= and the hatred to which the Jewish
island, even if temporarily successful, would forever remain exposed in the
midst of a hO<lile Ar:ah sea'
And how strange, I thought, tht a nation which Iud suffu ed <0 many
wrongs in the course of its long and sorrowful diaspora'" Was now. in sin&le-
minded pursuit of it$ go:ol, rudy to inflict a grievous wrong on another
nation-=d a nation, too, that was innocent of all that P'I[ Jewish suffering.
Such .. phenomenon, I knew, w;1.5 not unknown to history; but it made me,
none the less, very sad to sec it cnacted befnre my eyes. ' "
... ... . ..
v
The Call to Prayer in Cairo
Opposite my house [in Cairo], 50 dose that you could almost t ouch it, stood
a little mosque wilh a tiny minaret from which five times a day the call to
prayer w;1.5 sounded. A white-turbaned man would on the gallery, raise
"lin blO, y<"". th"" ... < .... to touch A..d himsdf: hi. f"h ... ';"<r ""d .unt all
<f;ed;" Nazi <00""",,,,.,000> <>mp..-whil< It<: ..... h<1d io:on iot<:rnm<nt C>IJlp ...... ioV()lunury
'''' .... 01 tit<: Gov .. nm<n, 01 India' . Asad. Autho, ', Not<", E!>IJ'. 1. s.. a1>o M.!iw Ru.hvon.
"Mun..mmad Asad: Amb.osador 01 J.bm". Ay.JV. n.. 1>1.",", Rtvini. Scp<tmber 1981.
p. "l.
93%.
""
hi. hands, and begin to cham: 'Allahu akbar-GOO is the Greatest! And I bear
.... imess that Muhamm:>d is Messmger ... Iu be slowly turoN! t oward the
four points of the comp>ss, the ring of his voice climbed upw:lrd, grew into the
clear air, rocking on the throaty sounds of the Arabic language, swaying,
advancing and retrel\ting. The voice was a dark baritone, soft and strong,
capable of a great ntlg<'; but you could pelUive that it w""' fervour and not art
that made it k.rutiful.
This chm! of the mu'.u;zin .... :os the song of my days and eveninj;S in
CaiTO-;USt..s it had bffil the theme song in the Old City of Jerusalem and was
destiotd to in all my bier warukriov through Muslim lands. It sounded
the same everywhere in spite of the differences of dialect and intonation which
might be evident in the prople's daily sp<:h: a unity of sound which made me
realize in thOR days ill Cairo how <kq> w:as the iruu.r unity of all Muslims, and
how artificial and insipIificanl the dividing lines them. They
were in their way of t hinking and judging between right and wrong, and
one in their f'<'1"C"plion of what constitutes the good life.
II :scemtd t o me that for the fin;t time I had COme a community in
which kinship between man and man was not due to accidents of common
!":\Cia! or economic interests but to something far deeper and far more stable;
a kinu,ip of common outlook which lintd all barri en of loneliness
man and man.'"
Spiritual Serenity in Damascus
It WilS with excitement of a new undemanding, with my <"yes openrd t o thing.
I had not suspecttd before, that I wandertd in those summer days [of 19231
through the ".IIeys of the old bazaar of Danuscus and recognized the spiritual
restfulness in the life of its people. Their inner security could be observed in
Ihe way they behaved toward one another: in the warm dignity with which
they met or parted; in the manner in which two men would walk together,
holding each other by the hand like children- simply Mause th<"y ftlt friendly
toward each other, in the manner in which the shopkeepcn; dealt with one
another. Those t!"1ld.ers in the little shops, those inexorable callers to passersby,
seemtd to have no gr.>Sping fear and no envy in them: so much SO that the
owner of a shop would leave it in the custody of his neighbour and competitor
whenever it became necessary for him to be away for a while. I onen saw a
potenlial customer IIOP before an untended stall, ohviously debating within
himself whether to w';t for the return of the vendor or to on to Ihe
adjoining stall-and inv:oriably the neighbouring trader, the competitor, would
" .... TTR OF lOVE- .. U .... 'AMOQ J<J;NJ ..... 0 'SI.AM
m
in 10 enquire customer'. wants and .dl him Ihe
goods- not his nwn goods, but thol>e of his abl>ent neighbour-and would leave
the purch= price On the nei ghbours bench. in Europe could 0"" have
a like transaction?"
