The Road to Mecca by Muhammad Asad
When I first bought this book I didn't quite like the cover. With it's red (mine is a more brown toned) toned cover and pictures of a man I didn't recognize, I didn't quite find it interesting.
It's true that we shouldn't judge a book by it's cover and sometimes things are not what it seems but the modern perspective of "good packaging and good brands bring good quality" seems to be implanted in our very minds (mine not excluded of course) .
However, the moment I read the reviews located behind the book I knew it in my heart that I had to purchase it. I can say with great affection that I never regret purchasing this book.
And here I begin my narrative of a wonderful experience;
Muhammad Asad or was once known as Leopold Weiss (born in July 1900), was born into a Jewish family. His grandfather was an orthodox rabbi in Czernowitz and his own father a banker and lover of science. He himself had a thirst for history and recieved private tutors at home for a thorough grounding in Hebrew religious lore.
Due to his budding religious wisdom he soon developed a supercilious feeling toward many of the premises of the Jewish faith. It was in his view that the God of the Old Testament and the Talmud was unduly concerned with the ritual means of which His worshippers were suppose to worship Him. It also occured to him that this God was strangely preoccupied with the destinies of one particular nation, the Hebrews.
Through the novel, I experience a sense of awarenes unlike any other novel I've read. Asad's descriptions of the desert, of his own restlessness and of his unlikely encounter with Islam and the people of Arab felt so real and so engrossed was I with his character that every smell, every taste and every feeling that he described was as if etched in a part of my own past, as if I myself have felt what he has felt. But alas I realize that I am but a reader and these experiences are not of my own but of another.
While reading the novel on the ERL back from KL one day I happen to be reading a particular page that touched my very soul and then the tears began to fall....
*************narrative from the novel***************
"May God give you life; this house is your house, eat in the name of God. This is all we have' - and he makes an apologetic gesture with his hand, a single movement in which the whole weight of his fate is expressed with that artless power of evocation so peculiar to people who live close to their instincts- 'but the dates are not bad. Eat, O wayfarers, of what we can offer you...'
The dates are really among the best I've ever eatenl; and the host is obviously pleased by our hunger which he can satisfy. And he goes on:
"The wind, the wind, it makes our life hard; but that is God's will. The wind destroys our plantations. We must always struggle to keep them from being covered in sand. It has not always been thus. In earlier times there was not so much wind here..........The wind.. but we do not complain.. As you know, the Prophet - may God bless him - told us: "God says, Revile not destiny, for, behold - I am destiny..."
I must have started, for the old man stops speaking and looks at me attentively; and, as if comprehending why I started, he smiles with almost a woman's smile, strange to see in that tired, worn-out face, and repeats softly, as if to himself:
"... behold, I am destiny: - and in a nod with which he accompanies his words lies a proud, silent acceptance of his own place in life; and never have I seen, even in happy people, a Yes to reality expressed with so much quiet and sureness.
'Do you really believe that God expects you to show Him your respect by repeated bowing and kneeling and prostration? Might it not be better only to look into oneself and to pray to Him in stillness of one's heart? Why all these movements of your body?'
As soon as I uttered these words I felt remorse, for I had not intended to injure the old man's religious feelings. But the hajji did not appear in the least offended. He smiled with his toothless mouth and replied:
'How else then should we worship God? Did He not create both, soul and body, together? And this being so, should man not pray with his body as well as with his soul?
Listen, I will tell you why we Muslims pray as we pray. We turn toward the Kaaba, God's holy temple in Mecca, knowing that the faces of all Muslims, wherever they may be, are turned to it in prayer, and that we are like one body, with Him as the centre of our thoughts.
First we stand upright and recite from the Holy Koran, remembering that it is His Word, given to man that he may be upright and steadfast in life. Then we say, "God is the Greatest," reminding ourselves that no one deserves to be worshipped but Him; and bow down deep because we honour Him above all, and praise His power and glory.
Thereafter we prostrate ourselves on our foreheads because we feel that we are but dust and nothingness before Him, and that He is our Creator and Sustainer on high.
Then we lift our faces from the ground and remain sitting, praying that He frogive us our sins and bestow His grace upon us, and guide us aright, and give us health and sustenance.
