Adil Najam
I am most pleasantly surprised that readers have so quickly figured out the mystery man in our latest ATP Quiz. Since they have, let me add a little more information and let the discussion continue.
I am not sure, however, how many readers know of Muhammad Asad or of his connection to Pakistan. Let me confess that until fairly recently I did not; at least not of the Pakistan connection. As I have gotten to know more about this connection, I have gotten more and more intrigued - all the more so because there is relatively little in his own writings or that of others about this.
But lets start from the beginning.
Asad was born in 1900 as Leopold Weiss to Jewish parents in Lvov (then part of the Habsburg Empire, now in Ukraine). He moved to Berlin in 1920 to become a journalist and traveled to Palestine in 1922. It was there that he first came into contact with Arabs and Muslims and began a long journey into Muslim lands and minds that eventually led to his embracing Islam in 1926. His bestselling autobiography Road to Mecca (published 1954) recounts these years in vivid and captivating detail., including his adventures in Arabia and in working with King Ibn Saud and the Grand Sanusi, amongst others.
Later in his life, after retiring in Spain, he spent 17 years working on an English translation of the Quran which was first published in 1980. Many consider this to be one of the finest English translation of the Quran - some argue this is because he himself was fluent in bedouin Arabic which is closest to the Arabic in the Quran, others suggest that since he was himself a European and wrote in more understandable idiomatic English his translation is most accessible to non-Arabic speakers.
As a lay-reader who ver the years has read a number of English translations, including his, I do find Asad’s translation - The Message of the Quran - to be easier to read than those by Abdullah Yusuf Ali or Marmaduke Pickthall which are amore formal and literal translations. Unlike the translations by Prof. Ahmed Ali (my particular favorite) and by Thomas Cleary which are also in contemporary idiom and very readable, the Mohammad Asad translation has the added virtue of also having commentary and explanations, and the new edition is wonderfully presented, printed in the highest quality, and with tasteful calligraphy. All in all, Mohammad Asad’s The Message of the Quran is the translation that I now recommend to friends, Muslims as well as non-Muslims.
But I digress. Much as I like Muhammad Asad’s translation of the Quran and especially in its new printing, that is not the subject of this post. The subject of the post is his ‘Pakistani connection’ and also why we do not find much about that connection in his writings. Here is what we know.
By the early 1930s Asad had gotten rather disenchanted by King Ibn Saud and his religious advisors (see Road to Mecca) and had begun travelling Eastwards into other Muslim lands. This brought him to British India and there he met and became a good friend of Dr. Mohammad Iqbal. Indeed, Iqbal encouraged him to write his book Islam at the Crossroads (published 1934); whose cover has the following testimonial from Iqbal:
“I have no doubt that coming as it does from a highly cultured European convert to Islam, it will prove an eye-opener to our younger generation.” Muhammad Iqbal.
During World War II imprisoned him in a camp for enemy aliens (because of his Austrian nationality) while his father was interned by the Nazis because he was Jewish. After the War he fervently threw his all behind the demand for Pakistan. Upon the creation of Pakistan, he saw himself very much a ‘Pakistani’ as did those he worked with (reportedly even took to wearing the achkan). In 1947 he became the director of the Department of Islamic Reconstruction in West Pakistan and worked on a treatise with ideas for the Constitution of Pakistan. Many of these ideas (which were mostly related to creating a multi-party parliamentary democracy) were reproduced in his later books but he was not very successful in getting them implemented.
In 1949 Asad joined the Pakistan Foreign Ministry as head of the Middle East Division and eventually in 1952 came to New York as Pakistan’s representative to the United Nations. Here he met the woman who would become the last of his wifes (Pola Hamida). Whether it was the fact that he married her and divorced his earlier wife or the messiness of Pakistani politics, it was in this period that he fell out with the powers in Pakistan and resigned from the Foreign Ministry. He decided to stay on in New York to write Road to Mecca, which became a major success. He never really returned to Pakistan (although, supposedly, Gen. Zia ul Haq tried to get him back) and died in Europe in 1992.
It was his estrangement with the Pakistan government that pushed him back into writing and produced two amazing works - Road to Mecca and The Message of the Quran. However, here once again is a story of one who wished to give his all to Pakistan and we did not let him.
I had no idea about Muhammed Asad, his pakistani connection. But have heard about the book “Road To Mecca” though havent read it.
I also dont understand why Jinnah was so fond of Ataturk and regarded him Great Muslim Leader, ataturk, just tried his best to stop Islam as way of life. How can Jinnah say he was a Great Islamic Leader? I am really failing to understand this. Ataturk was so ashmed of his islamic past and introduced european lifestyle. So much love for europeans and even still now they dont accept Turkey as an european country.
