Chapter - 2
Muhammad Asad'- Life and Thought
Muhammad lowering
Asad (1900-92) has emerged
personalities
among the Muslim
as one of the
intellectuals
of the
twentieth century. His personality and thoughts are increasingly being subjected to detailed studies in the East and the West alike. Europeans call him 'The most influential European Muslim of 20 11 century'. Muslims in the East look upto him to see how a man of his status, who though hailed from the West embraced Islam, lived in the Muslims countries, learned Muslim languages and turned out to be in the vanguard of change in the condition of Muslim societies in accordance with the imperative of their faith. The man lived both in the West and in the East and has left a rich legacy of his intellectual contributions, among them his magnum opus,
'The
Message of the Qur'dn - Translated and Explained (1980)'. Some
people
have
been
working
on
his
biography
very
meticulously and preparing thesis in Universities entitling them for Ph. D. degrees. Islamic
Studies
Pakistan, informs about Dr. Muzaffar
[37:3 (1998)], Islamabad, Iqbal, a member of the
editorial board of the journal, working on a research "Muhammad Asad: A Biography." Leading Pakistani daily
project 'Jung'
carried an article which highlighted the features of a proposed Ph. D. thesis of a Pakistani scholar on the biography of Asad." Murad Hofmann is all praise for a research work done an the biography of Muhammad Asad in German language. He says; "Until recently there was no comprehensive biography of this illustrious man. This lacuna has been solidly filled, if only partially, i.e. up to his official conversion to Islam in 1926 in Berlin and 1927 in Cairo." J Many important dimension of his early life have been highlighted in the thesis which has now been published as a book, particularly the factors which could be regarded as the formative influences. 4 Murad has given a gist of these in his review article and hoped
59
Chapter-d that the book is translated into English ' t o allow access of the many admirers of Asad, particularly in India, P a k i s t a n . Britain and the United States, to the only period during which Asad published in
German
exclusively.'3
almost
Isma'il
Ibrahim
Nawwab,
an
o u t s t a n d i n g scholar and eminently able writer of Saudi Arabia, a country where Asad spent many years of his youth, has written a very long article on Asad. In the article the author looks at Asad and his works analytically followed by an anthology of extracts compiled and edited from his w r i t i n g s from 1934 to 1 9 8 7 . ' Dr. Murad Hofmann presents his interesting and critical study of Asad and his t h o u g h t . 7 He shares many things with Asad - native language, r e v e r s i o n to Islam based on study and reflection exposure to c o n t e m p o r a r y
Muslim
society
and w r i t i n g s
and
in two
major E u r o p e a n l a n g u a g e s - English and G e r m a n - which have significantly
contributed
to
a better
understanding
of
Murad i n t r o d u c e s , p e r h a p s for the first time in E n g l i s h , first
work
in
German,
Unromantisches
Morgenland
Islam. Asad's ("The
U n r o m a n t i c East"'). Written at the very young age of 22, it reveals something of A s a d ' s o u t s t a n d i n g literary talent, his acuteness of observation
and richness
of i m a g i n a t i o n ,
and
last, but not the
least, his strong love for the Arabs - some of the c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s which
came
out
so
forcefully
especially in The Road
in
to Mecca.
some
of
his
later
There are n u m e r o u s
writings articles
written by learned men and women across the g l o b e about A s a d ' s life, personality and thought for various r e a s o n s . Jews too have their interest in writing about Asad, a person born in a Jewish family.
We
have
Martin
Kramer,
'The
Road
from
M u h a m m a d Asad (born Leopold W e i s s ) ' , in The Jewish of Islam:
Studies
in Honour
of Bernard
Lewis,
Mecca: Discovery
ed. Martin Kramer
60
Chapter-2
(Tel Aviv: The Moshe Dayan Centre for Middle Eastern
and
African Studies, 1999) pp. 225-47. The current of history seems to be in support of more thorough studies on Asad, his personality, thought and works, which, it Is hoped, shall sharpen our understanding of him and his works. For the present study, where Asad is studied as a Q u r a n i c translator and exegete, we need to have a sketch of his biography, formative influences, his thoughts and his works. E a r l y Y e a r s : F o r m a t i v e Influences Mohammad Asad was a reverted Jew, named Leopold Weiss at birth. Fie was no ordinary revert. Asad not only sought personal fulfillment
in adopted faith. He tried to affect the cotemporary
Islamic scene, as an author, activist, diplomat, and translator of the Qur'an. Mohammad Asad died in February 1992 at the age of ninety
one,
so that he may be said to have
paralleled
the
emergence of every trend in contemporary Islam. Leopold Weiss was born on 12 July 1900, in the town of Lvov (Lemberg) in eastern Galicia, then a part of Habsburg Empire (Lvov is today in Ukraine). By the turn of the century, Jews formed a quarter to a third of the population of Lvov, a town inhabited mostly by Poles and Ukrainians. The Jewish community had grown and prospered over the previous century, expanding from commerce into industry and banking. Weiss's mother, Malka, was the daughter
of a wealthy
local
banker,
The
lived
Menahem
Mendel
Feigenbaum.
family
comfortably, and wrote Weiss, lived for the children. 11
Chapter-2 From Wciss's own account, his roots in Judaism were deeper on his father's side. Flis paternal grandfather, Benjamin Weiss, had been one of a successor of Orthodox rabbis in Czernouitz in Bukovina. Asad remembered his grandfather as a white-bearded man who loved chess, mathematics and astronomy, but who still held rabbinic learning in the highest regard, and so wished his son to enter the rabbinate. Weiss's father, Akiva, did study Talmud by day, but by night he secretly humanistic gymnasium.
learned the curriculum
Akiva Weiss eventually
of the
announced
his
open break from rabbinic's, a rebellion that would presage his son's own very different break. But Akiva did not realize his dream of studying physics, because circumstances compelled him to take
up the more practical
profession
of a barrister.
He
practiced first in Lvov, then in Vienna, where the Weiss family settled before the First World War. Asad testifies that his parents had little religious faith. For them, Judaism had become, in his words, "the wooden ritual of those who clung by habit-and only by habit- to their religious heritage." He later came to suspect that his father regarded all religion as outmoded superstition. But in deference to his family tradition and to his grandparents - "Poldi" to his family- was made to spend long hours with a tutor, studying the Hebrew Bible, Talmud,
Mishna
Targun,
and Geimarra. "By the age of thirteen",
he
attested, "1 not only could read Hebrew with great fluency but also spoke it freely." He studied Targun "just as if I had been destined for a rabbincal career", as he could "discuss with a good deal of self
assurance
the
differences
between
the
Babylonian
and
Jerusalem Talmuds." " He also had delved in the intricacies of Biblical exegesis: The Targum.
Chapter-2 Nonetheless,
Asad
feeling" towards
developed
what
he
called
the premises of Judaism.
"a
supercilious
While he did not
disagree with its moral precepts, it seemed to him that the God of the Hebrew. Bible and Talmud "was unduly concerned with the ritual by means of which His worshipers were supposed to worship Him," Moreover, this God seemed "strangely preoccupied with the destinies of one particular nation, the Hebrews", Far from being the creator and sustainer of mankind, the God of the Hebrews appeared to be a tribal deity, "adjusting
all creations to the
requirements of a 'chosen people'." Weiss's studies thus led him away from Judaism, although he later allowed that "they helped me understand
the
fundamental
purpose
of religion
as
such,
whatever its form." Fourteen year Asad ran away from school and tried unsuccessfully to join the Austrian army to fight in the First World War; no sooner had he been finally officially drafted, then has juvenile expectations of military glory faded with the collapse of the Austrian
Empire. 15 In
1918, Asad
entered
the
University
of
Vienna. He pursued philosophy and the history of art. Giinther has established that in addition to art and philosophy, Weiss pursued chemistry and physics - with star like Erwin Schrodinger, Noble prize winner in 1933. But these studies failed to quench his spiritual
thirst
and
he
abandoned
them
to
seek
fulfillment
elsewhere. ' Days were given to the study of art and philosophy and nights were spent in cafes, listening to the disputations of Vienna's psychoanalysts. "The stimulus of Freud's ideas was as intoxicating to me as potent wine."
Nights were given to passions
("I rather gloried, like so many others of my generation, in what was considered a 'rebellion against the hollow conventions'"). 1 8 Vienna
at that time was one of the most
intellectually
and
Chapter-2 culturally
stimulating
European
cities.
It
was
the
engine
of
burgeoning and interrelated, new, glittering perspectives on man, language and philosophy. Not just its academic institutions, but even
its
cafes
reverberated
psychoanalysis,
logical
with
lively
positivism,
debates
linguistic
centered analysis
on and
semantics. This was the period when the unprecedented views and distinctive voices of Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler and Ludwing Wittgenstein filled the Viennese air, echoing round the world with a profound momentous effect on many aspects of life and thought. Asad had a ringside seat on these exciting discussions; though he was impressed by the originality of those pioneering spirits, their major conclusions left him unsatisfied.
Political trends before
and shortly after the First World War like anti Semitism, Zionism, exoticism
and
anti-rationalism
would
have
definitely
evoked
responses from Asad. Gunther recalls that Theodore Herzl and Asad were similar in being Austrian, assimilated Jews, and journalists. However, while Herzl indulged in Marxism and Zionism, a secular version of the arrogant
doctrine
of
"God's
Chosen
People",
Asad
rejected
Zionism as a racist aberration. He knew after all first hand that Palestine was not a "land without people." We ought to remember that the German literary genius, Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), at that time was at the peak of his fame as a trend - setter. Many a German soldiers in the First World War had gone to battle with Rilke poems in his pocket. Young Leopold Weiss would naturally have been impressed by Rilke's penetrating, spiritualistic lyricism. The amazing thing is that young Weiss, born to be a master, showed neither indebt ncss to Rilke nor Rilkian mannerism. His literary
skills,
so clear
in his original
English
and
German
64
Chapter-2 III,
WMMiniiiiMiiiiiiMiiiMMMIIIIIIIIIil 1
1
1
^
M
^
Versions o f The Road
«
^
—
—
B
to Mecca,
^
—
—
I
I
I
I III
^im^^ManBnW«l»^B^M»«» M «-™ l "3HHaE
obviously w e r e already mature in
I922,20
Asad left Vienna in 1920 and traveled in Central E u r o p e , where he did " a l l manner of short-lived jobs'""
before a r r i v i n g in Berlin.
