Muhammad Asad: Europe's Gift to Islam

MURAD HOFMANN

Introduction

On 18 May, 2000, th~ Austri:ut Orit'ntal Society H:unm~r-Puq;stall in it! pnmi~s in Vi~nna org:utized a symposium called "Leopold Weiss alias Muhammad Asad (1900--1992) - a Lif~ Dedicaud to bbun".1t was amnded by a V:lTiety of people including :ut 89·year old cousin from Asad's f:unily in Vi~nrul. Gunther Windhager,:ut Austri:ut gOOuate student writing his docto""] thesis on Asad gave a biographical introduction illustrated by rar~ photographs obtained from Asad's step·son Heinrich Ahmad Schiemann, nOW 82 years old. Professor Reinhard Schulze (Berne University) devoted his study to Asad's approach to Islam, and Dr Murad Hofmann, who~ Diary of a German Muslim (1983) wries an introduction by A,ad, spoke about "The Reception of Muhammad A~'s Thought in the Muslim World".

Against this background I propo,e to throw SOme light on the twO extnm.. ends of the remMkable Asad phenomenon, (i) His debut as a prodigal , self·made Orienulist writer before hi, conversion 10 Islam;:utd (ii) Ihe reactions 10 hi. view. by Muslim. in the W~t as well "" in the Muslim world, before and after hi. duth in Spain.

I

~an re<>deu Me fortunate 10 have ;\CCt$s 10 Muhantmad A,ad's urliest book published under his orgininal nante: Leopold Weis.s, U"mmanriJd~s Morgen/and' - Aus dnn Ta~bu,h ein~ Reise - Frmkfun: Societ:it.<-Druckerei G.m.b.a 1924.

It was wrinen at the end of 1922 for the publish~n FrankfHT/eT lei/Hng, which was then and continue, to be even now the mOst prestigeous German journal. Weis.s wrote this hook at tho: tender age of 22. Together with the painlress Elsa Schiemann, who would k his first wife, between March and Ocrokr of that year he had v;s;ud hlest;ne, Transjordan r Amman, with only 6000 inhabitants), Syria, Egypt (Cairo:md Alexandria), Turkey (Smyrna, just

l·Unrom,,,,,",Or;'n," .

'" burnt down, and Constantinople) as wdl as Malu. The book is iUustnttd by 59 black-and.white photographs which arc nOw of gre>.t historical importance. The SouIUS of the photogr.ophs.n: not mentioned.

This smoll diary of just 159 pages o.m:ozes One in several w.Y'. Most surprising, however, i$ the young aumor's talem as a wriler, in particular his powerfully cvoa:otive, yet lyrical descriptions of countryside, moods, and people; they are often startling bill nevu b:m:al. The colour of light, for imunce, may ~ "shell·like"; t",vellen may be ·silent, as if wrapped up in the great landscape". Forms and movementS can be 01 an "imoxicating uniqueness" and ·wind like. breath without subst:mO'". In Jerusalem, he found "little air to b",.tru,":and ". yuming for terror", Hue, like nowhere else, Weiss "heard history ro:u- by' and walked on ground so soft that his "ftet look comfort from walking-.

We ought to rem.m~r th.1 the German liter.ry genius, Rainer M:uia Rilke (1875-1926), ~t th~t time was ~t the peak. of his bme as a trend·setter. Many a German soldier in the First World War had gone to battle with Rilke poems in his pocket. Young uopold Weiss would naturally have been impressed by Rilke's penetrating, spiritualistic lyricism. The ;unuing thing is that young Weiss, oorn lO be. master, showed neither indebtedness to Rilke nor Rilkian mannerism. His literary skills, SO dear in his original English and Gennan versions of ~ Road 10 Mtc<:4, obviously were already mature in 1922.

A =ond surpise comes with the realizalion that Weiss, eVen then, was enamoured of, and most romantically infatuated with, almoSt everything Arab. He ponrays himself as .n uncritical, unconditional admirer of the Arab race and culture. For him, the "Arab • .re blessed" (44) and arcl!etypically graceful. In his view, it was "a wonderful expression of the widely alen Anb being- thaI it ·does nOt know of any separation between yesterday and tomorrow, thought and action, objeaive reality and personal sentiment" (77). The Arabs, according to him, ·a1w~y' identify with th. simple things happening Out of nowhere (and arc therefore free of tragedy and remorse)" (86). They lead ". wonderfully simple life that in ~ direa line leads from hinh to de:u:h" (91) .

After talking lO leading figure of T r:>Jlsjordan Weiss, in his idealization of the Arabs, indulged in prophetic lyrics: ·You afe timeless. You jumped out of the .:ourse of world hiStory ... You are the contemporary ones unti l you will be invested by Will, and then you will become hearers of the Future. Then your power will he dense and pure .. ." (93). (Here, I muSt admit, Ri lke had looked Over his shoulders).

There is nostalgia in the air when Weiss admires the Arabs ~use "their lives now with the niiveu; of animal." (127). Even while in Istanbul, he regretfuUy sighs: "Oh, my Anh people"! (153). One more quote would suffice: "During several months, I was so impressed by the uniqueness of the Arabs th~t I am now looking everywhere for the Strong centre o f their li~ •... recogniung the t:tcrnally .xciting, the Slre;un of vitality, in mch a great mass,

in so stnnge a nation" (133). Against that :astonishing ~ffinity with all things Arab - but surprisingly nOt Islamic! - the young Weiss, in the book's ' Introouel.ion', muses; "In <>roer to un<km:md their genius one would have to enter tht'ir circle and live with their :associati<>n •. Can nn~ do Lha' ")

A~ i, one of those Westerners who, with extraordinary effort, tried to turn into a real Arab. Like all the others, he bec.une a virr,,"} Arab for Lhe simple re:ason that neither a civiliu.tion (Islamic), nor a nation (Turkey), nor an inJividual (after about the "ge of .bout 16) Can fully :assimilate any other culture to the point of er:asing the previous one. Cultural tf"1U1smigration "":as, and is, a futile attempt. Yet Muhammad Asad, fu elled by his youthful infatuation, .... :as p"rhaps closer than anybody el~ 10 becoming a "real" Arab.