Umayyad
0"" Friday [ went with my friend and host into the Umayyad Mosque [in
Damascus]. The many marble columns which supported the domed ceiling
.hone unJ.,r the Sun nys tim feU through the lintel windows. There w:os a
scent of musk in the air, red and blue carpru covered the floor. In long, even
rows stood many hundr.m of men behind the ;mam who led the pnyer, they
bowed, knelt, touched ground with their and rOse again: all in
disciplined unison, like soldiers. It w:os very quiet; while the congregation w:os
standing, 0"" could hear the voice of the old imam from the distant depths of
the huge hall, reciting verses from the Qur'an; and when he bowed or
prostnted himself, the entire congregation followed him :os one mm, bowing
and prostrating theml>elves before God:os if He present before their eyes ...
It w:OS al lhis mOment thai I became aware how Oear their Gnd and their
faith were to these people. Their prayer did nOl l>eem to be divorced from their
working day; it w:os pan of it- nOI meant to hdp them fOl"f:et life, but to
it better by rememberi ng God.
'How strange and wonderful,' I said to my friend :os we were leaving the
mosque, 'that you peopl e fed God 10 be so dose 10 you. I wish I could reel so
myself.
'How else could it be, 0 my brother? Is not God,:os our Holy Book \'ays,
nearer 10 Ii- than rM .... in in rhy nuk?'"
Islam: A way of li!e
Islam did not Sttm to SO much a religion in the popular sense of the word
:os, nther, a way of life; nOt so much a system of theology:os a programme of
personal and social beha"iour based on the consciousness of God. Nowhere in
the Qur'an could I find reference to a need for 'salvation' , No original,
inherited sin stood between the individwl and his destiny- for, nothing lhall be
arrri/n;red 10 man /n;r whar bt himself""s stnvm fOT. No asceticism .... as required
I2S- I26.
"'M"""" IV.
222
to open a 10 purity: for purity was man', binhright, and 1in meant
nO mOre than a lapse from the innate, positive qualities with which God was
said to have endowed every humm being. Ther. was no {nee of any dualism
in the consideration of mon', natu,..,: hody and soul Sttmffl to b., as one
imq:ral whnk'"
Relations with God and Man
At fim I was somewhat startled by the Qur'an's concern not only with malters
spiritual but also with m;my seemingly trivial, mundane aspects of life; hut in
time I began t o unckmand ,har if man were ind=i an integnl unity of body
and soul-as Islam imine<! he w:lS-nO aspect of his life could b., tOO 'trivial' to
come within the pUrYicw of religion. With all this, the Qur'an never let its
foUowers forget thai the life of Ihis world w .... only One stage of man', way to
a higher existence, and that his uhimate goal was of a spiritual nature. Ma.U'rial
prosperity, it 5aid, il but not an end in iudE and man'.
appetites, though justified in themselves, must be restrained and controlled by
moral consciousness. This ougbt to rdau not mtrdy to man's
rdarion with God but:ilio 10 his rel.tions with men; nOt only to the spiritual
perfection of the individual but also to the creation of such social conditions
as might be conducive to the .piritual <kvdopment of all, SO that all might live
in fullnes .. '"
Prepar:nion for Something t o Come
The day. pass, and the nights are short and ride southward at dusk at "-
brisk pace. Our dromedari .. in t'Xc.el!ent shapt-they have rto;ently bttn
watered, and the bst twO doy' havc provided them with abundant pasture.
Tbere :arc Slil! fourtttn day. here and Me<:ca, and even more if, as i.
probable, we spend some time in the tOwns of Hall and Mrdina, both of which
lie on our route.
An unusual impatience b;u taken hold of me; an U'lency for which I
know no explanation. Hitherto I have wont to enjoy travel!ing .t le1iSUre,
with nO particular urge to reach my denination quickly; the day' and weelu
spem in journey had each of them a fulfilmem of its own, and goal always
seemed to be incidental. But nOw I have begun to fttl wh.t I bve never felt
"'M
eg, 121.
