Muhammad Asad

This page is about the 20th century writer and diplomat born Leopold Weiss. For the 17th century German lutenist and composer, see Sylvius Leopold Weiss. For the 19-20th century mathematician, see Lipót Fejér (born Leopold Weiss).

Muhammad Asad (Leopold Weiss)
Born	2 July 1900 Lemberg, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Lviv, Ukraine)
Died	23 February 1992 Granada, Spain
Residence	Pakistan & Spain
Nationality	Pakistani (formerly Austrian)
Occupation	Journalist, traveler, writer, social critic, linguist, thinker, reformer, diplomat, political theorist, translator and scholar
Religion	Islam (previously Judaism)
Spouse(s)	Else (Aziza) Schiermann, Munira Asad, Pola Hamida Asad
Children	Talal Asad

Muhammad Asad (2 July 1900 - 23 February 1992, Urdu: محمد اسد‎), born Leopold Weiss, was a journalist, traveller, writer, social critic, linguist, thinker, reformer, diplomat, political theorist, translator and scholar. Asad was one of the 20th century's most influential European Muslims.

In 1947, Asad was given Pakistani citizenship by the newly established Muslim state of Pakistan and appointed the Director of the Department of Islamic Reconstruction by the Government of Pakistan, where he made recommendations on the drafting of Pakistan's first Constitution. In 1949, Asad joined Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs as head of the Middle East Division and, in 1952, was appointed Pakistan's Minister Plenipotentiary to the United Nations in New York.

Muhammad Asad is famously known for his two publications - The Road to Mecca, a biographical account of his life up to the age of 32, his conversion to Islam from Judaism and his journey to Mecca, and his magnum opus, The Message of the Qur'an, a translation and commentary of the sacred book of Islam, the Qur'an.

In 2008 the entrance square to the UN Office in Vienna was named Muhammad Asad Platz in his honour. That is the first square in Austria to be named after a Muslim.

Early years

Leopold Weiss born on 2 July 1900 to a Jewish family in Lemberg, Galicia then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (which is currently the city of Lviv, Ukraine). Weiss was a descendant of a long line of Jewish rabbis; however, his father, Akiva Weiss, broke from tradition and became a lawyer. Leopold received a religious education and was proficient in Hebrew from an early age, as well as familiar with Aramaic. He studied the Jewish Bible or Tanakh, the text and commentaries of the Talmud, the Mishna and Gemara, also delving into the intricacies of Biblical exegesis and the Targum.

After abandoning university in Vienna, Weiss drifted aimlessly around 1920s Germany, working briefly for the expressionist film director, Fritz Lang (F.W. Murnau, according to The Road to Mecca). By his own account, after selling a jointly written film script, he splurged the windfall on a wild party at an expensive Berlin restaurant, in the spirit of the times. While working as a telephone operator for an American news agency in Berlin, Weiss obtained a coveted interview with Russian author Maxim Gorky's wife, his first published piece of journalism, after simply ringing up her hotel room.^{[citation needed]}

Weiss in Arabia

Weiss later moved to the British Mandate of Palestine, staying in Jerusalem at the house of an uncle (a disciple of Sigmund Freud who later founded the Psychoanalytic Quarterly in New York) psychoanalyst Dorian Feigenbaum, the son of a successful banker in Lviv, Menachem Mendel Feigenbaum. He picked up work as a stringer for the Frankfurter Zeitung, selling articles on a freelance basis. His pieces were noteworthy for their understanding of Arab fears and grievances against the Zionist project. He was eventually contracted as a full-time foreign correspondent for the paper.

Conversion to Islam

Weiss's assignments led him to an ever-deepening engagement with and understanding of Islam, which, after much thought and deliberation, led to his religious conversion in 1926 in Berlin and adopting the Muslim name, Muhammad Asad.

Asad spoke of Islam thus:

"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 and solid composure."

His travels and sojourns through Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, Libya and the southern Soviet Republics, were viewed with great suspicion by the Colonial Powers. One English diplomat in Saudi Arabia described him in a report as a "Bolshevik" and he took a close interest in the many liberation movements that were active at this time with the aim of freeing Muslim lands from colonial rule.^{[citation needed]}

Asad in British India and Pakistan

Muhammad Asad (formerly Leopold Weiss) (seated right) and Asad's wife, Pola Hamida Asad (seated left) with Chaudhry Niaz Ali Khan, founder of the Dar ul Islam Trust, and his grandchildren at Chaudhry Niaz Ali Khan's house in Jauharabad, Pakistan, circa 1957

Asad left Arabia and came to British India in 1932 where he met South Asia's premier Muslim poet, philosopher and thinker, Muhammad Iqbal, who had proposed the idea of an independent Muslim state in India, which later became Pakistan. Iqbal persuaded Asad to stay on in British India and help the Muslims of India establish their separate Muslim state. Iqbal introduced Asad to Chaudhry Niaz Ali Khan, a philanthropist and agriculturalist, who, on the advice of Muhammad Iqbal, established the Dar-ul-Islam Trust Institutes in Pathankot, India and Jauharabad, Pakistan. Asad stayed on in British India and worked with both Muhammad Iqbal and Chaudhry Niaz Ali Khan.