We know from 7k Road 10 Mtcca thai the process which ultimately led Leopold Weis. to Islam w:as triggered by his politic:.! opposition to Zionism in Palestim. U"romam;,c~l MorgrnLmd Sttms to tdl that story much more precis-ely. For him, Zionism had entered into an unholy alliance with Western power. and thereby became a wound in the body of the Near East. Howevc-r Weiss, otherwis-e quite far-sighted, expected Zionism to f.il because of the ·sick immorality" of ilS Israel projeel. (33). He considered the very i<ka thar the plight of the jewish pwple could be cured through" homeland, withom first healing the malady of Judaism as such, as • sick onc. The j ew., so thought Weiss, had nOt loS! Palestine without reason. They had lost it for having betrayed their moral commitment and their God. Withom reversing this disastrous course, it was useless to build roofs in Palestine. Weiss, still declaring himself to be a Jew (45), did not reject Judaism but political Zioni<m (SO) , and did SO less On pol itic:.! than on ... >/ig'OUf ground~. This is the surprise no. 3.

Th~r~ i. mother major insighl to ~ gained fro m Asad', first hook: his virulent cul!UraI criticism of the Occident as 'p"nt, de<."3d~nl, cxploi tati,,~

(capitalist) and mindlessly consumerist. W~i~s do~ not indicate in any way th.1 WorM War One had just taken place. Bm he betrays same of the cultural contempt typicol of the pre-w.r intellectuals and of their longing for what is "natural", risky md existential .... hen complaining "how terribly risky ;s the ah~ncc of risk". For him, the Europeans had become spiritually sluggish, "clinging to things", ond losing tht'ir instinctS .~ well as their "ropc-dancing" vitality (5). Indeed, he contemptously contn.stsli~ral uti litarianism against on Orient that i~ .bout to "regain from its own self .... har is grand and new" and "allows individual. the freedom 10 live a life without borders" (74). With regard to the young Soviet Union Weiss, like mmy others at the time, even dares to speak with a positive nOte md mentions the possibility of the "liberation of Ihe entire worlel" (77).

Thus, U.,roma.,tifd.ef Ml1rgrnlami reveals Leopold Wt'iss a~ a p~, a lover (of Arabia), m anti·Zionist, and a moralist. Whar amncs one in all t!test respects i. the .uthority .... ith which he speaks :1.5 a political pundit, making bold fo recaslS. Being a gifted am. l .... r, he <ucCdfuHy poses as an accomplished t;t[xrl on Ncar Eastern affairs in general. Obviously $Iill a beginner in Arabic

'" MURAD HOfMNIH

;nspiU,' of hi. Hebrew backsround, W <'iss mentiolls only to one single occasion where he used an interpreter,:as a h;><;k.up (92). In so posturing, Weiss showed himself, so gifted Ihat one would h<$iUles to XClIS<' him of ;m?O<{uu. Oid he, for insunce, nOt grasp correaly in 1922 that ~Ar.lb unity will only cOme Ion!; after Arab frttdlim has been ;ochieved in the individual coulltries; and not hefore" (114)? Chutzp:oh, or:m exlrwrdilUry degr~ of intuition?

There is one last amazing thing that we find, or rather do not find, in Aoo's earliest hook: Idam is vinually .bsent. The only time when it i. mentioned, A.ad dismisses it:as oong non-essemial for the Anb genius bec..use that is -rooted in its blood" (91) - • ,,"lement somewhat smacking of racist Arabophilia. Thus, while holding many promi:.es, the book did not fores~ow Asad's CQrlversion to !.sbm.

The editors of Fr"n/ifuTkT Ztilung immediately recognized the promise of the greamess of the author. So it w:as only lo~cal for them to onkr another travdogue from him. Weiss accepted the :assignment, received the money, but was unable to deliver (and was fired). Howevu, only IwO years mer the app"arance of Unromant;scha MOTf!Tlland, in 1926 in Berlin,' he became a Muslim.

II

Againn this il1unriou~ background, In us now turn to the other end, :md beyond, and consider Muhammad As.ad', eventful life in order to assess the impact he has had on Islam in the 2(){h ~ntury and 10 find Out how his promise, SO &",at in 1922, would materialize.

In 1901, in Leipzig, Max Henning _ possibly a pseudonym for August MaUer, an Orientalin professor at Konigsberg University - published his well· known and much appreciated translation of the Qur'in into German. It i, to be noted, however, tlul in his 'Introduction' he observed that "Islam h:lS obviously played Out it.s political role", This was, of course, the accepted view among the politicians and orientalists in Europe, and that tOO for undemandable reasons, The entire Muslim world, except for a tiny part in the interior of Arabia, had been subtected to colonization. Both de-Islamization and ChristianiZ<ltion seemed to be making headway. The Islamic moorings of the Muslim elites who had been educated in the West had been weakened. In shon, the Occident, more vigorous and dynamic and functionally more impre$Sive in &",at many re~peCIs and embodying r.lIionality and progress , w:lS seen to be achieving its mission ,ivjJ;sarr;u world-wide.

Today we know that Henning and his fellow observers had made a misjudgement SO crass that it amuses us today. By hindsight tm, question is

'lD 19V, Aoad marn.d as. in Coiro and lonrudly ronftnn«l hi, cODv • .,ioD to kbm th ....

m

whether they could h~"" fon·~«n the enormous success of the Islamic Movcmenu in revitali ~ing !slam throughout the world during the 20th ceotury)

Thi, raises another question: What triggered these movements towards ~n Islamic awakening and rejuvenation? OJuld their effect. have ~n forl!St<:f\ therJ

In my Own view, Max Henning might have avoided his misjudgement if he had betn awart of tbe Muslim intellectual, who wert ('VcntuaUy instrumental in rnaping Islam', contemp<:>r.oryupsurge: Jamilad·Din a1·A~h:ini (d. 1897), MuJ.!:unmad 'Abduh (d. 1905) Muhammad Rashid Rid .. (d. 1935), I:Jasan aJ·B;mna (d, 1949). MuJ.!ammad Iqbal (d, 1938). Sayyid Qu!b (d, 1966), and Sayyid Abu 'J-A'li .J-MaudUdi (d. 1979). Muhammad A,;od tOO must be reckoned as ~longing to this distinguished group of people and played a key role both as a thin~r and as an :u:tivist who had an n<:eptional impact both horizontally and ""rticolly.