Here, he ingeniously secured entry in t h e world of j o u r n a l i s m . when his d e t e r m i n a t i o n led him - a mere t e l e p h o n i s t w o r k i n g for a wire service - to a scoop that revealed the p r e s e n c e in Berlin of Maksim G o r k y ' s wife who was on a secret m i s s i o n to solicit aid from n
t h e West •
for a B r o b d i n g n a g i a n
famine
ravaging
Soviet
22
Russia. At this stage, A s a d , like many of his g e n e r a t i o n , lived in the dark depths
of a g n o s t i c i s m ,
having
drifted
away
from
h i s Jewish
moorings despite his rigorous religious s t u d i e s . H e left Europe for the M i d d l e East in 1922, where he came to k n o w and like the Arabs and was struck by how Islam shone on their everyday life with existential m e a n i n g , spiritual strength and inner p e a c e . He
now became
correspondent
-
at t h e incredibly
for the Frank
farter
young
Zeitung
a g e of 22 a
o n e of t h e most
p r e s t i g i o u s n e w s p a p e r of Germany and E u r o p e . A s a j o u r n a l i s t , he traveled
extensively,
discussions regional
with
heads
intermingled
t h e Muslim
with t h e c o m m o n
intelligentsia,
of state, in " t h e countries
man,
held
and m e t several
between
t h e Libyan
desert and snow covered peaks of P a m i r s , b e t w e e n t h e Bosporus and t h e Arabian sea:
Palestine, Egypt, T r a n s j o r d a n , Syria, Iraq,
Iran and A f g h a n i s t a n . Researchers
on Asad
almost
seem
to be u n a n i m o u s
in their
c o n c l u s i o n that earlier years of A s a d ' s life w e r e so full of events,
65
Chapter-2 rupture and even c o n t r a d i c t i o n s that one may w o n d e r whether all these b e l o n g e d to a single human life only.
5
Asad E m b r a c e s Islam During his travels and through his r e a d i n g s , A s a d ' s interest in, and understanding
of,
Islam,
its
scripture,
history
and
peoples
increased, but, being a g n o s t i c , he could not accept that God spoke to and guided man via revelation. Back in Berlin from the Middle East, and now married, all his doubts were cleared in a spiritual, electrifying e p i p h a n y - r e m i n i s c e n t of the e x p e r i e n c e of some of the earliest M u s l i m s - which he narrated in striking p a s s a g e that he wrote some thirty years after this t u r n i n g - p o i n t in his life: One day - it was in September 1926 - Elsa and I found ourselves traveling in the Berlin subway. It was u p p e r - c l a s s My
eye
fell
casually
on
a
well-dressed
man
compartment. opposite
me,
apparently a w e l l - t o - d o - b u s i n e s s m a n , with a beautiful briefcase on his knees and a large diamond ring on his hand. I t h o u g h t idly how well
the
portly
figure
of this
man
fitted
into
the
picture
of
prosperity which one e n c o u n t e r e d every w h e r e in Central Europe in those days: A prosperity the more p r o m i n e n t as it had come after years of inflation, when all e c o n o m i c life had been topsyturvy and s h a b b i n e s s of a p p e a r a n c e the rule. Most of the people were now w e l l - d r e s s e d and well fed, and the man o p p o s i t e me was therefore, no e x c e p t i o n . But when I looked at his face, I did not seem to be looking at a happy face. He a p p e a r e d to be worried: and not merely worried but acutely u n h a p p y , with eyes
staring
vacantly ahead and the corners of his mouth drawn in as if in pain - but not in bodily pain. Not wanting to be r u d e , I turned my eyes away and saw next to him a lady of some e l e g a n c e . She also had a strangely unhappy expression on her face, as if c o n t e m p l a t i n g or
66
Chapter-2 experiencing
s o m e t h i n g that caused
her pain; n e v e r t h e l e s s ,
her
mouth was fixed in the stiff s e m b l a n c e of a smile which, I 'was certain, must have been h a b i t u a l . And then 1 began to look around at all other faces in the c o m p a r t m e n t - faces b e l o n g i n g without exception to w e l l - d r e s s e d , well-fed p e o p l e : and in almost
every
one of them I could discern an expression of hidden suffering, so hidden that the owner of the face seemed to be quite u n a w a r e of it. That was indeed s t r a n g e . I had never before seen so many unhappy faces around me: or was it perhaps that I had n e v e r before looked for what was now so loudly speaking in t h e m ? The i m p r e s s i o n was so strong that I m e n t i o n e d it to Elsa; and she too began to look around with the careful
eyes of a p a i n t e r a c c u s t o m e d to study
human features. Then she turned to me, a s t o n i s h e d , and said: 'You are right. They all look as though they w e r e suffering
torments of
hell ... I w o n d e r , do they know t h e m s e l v e s w h a t is going on in them'? I knew that they did not - for o t h e r w i s e they could not go on wasting their lives as they did, without any faith in binding truth without any goal beyond the desire to raise their own ' s t a n d a r d of living',
without
any
hopes
other
than
having
more
materials
amenities, more g a d g e t s and perhaps more p o w e r . . . When we r e t u r n e d h o m e , I happened to glance at my desk on which lay open a copy of the Koran, I had been r e a d i n g earlier. M e c h a n i c a l l y , I p i c k e d the book up to put it away, but j u s t as I was about to close it, my eyes fell on the open p a g e before me, and I read: "You
are obsessed
you go down to your
by greed
for
more
and more
until
graves.
67
Chopter-2 Nay, but you will come to And Once again:
know!
Nay, but you will come to
Nay, if you but knew it with the knowledge You would In
time,
indeed indeed,
know! of
certainty,
see the hell you are in. you
shall
see
it with
the
eye
of
certainty, And on that day you will be asked
what you have
done
with the boon of life. "~ For a moment I was s p e e c h l e s s . I think that the book shook In my h a n d s . Then I h a n d e d it to Elsa. ' R e a d t h i s . Is it not an answer to what we saw in the s u b w a y ' ? It was an answer so decisive that all doubt was suddenly at an end. I knew n o w , b e y o n d any doubt, that it was a God - inspired book I was holding in my hand: for although it had been placed before man over thirteen centuries ago, it clearly a n t i c i p a t e d
something
that could have b e c o m e true only in this c o m p l i c a t e d , m e c h a n i z e d , phantom - ridden age of ours. At all time people had k n o w greed: but at no time before greed had outgrown
a mere
eagerness
to
acquire
things
and
become
an
obsession that blurred the sight of e v e r y t h i n g e l s e : an irresistible craving to get, to do, to contrive more and m o r e - more today that yesterday, and more tomorrow than today: a demon riding on the necks of men and w h i p p i n g their hearts forward toward goals that tauntingly glitter in the distance but d i s s o l v e into
contemptible
nothingness as soon as they are r e a c h e d , a l w a y s h o l d i n g out the promise of new goals ahead -
goals still m o r e brilliant,
more
tempting as long as they come within grasp: and that h u n g e r that insatiable h u n g e r for ever
new goals g r o w i n g at m a n ' s soul: Nay,
if yon knew it you would see the hell you are
in...
68
Chapter-2
This I saw, was not the were human wisdom of a man of a distant past in distant Arabia. However wise he may have been, such a man could not by himself have foreseen the torment so peculiar to this twentieth century. Out of the Koran spoke a voice greater than the Voice of Muhammad...
All doubt that the Qur'an was the
book revealed by God vanished. He went to the leader of the Berlin Islamic Society, declared his adherence to Islam, and took the name Muhammad Asad. Asad M i g r a t e s to the Muslim World Thus it was that Asad became a Muslim in 1926 and migrated to the Muslim World but the psychological and emotional dimensions of Asad's migration were even more important than the physical ones. Asad's wife Elsa reverted to Islam a few weeks later, and in January 1927 they left for Makkah, accompanied by Elsa's son from her previous marriage. On arrival Weiss made his pilgrimage; a moving passage at the end of The Road to Mecca describes his circumambulation of Ka'ba. Tragically, Elsa died nine days later, of a tropical disease, and her parents reclaimed her son a year later. Asad regarded Islam not as 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 that were harmoniously balanced. "Islam appears to me like a perfect work of architecture. All its parts are harmoniously conceived to complement and support each other; nothing is superfluous and nothing lacking; and the result is a structure of absolute balance no
and solid composure." The range of his interest in 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 magnificence into writing that looked at and
69
Chapter-2 beyond c o n t e m p o r a r y Islam. His interest in Islam and its followers persisted t h r o u g h o u t his life and deeply coloured his treatment of all issues t o u c h i n g the Muslims - r e l i g i o u s , j u r i s t i c and political and he had highly persuasive arguments for his v i e w s . Though he was
always
ideologically
and
emotionally
committed
to
the
Muslims, his attitude t o w a r d s them r e m a i n e d s y m p a t h e t i c without being s y c o p h a n t i c , intelligently critical but never c o n d e s c e n d i n g . Above all, Asad was deeply dedicated to the t e a c h i n g s
of the
Q u r ' a n and the Prophet, tenaciously i n d e p e n d e n t in his thinking, fiercely a n t i - s e c u l a r in his orientation, r i g o r o u s l y c o n s i s t e n t in his 79
logic and always impatient with extremist t h o u g h t and behaviour." When he r e t u r n e d to the Middle East following
his
Islam,
where
Asad
spent
almost
six years
in A r a b i a ,
received w a r m l y , almost daily, by the l e g e n d a r y king
embracing he c
was
Abd AI-
Aziz Ibn S a ' u d (d. 1953), the founder of m o d e r n Saudi Arabia. j U He spent c o n s i d e r a b l e
time in the holy
cities
of M a k k a h
M a d i n a h , w h e r e he studied Arabic, the Q u r ' a n , the Hadith,
and
or the
traditions of the Prophet and Islamic history. T h o s e studies led him to "the firm conviction that Islam, as a spiritual and social p h e n o m e n o n , is still, in spite of all the d r a w b a c k s caused by the deficiencies
of the M u s l i m s , by far the greatest
mankind has ever experienced"^ was
"centered
academic
around
knowledge
the of
driving
force
and from that time, his interest
problem Classical
of
its
Arabic
regeneration." -
made
His
easier
familiarity with H e b r e w and A r a m a i c , sister Semitic languages
by -
was further e n h a n c e d by his wide travels and c o n t a c t s in Arabia with B e d o u i n s . While in Saudi Arabia, Asad took two major a d v e n t u r o u s trips. One was when he went on a c l a n d e s t i n e m i s s i o n to Kuwait in 1929, to trace the funds and guns that were flowing to Faysal Al-
Chapter-2 Dawish, a rebel against Ibn S a ' u d ' s rule. Asad d e t e r m i n e d Britain was behind the rebellion, and wrote so for the papers; much to Ibn S a u d ' s satisfaction. 3
that
foreign
A b o u t the second, Asad
says that he went on a secret mission to C y r e n a i c a on behalf of the Grand Sanusi, Sayyid A h m a d ( 1 8 7 3 - 1 9 3 2 ) then in exile in Saudi Arabia, to transmit plans for c o n t i n u i n g the anti-Italian struggle to the remnant of the Sanusi forces. But the m i s s i o n , 1931, was a futile
one: Italian forces
in
January
crushed that last of the
Sanusi r e s i s t a n c e later that year. Asad also began to settle down. He m a r r i e d t w i c e in Saudi Arabia: first in 1928 to a woman from the M u t a y r t r i b e , and in 1930, following a d i v o r c e , to Munira, from a branch of the Shammar. Thev e s t a b l i s h e d a household in M e d i n a , and she bore him a son. Talal: M e a n w h i l e Asad got d i s e n c h a n t e d with Ibn S a ' u d . Asad had shared the hope that Ibn S a ' u d would " b r i n g about a revival of the Islamic idea in its fullest s e n s e . " But he " h a d done nothing to build up an e q u i t a b l e , p r o g r e s s i v e s o c i e t y . " A s a d ' s final
verdict
was that Ibn S a ' u d ' s life constituted a tragic w a s t e . " I q b a l I n v i t e s A s a d t o S t a y in I n d i a To study M u s l i m c o m m u n i t i e s and cultures further east, such as those
of India,
departed A r a b i a
Eastern
Turkistan,
China
and
Indonesia,
Asad
for India in 1932. Asad b e g a n with a ' l e c t u r e
tour' to India. A c c o r d i n g to British i n t e l l i g e n c e s o u r c e s , Asad had linked intended
up
with
to tour
an
Amritsar
India "with
activist,
Isam'Il
Ghaznavi,
a view to get in touch with
and all
important w o r k e r s " . Asad arrived in K a r a c h i by ship in June 1932, and left p r o m p t l y for Amritsar. he
involved
himself
with
the
There and in n e i g h b o r i n g Lahore, local
community
of
Kashmiri
Chapter-2 Muslims, and in 1933 he made an appearance in Srinagar, where an intelligence report again had him spreading Bolshevik ideas. 37 For Asad, the real attraction of Kashmir would have resided in its predicament as contested ground, where a British backed maharaja ruled
a discontented
Muslim
population.