When the Second World War broke out in 1939, Asad's parents were arrested and, subsequently, murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust. Asad himself was arrested in Lahore in 1939, a day after the war broke out, by the British as an enemy alien. This was despite the fact that Asad had refused German nationality after the annexation of Austria in 1938 and had insisted on retaining his Austrian citizenship. Asad spent three years incarcerated in a prison, while his family consisting of his wife, Munira, and son, Talal, after being released from detention earlier, lived under the protection of Chaudhry Niaz Ali Khan at the latter's vast 1,000-acre (4.0 km²) estate in Jamalpur, 5 km west of Pathankot. Asad was finally released and reunited with his family in Jamalpur when the Second World War ended in 1945.

Asad supported the idea of a separate Muslim state in India and after the independence of Pakistan on 14 August 1947, in recognition for his support for Pakistan, Asad was conferred full citizenship by Pakistan and appointed the Director of the Department of Islamic Reconstruction by the Government of Pakistan, where he made recommendations on the drafting of Pakistan's first Constitution^{[citation needed]}. In 1949, Asad joined Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs as head of the Middle East Division and made efforts to strengthen Pakistan's ties with the Muslim states of the Middle East. In 1952, Asad was appointed as Pakistan's Minister Plenipotentiary to the United Nations in New York - a position that he relinquished in 1952 to write his autobiography (up to the age of 32), The Road to Mecca.

During his stay in Switzerland, Asad received a letter from the President of Pakistan, General Ayub Khan, who was a great admirer of his book named The Principles of State and Government in Islam (1961). In a subsequent exchange of letters, he proposed to Asad to come to Pakistan and have the membership of a seven-man group of Muslim scholars– who both supposedly knew the world and were experts on Islam– to advise him with regard to everyday matters as well as the drawing up of a new Islamic constitution for the country. At that time, Asad was immersed in his cherished work on the Qur’an, and so he regretfully declined. After many years, Asad was again invited by another President of Pakistan, General Zia ul-Haq, in 1983 and that was his last visit to this country. When he arrived at Islamabad, which he had not yet seen, he was received at the plane with great honour and escorted to the Presidency. During his sojourn in Islamabad, there was a series of meetings with members of the Ansari Commission in order to prepare a kind of programme for the President for the future. Asad agreed with some, and as usual disagreed with others, which he found retrograde. On one point he was firm and insistent that Muslim women should have exactly the same rights in the political sphere as had men, to the extent of becoming Prime Minister. Asad also spared some time to meet with his surviving friends in Lahore and Islamabad and at the request of the President made several radio and television appearances, as always spontaneous.

On his return, he was besieged by letters from literally hundreds of admirers in Pakistan, offering him land, a house, everything but he refused politely, as his concept of Pakistan was beyond all these worldly trivialities. Asad loved Pakistan, his conception of Pakistan, even when it turned its back on him, and he never felt resentment at the treatment he had received from it. He remained a citizen– the first citizen of Pakistan– until the end, although he had been strongly tempted to accept the generous, spontaneous gestures of many heads of Islamic States to have their citizenship and passport, which would have made his life so much easier.

Asad contributed so much to Pakistan’s early political and cultural life but was unfortunately shunted from the corridors of power. He served this country as the head of the Directorate of Islamic Reconstruction, Joint Secretary of the Middle East Division in Foreign Office, Minister Plenipotentiary to the United Nations and organizer of the International Islamic Colloquium. If one delve into the archival material of these government departments, the role played by Asad for his beloved Pakistan can be dealt with in detail.

Later years

Towards the end of his life, Asad moved to Spain and lived there with his third wife, Pola Hamida Asad, an American national of Polish Catholic descent who had also converted to Islam, until his death on 23 February 1992 at the age of 91. He was buried in the Muslim cemetery of Granada in the former Moorish province of Andalusia, Spain.

Children

Asad had a son, Talal Asad, from his second Saudi Arabian wife, Munira. Talal Asad is now an anthropologist specializing in religious studies and postcolonialism. Asad also had a step-son named Heinrich (converted name Ahmad) with his first wife Else (converted name Aziza).

By chance, at a reception Asad met Pola, an American of Polish origin who was destined to become his third wife (d. 2007). She was a young, beautiful and intelligent woman. He fell in love with her and when he came to know that she had already embraced Islam he decided to marry her, despite the difference of age and temperament. But under the rules of the Foreign Office, he was bound to get prior permission to marry a non-Pakistani national. He applied through proper channel but the Governor-General rejected his application. So, he submitted his resignation from the Foreign Service, divorced his Arabian wife (Munira, d. 1978) and in the inspiring company of his new wife, he sat down and wrote his extraordinary book entitled The Road to Mecca