Indeed, never ~nce Karl May (1842_1912), the most popular author of advmtu", ,torie$ tvU writun in German, has anyone f=i""ted millions of German readen with things Ar.lhic md Islamic >.S Muhammad As;r,d did with his Dt-r Wtg narb M,kJu.' a book that beame a ben seller the vcry moment it app"arnl, fir§{ in English, >.S 7k Road ro M""ca in 1954:lI1d thm in German in 1955.' Perhaps no other book exceptlhe Qur'an itself lnllo a greater num~r of conversions to Islam.

We know today that the book i, a mixture of fact md fiction , which was >.S legitimate for A~ as it had bttn for Johann Wolfgang vOn Wthe (d. 1832) when he called his autobiographic DichlHng "nd Waln-~il ("Truth and Fictionj. What comes OUi of the book with compelling force is the truth of the Islamic a/,<,imCt and the genuine description of the ,pirituallandscap" of Isbm.

In The Road tl> M""ca A~ still appcan >.S a friend o f all things Arab, but now Arab virtues and Arabic civilization are seen rooted in Islam. Even those passages which ~ look OVCT from Unromanl;"heo Morgenland and made il a part of his The Road to M=a arc not simply tran,posed; they Iu."" bttn pr .. cmcd as .... n through an Islamic prism.

Nor can One hold it against Asad Ihal his account of what prompted him 10 =pI Islam (= chaptet 9 "Dajjalj remains less than convincing: a subway =ne in fkrlin, and Ihe finding by "chance" of the Qur'anic verse lO explain in the phenomenon he observed. Well, did St. Augustine (in his Con/mions) or Abu Hamid al·Ghaz.ili (in his aI.M"nqiJh min aI·paW) give an anSWer that would fully satisfy everybody? Can :lIly convert fully aiu:! convincingly anal~ his conversion?

'Fi", Gtll"llall edi,ion F,,,,,kfun: S. Fiu;h" V,rla, 1955. r.,.i,.d od. 19aZ. In <h. <am. Y'" ;, r •• ppeared in G;bralu" 0., .~An.:W~~ 198Z.

"New York: S;",on &. Sdmlte<; london: M>lI Reinh.rd!. 195 •.

III

AI the =e time, one rninght Venture to ~y lh~t And's impact was not only OOriwnl4l. He hs ldt his mark wrrically as well ;0 scientific depth, wilh a IS"rie!l of Doob exh one of which is a pion~r;ng effort, if nO! .. clotf d'ofJU.

l..e! u5 cast a gl:1.1lce at them. (1) The first of these is /slam ;II tIN Crossroads (Llhore, Ashraf 193.), showed And once more as a CU\IUr:U critic with a political vision, as a sociologist of rdigion, and as .. politicil thinker with :malYli,aI capabilities bordering on the prophetic. Its fim cM.pter, "The ~n Road [0 Islam", shows Asw as "­theologian "" weU. The content of this chapter in particubr =ml to h."" Mil much :apprecined. This is evi<km from the fact that ;1 has ~n f~uently published separately under the tide: 1k Spirit of lsu.m,

In this hook Asad for~.w in particulu the current cnsis of e h.;";",, chri,tology - even clerics deserting the notion of divine incarn~uon - the emergence of Islam as a third force hctw"Cn Capitalism and Communism -both sharing a g=t deal of commanality - and World War Two as "a war of hitherto unknown dimensions and scientific terror I!)" which will "lead the materialist self<onceit of the Western civilization in such a gruesome way ad absurdum that its ptOple will begin once more ... to search after spiritual truth" (81).

Is this not where we find ou",tivtS now?

Small in form~t and limi.ed '0 160 pages, 1.L.m If' rht: CTOffl'OII.J. i. in fact a mnnumental historic:r.l, inteUeau:'!, :md sociologic:.! critique of Christianity and the Occident as a whole. It can be coruidered 10 be the first :'!most tot:'! ,..,jeaion of Europe ("born OUl of the spirit of the crusades"; 68) and Western idtOlogy. This was bter f01l0WM up by wnttr. such as Sayyid Qutb and the trend has now caught On in many quarte",. In this respect one may consider Asa<! as a predecessor even of William Ophuls, Requiml fOT Modern PoIiticJ and Michel HouHebeca, Tht World IfS S~aTIuI.

Equ:.!ly important is the f2Ct that Asad, in an entirely onhodox manner, defends the Ssmn.oh from the atI:ocks which were made by 19naz Goldziher towards the end of the nin~~nlh century and those that would be made by Joseph Schacht al"Qund the middle nf the twentieth century onwards. At the same time, :.!ready in 19}4, he envisages ~ revivification of Islamic jurisprudence (159) in order to OverCOme the "petrification of fl<fh" and the "narrow. mindedness of the 'ulama class". More ,..,asonable than the bur atUmplS at "Islamization of knowledge", Asad urges to ·studyexact sciences nn Western lines, but not concede to their philo$Ophics" (92) . The ";m was nm to ,..,fonn Islam. "Islam as a spiritual :md social institution CannOt be improved" (154) .