Then we again prostrate ourselves on the ground and touch the dust with our foreheads before the might and the glory of the One.
After that, we remain sitting and pray that He bless the Prophet Muhammad who brought His message to us, just as He blessed the earlier Prophets; and that He bless us as well, and all those who follow the right guidance; and we ask Him to give us of the food of this world and of the good of the world to come.
In the end we turn our heads to the right and to the left, saying "Peace and the grace of God be upon you" - and thus greet all who are righteous, wherever they may be.
'It was thus that our Prophet used to pray and taught his followers to pray for all times, so that they might willingly surrender themselves to God - which is what Islam means - and so be at peace with Him and with their own destiny.'
The old man did not, of course, use these exactly these words, but this was their meaning, and this is how I remember them.
Years later I realized that with his simple explaination the hajji had opened to me the first door to Islam; but even then, long before any thougt that Islam might become my own faith entered my mind, I began to feel an unwonted humility whenever I saw, as I often did, a man standing barefoot on his prayer rug, or on a straw mat, or on the bare earth, with his arms folded over his chest and his head lowered, entirely submerged within himself, oblivious of what was going on around him, whether it was in a mosque or on the sidewalk of a busy street: a man at peace with himself.
"May God give you life; this house is your house, eat in the name of God. This is all we have' - and he makes an apologetic gesture with his hand, a single movement in which the whole weight of his fate is expressed with that artless power of evocation so peculiar to people who live close to their instincts- 'but the dates are not bad. Eat, O wayfarers, of what we can offer you...'
The dates are really among the best I've ever eatenl; and the host is obviously pleased by our hunger which he can satisfy. And he goes on:
"The wind, the wind, it makes our life hard; but that is God's will. The wind destroys our plantations. We must always struggle to keep them from being covered in sand. It has not always been thus. In earlier times there was not so much wind here..........The wind.. but we do not complain.. As you know, the Prophet - may God bless him - told us: "God says, Revile not destiny, for, behold - I am destiny..."
I must have started, for the old man stops speaking and looks at me attentively; and, as if comprehending why I started, he smiles with almost a woman's smile, strange to see in that tired, worn-out face, and repeats softly, as if to himself:
"... behold, I am destiny: - and in a nod with which he accompanies his words lies a proud, silent acceptance of his own place in life; and never have I seen, even in happy people, a Yes to reality expressed with so much quiet and sureness.
***************end of novel narrative***************
You might wonder why i cried... Why you ask? In the earlier part of his narrative he explained his uneasiness in his life and he who held no faith felt so apart from his destiny. He questioned his parents religion and questioned religions in the Europe and he said to himself:
"My desire goes elsewhere: I dream of a form of life - though I must confess I do not see it clearly as yet - in which the entire man, spirit and flesh, would strive after a deeper and deeper fulfilment of his Self - in which the spirit and the senses would not be enemies to one another, and in which man could achieve unity within himself and with the meaning of his destiny, so that on the summit of his days he could say, "I am my destiny."
And here you see the writer has recieved an answer to his desire, recieved his answer in the most unexpected place. In the home of a stranger who accepted him (also a stranger) into their home and provided him food even when they themselves were struggling to survive.
He recieved his answer in a man, not rich, not famous but so completely aware of his reality and one with his destiny.
I felt such an enormous amount of feeling wash upon me (although what that feeling was I cannot properly describe it into words). It was the feeling of how it was Islam that brought this man his answer.
I dried my tear soaked eyes and continued my reading... and then the tears fell yet again...
"My desire goes elsewhere: I dream of a form of life - though I must confess I do not see it clearly as yet - in which the entire man, spirit and flesh, would strive after a deeper and deeper fulfilment of his Self - in which the spirit and the senses would not be enemies to one another, and in which man could achieve unity within himself and with the meaning of his destiny, so that on the summit of his days he could say, "I am my destiny."
And here you see the writer has recieved an answer to his desire, recieved his answer in the most unexpected place. In the home of a stranger who accepted him (also a stranger) into their home and provided him food even when they themselves were struggling to survive.
He recieved his answer in a man, not rich, not famous but so completely aware of his reality and one with his destiny.