"'1.0<, cit.
m
in my years in Ar.lbia: :>.II impa!; ... "" to reach tru, end of the road. What
end? To Stc Mecca? I have btcn 10 the Holy City so onen, and know in life
SO thoroughly, that it no longer holds Out any promise of new discoveries. Or
is it perhaps a new kind of disco,",ry that I am :utticip:lting? It must be so-for
I am being d",wn to Mecca by a strange, personal as if this spiritu"!
o.m", of the Muslim wodd, with its multi-national congreJ:ation of people
from all COmen; of the earth, were a kind of promi"" a g>teway to a ",iolt.
world 1hm the one in I am nOw living. Not th. t I have grown tired of
Ar.obi,,; no,.I love its deserts, iu; towns, the ways of its peopl e as I have always
loved them: that first hint of Arabian life in the Sinai Desert some ten years
ago has never been disappointed, and dlt SUc<;ttding yean have only confirmed
my original expecution: b!lt .. . the conviction has grown within that
has all it had to
I:un strong, young, I an for m;llly hours at a stretch without
unduly tired. I C;lIl have been doing SO for ye:lT!i-likr a
beduin, without a lent and without any of the small comfortS which the
townspwple of often as indispensable on long destn tourneys. I
am at home in al1 the little c..ft. of beduin life, and have adopted, almOst
impercq>tibly, the manners and habits of a Na}di An.b. But ;s this all there is
to Have I lived so long in Arabia only to an Arab?-or w:lS it
perhaps a preparation for something yet to come?"'"
.. .. ..
A Desert and Prophecy
There are many mo,"" beautiful landscapes in the world [than those of the
Arabi;lll desen}, but none, I think that C;lIl shape mans spirit in so sovereign
a way. In its hardne'll, and sparsenes.s, the destn Strips our desire to
comprehend life of all subterfuges, of all manifold delusions with which a
more bountiful nature may entn.p man's mind and ouse him to proj= his
own imageries imo the world around him. The destn i. bare and dean and
knows no co mpromise. It sweeps Out of the hean of man all the lovely
fantasies th .. t could be used as a m;uqueradc for wishful thinking, and thus
makes him free to sur,..,nder himself to an Absolute that has no image: the
farthest of all that is f;or and yft the nearest of all that is near.
Ever since man beg;lll to think, the desut has been the endle of all his
beliefs in One God. even in softer environments and more favourable
dimes have men had, time and again, an inkling of Hi. uillence and oneness,
as, for instance, ;n the anc;ent Greek concept of Moira, the indefinable Power
behind and above the Olympim gods: but such conccpu were nev .... more th;lll
".
the outcome of f"ding, a divining "'ther th:m knowlwge-unti]
tilt knowledge broke forth with d:l2Z1ing to men of the des..n and
from out of the desert. It was from a burning (hornbush in the desert of
Midian that the voice of God nng out t o Moses; it was in the wilderness of the
Judt.m de$en that jesus uu;ved the m=ge of the Kingdom of God; :and it
w:OS in the COl."" of Hira, in the desert hills nc.':or Mecca, thai the first coli came
to Muh:l.Olmad of Arabia.'"
Abd al-'Az:iz Ibn Sa'lid's Humility
... even aher [the founder of modern Saudi Ar.tbia King 'Abel a1.'A7.iz:j Ibn Saud
had acquird a kingdom of hi. own by hi, own dfan and w .... UndispUlw. rul ....