Even though Asad was realistic about the intensity of the Wesum p,..,judice against Islam, in this book he is on the whole remarbbly optimistic about the future of his neW rdigion. (Not much later this was to change

............... ,o.s,o.o. EUROPE'S ~FT TO ISlNoI 239

somewru.t in view of his interpretation of the developments in Turkey, s...udi Arabia, and Pakirum). (2) The second hook of A~ w:os a u'lns\ation, along with commentary, On pam of Imim a1-Bukhari'$ ijaditb collection,' named Sahib al·B .. kb4ri into English under the title Tb.. EArly Yea;, of is/am, first published in lahore in 1938,' In this work we meet, for the fiot time, A~ <IS <I tr.oditional Muslim ',ilim, mtering a field normally reserved for the traditionally trained ' .. !Ami'.

The book contains the historical p:ossages nonmlly found in Vol. I, Book 1 ("How Revelation Began', and Vol. V, Book 57 ("The Merits of the Prophet's Companio.uj and Book 59 (al-Magbizi: Military Campaigns). However, As.ad committed the lost 29 =:tions of Book 57 to a ru:w book called "How Islam Began".

This was a part of his attempt to re-order a1-Bukhiri's material according either to mbject mailer (i.e. personalities) or chronology or both, m approach that ran him into some objections. After all, a1-Bukhiri's $aMh, had been read and re-read and even rommilled to memory by so mmy Muslim. since its collect ion in the third century A H. the nimh CffItuary c .[, If - as I believe­Asad'$ re-;tr ... ngemem "':OS not intended to rtpla.ce the tr.oditional ordering of the $al?ih, it was a Iq;itimate md intuesling allempl to allow a historical md Ihus coherent reading of Ihis material. Nevertheless, One can understand the uneasiness on the part of those who have been accustomed to a certain arrangement over the rourse of centuries.

Equally important were Asad's detailed and extensive notes - an ickal way to nuke the tll?4dilh come alive. It is the very Ihoroughness md lucidity of this rommentary which One later finds again in A~'s Tb.. Mffltlgt of 1M Q..r'''n. Typical, for instance, is Asad's treatment of ronnicting r"Pon< on 'Urn .. ibn a1·Kha!!ab', conversion to Islam (168). He reconciles these reports by suggesting Ihat 'Umar'. ronversion "was probably oOt the result of Olle single experienc<:~.

With hi~ exteosive notes on part~ of the SsmTltlh, Asad followed up his view - first expressed in },ftl", til tk Crossroads - tim nOI Fiqb bUilhe Que"" and the Ssm"..}, mu~t be refocusM as Ihe centre-pieces of Idam. With his work 00 the ~ih, by giving the entire corpus of ijadi/h a fresh credibility and respectability, Asad counted tlu dmgerous Irend to turn Islam into merely $Orne form of a vague and :unorphons Deism. It Wali a major effort inckffl. Ever since, indiscriminate asuults 011 the S .. """h, as mounted earlier by Goldzilur alld later by Schacht, look $Omewh~t inept.

World War Two, however, prevented the publication of further parts of this work. Wilh the Germm occup:llion of Austria in 1938 Asad had "utom:llically become" German citiun. His resultiog internment by the Brit ish

'Tb. nondatd Arobic.EDPi>Jt V<rSiDn is ,b. ,,,,,,d .. i(1D in aim volumo. by Mub~ Mubsin Khan. C1ticog<>: K ... i l'ubIica,;on •• \916 .

• A,of .. l'ubIicotio",: Ia"" 'eprin,ed in Gibnlu" Dar a1.Andal .... 1911.

"" in India (1939- 1945) made {unher work on the proj«t impossible, and during the partition of India in 1947, Asad lost all tM materiol that ru, had prepared with the industry ,..,d dexterity for which h. i. well known.

(3) Aud'. Tht Principles of Slale If!1d Cowrnmml ill Islam (1961): again "­<moil book of 107 pages only, has become an essential foundat ion for most further effom to rejuvenate Isl:un;c jurisprudeoct and to <kvdop a much n~ Islamic theory of State. Originolly, rese.orch On this book was prompted by the n~ 10 develop an Islamic constitution for the new Isl:unic R'1'uhlic of Pakistan: to bas.. a soci~y not On <:OCc Or nationality but solely On the -ideology- of the Qur'w and the Sun...m. The book therdore refle<:ts some of the into xicating awartness that the Muslim world might have, nOw again, "a frte choict of destiny" .

As"':! was aware that Islamic hiSlory could not provi<k model. that could be copied directly. The Confe<kration of Madinah w:loS sa up under very peculiar circumsun""~; it w:os .Iso unique in 50 far :loS it W:loS being ruled over by a Mes"'nger of God. Isbmic hi stary h:os ~er since bun ch:oncterized putty much by despotism. The i<k:.s o f Nizim .J·Mulk (d. 485/ 1092) and al-Mawardi (d. 450/1058) could nOt se rve as the blue-primsof an blamic community in the industrial age. .

Asad therefore keenly felt the need to make a clear distinction betw~n the relativdy 5m.JI sa of divine norms governing State and governmmt, found in the Qur'in and the Su"n,J, which ;>!one d=rve the name of the ';"riah. As fo r fUfh, i.e. the enormous bOOy of rules <krived from the Qur'an and the Surmah, it was essenti;>!ly man-made notwithstanding the fact that its ultimate sources were rooted in Revelation.

At the .arne t ime, this di,"{inction was considered revolmionary though today it has became pretty commonplace. Thanks to it, Asad was able to conSlruCl an Islamic theory o f Slate nOt from a scr~ch, but fr..., from the burden of Muslim history which is occ:loSion;>!ly characterized by abuse of power, disrespect for law, arbit rary and unjustified !:lxation, lack of adequate administrative control , and consi<krable negligence in the institutionalisation of shuYi~, In cont=t, Asad concluded that a ~government subject to the people's consent is a most esll"nti;>! prerequisite of an Islamic state", that ."the leadership o f the Slate muSl he of an elective nature" (36), and that "the legislative powen of the Slate must he vested in an :l.SlI"mbly chosen by the community for that purpose" (45) . On the whok Asad Mrived al the conclusion that "a presi<kntial system of government, somewhat akin to that pr.>eticcd in the United States, would correspond more dosely to the requirement of an Islamic polity" (61) .