I have just seen this piece and the comments on Muhammad Asad. I had the huge privilage to spend a few days with this noble man when he visited London in 1976 for the World of Islam Festival (http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/197603/the. world.of.islam-its.festival.htm). I had just finished college and was volunteering to look after the guests invited for the conferences and workshops organised as part of the festival. He and Said Ramadan (father of Tariq Ramadan), who was also attending were very proud of their Pakistani citizenship (in fact, Said Ramadan showed me his Pakistani passport and wondered if we could get that renewed). Needless to say that Muhammad Asad was very disappointed at the turn of events in Pakistan and felt that a superb opportunity at creating a home for Muslims had been squandered by petty managers. I agree with many respondents who have said that we have not had the grace or the foresight to have kept scholars like Asad and others on board. Another not so well known is that fact that Muhammad Asad’s brilliant scholar son Talal Asad, who was brought up and schooled in Pakistan, now lives and teaches in NY. He also needs to be read. Adil Najam has created a brilliant space where at least we can begin to communicate and to honor, albeit belatedly, the contributions by the likes of Asad. Perhaps this is the way forward to create the Pakistan that Allama Iqbal and Jinnah envisioned.
I was amazed to notice Mohammad Asad’s Pakistani connection.The truth is that as a nation we are hardly concerned for people who either cared for our future or got a name for this poor country. The examples are there-Johar, Dr.Salam and of course Mohammad Asad.
I am disappointed to know that Muhammad Ali Jinnah regarded Kamal Ataturk as the greatest Muslim of the modern world! If people like Kamal Atataurk are our ideal leaders, then May Allah give us more hidaya. Do you consider a leader who banned hijab, introduced skirts, and who brought secularism as the only way of the government with no influence of religion in govt whatsoever, as a great Muslim! Shame on us who think that way! Please open your eyes and wake up from the slumber of ‘modernism’. Islam is the way of every Muslim at the individual level, domestic, social, economic, political, government, etc. May Allah give us all guidance to know and follow the right path. Our president Musharaf also highly regards Attaturk as his ideal.
Since when Islam is supposed to be the ‘private matter’ of an individual only? Are we not doing the same mistake what happened with Christianity over the years. So much so that in the west its almost a faux pau to even talk about one religion now! Who are we fooling here? No one but ourselves.
My two cents on Muhammad Asad.
1) Muhammad Asad, accepted Islam on the hands of Maulana Sadar Ud Din, Imam of Berlin Mosque, Germany, run by Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement. His name is still written in the registers of converts to Islam.
2) Muhammad Asad’s first translation of Holy Quran, was financed and published by Saudi king Ibn Saud. In more than one places in his translation/tafseer (commentary), and in particular Sura Al-Maaidah (Ch 5) verse 117, and Sura An-nisaa (Ch 4) verse 157 (foot note 172) [references are from the latest edition; its photo is in your article] Eisa AS (Jesus Christ) is DEAD. He will NO longer return in flash. Well, Saudi king did not like it and asked Asad to change it. Asad refused and said to the king: You are an Arab, your language is Arabic you translate it. King replied: I agree with what you say, but what should I do about Mullas? As Asad refused to change translation, the king said: I have no choice but to burn all copies of it. So, his first translation/tafseer of Holy Quran was burnt. Then Asad with his own finances published it, again. He published it (I think) only once. And it is with out index. The latest edition, the one you have posted, is with index. Interesting point is that when Maulana Muhammad Ali, an elder of Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement in his English translation/tafseer of Holy Quran (first edition published in 1917), and in Urdu translation/tafseer ‘Biyan-ul-Quran’ said the same thing he was rejected by Muslims and his translation/tafseer was burnt by Al-Azhar university, Cario (it is another fact that the same university now translates his English and Urdu books into Arabic language for Arab readers). I guess Muslim thought is finally catching up as no one has objection to Asad translation/tafseer of Holy Quran.
3) Muhammad Asad in his book ‘The Road to Mecca’ has written chapter on Dajjal, which basically points to Caucasian Christian Nation of Europe and North America. Interestingly, the same point was raised LONG BEFORE, by elders of Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement including Maulana Muhammad Ali, Muslims find difficult to accept it. Just like other points such as Jihad and Jinns. Maulana Muhammad Ali wrote a book: ‘Al-Maseeh-ud-Dajjal-o-Yaajooj-o-Maajooj’ (translation: The Anti-Christ and Gog and Magog). Here is the link:
http://aaiil.org/text/books/mali/gog/gog.shtml
Adil Najam, if you did 10th grade (Matric exam) in 1979 from Islamabad College for Boys (formally, Islamabad Model School) then I was your class mate.
Rashid Jahangiri, MD
salam alaykum
am Algerian i read the book the Road to Mecca(arabic verssion) for 20 years ago , i found in it the spirituel world that i looked for ,and today i discover that he died in 1992 , at the time that he died in 1958 or 1960.
rahimahu allah
Salam Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I have just come to konw about Allama Asad and his literary contributions like ”The road to Mecca” and ”The Message Of the Quran”.I will buy both these books.
AN,,,thank you for introducing this forgotten legend through your brilliant post.