I felt such an enormous amount of feeling wash upon me (although what that feeling was I cannot properly describe it into words). It was the feeling of how it was Islam that brought this man his answer.
I dried my tear soaked eyes and continued my reading... and then the tears fell yet again...
**************narrative from novel****************
'Do you really believe that God expects you to show Him your respect by repeated bowing and kneeling and prostration? Might it not be better only to look into oneself and to pray to Him in stillness of one's heart? Why all these movements of your body?'
As soon as I uttered these words I felt remorse, for I had not intended to injure the old man's religious feelings. But the hajji did not appear in the least offended. He smiled with his toothless mouth and replied:
'How else then should we worship God? Did He not create both, soul and body, together? And this being so, should man not pray with his body as well as with his soul?
Listen, I will tell you why we Muslims pray as we pray. We turn toward the Kaaba, God's holy temple in Mecca, knowing that the faces of all Muslims, wherever they may be, are turned to it in prayer, and that we are like one body, with Him as the centre of our thoughts.
First we stand upright and recite from the Holy Koran, remembering that it is His Word, given to man that he may be upright and steadfast in life. Then we say, "God is the Greatest," reminding ourselves that no one deserves to be worshipped but Him; and bow down deep because we honour Him above all, and praise His power and glory.
Thereafter we prostrate ourselves on our foreheads because we feel that we are but dust and nothingness before Him, and that He is our Creator and Sustainer on high.
Then we lift our faces from the ground and remain sitting, praying that He frogive us our sins and bestow His grace upon us, and guide us aright, and give us health and sustenance.
Then we again prostrate ourselves on the ground and touch the dust with our foreheads before the might and the glory of the One.
After that, we remain sitting and pray that He bless the Prophet Muhammad who brought His message to us, just as He blessed the earlier Prophets; and that He bless us as well, and all those who follow the right guidance; and we ask Him to give us of the food of this world and of the good of the world to come.
In the end we turn our heads to the right and to the left, saying "Peace and the grace of God be upon you" - and thus greet all who are righteous, wherever they may be.
'It was thus that our Prophet used to pray and taught his followers to pray for all times, so that they might willingly surrender themselves to God - which is what Islam means - and so be at peace with Him and with their own destiny.'
The old man did not, of course, use these exactly these words, but this was their meaning, and this is how I remember them.
Years later I realized that with his simple explaination the hajji had opened to me the first door to Islam; but even then, long before any thougt that Islam might become my own faith entered my mind, I began to feel an unwonted humility whenever I saw, as I often did, a man standing barefoot on his prayer rug, or on a straw mat, or on the bare earth, with his arms folded over his chest and his head lowered, entirely submerged within himself, oblivious of what was going on around him, whether it was in a mosque or on the sidewalk of a busy street: a man at peace with himself.
***************end of novel narrative***************
Following on with the story the writer unravels more and more of his experiences and of the impact that the Arab people brought to him.
In the beginning of the book the narrator stated:
"The Arabia depicted in the following pages no longer exists. Its solitude and integrity have crumbled under a strong gush of oil and the gold that the oil has brought. Its great simplicity has vanished and, with it, much that was humanly unique. It is with the pain one feels for something precious, now irretrievably lost, that I remember that last, long desert tre, when we rode, rode, two men on two dromedaries, through swimming light...."
I would like to note that the author was not born in Arab lands but see here, he describes his love for the Arab and its land that he noted "It is with the pain one feels for something precious, now irretrievably lost". Throughout the novel I notice how the writer explains that his life before felt like a dream and he felt that he truly belonged when he was travelling in Arab land.
The novel itself was a wonderful read and a wonderful experience. Although I would love to decribe more about this novel I fear that my post has become to long. If anyone wishes me to continue please leave a comment. If there is but one person who wishes me to continue i will do so at another time. Please feel free to buy or borrow this book and read it. It is better to experience it from ones own point of view is it not?
I recommend this book to anyone and everyone. It is wonderfully written. This book is not meant to be read by only Islams and i encourage any mature reader to try a hand at reading this.