Beginning
in 1931,
Kashmiri Muslims in Punjab organized an extensive agitation in support of the Muslims in Kashmir. Hundreds of bands of Muslim volunteers crossed from Punjab into Kashmir, and thousands were arrested.
By
early
1932,
disturbances
had
subsided,
but
the
TO
Kashmir government remained ever-weary.
Just what Asad did in
Kashmir is uncertain. But on learning of his presence, the Kashmir government wanted him "externed", although the police had no evidence to substantiate the intelligence report, and there appeared O A
to be legal obstacles to "externing" a European national.
With or
without such prompting, Asad soon retreated from Kashmir to Lahore. There he soon met the celebrated poet-philosopher
Muhammad
Iqbal (d. 1938), himself of Kashmiri descent, the towering Muslim thinker of the modern era. Iqbal persuaded Asad to change his plans and stay on in India "to help elucidate the
intellectual
premises of the future Islamic state which was then hardly more than a dream in Iqbal's visionary mind."
Asad soon won Iqbal's
admiration and wide public acclaim among educated circles with the publication
of a perceptive monograph
on the
challenges
facing modern Muslims. But Asad's freedom was curtailed when the Second World War broke out in 1939. Ironically, though he had refused to accept a passport from Nazi Germany after it had annexed in 1938 and insisted on retaining his Austrian citizenship, the British Raj imprisoned him on the second day of the War as an "enemy alien" and did not release him till its end in 1945. 4i lie
Chapter-2 was the only
Western
Muslim
among
the
three-thousand-odd
Europeans rounded up for internment in India, the large majority of whom were sympathizers of Nazism or Fascism; some have thought that the British authorities' harsh behaviour to Asad was due to their irritation with the a European who always sided with 42
the Indian Muslim community. Asad
in
the
Service
of the
Emerging
Muslim
State
of
Pakistan He moved to Pakistan after its creation in 1947, and charged by its Government
with
Reconstruction
setting
whose
task
up
a
was
to
Department formulate
of
the
Islamic
ideological
foundations for the new state. Later he was transferred to the Pakistan Foreign Ministry to head its Middle East Division, where he endeavored
to strengthen
countries.
capped
He
his
Pakistan's diplomatic
ties to other career
by
Muslim
serving
as
Pakistan's Minister Plenipotentiary to the United Nations. 43 He resigned this position in 1952 to write his autobiography, a work of stunning ingenuity and unrivalled literary effect. Asad P a s s e s AwayAfter writing this book, he left New York in 1955 for other places and finally settled in Spain. Fie did not cease to write. At eighty. after an endeavor which lasted seventeen years, he realized his life's
dream,
for
which
he
fell
all
life
till
then
was
an
apprenticeship: a translations and exegesis, or lafsir, of the Qur'an in English. He continued to serve Islam till his death in Spain in February 1992.
Chapter-2 [To t h e righteous God will sayj "O soul at Peace! Well-pleased, Enter
Return
to thy
Sustainer,
well-pleasing!
thou then, among my
servants! 45
Yea, enter thou My
paradise!"
With his death passed a j o u r n a l i s t , traveller, social critic, linguist, thinker,
reformer,
diplomat,
political
theorist,
translator
and
scholar d e d i c a t e d to the service of God and h u m a n k i n d and to leading the good life. But death will not be the final chapter in A s a d ' s close relationship with the M u s l i m s : his luminous works remain a living testimony to his great e n d u r i n g love affair with Islam. Asad Represents a New Phenomenon Asad,
in
fact,
represents
an
outstanding
example
of
a
new
p h e n o m e n o n of m o d e r n times: the reversion to Islam, on both side of the A t l a n t i c , of several Western writers and i n t e l l e c t u a l s
to
Islam and their p a s s i o n a t e c o m m i t m e n t to its vision and way of life. The c i r c u m s t a n c e s and particulars of their e n t e r i n g the fold of Islam may vary, but there are usually three o v e r - a c h i n g reasons common to them: a belief in the divine origin of the Q u r ' a n and in the P r o p h e t h o o d to M u h a m m a d (S) and I s l a m ' s m e s s a g e to lead the good life. Their act of faith has shown to a w i d e r Western public that, contrary to the m i s p e r c e p t i o n that it is a quaint, religion
followed
message
and
by
wild
teachings
are
natives
in
relevant
remote to,
and
regions,
fanatical Islam's
appropriate
for.
r e a s o n a b l e and thoughtful people in the most a d v a n c e d areas of the world. Equally significant, it has also d e m o n s t r a t e d that, at least among some fair-minded
Westerns the c e n t u r i e s - o l d
barriers
of
74
Chapfer-2 false images of Islam which went up with the Crusades are failing down. This phenomenon is all the more remarkable in that often these reverts find their way to the Muslim faith via a very unlikely path: literature
on Islam and Muslims produced
in
European
languages mostly by orientalists the majority of whom cannot be accused of being friendly to Islam; actually, some are orientalists themselves. Also, most of these reversions have taken place while Western powers were exercising their full political and military might in Muslim lands. The appeal of Islam to Western elites has not been confined to any one county. To mention just a few names: from Great Britain havecome, among
others, Lord
Stanley
of Alderley,
an uncle of
Bertand Russel, the eleventh Baron Headley (Umar Al-Farooq), a member of the house of Lords and an activist believer, Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall, a superb novelist and, later, a translator of the Qur'an, Martin Lings (Abu Bakr Siraj Al-DIn), a perceptive scholar
of mysticism,
and Charles Le Gai Eaton,
a talented
expositor of Islam; from France: Rene Guenon (Abd Al- Wahid Yahya),
an
expert
in
metaphysics,
comparative
religion
and
esotericism; Vincent Mansour Monteil, an Orientalist, and Maurice Bucaille, an author; from Germany: Murad Wilfried Hofmann, a diplomat and writer; from Austria: Baron Umar Von Ehrenfels, an anthropologist;
from
Hungary:
Abdul
Karim
Germanus,
an
orientalist; from Switzerland: Frithjof Schuon, described by T.S. Eliot as the most impressive writer in the field of comparative religion he has ever encountered, and patrician German
Swiss
Titus (Ibrahim) Burckhardt, a scholar of mysticism and the son of sculptor Carl Burckhardt; from North America: Thomas
Irving
(Al-Hajj Ta'lim AH), an Islamic scholar and translator of the Q u r a n , Hamid Algar, British-born distinguished academic with
Chapter-2 special Interest in Islam, Margaret Marcus (Maryam Jameelah), a writer, Cyril Glassse, author of Islam works, Jeffrey
Lang, a
mathematician and writer on Islam, and Michael a poet, a novelist. a writer of travel books. Asad's Unique Place What is the place of Asad in the long list of distinguished reverts from the West in the 20 l century? The contribution made by each individual in the back drop of the peculiar circumstances of Islam and the Muslims in the 20 l century shall have to be evaluated. For some Asad stands head and shoulders above all other Western English-Writing
reverts:
"He
rose
to
unparalleled
eminence
among Western Muslims because none has contributed more than Asad to elucidating
Islam
as an ideology
and conveying
its
quintessential spirit in contemporary terms to Muslims and NonMuslims alike... with brilliant writings on Islam and with wide ranging services to the Muslims, sometimes rendered at great personal sacrifice."
For a correct appreciation of Asad's work,
we have to see it against the backdrop of his first encounter with the Muslim World. Declining Muslim World Asad's introduction to the Muslim World took place when he visited a turbulent, fearful Middle East in the wake of First World War. For the previous two centuries, an ascendant Europe had remade the map of the Muslim world from the shores of Morocco on the Atlantic in the west to the fertile countryside of Mindanao in the Pacific in the east, and from the mountains of Daghestan in the north to the coconut-palm-fringed
beaches of the Maldives
Islands in the Indian Ocean in the south. Its military, political,
76
Chapter-2 cultural and economic onslaught on the sea had blown up like a hurricane. The glory of the Mughals of India and Safavids of Persia had passed away; the back of the once-formidable Ottoman state had been broken; the Caliphate - an institution which, though reduced
in status, still
enjoyed
popular
support
- had been
abolished. The Muslims lagged behind the West in the educational, industrial and technological
and scientific
fields. As the first
decades of the twentieth century wore on, they felt at bay. They were deeply divided, disheartened and humiliated. They had been so weakened that some quarters even harbored designs to ring down the last curtain on Islam as a religion and civilization. 3 f
Cross-Currents In the Muslim World
^^\
-\\ X
During the earlier
decades
of 20
century, these
VJ
\D 'w \
momentous
changes had loosened a storm of new values, concepts and social stresses on the Muslim world; of unprecedented violence and scope, it threatened to sweep away the very foundations of Muslim society. Many Muslims still cherished traditional Islamic values. Yet, a broad spectrum of competing, confusing trends appeared in the Islamic World as the influence of the West had left few Muslim countries untouched. There were movements in support of religious
reform
Muhammad
which
'Abduh
had their
roots
in Muslim
of Egypt (d. 1905) and Iqbal
tradition. (d.