of the land, he beru.ved toward his father with such humility that he would
never even consent to st1 fOOl ;0 a room of the castle if Abd ar-Rahman was
in the room below_ ' for', he would y, 'how can I :oIlow myself to wolk over
my f.lther's head'? He would nevU sit down in the old man', without
htin!; expr=ly invited to do 1'0. I still rememb..r the discomfiture thi. kin!;ly
humility e>.used me One day at Riyadh (I think it was in December, 1927). I
was paying one of my CU!lomary visits to tht King's fathtr in his apartments
in the royal castle; we we..., ,illin!; on the ground On cushinns, the old
gentleman txpatiating on ont of his favouritt rdi!;ious them .... Sudcknly an
att.endant entered the rOOm and announced, 'The Sh,..,ukh [i.e. the King] is
comin!;'. In tht ntxt moment Ibn Saud stood in tht doorway. Naturally, I
wanted to rise, but old Abel arRahman gripped me by the wrist and pulled me
dowo, as if t o "'y, 'Thou an my gutst'. I was tmhorrassed beyond words at
thus having to remain ",.ted while the Kin!;. alter lVeeting hi, fnher from afor,
was left standing in the doorway, obviously awaitin!; to enter the
room, but he must have been accustomed to simil .... whim,ies On his father's
part, for he winked at me with a halfsmile to put me at ease. Meanwhile, old
Abd or-Rahman wem on with his discourse, as if no interruption had occuned.
After a few minutes he looked up, nodded 10 hi, son and said: 'Step closer, 0
my hoy, and sit down'. The King was at that time forty-seven or fony..eighl
years old.
Some months later- we were at Mecca at the time-news was brought to
the King that his father had died in Riyadh. I shall never fOTj;CI: tru,
uncomprehending n .... e with which he looked for sevenl seconds at the
mes..,nger, ..... d the despair which ,jowly and visibly engulfed the features that
were normally so serene and composed; and how he jumped with a t errible
roar, 'My father is dead'! and, with great strides, ran out of the room, hi, .. baY"
trailing on the ground behind him; and ho,,", he bounded up the stairway, P;l51
the awe-struck faces of his menatarms, not knowing himsclf where he W;l5
going or why, shouting, mouting, 'My father is dm'! 'My father is dead'! For
two days afterward he refused to see anyone, took neither food nor drink and.
spent day and night in pnyer.
How many sons of middle age, how many kings who hod won themsel ves
a kingdom through their own strength, would have thus mourned the p;l5,ing
of a bther who had died the peaceful death of old
'Abd a\'Aziz Ibn Sa'lid and Julius Caesar
A good and just man in his personal affairs, loyal to his friends and supporters,
generous to,,",ards his enemi ... and implacable to,,",ard, hypocrites, gr.lCed by
inte!lectual gifts far above the of mOSt of hi. followers, Ibn Saud has
established a condition of public 5CCUrily in his v;l51 domains unequalled in
Arab lands the t ime of t he early Caliphate a thousand years .go. His
personal authority is tremendous, but it do..s not rest ro much on actual power
;l5 on the sugg ... tive strength of hi, character. He is utterly un;l5suming in
words and demeanour. Hi s truly democratic spiril enables him to converse wilh
the beduins who come t o him in dirty, tattered garments;l5 if he were One of
them, :md to allow them to call him by his first name, Abd al.Aziz.
Sometim ... , when he is entirely relaxed, a gentle smile plays about Ibn
Saud's mouth and gives an almost spiritual quality to the ooulY of his face, .. ;
he shows his musical bent only in his little patms, his colour ful descriptions
of cxperienS, and his .oog. of war and love which have spread through the
whol e of Najd and are sung by men as they ride on t}",ir dromedaries across
the desert and women in the scclusion of their chambers, And il reveals itscl f
in the way his daily life follows. regular, elastic rhythm suited to the demands
of hi s royal office. Like Julius Caesar, he P0sstSSCS tO a high degree t he capacity
to pursue seven] trains of thought at one and the same time, without in the
le;l5t curtailing the intensity with which he attacks each individual problem
The acuteness of his percepti ons is often uncanny. He has an almost
unfailing, in5linctive insight into the motives of the people wilh whom he h;l5
to deal . Not infrequently-as I myself have had the opportunity to witness-}",
is able t o reod men's thoughu before they are spoken, wd seems to sense a
attitude towJrds him at the very mOment of man's enu ring the
room.'"
mM ....
"'M ...... I17-I1I.