Publications

Asad wrote several books. His autobiography, The Road to Mecca is an account of his Middle Eastern travels and his conversion, as well as his thoughts on the growing Zionist movement. He also wrote The Message of The Qur'an, a translation and commentary on the Muslim holy book based on his own knowledge of classical Arabic and on the authoritative classical commentaries. Considered one of the leading translations of the Qur'an, it has been criticised by some traditionalists for its Mutazilite leanings. He also wrote a translation and commentary on the Sahih Bukhari, one of the most authoritative collections of Hadith. In addition, he wrote This Law of Ours where he sums up his views on Islamic law and rejects decisively the notion of taqlid, or strict judicial precedent which has been accepted as doctrine by many Muslim sects, while being rejected by others such as the Salafis. He also makes a plea for rationalism and plurality in Islamic law, which he sees as the true legacy of the salaf or earliest generations of Muslims. In his book Islam at the Crossroads, he outlines his view that the Muslim world must make a choice between living by its own values and morality or accepting those of the West, in which case, they would always lag behind the West, which had had more time to adjust to those values and mores, and would end up compromising their own religion and culture. There are some playfully cryptic references to him in the recent bestseller The Orientalist by Tom Reiss (Random House 2005), and some slightly more sinister ones in the English translations of W.G. Sebald.

List of publications

Books:

• 1. Jerusalem in 1923: The Impressions of a Young European (1923)
• 2. The Spirit of Islam (1934)
• 3. The Concept of Religion in the West and in Islam (1934)
• 4. The Spirit of the West (1934)
• 5. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī (1935)
• 6. Towards a Resurrection of Thought (1937)
• 7. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī (1938)
• 8. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī (1938)
• 9. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī (1938)
• 10. What Arafat? (1946)
• 11. The Outline of a Problem (September 1946)
• 12. Is Religion a Thing of the Past? (October 1946)
• 13. This Law of Ours (November 1946, December 1946, January 1947)
• 14. Construction or Destruction? (February 1947)
• 15. That Business of Imitation (April 1947)
• 16. What do we mean by Pakistan? (May 1947)
• 17. Notes and Comments (May 1947)
• 18. Towards an Islamic Constitution (July 1947)
• 19. Notes and Comments (July 1947)
• 20. Calling All Muslims (September 1947)
• 21. Arafat—Quarterly Journal of Islamic Reconstruction (March 1948)
• 22. Islamic Reconstruction (March 1948)
• 23. Islamic Constitution Making (March 1948)
• 24. The Road to Mecca (1954)
• 25. The Encounter of Islam and the West (1959)
• 26. Islam and the Spirit of our Times (1960)
• 27. The Principles of State and Government in Islam (1961)
• 28. Islam and Politics (1963)
• 29. Jerusalem: The Open City (1970s)
• 30. The Meaning and Significance of the Hijrah (1979)
• 31. The Message of the Qur’an (1980)
• 32. The Message of the Qur’an (1980)
• 33. The Principles of State and Government in Islam (1980)
• 34. Sahih al-Bukhāri (1981)
• 35. A Vision to Jerusalem (1982)
• 36. Jerusalem: A City for all People (1982)
• 37. A Tribe That Kept Its Name (1985)

Journal:

• Arafat: A Monthly Critique of Muslim Thought (1946–47)

Documentary

A documentary titled A Road to Mecca: The Journey of Muhammad Asad, directed by Georg Misch, about the life of Muhammad Asad, was filmed in Austria, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, USA, Morocco and Spain. The documentary, released in 2008, was selected by the following film festivals, picking up a few awards:

• 2009 Jerusalem Film Festival
• 2009 Dubai Film Festival
• 2008 FIDADOC Film Festival, Morocco (Jury Award)
• 2008 Diagonale Festival of Austrian Films (Best Cinematography Award)
• 2008 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival
• 2008 Vancouver International Film Festival

For more information go to: http://www.icarusfilms.com/new2009/mecc.html

Sources

Books

• Asad, Muhammad. The Road to Mecca, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1954

• Azam, K.M., Hayat-e-Sadeed: Bani-e-Dar ul Islam Chaudhry Niaz Ali Khan (A Righteous Life: Founder of Dar ul Islam Chaudhry Niaz Ali Khan), Lahore: Nashriyat, 2010 (583 pp., Urdu) [ISBN 978-969-8983-58-1]

• Chughtai, Muhammad Ikram, Muhammad Asad: Europe's Gift to Islam, Volume 1, Lahore: The Truth Society, 2006 (1240 pp.)

• Windhager, Günther. Leopold Weiss alias Muhammad Asad: Von Galizien nach Arabien 1900-1927, Vienna, Austria: Böhlau Verlag, 2002 (230 pp., German)

Online articles

• Nawwab, Ismail Ibrahim. Muhammad Asad. www.TheTrueCall.com [1]

External links

• Muhammad Asad's book This Law of Ours (Grandestrategy.com)
• M. Asad's Contributions to Pakistan
• Brief Biography
• Ben-David, Amir. Leopold of Arabia. Haaretz.com. [2][3]
• Martin Kramer. The Road from Mecca: Muhammad Asad
• Film by Georg Misch: A ROAD TO MECCA - The Journey of Muhammad Asad
• Short commentary on The Road To Mecca
• Muhammad Asad: A Jewish Lawrence of Arabia