1938)
represented this trend in the early twentieth century and their influence remains strong and alive. But there were also advocates of the newly imported ideas of westernization, nationalism, and secularism who looked to the West for inspiration. The spearheads of these ideologies were Kemal Ataturk (d. 1938) of Turkey and Reza Shah of Iran (d. 1944). As it was not possible to square the antipodal ideas of the traditional Islamic reformers with those of
Chapter-2 the advocates of westernization and secularism, a complete rupture between them was soon fairly fully established. Asad R e c o g n i z e s his Primary Goals In this situation of the Muslim world, Asad saw it as his destiny and duty to critically examine the causes of the decline of the Muslims as well as the forces and the problems pressing them and to wake them from their slumber. Driven by the zeal of a reformer, Asad tried to bridge the gap between the traditional and the modern worlds. He was repelled by what he saw as the religiously and socially disruptive newfangled ideas spreading in the Islamic World: westernization, secularism, nationalism and materialism. Like other writers and thinkers who had in them "a spark of the flame
which burned
in the hearts of the companions
of the
Prophet", " he responded to the challenge to reconcile religion and modernization and to produce what some call "a wide-ranging synthesis of Islam, modernity, and the needs of the society of the day." 53 Asad lived in an era of immense social, intellectual and political creativity. While most other reformers shook the Muslim World with the thunder of their spirits, power of their charisma and strength of their popular support, he was an intellectual who did not belong to any organization. Asad's obvious virtues, those which
no reader
can
fail
to see
immediately,
are
depth
of
knowledge, clarity of reasoning and the meticulous exposition and dissection of arguments, even when he accepts their conclusions. It is his peculiar achievement that, with high virtuosity and great passion, he contrived to make a coherent whole of his diverse concerns. 5
78
Chapter-2 A s a d ' s Intellectual Fortes Definitely
the primary sources of Asad's inspiration were the
Qur'an and the traditions of the Prophet (S). But he could not fail to be impressed by 'Abduh and Iqbal and other thinkers who had earlier diagnosed the ills of the Muslim society and prescribed a similar remedy for it. A vigorous promoter of Muslim ideology and values and a precursor of those Muslims who were proud of their identity and wanted to preserve it in a changing, tumultuous world. Asad instilled in his public new confidence in the power and future of Islam. To do all this, he used a powerful tool: his pen. The reach, range, depth and relevance of what he penned were immense. Asad's writings on Islam and the Muslims extend over half a century, from the 1920s to the 1980s. His writings include: Unromantisches
Morgenland
(1934); Sahih al-Bukharv. an
annotated
Principles
(ca. 1925); Islam at the The early years
translation;
The
of state and Government
Road
of Islam
to
Mecca
Crossroads (1935-1938), (1954);
in Islam (1961); The
The
Message
of the Qur'an (1964-1980), an interpretation of, and a commentary on, the Muslim Holy Book; and This Law of Ours and Essays
Other
(1987). Between 1946 and 1947 he also brought out a
journal, Arafat: A Monthly Critique of Muslim
thought.
Asad's first book was written in German language and carried his original name Leopold Weiss, Unromantisches dem
Tagebuch
einer
Reise
-Frankfurt:
Morgenland
Societats -
- Aus Druckerei
G.M.B.H. - 1094. It was written at the end of 1922 for the publishers Zeitung.
Frankfurter
which was then and continues to be even now the most
79
Chapter-2
prestigious German journal. Weiss wrote this book at the tender age of 22. Together with the paintress Elsa Schicmann, who would be his first wife, between March and October of that year he had visited
Palestine,
inhabitants),
Transjordan
Syria,
Egypt
('Amman,
(Cairo
and
with
only
Alexandria),
6000 Turkey
(Smyrna, just burnt down, and Constantinople) as well as Malta. The book is illustrated by 59 black - and - white photographs which are now of great historical importance. The sources of the photographs are not mentioned." This small diary of just 159 pages amazes one in several ways. Most surprising, however, is the young author's talent as a writer, in particular his powerfully evocative, yet lyrical descriptions of countryside, moods and people; they are often startling but never banal. The colour of light, for instance, may be "shell-like'', travelers may be "silent, as if wrapped up in the great landscape." Forms and movements can be of an 'intoxicating uniqueness" and "wind like a breath without substance." In Jerusalem, he found "little air to breathe" and "a yearning for terror." Here, like no where else, Weiss "heard history roar by" and walked on ground en
so soft that his "feet took comfort from walking."' Weiss, even then, was enamoured
of,
and most
romantically
infatuated with, almost everything Arab. He portrays himself as an uncritical, unconditional admirer of the Arab race and culture. For him, the "Arabs are blessed" (44) and archetypically graceful. In his view, it was "a wonderful expression of the widely alert Arab being" that it "does not know of any separation between yesterday and tomorrow, thought and action, objective reality and personal sentiment" (77). The Arabs, according to him "always with
the
therefore
simple free
things
of tragedy
happening and
out
remorse)"
of
nowhere (86). They
identify (and lead
are "a 80
Chapter-2 wonderfully simple life that in a direct line leads from birth to death" (91). 58 After
talking to leading
figure
of Transjorden
Weiss, in his
idealization of the Arabs, indulged in prophetic lyrics: "You are timeless. You jumped out of the course of world history... You are the contemporary ones until you will be invested by Will, and then you will become bearers of the Future. Then your power will be dense and pure..." (93). There is nostalgia
in the air when Weiss admires the Arabs
because "their lives flow with the naivete of animals" (127). Even while in Istanbul, he regretfully sighs: "Oh, my Arab people"! (153). One more quote would suffice: "During several months, I was so impressed by the uniqueness of the Arabs that I am now looking
everywhere
for
the
strong
centre
of
their
lives...
recognizing the eternally exciting, the stream of vitality, in such a great
mass,
in
so
strange
a
nation"
(133).
Against
that
astonishingly affinity with all things Arab - but surprisingly not Islamic! - the young Weiss, in the book's 'introduction', muses: "in order to understand their genius one would have to enter their circle and live with their associations. Can one do that?" Asad is one of those Westerners who, with extraordinary
effort,
tried to turn into a real Arab. Like all the others, he became a virtual
Arab for the simple reason that neither a civilization
(Islamic), nor a nation (Turkey), nor an individual (after about the age of about 16) can fully assimilate any other culture to the point of erasing the previous one. Cultural transmigration was, and is a futile
attempt. Yet Muhammad
Asad,
fuelled
by his
youthful
infatuation, was perhaps closer than anybody else to becoming a "real" Arab. 61
81
Chapter-2 Unromantisch.es Zionism
prior
Morgenaland to his
reveals y o u n g A s a d ' s
embracing
Islam.
For
him.
ideas
about
Zionism
had
entered into an unholy alliance with Western p o w e r s and thereby became a wound in the body of the N e a r East. H o w e v e r , Weiss, otherwise quite far-sighted, expected Z i o n i s m to fail because of the "sick i m m o r a l i t y " of its Israel project ( 3 3 ) . He considered the very idea that the plight of the Jewish p e o p l e could be cured through a h o m e l a n d , without first healing the m a l a d y of Judaism as such, as a sick one. The J e w s , so t h o u g h t W e i s s , had not lost Palestine w i t h o u t r e a s o n . They had lost it for h a v i n g betrayed their moral
commitment
and
their
God.
Without
reversing
this
disastrous c o u r s e , it was useless to build roofs in P a l e s t i n e . Weiss, still d e c l a r i n g h i m s e l f to be a Jew (45), did not reject Judaism but political
Zionism
(56),
and
did
so
less
on
political
than
on
religious g r o u n d s . There is another major insight to be gained from A s a d ' s book: his virulent decadent,
cultural
exploitative
criticism
(capitalist)
of the O c c i d e n t
and
mindlessly
as
firstspent,
consumerist.
Weiss does not indicate in any way that World War One had j u s t taken p l a c e . But he betrays some of the cultural c o n t e m p t typical of the p r e - w a r
intellectuals
and
of their
longing
for
" n a t u r a l " , risky and existential when c o m p l a i n i n g " h o w
what
is
terribly
risky is the absence of risk." For him, the E u r o p e a n s had become spiritually sluggish, " c l i n g i n g to t h i n g s " , and losing their instincts as
well
as
their
"rope-dancing"
vitality
(5).
Indeed,
he
c o n t e m p t u o u s l y contrasts liberal u t i l i t a r i a n i s m a g a i n s t an Orient that is about is to "regain form its own self what is grand and n e w " and " a l l o w s individuals the freedom to live a life without b o r d e r s " (74). With regard to the y o u n g Soviet U n i o n Weiss, like many others at the time, even dares to speak with a positive note
Chapter-2 and m e n t i o n s the possibility of the " l i b e r a t i o n of the entire w o r l d " (77). 6 3 Thus,
Unromantisches
Morgenland
reveals
Leopold
Weiss as a
poet, a lover (of A r a b i a ) , an anti Zionist, and a moralist.
What
amazes one in all these respects is the authority with which he speaks as a political pundit, making bold forecasts. B e i n g a gifted amateur, he successfully poses as an a c c o m p l i s h e d expert
on Near
Eastern affairs in general, Obviously still a b e g i n n e r in Arabic in spite
of his H e b r e w
background,
Weiss
mentions
only to
one
single occasion w h e r e he used an interpreter, as a b a c k - u p (92). In so p o s t u r i n g
Weiss
showed
himself,
so gifted
that
one
would
hesitate to accuse him of imposture. There is one last amazing thing that we find, or r a t h e r do not find, in A s a d ' s earliest book: Islam is virtually absent. The only time when it is m e n t i o n e d , Asad dismisses it as b e i n g n o n - e s s e n t i a l for their
genius
because
that
is
"rooted
in
its
blood"
(91)
-
a
statement s o m e w h a t smacking of racist A r a b o p h i l i a . T h u s , while holding
many
promises,
the
book
did
not
foreshadow
Asad's
reversion to Islam. The editors of the Frankfurter
Zeitung
i m m e d i a t e l y r e c o g n i z e d the
promise of the g r e a t n e s s of the author. So it was only logical for them to order another travelogue from him. Weiss accepted the assignment, received the money, but was unable to deliver (and was
fired).
Unromantisches Muslim. 6 7
However,
only
Morgenland,
two in
years
after
the
appearance
of
1926 in Berlin, 6 6 he became a
Chapter-2 Islam
at the
Crossroads
A s a d ' s first publication as a committed M u s l i m was Islam Crossroads,
at the
published in 1934. It heralded the arrival of a brilliant
E n g l i s h - w r i t e r revert with a bold, d y n a m i c v i s i o n . A man unafraid of c o n t r o v e r s y , he had one single, e n d u r i n g , d r i v i n g goal: to help bring back the M u s l i m s to the two original s o u r c e s w h i c h were the foundation of their spiritual and temporal g r e a t n e s s , the
Quran
and the Sunn ah, the practice of the Prophet -
binding
explanation
"the
only
of the Q u r a n i c t e a c h i n g s . " '
The book did not claim to give a c o m p r e h e n s i v e a n s w e r to the many ailments that had w e a k e n e d
and d e s t a b i l i z e d
the
Muslim
World. R a i s i n g the banner of revolt against the i n t e l l e c t u a l , social and
political
challenge
Weltanschauung,
posed
by
an
ever-expanding
the primary aim of Islam
Western
at the Crossroads
was
to warn the M u s l i m s against blindly imitating W e s t e r n values and mores, which Asad thought posed a mortal d a n g e r to Islam. It had an a u t h e n t i c Iqbalian spirit, and was an i n c i s i v e , s w e e p i n g - and, often, a startling but refreshing - r e s p o n s e to a tide which had long flowed in favour of Western cultural and political h e g e m o n y . Moreover
it
fundamental
vivified concerns
a
debate
which
in
progress
exercised
Muslim
on
two
of
the
reformers:
the
p e r p l e x i n g p r o b l e m s of w e s t e r n i z a t i o n and M u s l i m revival and the extent to which it was necessary for M u s l i m s to follow the W e s t ' s ways in order to achieve p r o g r e s s . A s a d ' s E m p h a s i s on t h e Q u r ' a n a n d He exposed Sunnah
Sunnah
a d h e r e n c e to the t e a c h i n g s of the Q u r ' a n
without which he thought Islam and Muslim
could not s u r v i v e . He says in Islam
at the
and
the
Civilization
Crossroads:
"Many
84
Chapter-2 reform p r o p o s a l s have been advanced during the last d e c a d e s , and many spiritual doctors have tried to devise a patent medicine for the sick body of Islam. But, until now, all has been because all those clever doctors -
in vain,
at least all those who get a
hearing today - have invariably forgotten to p r e s c r i b e , along with their m e d i c i n e s , tonics and elixirs, the natural diet on which the early d e v e l o p m e n t of the patient had been b a s e d . This diet, the one which the body of Islam, sound or sick, can p o s i t i v e l y accept and assimilate, Sunnah",
in the Sunnah
of our
Prophet
Muhammad."