'"
IkSt Community to Isb.m's Universal Message
In no other community [than the Arab could the tenet.! of [slam h."".o
readily coincidt:d with what the people who were first addressed by the Qur':m
had olways in5linclivriy fell :rnd r'1)ardtd as truc ... To phrase it yet differently,
Om: might say that God's fin>'! message to man wos rtvealtcl through the
medium-and in the language-of the one people that w:lS able 10 gr ... p its
innermo<t purport oll at and to translate its ideological dynamism into
by virtue of its own, unique p$fchological maitt-up: and this explains
why Islam, carried forward by the Arabs, spread so irrosi nibly, within. few
dtades, to the ,hares of the Atlantic and the borders of China. ".
Islam's Appeal: A Dialogue
'Tell me, 0 Muh.mm.d', ... Its Mansur, 'how did ;1 happen thou hast COme to
live among the Aubs? And how didst thou COme to hlo.m.'?
'1 will ttll the" how it interposes Zayd'" 'F;nI he fell in
wilh the Arabs, and then wilh faith. I..In'l il true, 0 my unde'?
'What Zayd says is tme, 0 Mansur. Many years ago, when I fim came to
Arab lands, I wal atlracted by way you people lived. And when I bq;anlO
ask myself what you thouy,t and Whal you bdieved in, I co.m.e 10 know about
l$lo.m.' .
'And didst thou, 0 Muho.m.mad, find 011 at oncc that Islam was the Tme
Word of God'?
'Well, no, this did nol come "bout $0 quickly. For One thing, I did not
then believe thai God had ever spoken directly 10 man, or that the books
which men cbimtd 10 j,., His wnrd were anything but the works of wise
men .. .

Mansur stares at me with utter incredulity: 'How could that j,." 0
Muhamrrud? Didst thou not even j,.,lieve in the Scriptures which Moses
brouy,t, or the of Jem51 But I have always thouy,t that the peoples of
the West j,.,lieve at least in them'?
'Some do, 0 Mansur, and olhers do nOI. I was One of those others .. :
And I explain to him Ihal many people in the West have long ceased 10
regard the Scriptures-their own as well as those of others-as truc Revelations
" 'M<4,18 1.
'''zayd ibo Ghioim, b"douu. ..... , A...:!', durin, m<>fl 01 hi, travol .><ro" ,h.
A .. bian <1< .. ", .od .. vod hi. 1<1_ ... h<n A50d 10 .. hi. "'1 u. 00< 01 hi. WKhmod jou,,,,,,.;
M:ul!Y' .1." A .... I, too, .... , hi.l ,rov.!lin, comp.nion but 10, morte. p<.iod.
of God, but in them the history of man's religious ospint;ons OS they
evolved over the ages.
'BUI this of mine w,,", OS 500n OS 1 came to know something
of I$lam', I add. 'I carm to know it when I found that the Musli ms lived
in a way quite different from what the Europeans thought should be man's
way; and every time I learned something more about of Islam, I
s.eemed to discover something tha I had always known without knowing it .. .'
And 50 I go on, tel1ing Mansur of my first journey t o the Near East-of
how in the D=n of Sinai I had my first impression of the Anb.; of what I
saw and felt in Palestine, Egypt, Transjordan and Syria; of how in Damascus
I had my first p",monition Ibat a new, hilbeno unsuspected way t o truth w:u
slowly unfolding me; and how, after visiting Turkty, I returned to
Europe and found it difficult to live again in the world: for, On thl.
one hand, I w,,", eager to gain a underst:mding of the strange uneasiness
which my first acquaintanct wilh the Arabs and thei r cultu", had produced in
me, hoping that it would me better understand what I mys.elf expeed of
life; and, on the other hand, I had reacbN! the point where it was becoming
dear to me that never again would I be able 10 identify myself .... ilh the aims
of Western society. ' '''
......
Istam Behind Muslims' Achievements
My own obs.ervation had by now convinced me that the mind of tbe avenge
held an utterly image of Islam. Wbat I !.:I.w in Ihe pages of
tb
e
Qur'an was nOi a ' cruddy materialistic' worldview bU!, on the contrary,
an intens.e God...:onsciousness tbat its.elf in a r;nional acceptance of.l1
Goo...:",ated nature: a harmonious side- byside of intellect and s.ensua! urge,
spiritual need and social demand. h was obvious to me t bat IhI. decline of
Muslims wos not due t o any shortCOmings in IsI:IIII but r.lther to their own
bilure to live up to il.