In the beginning of the book the narrator stated:
"The Arabia depicted in the following pages no longer exists. Its solitude and integrity have crumbled under a strong gush of oil and the gold that the oil has brought. Its great simplicity has vanished and, with it, much that was humanly unique. It is with the pain one feels for something precious, now irretrievably lost, that I remember that last, long desert tre, when we rode, rode, two men on two dromedaries, through swimming light...."
I would like to note that the author was not born in Arab lands but see here, he describes his love for the Arab and its land that he noted "It is with the pain one feels for something precious, now irretrievably lost". Throughout the novel I notice how the writer explains that his life before felt like a dream and he felt that he truly belonged when he was travelling in Arab land.
The novel itself was a wonderful read and a wonderful experience. Although I would love to decribe more about this novel I fear that my post has become to long. If anyone wishes me to continue please leave a comment. If there is but one person who wishes me to continue i will do so at another time. Please feel free to buy or borrow this book and read it. It is better to experience it from ones own point of view is it not?
I recommend this book to anyone and everyone. It is wonderfully written. This book is not meant to be read by only Islams and i encourage any mature reader to try a hand at reading this.
Other recommended books by Muhammad Asad:
- The Message of the Qur'an -
- Sahih al-Bukhari: The Early Years of Islam -
P.s. I really recommend his books. :D
It's beautifully written and wonderfully touching. Makes you understand the beauty in Islam.
When I read this i had one thought that lingered in my mind "Many people are born into Islam here in Malaysia but how many of us truly searched for Islam for ourselves."
People might say I'm Islam because my parents are Islam. Is that not ignorance?
Are we just following the steps of our parents. Are we really Muslims?
I really respect and admire these people who aren't born into Islam but searched and found Islam in their lives. Yes I believe that God showed them the way but if each of us whether born into the religion or not, actually strived to find out more about our religion isn't that wonderful?
Why do children nowadays take religion just based on their family's background? why not know more about your religion? Be it Islam or Christian or Buddist or Jew or Tao or any other religion.
Instead of just accepting it why not learn more about it and really, truly accept the religion not because you were born into it but because YOU YOURSELF made the decision.
YOU YOURSELF who said "ah, yes, this is what I've been searching for and this is what I truly believe in."
I admit I myself am still learning. Still slow in my progress but I'm happy because I've made an effort. God does not require for you to be the best, Allah S.W.T. just want you to do your best and He will take care of the rest. (Thanks Nasuha for this encouraging words. I will remember them).
I might not be the best but I'm trying and giving an effort and slowly but surely He is guiding my way. Amin
You don't need to rush, take it one step at a time. Learn your religion and God will show you the right way. All it takes is one step and the world will change.
"The best way to discover something is to discover it yourself"
It's beautifully written and wonderfully touching. Makes you understand the beauty in Islam.
When I read this i had one thought that lingered in my mind "Many people are born into Islam here in Malaysia but how many of us truly searched for Islam for ourselves."
People might say I'm Islam because my parents are Islam. Is that not ignorance?
Are we just following the steps of our parents. Are we really Muslims?
I really respect and admire these people who aren't born into Islam but searched and found Islam in their lives. Yes I believe that God showed them the way but if each of us whether born into the religion or not, actually strived to find out more about our religion isn't that wonderful?
Why do children nowadays take religion just based on their family's background? why not know more about your religion? Be it Islam or Christian or Buddist or Jew or Tao or any other religion.
Instead of just accepting it why not learn more about it and really, truly accept the religion not because you were born into it but because YOU YOURSELF made the decision.
YOU YOURSELF who said "ah, yes, this is what I've been searching for and this is what I truly believe in."
I admit I myself am still learning. Still slow in my progress but I'm happy because I've made an effort. God does not require for you to be the best, Allah S.W.T. just want you to do your best and He will take care of the rest. (Thanks Nasuha for this encouraging words. I will remember them).
I might not be the best but I'm trying and giving an effort and slowly but surely He is guiding my way. Amin
You don't need to rush, take it one step at a time. Learn your religion and God will show you the right way. All it takes is one step and the world will change.
"The best way to discover something is to discover it yourself"
...Assalamualaikum...
1 comments:
God does not require for you to be the best, Allah S.W.T. just want you to do your best and He will take care of the rest.
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