"The
he e m p h a s i z e s is the key to the u n d e r s t a n d i n g of the
Islamic rise more than thirteen centuries a g o ; and why should it not be a key to the u n d e r s t a n d i n g of our p r e s e n t O b s e r v a n c e of Sunnah progress.
Neglect
decomposition
degeneration?
is synonymous with I s l a m i c existence and of
the
Sunnah
is
synonymous
of and decay of Islam. The Sunnah
with
is the
a iron
framework b u i l d i n g , and if you r e m o v e the f r a m e w o r k can you be 71
surprised if it breaks down like a house of c a r d s ? " The salience of the Sunnah in Islam Sunnah
at
the
Crossroads.
for M u s l i m s is s t r e s s e d in many places One such e x a m p l e
is: " T h e
term
is used in its widest m e a n i n g , n a m e l y , the e x a m p l e of the
Prophet has set before us in his attitudes, a c t i o n s and sayings. His wonderful
life was a living illustration
and e x p l a n a t i o n
of the
Q u r a n , aid we can do no greater j u s t i c e to the Holy B o o k than by 79
following him who was the means of r e v e l a t i o n . " He was r e c e p t i v e to the Muslims being open to the world, but insisted on their m a i n t a i n i n g their spiritual and cultural
identity.
"A Muslim must live with his head held h i g h , " he writes in his book. "This does not mean that Muslim should s e c l u d e t h e m s e l v e s from the voices coming from without. One may at all times receive new,
positive
influence
from
a
foreign
civilization
without.
Chapter-2 necessarily a b a n d o n i n g his own. An e x a m p l e of this kind was the [European R e n a i s s a n c e . There we have seen how reading
Europe
accepted Arab influences in the matter and m e t h o d of learning. But it never invited the out ward a p p e a r a n c e and the spirit of Arabian
Culture,
and never
sacrificed
its own intellectual
and
aesthetic i n d e p e n d e n c e . It used Arab influences only as a fertilizer upon its own soil, j u s t as the Arabs had used H e l l e n i s t i c influences in their time. In both cases, the result was a spiritual enrichment, a strong, new growth of an indigenous c i v i l i z a t i o n ,
full
of self-
confidence and pride in itself. No civilization can p r o s p e r , or even exist, after h a v i n g lost this pride and the c o n n e c t i o n with its our past." 7 3 Asad was always steadfast in his beliefs. But in fairness to him, it should be m e n t i o n e d that, while he held steadfastly to his beliefs. his views m e l l o w e d with time. In a later edition of Islam Crossroads,
he
softened
his
occasional
astringent
at the
stance
on
several issues he had raised some four decades earlier.
Widespread Impact of Islam at the Islam
at the Crossroads
of anomie it received
Crossroads
contributed to the b r e a k i n g up of the ice
and m a l a i s e p r e v a l e n t in the M u s l i m world at the time. great critical acclaim and was c o m m e r c i a l
success,
which cannot be said of all of A s a d ' s b o o k s . But it can safely be said that it is one of A s a d ' s works on which his fame will rest. Iqbal - who o u t s h o n e all other Muslim t h i n k e r s of the twentieth centuriy -
called
it an eye-opener.
It is p e r h a p s
Asad's
widely read and translated book. Its i m m a c u l a t e A r a b i c
most
version
done by ' U m a r Farrukh (d. 1987), a p r o m i n e n t L a b a n e s e scholar and
introduced
readership
than
by the
eminent original,
Mustafa which
al-Khalidi, itself
has
had been
a
wider
reprinted
Chapter-2 fourteen
times.
3
Interestingly
like citizen
kane,
which was a
young Orson Welles' seminal screen masterpiece, Islam Crossroads
at the
catapulted Asad to great 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 to follow. But other writing themes and
achievements
1 ft
backoned the young Asad. Sahih
Al-Bukhdri
After Islam at the Crossroads,
Asad focused his attention on one
of the earliest 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 directly to us and for us: and it is in the hadith that his 77
voice can be most clearly heard."
Like other Islamic reformers,
he thought that knowledge of the traditions of the Prophet- which complement and amplify the Qur'an - was necessary for "a new understanding and a direct
appreciation of the true teachings of
Islam." 78 Infact, he had been preoccupied with the Prophet's Sunnah, or way of life, from his Madlnah days. Toward this end, and with the encouragement of Iqbal, he attempted a task that till then had never been undertaken in English. This was the translation of, and commentary on, the Prophet's authentic traditions as carefully and critically compiled in the ninth century-over a period of sixteen years- by the greatest traditionist al-Bukharl (d. 870). Between 1935 and 1938, Asad published the first five of forty projected installments of al-Bukhari's celebrated work under the title, Sahih al-Bukhdri:
The Early
Years of Islam.
But due to his internment
during the second World War, the destruction of the manuscripts of his annotated rendering in the chaos that followed the creation
87
Chapter-2 of two nation-states India and Pakistan and the press of other intellectual activities, he was unable to complete the publication of this work,
esteemed by many Muslim to be second only to the
Qur'an in importance. Years later he described the sad scene of the end of his loving effort to make the Prophet's voice heard and understood in English: "With my own eyes I saw a few scattered leaves of those manuscripts floating down the river Ravi [now in Indian Punjab] in the midst of torn Arabic books- the remnants of my library-and all manner of debris, and with those poor, floating pieces of paper vanished beyond recall more than ten years of intensive labour. But the years spent on this undertaking were not spent in vain; on the contrary they were, as Asad himself recognized, a preparation Q 1
for a greater task that was awaiting him. The book contains the historical passages normally found in Vol.I, Book 1 ("How Revelation Began"), and Vol. V, Book 57, ("The Merits of the Prophet's Companions") and book 59 Military
Campaign).
However,
Asad
committed
(al-Maghdzi: the
last
29
sections of Book 57 to a new book called "How Islam Began". 82 This was a part of his attempt to re-order al-Bukhari's material according
either
to
subject
matter
(i.e.
personalities)
or
chronology or both, an approach that ran his into objections. After all
al-Bukhari
Sahih,
had
been
read
and
re-read
and
even
committed to memory by so many Muslims since its collection in on
the third century A.H the nine century C.E.
J
Equally important were Asad's detailed and extensive notes - an ideal
way
to make
the
ahadlth
come
alive.
It
is the
very
thoroughness and lucidity of this commentary which one later
Chapter-2 finds again in Asad's The Message
of the Qur'dn.
Typical for
instance, is Asad's treatment of conflicting reports on 'Umar ibn al-Khattab's reversion to Islam (168). He reconciles these reports by suggesting that 'Umar's reversion "was probably not the result of one single experience." With his extensive notes on parts of the Sunn ah Asad followed up his views-first expressed in Islam at the Crossroads-
that not Fiqh
but the Qur'an and the Sunnah must be refocused on the centrepieces of Islam. With his work on the Sahih, by giving the entire corpus
of Hadith
a fresh
credibility
and respectability,
Asad
countered the dangerous tend to turn Islam into merely some form by a vague and amorphous deism. It was a major effort indeed. Ever since, indiscriminate assaults on the Sunnah,
as mounted by Of
Goldziher and later by Schacht, look some what inept. The Principals
of State and Government
in
Islam*6
A book of 107 pages only has become an essential foundation of further efforts to rejuvenate Islamic jurisprudence and to develop a much needed Islamic theory of state. Originally, research on this book was prompted by the need to develop an Islamic constitution for the new Islamic Republic of Pakistan: to base a society not on race or nationality but solely on the "ideology" of the Qur'an and the Sunnah.
The book therefore reflects some of the intoxicating
awareness that the Muslim world might have, now again, "a free 0-7
choice of destiny." Asad was aware that Islamic history could not provide models that could be copied directly. The confederation of Madinah was set up under very peculiar circumstances; it was also unique in so far as
89
Chapter-2 it was being ruled over by a m e s s e n g e r of God. I s l a m i c history has ever since been c h a r a c t e r i z e d pretty much by d e s p o t i s m . The ideas of Nizam al-Mulk (d. 1092) and a l - M a w a r d l (d. 1058) could not serve as the b l u e - p r i n t s of an Islamic c o m m u n i t y in the industrial age. Asad therefore keenly felt the need to make a clear
distinction
between the relatively small set of divine n o r m s g o v e r n i n g state and g o v e r n m e n t ,
found
in the Q u r ' a n
deserve the name of the SharVah.
and Sunnah
As for fiqh,
which
alone
i.e. e n o r m o u s body
of rules derived from the Q u r ' a n and the Sunnah,
it was essentially
m a n - m a d e n o t w i t h s t a n d i n g the fact that its u l t i m a t e sources were rooted in R e v e l a t i o n . "An Islamic s t a t e " , Asad posits in The Principles Government
of Islam,
of State
and
is not a goal or an end in itself but only a
means the goal being the growth of a c o m m u n i t y of p e o p l e who stand up for equity and j u s t i c e , for right and against w r o n g - o r , to put it more p r e c i s e l y , a community of p e o p l e who work for the creation enable
and the
maintenance
greatest
of
possible
such
social
number
conditions
of human
as
beings
would to
live,
morally as well as physically, in a c c o r d a n c e with the natural Law of God, I s l a m . Asad
held
flexibility
that to
modern
deal
and
creatively
future -
Muslims
through
had
ijtihdd,
considerable independent
thinking with an e v e r - c h a n g i n g world and its a t t e n d a n t c h a l l e n g e s . But he believed that it was incumbent upon them when carrying out ijtihdd
to be bound at all times by the two fundamental sources
of Islamic law: the Q u r ' a n and the Sunnah.