For, indeed, it w:u Isl :IIII t hat had carried the early Muslims 10 tremendous
beighu by directi ng .11 thei r toward conscious thoughi :os the only
means t o understanding the n.ture of God's cre:ttion and, tbus, of His wilL No
demand had been made of them to believe in dogmas difficult or even
impossible on intellectual comprehension ... and thus, thl. thirst .ner knowledge
which disti nguished early Musl im history b>d not bttn forced, as dsewhere in
the world, 10 ass.en itself in a struggle againn the traditional faith. On
the contrary, it had stemmed excl usivdy from that faith. The Arabian Proplm
had declared that St";ving "'IcY knowledge il. mOlf ",cred Jury for <'"t'")' Mu. lim
----- --
I1O
M
,"""lIf_IIS.
man "nd wom"n: and his led to undcNtand that only by
acquiring Iulowledge could they fully worship u.rd. When they pondered
the Prophet's saying, God C'I't'"ttl "0 without "elfting If CJ<Tt for it If. wtll,
they ..,alized that by :;tan;hing for unknown they would contribute w a
fulfilment of God'. will on e.nh: and so medical re!earch beume invested with
the holiness of a religious duty. They read the Qur'an verse, We ,=u ..wry
living thi"g our of UklI .... -and in their lO penetfllte lO the meaning
of thes<: word., they began to study living O'l\an;sms and the laws of their
development, o.nd thus they esubli.hed the science of biol"l:Y. The Qur'an
poimed to the harmony of the stars and their movements as witnesses of their
Crutor's glory: and therC"Upon the of astronomy and m:uhematics
were taken up by the MusliIIl$ with a fervour which in other relij;ions was
reserved for pfllyer alone. The Copernican synem, which established the eanh's
rotation around its axis and the revolution of the planets around the sun, was
evolved in EuroPe at the heginning of the sixteenth century (only to be met by
t he fury of the ecclesiastics .. } but the foundations of this syncm had actually
laid ,ix hundred yew; earli u , in Muslim countri.s-for al..,ady in the
ninth and tenth centuries Muslim astronomers had rc:Khed the cooclusion that
the earth was globular and that it rotated around its axis, and h.d made
=rare calcubtion. of latitude! and ionj;itudes, and many of them
maintained-withom ever being accused of heresy-that the eanh rotated
around the sun. And in the ume way they took to chemistry and physics and
physiology, and to all the other science, in which the Muslim genius was to
find its most lasting monument. In building that monurnc.nt they did nO more
than follow the .dmooition of their Prophet th.t If Ifwybody proceeds om hil way
in St".,h of/mow/edge, God will make e .. ry fM him ,"" way to P .. that The
lU;-1ariry of /ht le .. rned (Wo'" /ht mere piaU! i. like 1M lU;-1a,iry of the moon
whm if is full OWT .. 11 a/htT .l4rs; and that 71>e ink of /ht ",hol .. rs is mOTt precious
dUI1I the blood of marryr<.
Throughout the whole P"riad of Muslim hinory_ that is to say,
during the fim five cemuri ... after the Prophet's time-science and learoing had
no greater champion than Muslim civiliz.ation no home mo.., secure than
the lands in which Islam was iupreme.
1V
. :- .:. .' .

No Priesthood in Islam
There are few thin!:" if any, which bring men SO close to one another as
praying together. This, I bdieve, is of religion, but particularly of
Islam, which restS on the belief that nO iotennediary is or indttd
".
possible, ooween man:md God. The abs..nce of all priesthood, d ergy, md even
of an organized 'church' makes every Muslim feel that he is truly sharing in.