We still run into fdlow Muslims who continue to claim that democracy is essenti;>!ly incompatible with Islam. It is then that we realize how ground­breaking Asad was in this field SOme 40 yean ago . But we aim roo into 'ulamti'

'Uni .... ni.y of c.Jilornia P .... 1'161; reprint<d in Gibraltar: Dar a1·Ao.wu. 1910.

MUH...-.oO A$A(I: EUROPE'S G<FT TO OSI.AM

IiI«: Shaykh Yusuf .:l-Qandaw' am! Fathi Osman who maintain that such p~opl~ n~ith~r know ~nout;h of Islam nor of Ikmocracy, indicating that A.ad', views are shared by a number of innuemi.:l Islamic scholars.

(4) ",is Low of Oun and OtMr Usa:p (1987)' seems to be the latest book of Am. In fact, however, it consists in pan. of some of his oldest writings. It is " collection of som~ of the ~"ays that wer~ first published in 1946 :md 1947 in hi, ·on~-m.n journ.:l", Arafor - A Monthly Critique of Muslim Thought -which appeared for just a few ye>.[1 from Lahon:, In the meantime, Asad had discovered. his imellectual affinity to Ibn 1:1= of Cordova who, lik~ himl'tif, had batded against s:mctified conv~ntions:md d~fended the = rrul J.w of Islam against .:llthat goes beyond Qur'an and the Sunnah.

Asad's struggle to delineate the houndaries hetwem shan-',.}, and fiqh app"rs in :m intensed form in this hook. A,;od drives home the point that the "rd" ohari'ah muSt be idmtified (:md possibly codified). Backed up by Ibn Hanbal, Ibn T"ymiyyah ""d Ibn 1:1=, he takes the uncompromising stand that nothing merely b:osed on ijm'" or qiy.is - qu.lifies to be re<:koned as "­divine norm. On the basis of the Qur'an:md the Sunrwh -:md the Qur'an and the Sunn,.}, alone - a new ijrikid was needed in order to develop" modern ("lb, n:sponsive to con\empory ;ssu~s. This mO<krn ("lh should be much 'impler than the highly compln tradition.:l one. Asad hastened to add tru.t, of oou=, no relulu of the new ,jribid could be admitted as forming part. of the shari'ab either; otherwil't modern fuqah.i' would repeat the mistake of their ancestors: \0 petrify their jurisprudence.

Thi, Low of Oun is of panicu]at inttrest to Pakistani Muslims, especialy its chapter "What do we mean by Pakistan"? of which a sub-section is entitled "Evasion and Self.Deception", It includes seven moving radio addresseS' given by Ai-ad to his Pakistani fellow citizens, He looked beyond offici;1l decl;u-;;(ions of lslamism when he stated: "Neither the mere bet of having a Muslim majarity, nor the men: holding of governmental key positions by Muslims, nor even the functioning of the pe~<>n;J laws of the ,h.ri'4h an justify us ;n describing any Muslim state as :m "Islamic State" (109). He made it clear th.t neither the intorduction of ukit, nor outlawing rib.i, nor prescribing IJijab or administering hudiid punishmenu ;n and by tM»mIws ""ill do the trick of turning a ooumry imo an Islamic one. For that, SO Asad fdt, there is only one way: to bring about "~ community that really lives :lCCording to the tenrts of Islam" :md presently "there is not a single community of thi, kind in sight" (14).

It i, in observations such as these that we enCOumer for the fint time Muhammad Asad the Muslim idealist who had begun to express bitter feelings about the ground re.:lilies of the world of Islam.

'Gib~ .. r: D .. >I-And.>Ju.., pp. 195.

(5) After working On it for decades, Asad'~ ~u<lTt reached its peak with hi, tr.mslation imo Shakespearean English and commemary of the Qur'an, which appeared in 1980 under the tide 1k Mmage of the Qur:.in .' It was the ben, next only to Abdullah Yu,uf Ali', artd Marmaduke Picktlu.ll's trartslation, which are the mOSt remarkable among the Contemporary efforts to convey the message of the Qur'an in English." Asad's is perhaps the ooly trartslatioo which has been further translated m trlW iOlo seven! language, omeh as Turkish artd Swedish. His work is particularly appreciated for the lucidity and pTCcision of its corrunenl,uy, based on hi, ~tupendous command of bedouin A!"11bi.;. Readers appreciate perhaps mon that Asa<! treats them as grown-ups. He expo= the root of the translation problem, rel~tes other options (and the reasons given for choosing them), and then explaio, which reason(s) he preferred in his particular translation.

On two ground., the style of As:od's tr.msJ.tion is debatable: On the One hand it does nOt reflea the terse, comp;>et, even laconic style of the Qur'an which Marmaduke Pickthall caught so much betur in hi, translation of 19)0. The difference betw~n Ihe two resulu from As:od', attempt to COme as do~ as possible to nuartces of meaning. Wherever, as in most cases, fully equivalent nOuns :md verbs an not available in both languages, Asad resorts to Ihe use of qualifying adjectives and adverbs, absent in the Qur'anic text, Or even to the duplicuion of noun-renderings, for innance, shirah in 5: '48 as ~Iaw and way of life~. As a resuit, Asad's trllOslation of a few Arabic words rometimes coven twO whole lines.

The basma/"h j. ~ good cas<: in point. Picl<lhall transla,,,,, it as: "In ,he name of Allah, the (kn;ficiant, the Merciful"; As:od as : "In the name of God, the MOSI Gracious, the Dispmsn of Gract - (Emphasis added). Not only is the choice of "Dispenser" unfortunate, the very idea of putting a{-Ra~min (or, in other pl:>ce$, ,,{-Hakim, 41· 'Azi:, a{·Qadir, etc.) into superbtive form sm:>eks of Christian vocabulary and violat~' the simplicity of the Qur',,"i, lartguage. Abdullah Yusuf Ali committs the sam~ mistake.