He b e l i e v e d that in ail
matters which were clearly enjoined by the Shari'ah,
sovereignty
90
Chapter-2 belonged to God a l o n e , but in most other areas, such as the form of the political system to be adopted, God in His Wisdom gave the believers the right, and imposed on them the duty, to e x e r c i s e their reason
to arrive
mutual
consultation.
principle systems
of
at the a p p r o p r i a t e Asad
decision
laid great
consultation;
he
gave
for their time
emphasis no
on the
quarter
to
by
Quranic
totalitarian
of g o v e r n m e n t , which he thought w e r e p e r n i c i o u s
and
anti-Islamic. The Road
to
Mecca
The Road
to Mecca,
revealed the gems of literary talent in the
secret casket of A s a d ' s genius. In The Road
to Mecca,
published in 1954, Asad offers us nearly
380 e n t h r a l l i n g pages which revolve around the only love that captivated him for life: Islam. His story is " s i m p l y " , he says, "the story of a E u r o p e a n ' s discovery of Islam and of his
integration
within the Muslim c o m m u n i t y " . He wrote it in r e s p o n s e to those of his W e s t e r n c o l l e a g u e s in New York
who
had
been
baffled
by
his
reversion
to
Islam
identification with the M u s l i m s . " S e r v i n g as P a k i s t a n ' s
and
Minister
P l e n i p o t e n t i a r y to the United N a t i o n s , I was n a t u r a l l y in the public eye and e n c o u n t e r e d a great deal of curiosity a m o n g my European and A m e r i c a n
friends
and a c q u a i n t a n c e s . At first they
assumed
that mine was the case of a European ' e x p e r t ' e m p l o y e d by an Eastern
government
for
a
specific
purpose,
and
that
I
had
c o n v e n i e n t l y adapted myself to the ways of the n a t i o n which I was serving; but when my activities
at the United
Nation
made
it
obvious that I identified myself not merely ' f u n c t i o n a l l y ' but also emotionally and intellectually with the political and cultural aims
91
Chapter-2 of
the
Muslim
World
in
general,
they
became
somewhat
perplexed. But what a rich story and how m a r v e l o u s l y told! It covers A s a d ' s life from his b e g i n n i n g in Lvov in 1900 to his last desert j o u r n e y in Arabia in 1932. It treats of vast t h e m e s : a j o u r n e y in space and in spirit, an exploration of vast g e o g r a p h i c a l d i s t a n c e and of the deep interior recesses of a m a n ' s psyche. The Road to Mecca
gives us a rounded portrait of a restless man in
search of a d v e n t u r e and truth. It is part spiritual
autobiography,
part summary of the a u t h o r ' s intuitive insights into Islam and the Arabs, part an i m p r e s s i v e t r a v e l o g u e . Spiced with a virtuosity of literary t e c h n i q u e , a perfect prose style fashioned for the purpose, and a E u r o p e a n s t o r y t e l l e r ' s urbane sensibility and infused with a genuine sympathy for the world it d e s c r i b e s , The Road
to
Mecca
often eclipses the classic travel books on A r a b i a : those of Charles Doughty, R i c h a r d Burton, T.E. L a w r e n c e , Freya Stark and Wilfrid Ihesiger. . P u n c t u a t e d with a b u n d a n t a d v e n t u r e , m o m e n t s of c o n t e m p l a t i o n , colorful Road
n a r r a t i v e , brilliant description and lively a n e c d o t e ,
to Mecca
The
tells a story that on all counts is gripping but
which n e c e s s a r i l y suffers in a skeletal c o n d e n s i n g . It tells of the u p b r i n g i n g of M u h a m m a d Asad in his h o m e l a n d as Leopold Weiss, an Austrian Jew who was descended of o r t h o d o x rabbis, of his University days in Veinna, of musings on the h u m a n condition in the West; of w o n d e r i n g s across central fulfilling
Europe
in search of a
life; of gate crashing into the world of journalism in
Berlin, of his e x t e n s i v e travels all over the m i d d l e East, of soulstirring
visits
to
Jerusalem
and
Cairo;
of
working
as
a
c o r r e s p o n d e n t for one of the most p r e s t i g i o u s G e r m a n n e w s p a p e r s ;
Chapter-2 of
falling
in
love
with
Islam
and
the
Arabs;
of
momentous
reversion to the Muslim faith and b e c o m i n g M u h a m m a d Asad, of sojourning in Arabia for six years and b e i n g the guest of king 'Abd
a l - ' A z i z , the monarch who c o a l e s c e d
once-warring
tribes
into a unified, peaceful K i n g d o m ; of living like an A r a b , wearing only
Arab
Arabic,
dress,
of
speaking
traveling
only
with
the
Arabic; Bedouin;
dreaming of
dreams
studying
in
Islam's
scripture and history in the holy cities of M a k k a h and M a d i n a h : of going on p i l g r i m a g e ; of e n c o u n t e r s with p e o p l e b e l o n g i n g to every stratum of s o c i e t y - t h e simple man in the street, the sophisticated intellectual, the shrewd merchant and the powerful head of state, of
going
on
a
hazardous
secret
mission
to
Italian-occupied
Cyrenaica to contact and assist ' U m a r a l - M u k h t a r ( h a n g e d by the Italians in 1931), the warrior - hero of the c o u n t r y ' s movement.
And,
throughout,
there
are
two
motifs
freedom
which
are
e m b r o i d e r e d on every panel of this w o n d e r f u l l y crafted tapestry: a deep
faith
in God and an o v e r w h e l m i n g
love
for the
Arabian
Prophet. A b o v e all, The Road man's restlessness
to Mecca
tells a h u m a n story of a modern
and loneliness, p a s s i o n s and a m b i t i o n s , j o y s
and s o r r o w s , anxiety and c o m m i t m e n t , v i s i o n and h u m a n n e s s . Its author comes out as brilliant, exciting, lively, full of p e n e t r a t i n g observation, deeply
immense
held
religious
charm, and t r e m e n d o u s beliefs.
Significantly,
zest he
achieves his p u r p o s e in writing. The Road to Mecca: it without getting a better a p p r e c i a t i o n
for
life
and
triumphantly n o n e can read
of I s l a m . R e s i g n i n g
as
P a k i s t a n ' s a m b a s s a d o r to the United N a t i o n s in order to devote himself to w r i t i n g this book, he b e c a m e an a m b a s s a d o r of Islam to the West -
and to many
Muslim lands.
alienated
intellectuals
and youths
in
Chapter-2 I__I
j..uiiiinMiiiiiMiii^iijiiiiiiiiii
I M I W M I I M I in i« •"••WHIM
mmma^^mm^mmmi^Ba^&Bm&Bia^^^^^Bi^^BBi^^^BBWtims&imrmm-muBam&i^&ms^&aBaGB^&iWiiiimtigBS^m^
This book is i n t e r e s t i n g at any point of entry. Like any classic, The Road
to Mecca
has passages which n e v e r lose their
despite r e p e a t e d reading. The road to Mecca
flavour.
covers A s a d ' s life till
the point of his d e p a r t u r e from Arabia to India in 1932. His
readers
were
left
with
a thirst
for t h e r e m a i n d e r
of his
a u t o b i o g r a p h y . He did start working on a s e q u e l , Homecoming the Heart,
of
which promised to unfold the rest of his active and
fruitful life, but it was unfinished at the time of his death. A s s e s s m e n t of The Road
to
Mecca
The merits of The Road to Mecca appeared. The Times Literary
were widely r e c o g n i z e d when it
Supplement
said, " H i s t o r y tells us of
many E u r o p e a n converts to Islam, some of w h o m have risen to high place and power in t h e lands of their a d o p t i o n . . . B u t it is rare to find a c o n v e r t setting out, step by step, the p r o c e s s of his conversion and doing this, moreover, in a n a r r a t i v e of great power and b e a u t y . . . His k n o w l e d g e of Middle Eastern p e o p l e s and of their p r o b l e m s is profound; indeed in some r e s p e c t s his narrative is
at once
more
intimate
and more
penetrating
D o u g h t y . " 9 8 T h e r e v i e w e r of the Christian
Science
than Monitor
that of wrote:
"[This] book is one which has burst with s t r a n g e and c o m p e l l i n g authority
upon
the small
fraternity
of W e s t e r n e r s
w h o know
A r a b i a . . . a book t r e n c h a n t with adventure m a g n i f i c e n t l y described, and a c o m m e n t a r y upon the inner m e a n i n g of Arab and Moslem life,
helpful
to
all
w h o would
achieve
u n d e r s t a n d i n g of the A r a b s and their l a n d s . "
a
more
accurate
A very rare and
powerful book, raised completely a b o v e the o r d i n a r y by its condor and i n t e l l i g e n c e . . . And what we gain in a cultural
reorientation
which should p e r m a n e n t l y affect our view of t h e w o r l d " , said the New York Post
m
94
Chapter-2 This
Law of Ours
and Other
Essays
(1987)101
It seems to be the latest book of Asad. In fact, h o w e v e r , it consists in part of some of his oldest w r i t i n g s . It is a c o l l e c t i o n of some of the essays that were first published in 1946 and 1947 in his " o n e man j o u r n a l " , Arafat
- A Monthly
Critique
of Muslim
Thought
-
which appeared for j u s t a few years from L a h o r e . In the m e a n t i m e , Asad
had
developed
an
intellectual
affinity
to
Ibn
Hazm
of
Cordova (d. 1064) who, like himself, had battled against all that goes beyond Q u r ' a n and
Sunnah.
A s a d ' s struggle to delineate the b o u n d a r i e s b e t w e e n Shari'ah
and
Fiqh appears in an intensed form in this book. Asad derives home the point that the " r e a l " Shari'ah
must be identified (and possible
codified). B a c k e d by Ibn Hanbal, Ibn T a y m i y y a h and Ibn Hazm, he takes the u n c o m p r o m i s i n g stand that nothing m e r e l y based on ijmd or qiyds
~ qualifies to be r e c k o n e d as a d i v i n e n o r m . On the basis
of the Qur'an
and Sunnah
alone - a new ijtihdd
order to develop a modern fiqh, This modern fiqh
was needed in
r e s p o n s i v e to c o n t e m p o r a r y issues.
should be much simpler than the highly c o m p l e x
traditional one; Asad hastened to add, of c o u r s e , no results of the new ijtihdd
could be admitted as forming part of the
either; o t h e r w i s e modern fuqaha'
Shari'ah
would repeat the m i s t a k e of their
a n c e s t o r s : to petrify their j u r i s p r u d e n c e . This Law
of Ours
is of particular interest to P a k i s t a n i M u s l i m s ,
especially its chapter "What do we mean by P a k i s t a n ? " of which a sub-section is entitled " E v a s i o n and s e l f - d e c e p t i o n . " It includes seven
moving
fellow Islamism Muslim
radio-addresses
citizens. when
He
looked
given beyond
by Asad official
he stated: " N e i t h e r the m e r e
majority,
nor
the
mere
holding
of
to his
Pakistani
declarations fact
of
of having a
governmental
key
95
Chapter-2 positions by Muslims, nor even the functioning of the personal laws of the Shari'ah
can justify us in describing any Muslim state
as an "Islamic State" (109). He made it clear that neither the introduction of Zakdt, nor outlawing ribd, nor prescribing hijdb or administering hudud punishments in and by themselves
will do the
trick of turning a country into an Islamic one. For that, so Asad felt, there is only one way: to bring about "a community that really lives according to the tenets of Islam" and presently "there is not a single community of this kind in sight (14)." 104 It is an observation such as these that we encounter for the first time Muhammad Asad, expressing bitter feelings about the ground realities of the world of Islam. Asad was too cautious and scrupulous a thinker to propose a programme
of reform
refinement
and
built on the Shari'ah
attention
to recalcitrant,
without
practical
constant
detail
and
without voicing his views vigorously. "Simply talking about the need for a 're-birth' of faith is not much better than bragging about
our
glorious
past
and
extolling
the
greatness
of
our
predecessors", he says in This Law of Ours and Other
Essays.