:md nO! merely .ttending, a commOn act of worship when he pray' in
congreg.tion. Since there are no $aCfamenu in blam, every :wult and s:me
Muslim may perform any religious function whatsoever, whether it be b.ding
a congregation in p .... yer, performing a marriage "",..,mony or conducting a
burial service. None need be 'orda.i ned' for the service of God: the religious
teachers and lellders of the Muslim community are simple men who enjoy a
,..,puulino (rometim .. deierved :md somttimes not) for erudition in thwlogy
and religious law. OJ,
'" '" '"
The Centre of the Universe
This ... was the K ... ba, the goal of longing for so many millions of people for SO
many centuri .. , To reach this go.J, countless pilgrims had made heavy sacrifices
throughout the ag ... : many h:od dial. on way; m:my had it only
after priv,ltions: :md to .11 of them this sm:oll, building w:>5
of their desires, .nd to reach it me:mt fulfilment.
There it stood, almost a perfect cube (:>5 its Arabic name connotes) entirely
wilh black a quiff isl:md in of vast quadnnr.Je
of the mosque: much quieter thm my otlltr work of .rchitecture mywheu in
the world. It would :olmost appe .. that he who fim built the Kaab. - for since
the time 01 Abraham the original structure h>s been rebuilt several limes in the
shap.-wantal. to (rcau a of mm', humility before God. The
build", knew tlut nO be.uty of architectur:ol rhythm .1101 no perfection of line,
ho wever grc<lt, could evu do to the icka of God: and so confined
himself to the simplest three-dimension>l form imaginablc-a cube of slOne.
I had seen in various Muslim countries mosquC$ in which the hand, of
gre.l artist.! had created inspired works of art. I had seen mosques in North
Africa, shimmering prayer_palace" of and whiu alabaster; Dome of
Ihe Rock in Jerus.olem, a powerfully perfect rupol. a cklicate
understrunure, a dream of lightoess and united without
contr:odiction: and the m.j ... tic buildings of Istanbul, the Sulaymaniyya, the
YeniValide, the Bayrud Mosque; and those of Brussa, in Asi. Minor; and the
Saf.vid mosques in Iran-royal harmonies of stone, multicoloured majolica tiles,
mo,";cs, huge 5I.lactite portals Over silver-embossed doors. slender minarets
wilh alab:>5ur .nd turquoise-blue gai1tries, m .. ble-covered quadrangles with
foum";ns and age-old plant";n trees; .nd the mighty ruins of Tamerlane's
mosque, in Samar6nd, splendid even in their decay.
Alltlltse I had seen-but never had i felt so strongly as now, before the
Kaaba, that the hand of the builder had come so close to his religious
""
In the simplicity of a cube, in the complete ununciation of
aU of line :rnd form, SpOM this thought: 'Whatever beauty man may be
able to create with his hands, it will be only conceillo dum;t worthy of GOO;
thertror." the simplest that man can conceive is the that he em do to
exprt'U 1m, glory of God'. A simibr feding may have been responsible for I ....
mathematical simplicity of the Egyptian pyr:unid_"lthough there mm's
conceit had at least found:l. vern in the tremendous dimension, he gave to his
buildings. But h.,n, in the K:uba, even the size spoke of hum:m ununci:nion
and self-surrender; :.",1 the proud moot!Jly of this litde structure had nO
comp""" on earth.
There is only one entrana: into the Kaaba-a silvn-sheathed door on the
northeast side, about seven fe<'t above ground level, 50 that it can only
reached by mean5 of a s{air= which i, plactd before {he door on a
few d.y, of year. The interior, usoally dosed (I saw it only on bur
occasions), is very simple: a marble floor wilh a few and lamps of
bronu and hanging from a roof thaI i5 supponed by heavy vooden
beams. Actually, Ihi. imerior has no sp""ial significance of its own, for the
sanctilY of the K.."b pplies to the building, which is the i5,
dirtction of prayer_ for Ihe entire Islamic world. It is toward this symbol
of G..d's Onene ... Ihat hundrNs of millions of Muslims the world over tum
thei r faces in times .. day.
Embffickd in the e<1Slern corner of the building and left uncovered is a
dark-coloured stOne surrounded by a broad ,ilver frame. This Black Stone,
which has been kiued hollow by many generations of pilgrim', has bttn .he
",,"use of much misunderstanding among non-MlI$lims, who believe it t o be "-
fetish taken over by Muhammad as a concession to the pagan Meccans.