Many translatOr! of the Qur'm Cart be f.ulted today for the use of a high classical languag~ which rounds both d~ted, let alone the fact that it is biblical. Shakespeare simply is not comemporary.! am nOt pleading for an ·Amcrican~ version (l la Irving) or a pede5lrian, "cool", colloquial style. The language of Ihe Qur'in alro in traoslation must rdl""t Ihat it is Allah Who is speaking. At Ih~ same lime, readers must not be put off by a level of ~petch thai ,ounds $0

stilted :md artificial thai it loses credibility. Th~ diffe .. nce can be ,light, hut .. mains relevam, as when;n 17: 40 we eilher re"d "V~rily, you ar~ uu .... ing a drudful wying-! (A,ad) or "Verily, ye .peak art awful word" (pickthall).

tGibr,.h.o" 0 .. oI_Arublu., 1910, m pp. (\ar&' [OfIJl"). "They ineNd. Muhomm» ·Ah. Shu 'Ali. !t . .,.d!t. Ikwky. T.B. "'ing. Muh.mnud

T.q,.ud-Oin .... HilolilMul .. mm.d Muh,;" Kh...,. R""hid K . ... b. M.M. Kh,,;b, n,d ,h. Swdi v .. Uon , pr;",ed;" M..r",ah, 1xo..J on Yuouf Ali. '0 n.om< If..,.

'" Yet, as we will Stt b"low, qlli{~ a few Olhn, mort substantial obj~tion'

have ~n made ag:.inst Asm's lrlulSblion. In fact, no other translation is as controversial :and is as heatMly deba!M :os hi"

Many h:lVt written mort books than Aud. Few, howevu, have left a comp:rntble impact. On the basi, of his writings alone, Asad was ind=:l Austria', (and Euro~'s) grelltest gift to [slam in (he 20th century, Ren.! Guinon, Marmaduu Pickthall, Frithjof ScllUon and Martin Lings notwithstanding.

rv

H owever, Asad was not only an imdltctual who was guilkd by u>sOn and was skepticol of Sufi,m. He .J.o was "political activist and :m inquisitive Near East corre:;poruient of FT""IejUTteT Zeilunc (1922-26); advisor to King 'Abd a1·'Aziz (in com~ition with tbe British influence peddler Harry S1. John Phi lby); freedom fighter against the Italian occup:nion of Libya; an intdl~ctual co­founder of Pakistan :md its :unbassador to tM VnitN Nations in N~w York.

In the Christian world, the Sc,nedictine Order still gots by the ideal of or,. u 1,./1Qrd (pray and work), today phrased as conlffllpldlion tl combat by Frtre Pierre of Taiu. nus ideal corresponds to the Islamic one of ,u·imin "'·/ed.mil, a Muslim striving for ~rfection both in piety and action. The Prophtl: of Isl:un (pe= be on him) was such a personality - :as a husband, a fathu, a military commander, a statesm.:m, a judge, and a mystic . SalTh :II-Din al·Ayyiibi, Ibn T aymiyyab, 'Abd .1·Qadir al·J aU'iri were such personalities. Muhammad Asad in his own w.y w:as • kindred. spirit to tltes<: great "",n.

I had SOme idea of this combination of trai" ;n Asad but was surprised., neverthdm, when M drove up to my hotel in Lisbon, through thick city tr.ffic, he at the wheel, .t 85 ye.n of age!

v

Given this background, one might assume th.t Muh:unmad As.ad was appreci.tN everywhere in the Muslim world for his high-Ievtl comribut ion to its renaissance; but this is not yet the c=. Yes, in the West, p,uticularly in the United. States and Western Europe, Asad is much admired,:md not only :unong Ihe .... latively recent reverts to Islam but also among the Muslim migrants from abroad. In the East, except WMre his friendship with Muhammad Iqbal is recalled. _ :as among some in Pak.inan, India, :md Malaysi. - this ~rh.ps is nOt so. In fact, in the Arab world it is perhaps nOt considered. a l:Kk of ffluciltion not to know anything .boUl Muh:unmad Asat!. That, in my view, i. for three m.jor reasons: (\) Some Arab Muslims tend to be somewhat skeptical if a non_native speaker of Arabic tries his hand .t the translation of

'" 1M foundational t~ts of Islam. On~ might :ask: could ai·Zunakh,hari, ,imply because h~ w>5 a Persian, have be~n fauh~d ;0 regard to hi, comm:rnd of Arabic. Our brethren-In-faith should, of course, have m:ode 0lII exception also in the Usc of Asad, given that his command of A .... hic put mmy .. nat;"" 'peaker to ,h;a.mc. (1) As .. revert from the Mou . .t.; faith at limes Aw .... n iroo • «ruin prejudi«. At leas' $Orne Muslim, .uccumbd to the ,u,picion that he might have chosen Idam in ortkr to undumi"" and p"rvert it. Thi. misgiving became intense wMn in 1952, .fter 22 year! of marriage, A!w divorced hi, A .... b wife, Munirah bint al·f:lusayn a1·Shammari, the mother of hi, son T ala1, and took :mother wife Pol. Hamid., .n Am..ricm womm of Polish d~nt.

It was of little aV1lil that in the past other Jewish convertS had proved to be exceptionally good Muslim., like the former rabbi 'Abd Allih b_ Salam whom Mu~ammad (peace be. on him), ""cording to a tradition narr:au':! by Mu'~h b. jab.J, h:od <'Yen promised a pl= in Paradi~ , 11 Alas, the S>.me tr:oditioni$t .Jso reponed .bout a Jew in Yemen wbo had accepted Islam only to dt'len iL" Each of Ibn Isbiq and Ibn Kathir in their Sirah gives a vivid account of a whole number of Jewish hypocrites, induding S3'd b. Hunayf, who h:od only feigned their Islam." Abu Hur:ayrah tr:ansm;tted the Prophet's complaint that he h:od not ""en b,""n able to win over 10 rabbi, tn I,lam," At any rate, a numbe.r of Muslims not only feared, and still fe<lr, that - as prnlicted" - they will split up into more than 70 ~cn but that the Jews and fonner Jews will playa role in tbal disaster.