"Our faith cannot be born unless we understand
implies
what it
and to what practical goals it will lead us. It will not do us the least good
if we are glibly
assured
that the
socio-economic
programme of Islam is better than that of socialism, communism, capitalism, fascism, and God knows what other ' i s m s ' . . . We ought rather
to
be shown
proposals the Shari'ah
in
unmistakable
terms,
what
alternative
makes for our society is, what views it puts
forward with regard to individual property and communal good, labour and production, capital and profit, employer and employee, the state and individual: what its practical measures are for the prevention
of man's exploitation
by man
for an abolition
of
96
Chapter-2 ignorance and p o v e r t y ; for obtaining food, c l o t h i n g and shelter for every man, woman and child... In another p l a c e , he returns to a central t h e m e , the h a r m o n i o u s interaction b e t w e e n body and soul and b e t w e e n faith and deeds, which was one of the main reasons he was attracted to Islam: "this religion
of
ours
would
not
be
God's
Message
to
man
if
its
foremost goal were not m a n ' s growth t o w a r d s God: but our bodies and
our
souls
are
so intertwined
that
we
cannot
achieve
the
ultimate w e l l - b e i n g of the one without t a k i n g the other fully into account. Specious s e r m o n i z i n g about ' f a i t h s ' and ' s a c r i f i c e '
and
' s u r r e n d e r to G o d ' s W i l l ' cannot lead to the e s t a b l i s h m e n t of true Islam on earth unless we are shown how to gain faith through a better insight into G o d ' s plan, how to elevate our spirit by living a righteous life, and how to surrender o u r s e l v e s to God by doing His Will as individuals and as a c o m m u n i t y , so that we might
really
become ' t h e best community that has ever been b r o u g h t forth for [the good ofj m a n k i n d ' {Surah 3: 110)." The Message
of the
This r e p r e s e n t s magnum specially
focused
Qur'anm opus of A s a d ' s w o r k . The p r e s e n t work is
on this work and shall
be dealt with in the
following c h a p t e r s . A s a d ' s V i e w s on L e a d i n g M u s l i m R e f o r m e r s Asad highlighted the necessity of a d y n a m i c a p p r o a c h to solving the p r o b l e m s of the M u s l i m s by the use of ijtihdd
b a s e d on the two
ultimate a u t h o r i t i e s in Islam, The Q u r ' a n and the
authenticated
traditions of the Prophet. He argued p a s s i o n a t e l y that
following
this rugged path was the only way to e n s u r e a successful revival in the Muslim world. In his insistence on the r e c o u r s e to independent
97
Chapter-2
thinking
he
drew
classical, medieval
inspiration
from
such
and modern periods
luminaries
of
as the second
the
Caliph
'Umar Ibn Al-Khattab (d. 644), 'AH Ibn Hazm (d. 1064), Fakhr Al-DIn Al-RazI (d. 1210), Taqi Al- Dm Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328), Ibn Al-Qayyim Al-Jawziyyah (d. 1350), JamaT Al-DIn Al-Afghani (d.
1897) and Muhammad
'Abduh
(d.
1905). He was
deeply
respectful of the achievements of the great scholars of the past, but was critical of blind deference to individual opinions which according to Islamic principles cannot be regarded as infallible. He thought that all qualified Muslims were entitled and enjoined to exercise their judgment on a wide range of societal issues that arise
in
every
age and had
not been
determined
by
divine
revelation or authentic prophetic traditions. In support of his position, Asad would frequently cite the prophetic 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 still give him a reward. Today, many distinguished scholars endorse the concept of ijtihdd enthusiastically. Asad's disenchantment with secularism and materialism was the child of his very intimate, personal experience of the west. This disappointment
was
deeply
felt,
searchingly
scrutinized
and
trenchantly expressed. The impact of his devastating iconoclastic critique of these trends reoriented many away from defeatism to pride in their Muslim identity and heritage. Asad's cautionary and trailblazing examination of the debilitating effects of secular and materialistic thought on society has led to the appearance of several excellent studies on the subject. Also, the predictions Asad made some sixty-five years ago on the effect of this thought on Muslims have not been wide of the mark.
98
Chapter-2 Apart from very brief period when he was part of a team, Asad always worked on his own. Though he held several leaders of modern Islamic reform movements in high esteem, he was too independent political
a thinker
not to
question
their
currency: he did not grind anybody's
intellectual ideological
and or
political axe. He never belonged to any organized movement, nor did he wish to form a socio-political organization to promote his reformist ideas. Part of this aversion of his was because Asad had little sympathy for the intolerance that often accompanies group partisanship; probably, he also felt that the consuming demands of organizational efforts had detrimental effects on creative writing. But because he was, and remained
an intellectual
and never
became an activist or a founder of a party, he did not leave any disciples who could carry on and develop his thought. For the reasons just mentioned, Asad kept aloof from
affiliating
with the mainstream movements working for the common goal of Islamists:
the
resurgence
of Islam.
respected
the leaders of the major
He,
however,
knew
and
Islamic organizations
and
maintained amicable personal relation with them. He paid tribute to them when the occasion called for it but also spoke up in their defence or cried in lamentation whenever misfortune touched any of them. For example, though he disagreed with "certain points" of the Jamd'at-e-Islami's legitimate
movement."
programme, he thought of it as "a positive, He
considered
the
Jama'at's
founder,
Sayyid Abu '1-A'la MawdudT (d. 1979) "not only a great Islamic scholar but also dear personal friend of many years' standing." He adds: "Although - as is clear from his and my writings - we did not concur on all points, our goal and objective was always the same: a deepening of the Islamic faith and Muslim culture." He also had great affection and admiration for Hasan Al-Banna (d.
99
Chopter-2
1949), who launched in the late 1920's the Arab world's most powerful
Islamic
movement,
Al
Ikhwdn
Al-Muslimun.
He
considered Al-Banna "truly the greatest spiritual guide of our time, although his thoughts and his programme have often been deliberately misrepresented, in the Muslim world as well as in the West." Asad denounced strongly the execution of the gifted writer and Qur'an
commentator
Sayyid Qutb (d.
1966) by
Egyptian
President Jamal 'Abd al-Nasir (d. 1970) whose "mindless and ferocious persecution of the Brotherhood" was behind this heinous act, which violated the lowest standards of decency and justice and stunned the entire Muslim World. "... I mourned his death as did every believing Muslim..." An E s t i m a t e Muhammad Asad has emerged as one of the most writers of 20 l
influential
century Islamic literature in English. Likewise his
readership is across all the major continents of the world. His writings
have
Sunnah
and
covered Shari'ah,
large areas: travel
and
jurisprudence
Qur'anic
and
autobiography, exegesis,
secularism and Westernization, political theory and constitutional lawr. While posterity shall definitely reexamine his position on such
varied
issues
and
re-consider
their
relevance
to
their
situations, it shall very much study the methodology Asad adopted for studying the basic sources of Islam - Qur'an and Sunnah,
and
also the Islamic history, culture and civilization. It is worthwhile to study the views of the contemporary scholars and thinkers on Asad and his contributions. Hence a separate chapter is devoted to such opinions In this work. Asad's magnum opus, The Message the Qur'an,
of
too is worth a detailed study in order to appreciate
how a leading figure of 2 0 n century looks at the last revealed message which continues to be the ultimate source of Divine 100
Chapter-2 guidance
for
all
those
truth
seekers
formative
years
had
who
are
sincere
in
their
search. Asad
in his
been
under
the
influence
of
western ideas and w e s t e r n s c i e n c e s , i n c l u d i n g p h i l o s o p h y , history of art, chemistry and physics. He was p a r t i c u l a r l y influenced by the then e m e r g i n g p s y c h o a n a l y s i s . He had been exposed to the writings
of German
literary genius R a i n e r
1926). whose p e n e t r a t i n g , greatly
influenced
Surprisingly ineptness
Asad
to Rilke
Asad's never
spiritualistic writing
lyricism
in
Rilke seems
German
acknowledged
or Rilkian
Maria
it
mannerism.
to
and
nor
(1875have
English
showed
He had
been
any taught
H e b r e w and learned Talmud and its E x e g e s i s . This would
have
t r e m e n d o u s l y h e l p e d him to learn A r a b i c (also a S e m i t i c language) and the Q u r ' a n (which is the u p h o l d e r of the e s s e n c e of earlier versions of R e v e a l e d B o o k s ) and its E x e g e s i s . While
Asad
in his
early
years
seems
to
be
very
virulent
in
attacking the W e s t e r n civilization and p r a i s e s A r a b s profusely, his later a t t i t u d e - m e l l o w i n g down his criticism of the West and being critical of the M u s l i m s ' (Arabs i n c l u d e d ) current b e h a v i o u r pose serious q u e s t i o n s to the maturity and c o n s i s t e n c y of his views and certainly traits of his personality. Ideas, h o w e v e r , great they may be, cannot be totally d i v o r c e d from the p e r s o n a l i t y
who p r o p o u n d s them. T h o u g h A s a d ' s
ideas
too
have been and continue to be subjected to t h o r o u g h studies more and more today, his personality
too is equally
approached
for
better u n d e r s t a n d i n g . Asad
in quite
right
in e m p h a s i z i n g
the
crucial
I s l a m ' s basic s o u r c e s - t h e Q u r ' a n and Sunnah
importance
of
- in the r e s u r g e n c e
KsssBKsg
101
Chapter-2 of Islam and the need for fresh ijtihdd, but he seems to belittle the importance of the tradition, which has been one of the most important
medium
of
conserving
and
preserving
and
the
development of Islamic culture and civilization upto this day. And also rather ensures its continuity and development in the days to come! In this post-modern period, how would one look at the attempts, however
sincere
they
might
have
been,
of
reconciling
the
modernism with Islam - which may be a contradiction in basic terms.
However,
the
million
dollar
question
remains!
What
intellectual formulations can there be, which are in consonance to the very spirit of the Revealed paradigm of knowledge and cure the contemporary malady of the modern man and takes him to the path
of
Divine
understanding
scheme?
The
answer
of our present maladies
lies
in
our
better
and the worth
of the
tradition. That may pave the way for our future course of thought and action!
Chapter-2
Endnotes
1
Murad Hofmann, in a review article on W i n d h a g e r LEOPOLD
WEISS
ALIAS
GALIZIEN
NACHAR
MUHAMMAD
ABIEN
AS AD
1900-1927.
Giinter, -
Bohlan
VON Verlag,
Wicn, Austria, 2002. p p . 230. ( B i o g r a p h y of Asad in German L a n g u a g e from 1900 to 1927). 2
Jung,
Karachi,
3
Murad
2005.
Hofmann,
op.
cit,
in a n o t h e r
article:
Asad; E u r o p e ' s Gift to I s l a m ' , Islamic
'Muhammad
Studies
39:2 (2000),
2 3 - 2 4 7 , informs us that it is a doctoral t h e s i s . 4
The
Ph. D. thesis has now been p u b l i s h e d
German ASAD
language -
author,
VON
LEOPOLD
GALIZIEN
Austrian
WEISS
ALIAS
NACARABIEN
anthropologist
as a book in MUHAMMAD 1900-1927.
Its
and e t h e n o g r a p h e r
Giinter
W i n d h a g e r has conducted a m e t i c u l o u s r e s e a r c h on
Asad's
earlier years through his A r a b i a n book
carries
an
introduction
by
(1900-1927). Andre
Ginorich
The
and
is
p u b l i s h e d by Bohaln verlag, Wien, A u s t r i a - 2 0 0 2 , p p . 230 (PB). 5
Ibid., p. 35.