Nothing could be farther from trulh, Just as the K.."ba is an object of reveren",
but not of wOr1hip, so tOO i. the Black Stone. It is rtvered as the only remnant
of Abraham'. original building; and because the lips of Muhammad touched it
on his Fartwell Pilgrimage, .11 pilgrims have dorn: the same ever since. The
Prophet was wdl aware that all the later generollions of the Faithful would
always follow his example: and when he kissed the lIone he knew that on it
the lips of future pilgrims would forever mttt the memory of his lips in Ihe
symbolic embrace thus offered, beyond t ime and beyond death, 10 his cmirt
community. And me pilgrims, when they kiss the Black Stone, feel {hat they
are embracing me Prophet and all the other Muslims who have been hcrt
before them and who will come afu r them.
No Muslim would deny thai the Kuba had existed long before the
Muhammad; indeed, its lies precisely in this (:oct. The
Prophet did not cl aim to be the founder of a new rdigion. On the (OmTary:
self-surrender to God-ls1 .. m-has been, according to the Qur'an, 'man', natural
indin41ion' since Ihe dawn of human consciousrn:ss: it was this Abraham
and and Jesus and other Prophets 01 God had been teaching_the
of Qur'an being but laSl of the Divine RevelatiOn!. Nor would
'"
a Muslim deny that the sanctuary had been full of idols and fetishes 1>..0,""
Muhammad broke them, juSt as MootS had broken the gol<kn calf al Sin.u; for,
long bdore the idols were brought into the Kub., the True God had been
worshipped there, and thus Muhammad did nO mO", than restore Abraham's
umple t o its original
And there I stood hefon the temple of Abraham ond gaud at the marvel
without thinking (for thoughts and reflections came only much bter), and out
of some hidden, smiling kernel within me there slowly grew an elation like
song.
Smooth marble slabs, with runligln reflections dancing upon them, cov.",d
the t;Tound in a wid. circle :>round the Kaba, and over thesc marble slabs
walked many people, men and women, round md round the black.<f .... pu1
House of God. Among them we", some who wept, some who loudly ""Hed to
God in prayer, and many who had no woro, and no but could only walk
with lowered heads ...
It is part of the hotjj to walk seven times ;uound the K;l.lba; not just to
show "'!peel to the ""nctuary of Islam but to recoIl to oneself the
demmd of Islamic life. The Kaaba is a symbol of God's O""f\eS$, and the
pilgrim, bodily movement around it is a symbolic exp",ssion of humm
activity, implying that not only our thoughts md feelings-al l that is comprised
in the term 'inner life' -but also our outward, active life, our doings :>nd
practical endeavours must have God as their centre.
And I, too, moved slowly forward and beame part of the circular now
around the K""b . Off and on I conscious of a man or woman near me,
isolated piuur6 appeared neetingly my eyes and vanished. There was
a huge Negro in white warn, with a wooden rosary slung like a chain ;uound
a powerful, black wrist. An old M.Jay tripped along by my side for a while,
his arms dangling, as if in helpless confusion, against hi. batik .. rong. A Grey
eye under bushy brow>--to whom did it now lost in t he crowd.
Among the mmy people in front of the Black Stone, a young Indim wnmm:
she wa<l obviously ill; in het" n.rrow, ddieale face by a stnngdy open yearning
visible to the onlooker' s qe like ,f,,, life of fishes mol olgae in the depth of a
crystal<le. r pond. Her hmds with their pale, upturned palm' were stretched
om toward the Kma, and her fingers trembled as if in accompaniment to
wordless prayer ...
I walked on mol on, the minutes passed, all that h;od been small and hiller
in my heart bq;an to leave my heart, I port of a circular stream-oh,
was Ihi, the meming of what we were doing: to bcwmc that one is a
part of a movement in an orbit? W..:; thi" perhaps, all confusion's And
the minutes dissolved. and time stood still, and this Wa<l the centre of the
. ,"
unlve= ...

"'M..., ... 367- )70.