(3) Such misgivings b=.me more concme when A.;><i in hi. translation of the Qur'iJl depaned from j" orthodox interp",t.t;on on several question, in a rather Kriou, man~r: (a) In some C:lSe<, he deponed from orthodoxy in the tex' of the tr:anslnion jt~lf. For inst.nu, A.ad eliminated the word ji"'" in his translation in favour of notions like good or bad impulses (derived from psychology "nd even psychiatry so f .. hionable during his youth). This approach would have be..n mOre acceptable if i, had been de.Jt with in footnotes only, ThaI would hove been easy, given th:u A.ad in Appendix III had explained in deuil what jinn (and Shay~n) might mean in a specific context, 'piritu.J. forces, angelic forces, $.ltanic forces, oocuh powers, invisible or hilhn-to unseen beings {994 I.J Thus

" M"h.mmad a,n 'Ab<! AUih aJ.T.h.y";, MHM,;, .J .. ..uldbih, tr. M, ... 1.1I1> ".z1u1 ".rim (L.ho~ M.lik Si"juddin &. Son., 1979), I , $91, W,-,I> no. 153_

'IAbu Diwiid Su!.yn.>n ibn A,h'"h .I-Sajini.ni, s..",,~ IIW [),iwu,J, or. Ahmod H ... n (L.bot<, Sb, Muh.amnud AoI.raf Publiilim, 1914), J: llL3, l,.Ji<h no. HIl.

"Allred GuilLoun><, n.: Lifo '" M.J..","'" (Ozlord Un i",,,,,-y Pr ... , 1955),241>; Ibn

""hir, n. Lifo '" "" P>oph<' M";"",m.zd CR •• dins' 1991), H1_ "AbU 'Abd AI1ih Muh.am"",d ib<l hmi'il a/·BuU.i,i, ~b aI Bu~bir~ K;"b aJ_M""iq;!"

8ib byi.n aJ· Y..bUd aJ·N.bi I;lin, Q.dim. iIl-Modi ... h, (rhe ... ords of ,he P"'pb .. (p<..:e be on him) in 'hi' ~;,b «ads " follow", "If ,.., Je"'. o.'ouL:/ bel .... in m., ,h. J ..... (, ..... hok) "'ouid bel;'ve in m<". Ed)

" AbU D;..ud, s.~.~,), 1m, Wi,h no. 4579.

'" in Sural an·Mi, 114; I> A,~d rmd~rsj'''n as "invisible force,", in 41: 21> and 55: 33 as "inv;,ible beings", and in 72: 1 and 46: 29 as ~un=n bein&S·. In the Appendix and ;0 hi. footnote< 10 bOlh 46: 2') and 72: 1 A,ad goes '0 br as to imply that linn here might ufer 10 hum"ns, i.e. ,t .. ngees.

(b) A. explained in Appendix IV (9%-998), As.ad Saw in I'm,' and mi'r"; a mynical experience of purely spiritual nature, not. physic.l OCCurrenCe: a re;l,l vision (and therefore an objt«ive reality ;lI1d not just. dream) performcJ by Muh:unm:u\', lOU] without hi. body. Thi. ;nterprt'Ution of the miraculous e",,~u is nOt only supported by 'A';,hah'. view and me .b~ncc of subsumiaJ ~;lh to the COntfllry . A,ad mainly a'l;ue5 that the entire occurrence happened in the non-material world_ Given the popular embdli.hmenu of isr,;' and mi'r .. j, As:w's trmslation was most v~b~m~ntly attachd in tbis com~xt.

Hh oppon~nts w~r~ fond of pointing Out tb.t 'A'isb.b was stili a cbild md not yet m.rried to the Prophet (pe= be on him) wben the Night Journey ~nd Asc~nsion took place in 621, In reply, Asad sbowed himself rudy to accept tbe formulations of tbe tradition.l interpretation ~de by ~i<k with his own, But this compromise was not ;occepuble to his detracton,

(c) On the whol~, As.ad was accused of dealing with the Qur'an ~ but too r.uio nalistically, like a crypto.Mu'tnit" .n instance in point is his interpreution of JI"SUS s~aking in the crib, the saving of Ibrih im from th~ firt', and his <knial of the historicity of Luqman, Khi~r, and Ohii ' I·Qarnayn. His critics .. w Asad interpreting tOO many things as mudy allegorical.

In faa, Asad ~aw in Luqmin a "Ieg~ndary sage" and "mythological figure",'· in Khi~r a "mysurious sage" md .n "allegori""l figure, symbolizing mystic.l insight acc=ible to man"," .nd fYen in Dh,:,. 'I.Qarn~yn :m

unhistorical personality whose "sole purport is • p ..... bolic disoour«C on faith and ethics"."

As far as these thr .... figures are concerned, one might he best off saying: ."", Alltihu ,,'{am"! But with Ibrahim (21: &9; 29: 24) Asad finds himself on thinner icc when he deduCI"S th.t he w.s not only nOt saved from thc fire, hut W<lS n~r thrown into il . It is [ruc that the Qur'in does not nplicitly Slate that Ibrihim was in the firt'. But to say th.t the phrase "God .aved him from tk fiTt " (29: 24) "points, rather, to th fact of his nor having been thrown into it"" seems to place limits nn Allah's ways and power of inurvemion.

The .ame i. true of Asad 's approach to Jesus' speaking in the crih (19: 30-33). For him, th..se venl"S "seem 10 be in the naturt' of a trope, projecting the shape of things to Come ... using the past tens.: to describe something that was to btwme real in th~ future". Alternatively, Asad suggests

'''5<. 3 L 12. n. 11. "5<. 11 , 65. n. 73. "5<. 18 , 83. D. II. "Xc 21: ~9. n . &t.