6
Isma'il
Ibrahim
Nawwab,
Asad and I s l a m ' in Islamic
'A M a t t e r of L o v e : Studies,
Muhammad
39:2 ( 2 0 0 0 ) pp. 1 5 5 - 2 3 1 ,
Islamabad. 7
Murad Hofmann, ' M u h a m m a d A s a d : E u r o p e ' s Gift to I s l a m ' in Islamic
Studies,
39:2 (2000) pp. 2 3 3 - 2 4 7 .
8
Editor, I s l a m i c Studies, 39:2 ( 2 0 0 0 ) , p. 152.
9
Ibid.
10
Martin K r a m e r , ' The Road (born Leopold Studies
from
Mecca:
Weiss), in the Jewish
in Honour
of Bernard
Lewis,
Mohammad Discovery
of
Asad' Islam:
ed. Martin Kramer (Tel
103
Chapter-2
Aviv:
The
Moshe
Dayan
Centre
for
Middle
Eastern
and
African Studies, ( 1 9 9 9 ) , pp. 2 2 5 - 4 7 . 11
Details
on the
A r a b i c ; over
family
in Lodewijk
Brunt;
het leven van M u h a m m a d
Ya 'akov:
Jubilee
Volume
Occasion
of his Seventieth
Presented
Asad",
to Jaap
Birthday
"Hen
Jood in
in
Neveh
Meijer
on
the
eds. Lea Dasberg and
J o n a t h a n N. Cohen (Assen: Van G o r c u m , 1982), 182, quoted by Martin Kramer, op. cit, fn. 3. 12
M u h a m m a d Asad, The Road to Mecca
( N e w Y o r k : Simon and
Schuster, 1954), 55. 13
M a l i s e R u t h v e n , " M o h a m m a d A s a d : A m b a s s a d o r of Islam", Arabic:
The Islamic
World Review,
14
Ibid., pp 5 5 - 5 6 .
15
Navvwab, op. cit, p. 156.
16
Asad, The Road to Mecca, al-Andalus,
1993),
58
S e p t e m b e r 1 9 8 1 , 59.
4th rev. eds. rept. ( G i b r a l t a r : Dar (First
published,
London,
Max
R e i n h a r d t , 1954). 17
Ibid., p p . 5 8 - 5 9 .
18
Ibid., p. 60.
19
N a w w a b , op. cit, p . 156.
20
M u r a d Hofmann, n. 5, p. 234.
21
Asad, Mecca,
22
N a w w a b , op. cit, p. 157.
23
Murad
p. 62.
Hofmann
is of
the
view
that
Asad
was
initially
e n a m o u r e d of and most r o m a n t i c a l l y infatuated with, almost everything A r a b . And through A s a d ' s earlier writings
one
could not foresee his reversion to Islam a few years later. He has quoted Gunther, A s a d ' s G e r m a n b i o g r a p h e r , as having the same c o n c l u s i o n about A s a d ' s earlier i n t e r a c t i o n with the A r a b s . See M u r a d , n. 5, pp. 2 3 4 - 3 5 .
104
Chapter-2
24
Asad,
"Foreword",
fourteenth
(1934),
Islam
at
the
Crossroads.
rev. eds. (Gibraltar: Dar al-Andalus,
(First published,
Delhi and Lahore: Arafat
1982), II
Publications,
1934) 10-11. 25
Murad Hofmann
in review article on Gunther's book on
Asad. 26
The Qur'an, 102:1-8. The translation of the short Surah that appeared originally in The Road to Mecca, in 1954 was later improved by Asad in his The Message
of the Qur'an.
The
present version is a synthesis of the best of both renderings, (Nawwab, op. cit, fn. 9). 27
Asad, Mecca, 308-310.
28
Asad, "Foreword", Crossroad,
29
Nawwab, op. cit, p. 159.
30
Asad, Mecca, 1.
31
Asad, "Foreword", Crossroads,
32
Loc. cit.
33
Nawwab, op. cit, p. 160.
34
Asad, Mecca, chap. VIII, "Jinns."
11.
Joseph Kostiner, The Making
12.
On the Dawish affair see
of Saudi
Arabia
1916-1936
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 117-40 35
Ibid., chap. XI "Jihad."
36
"History sheet of Herr Leopold Weiss Alias
Mohammad
Asad Ullah Vyce. An Austrian convert to Mohammedanism", prepared by the Intelligence Bureau of the Government of India,
included
in
letter
from
E.J.D.
Colvin,
Political
Secretary, His Highness' Government Jammu and Kashmir (Jammu) to Lieut. Col. L.E. Lang, Resident in Kashmir (Sialkot), 30 January 1934, India Office Records, R/l/1/4670 in The Road to Mecca, Asad dates his last Arabian journey to
105
Chapter-Z
the late s u m m e r of 1932, which would place his final arrival in India at a later date than J u n e . Quoted by K r a m e r , op.
cit.
fn. 24.
37
B r i t i s h e r s , during those days were o b s e s s e d with Bolsheivic ideas;
CID
report
of
20
November
1933,
India
Office
Records, R/l/1/4670 38
On the K a s h m i r agitation of 1931-32, see David Empire
and
(Berkeley:
Islam.:
Punjab
University
of
and
the
California
Making Press,
Gilmartin,
of
Pakistan
1988),
98-99.
Quoted by Kramer, op. cit, fn. 26 39
. Lieut. Col. L.E. Lang, R e s i d e n t in K a s h m i r ( S i a l k o t ) to B.J. Glancy, Political and
Political
India Office
Secretary,
Department
Government
(New
Delhi),
of India, 31 J a n u a r y
foreign 1934,
R e c o r d s , R / l / 1 / 4 6 7 0 . Q u o t e d by Kramer,
op.
cit, fn. 2 7 . 40
Asad, Mecca,
2
41
Asad, " A u t h o r ' s N o t e . " This Law of Ours and Others
Essays
( G i b r a l t a r : Dar a l - A n d a l u s , 1993), 1, (First p u b l i s h e d 1987). 42
. N a w w a b , op. cit, p. 160.
43
Asad, Mecca,
44
N a w w a b , op. cit, p. 161.
45
The Q u r ' a n , 8 9 : 2 7 - 3 0 , as rendered by Asad in The of the Qur'an
2
Message
and revised by N a w w a b , op. cit, p. 161
46
N a w w a b , op. cit, p. 161.
47
N a w w a b , op. cit, p. 162-62.
48
N a w w a b , op. cit, p . 162.
49
N a w w a b , op. cit, p. 162-63.
50
Ibid., p. 163.
51
Ibid., p. 163-64.
106
Chapter-2
52
Asad, "Foreword", Crossroads,
12.
53
Nawwab, op. cit, p. 164; It is a moot question whether Islam and modernity can be reconciled. And if any so called synthesis is attempted at, what result would be expected from that (AMK).
54
Ibid.
55
"Unromantic Orient."
56
Murad Hofmann, n. 3 pp. 233-34
57
Ibid., p. 234
58
Ibid.
59
Ibid
60
Ibid, pp. 2 3 4 - 3 5 .
61
Ibid.
62
Ibid.
63
Ibid.
64
Ibid., 2 3 5 - 3 6
65
Ibid.
66
In 1927, Asad married Elsa in Cairo and formally confirmed his reversion to Islam there
67
It is to the credit of Murad Hofmann that he presented important dimensions and excerpts from Muhammad Asad's first
book
in
English
language
otherwise
has
hitherto
remained un-translated 68
Asad, Crossroads,
85
69
Nawwab, op. cit, pp. 165-166.
70
Ibid., p. 85
71
Loc. cit
72
Asad, Crossroads,
73
Ibid., 7 9 - 8 0 .
74
Nawwab, op. cit, p. 167.
83.
107
Chapter-2
75
Al-Islam
Muflaraq
al-Turuq
(Beirut:
Dar
al-'llm
lrl-
Malayin, 1946). 76
N a w w a b , op. cit, p. 167.
77
Asad, " P r e f a c e to the First E d i t i o n " , Sahih Early
Years of Islam
al-Bukhdri:
The
(Gibraltar: Dar A l - A n d a l u s , 1980), p.v.
(First p u b l i s h e d 1938). Quoted by N a w w a b , op. cit, p. 168. 78
Loc. cit.
79
Asad, " P r e f a c e to the First E d i t i o n " , Sahih a l - B u k h a r i : The Early
Years
of Islam
(Gibraltar:
Dar
Al-Andalus,
1980),
p.ix. 80
Loc. cit.
81
N a w w a b , op. cit, p. 168.
82
Murad, n. 3, p. 239
83
Ibid
84
Ibid.
85
Ibid.
86
U n i v e r s i t y of California Press, 1 9 6 1 ; r e p r i n t e d in Gibraltar: Dar a l - A n d a l u s 1980
87
Murad, op. cit, p. 240.
88
Ibid.
89
Asad, The Principles
of State
and Government
in Islam,
new
eds. ( G i b r a l t a r : Dar a l - A n d a l u s , 1980), 30 (First P u b l i s h e d 1961). 90
C.f.
Malise
Ruthven,
"Muhammad
Asad:
Ambassador
of
I s l a m " , p . 60- and p. 62, w h e r e Asad d e n o u n c e s d e s p o t i s m in the m o d e r n Muslim World. Quoted by N a w w a b , op. cit. pp. 176-177. 91
Asad, Mecca,
1.
92
Loc. cit.
93
N a w w a b , op. cit, p. 169.
108
Chapter-2
94
N a w w a b , op. cit, p. 169.
95
Ibid.
96
Ibid.
97
After A s a d ' s death, Pola Hamida Asad w r o t e that the sequel to The Road
to Mecca
was only partially c o m p l e t e d by him
and that she herself would c o m p l e t e it. It would be called Home-Coming
of
suggested"
Hasan
Visionary
the
Heart, Zillur
Islamic
Scholar",
"a
title
Rahim, The
which
he
himself
"Muhammad
Asad:
Washington
Report
on
M i d d l e East Affairs, September 1995, p. 46. 98
24 D e c e m b e r , 1954. Quoted by N a w w a b , op. cit, p. 175.
99
Blurb
of Mecca,
1993 reprint, Q u o t e d by N a w w a b , op. cit, p.
175. 100
Blurb
of Mecca,
1993 reprint. Q u o t e d by N a w w a b , op.
cit,
pp. 175-76. 101
Gibraltar: Dar A l - A n d a l u s , pp. 195.
102
Murad, n. 5, p. 2 4 1 .
103
Ibid.
104
Ibid.
105
Ibid.
106
Asad, Essays,
107
Ibid, 6 9 - 7 0 .
108
G i b r a l t a r : Dar Al- A n d a l u s , 1980, 9 9 9 p p . (large format).
109
N a w w a b , op. cit, p. 187.
110
Ibid., pp. 187-88.
111
Ibid., p. 188.
112
All
69.
quotations
in
" C l a r i f i c a t i o n " , Arabia:
this
paragraph
The Islamic
are
World
from
Review,
1981, p. 4. Quoted by N a w w a b , op. cit, fn. 7 1 .
Asad, October