'" th.t Jesus' declarations in 19: 30-33 might have be<en spoken at .. much later time, after he had rc;u;hed maturity, so th .. ! the •• ver~s were "an anticipatory d<"<Cripl;on ... ".>0 Hue again, a m;r;ocie is rul..d out On mcrdy ntionalistic grounds.

(d) Many '"I"",,,' took issue with A.a<!', catq:oricol rejN:tion of the doctrine of n.i,ikh and mtfnJHkh, hi, Iknial of the possibility of the abrot;ation of earlier Qur':inic ve=, by later one" admilting nclh only betw«n subsequent scriptures. For him 2: 106, n, 39 and 87: (, f. only <kat wilh the prwiou. divine messages, repbcing ·one "",,,.ge by another" (If.: 101). This, for him, corresponds 10 an obvious lin .... ethical progression and maturation from the Old Testament (and its addressees, the Jews) via the Evangel (and iu :oddre"U'l, the Christians) to the [;lSI r,""dation, tbe Qur'in. In f:oct, il SUm. odd 10 him to assume th~t Allah might ch:rnge Hi. mind in the OOur~ of a few yur. since "there is nothing th.t could altu His words" (18: 27)."

A~ dismis~ the opposile lradition.! view as erroneou,:rnd unsupported by the S"""ah, also pointing OUI th.t there i. no unanimity .bout whi(h w:rst, had supposedly been abrogated. He even ,uspecud tht some '"{,,ma', faced with what they might have perceived 10 ~ "inconsistencies" in the Quean, had all too eagerly resorted 10 abrogation instead of taking the t rouble of $ttking reconci liation at a higher level of imerpretation.

(e) And'. re·inteTJ>remion of the role .nd righu of Mu.l im .... omen .... ere categorized by many as tOO apologetic." In particul.r, he was criticized for hi~ imerpreution of H: 31 where he concluded from ilia rna za"",,, minb.i thtlhe obligalion of Muslim .... omen to cover their h.ir depended on the prevailing civilizational mo ...... According to And, thi. w:rSC allowed "lime-bound chang" neces.:>.ry for man' , moral and social growth", taking into account that whn ;s considered decent or iodecent "might legitimately ch:rnge Over time"."

A~ admits tht m0'l't .... Omen in A ... bi" during Ihe time of rev"blion, .... ore" khimar (hcad<overj as mentioned in 24: 31. But for him the rationale of thi, ver<e is {he injunction 10 cOver" woman·, bosom, wit(lher by /ehim.t. Or in some other way. In other .... ord., Allah did nnt order Muslim wnmen to wear a head<over, emuri ng that their head was covered. The gist of 24: 31 (OnuSIS of the oomm3nd 10 hide from view the primary :rnd :;:econdary female s<:xual organs, not" woman's h .. ;r.'· Asad docs mention that a women's public exposure traditionally is restricted 10 her bce, h.nds .nd feet, but he f:uls to indicate that thi$ is based on a ""did,.

-------

"'s.. l~ : 30, nn. 2) ... d U . "s... 2: IO!> n. 8T .nd I T: 6 n. 4. "s... IOf tlompk A.R. Kid .... ,· •• nidl: in T/,. MHtli'" W .... U &<J, R ...... , Vol. 7. No. f.

Sumoxf IW. p. 70 .• nd Vol. ~. No. 3. Sp,in~ 1~89. p. 15 . ''sc. U : 31. n . 37. ''s... H : 31, R. 38.

.. u ................ s,o.o. ~U~OPFS G,n TO ,a,w

Asad', interpretation of 33: 59 iibes with his views On 24: 31. In the injunction fnr women to draw upon thems.:!v ... some of their outer gannents (min j4tabibihinna) he ag:oin se..s a time-bound formulation, the issue ~ing not the meanS (the garment) but the re<uit (a deant dres'), i.e .• ~ morol guideline 10 ~ observed against the ever..:h:utging background of time and "",i.1 environment"."

Many people se..m to remem~r A.ad mainly as the man who denied thai Muslim women wer .. obligated to keep their head covered in the pre<ence of mole strangm. Indeed, in the heated political deb.te on the qUe<tion of hijtib, an issu .. 00 which he is mainly cited :1.5 :ut authority by IholS': opposed to hijih, hi" il in Turkey, Fr.m~ Or Germany. On Ihis particular issue Asad', work On the Qur'an has had a divisive effeu on Muslims. Typicolly, after I had favou rably memioneJ As..J during a lecture in Washington D.C. in April 2000, the immediate response of a sho.ykh attending my lecture was: "Don't you know what Asad wrote .bout Sural al·Nur"?'"

VI

It was becau~ of Asad's views on such cont .. mious points Ihat the fim edilion of As:><l', tnndation, which had bun 'ponso=:! by SOme Arabs. could nOt See

Ihe light of the day. In co~uence, Asad's rel.tions with them became stnined. Even though SOme of them such as Shaykh A~mad blti Yamani maimained their friendship wilh As..J, n .. verthd .. ss, lhe strain that had devdoped presumably endured.

Be th.t as it may, Asad'$ prestige contin Ue< to grow :lffiOng the present..day Muslim. e<~iolly in Europe and the United StateS. There are some indi=ions which give ri,e to the view that the world-wide revitalizat ion;md rejuvenation of Islam in the 21st Cffltury might come from the West: il might come from Los Angeles, Oxford or London rather than from Cairo or Fe< Or Islamabad, If this assumption is corrC<."t, the hour may come soon when appreciation of Muhammad Asad's thought will become a truly glob.l phenomenon.

.. iii ..

''So. H, 5'1. o . 75. "'Th, '<>lOn for m<ollOning 'hi> ,",,,;, io the pr=n' <oolel" i. 'ho' i, h ... 1.'1' Rum!,..

01 u.iuRe<ion. "" hijdb ...d ,,1 .. rd i ....... Ed