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Why I embraced Islam?

After his conversion to Islam Professor Muhammad Asad travelled and worked throughout the Muslim world from North Africa to as far east as Afghanistan. After long years of devoted study, he became one of the leading Muslim scholars of our age. After the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, he was appointed Director of Islamic Reconstruction, West Punjab, and was member of the committee undertaking the task of an Islamic Constitution for Pakistan, and later on he became Pakistan's Alternate Representative at the United Nations.

He was an author of a number of books of which the most important are: 'Islam at the Crossroads' and 'Road to Mecca'. He was responsible for the production of an Islamic monthly called "Islamic Culture", for a number of years after the death of famous Muslim scholar Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall. Later on, he published a new English translaiton of the meaning of the Noble Quran--Editor.(1)

In 1922, I left my home country on a trip to Africa and Asia as a special correspondent for some of the biggest European newspapers. Since then, I have passed all my time in the Islamic world.
In the beginning, my interest in the countries that I had visited was superficial. In this matter I fared just as the foreign visitor.
In front of me I saw a social system and a Weltanschauung(Worldviewing-German) that are basically different from the European situation.

At first sight, I developed an attachment to this quiet human concept for life that is the complete opposite of the mechanical and bolsterous system of life that dominates European society. I was led by this inclination and sympathy to investigate very slowly the causes for the prevailing differences between Islamic and European socities.

With the passage of time, my interest in the teaching of Islam became greater. At that time, my desire for research and investigation was not strong enough as to lead me to the paradise of Islam. However, this desire opened new vistas for me to get acquainted with a human society based on the least imaginable froms of internal strife and on the greatest imaginable measure of brotherly relations.

The reality of Muslims today does not reflect the high ideal that can be achieved by the teaching of Islam. All the dynamism, driving force and progress that is an integral part of Islam, have been transformed on the hands of contemporary Muslims to neglect, sham and inactivity. All that we find in Islam of the qualities of magnanimity, preparedness, sacrifice and devotion have been diminished on the hands of contemporary to narrowness of scope and habituation to the life of meekness and humiliation.

The discovery I made of the obvious disparity between the way Islam fared in the past and how it has become now, caused me anxiety and astonishment. That in turn led me to deal with the problem from an angle that is more profound and closer to Islam. I mean by this that I have attempted to imagine myself with framework of Islam and not outside it. Although this attempt was an intellectual experience, it, nevertheless, quickly led me to the sound solution of the problem that was facing me. I became certain that the first and last cause for the cultural and social destruction of Muslims was due to the fact that they gradually have stopped to follow the teachings of Islam in their original spirit. Islam, as a religion, is still alive and dynamic, and is still a fact of life and very real. But Islam, without followers applying its teachings, is a dead body. The Muslim religion was the essential factor in the power and strength of the Islamic world, culturally and civilizationally. This same Islamic world might be lost and obliterated if it does not return to the fold of Islamic teaching and values.

The more my knowledge became greater about the strngth of the teachings of Islam and the ease for their application, there developed in me a strong desire to know the reasons that drove the Muslims to abandon this religion and its role in building and creating a sound life. I have discussed this problem with a number of Muslim thinkers from the Libyan desert to the frontiers of China, and from the shores of the Bosphorous to the Arabian Sea. This problem became my main preoccupation; it dominated my concern and feelings to the extent that it concealed all other intellectual concerns that I had in the Islamic world. With the passage of time, my queries increased and my discussion became more pervasive for the sake of finding out the cause of this lethargy to the extent that--although I have not embraced Islam yet-- I appeared as a defender of Islam in the face of Muslim indifference and negligence.

My success and progress to reach a satisfactory answer to my queries were imperceptible and untangible until the following incident took place.

I was told by a young governor of one of the Afghani mountain districts in one of the autumn days of 1925 a you of 1925 that I was Muslim, though unconscious of this fact. His words hit the very latent and hidden resources of my soul.
After this incident, I kept quiet until I had returned to Europe in 1926. Consequently, it appeared to me that the logical conclusion for my position was to embrace Islam.

It suffices to limit my story of my embracing Islam to this short summary. Since 1926, I have been asking myself the question: Why did I embrace Islam? What, in particular, attracted me to Islam? Truly, I cannot give an unequivocal answer to these questions. Nor was it a particular dogma or any other kind of belief from the teachings of Islam that drove me to become a Muslim. It was, however, the totality of the system that embraced all the moral and practical teachings as presented in a picture that is far-reaching in its magnificence, perfection and harmony which the thinker cannot thoroughly explain. It is impossible for me to assume that there was a particular side of Islam that attracted me more than another despite the numerous sides of Islam. Islam appears to be an engineering work that is highly perfect and efficient. Each and every side of this magnificent engineering work is the result of a harmonious and integral imagination that adds to the charm of this structure and the beauty of the interdependent whole. In its structure, there are no shortcomings or excesses; the expected result for this magnificent engineering work is absolute balance and complete-teachings and postulates-- fit in the right place had the reatest impressions on me. Perhaps there are other impressions that I find hard to analyze. I embraced Islam as a result of my enchantment with it. Enchantment or love is a feeling that comprises many factors; that includes our desires and feeling of loneliness; it also comprises our high ideals. This is my story of embracing of Islam. Islam crept into my heart with my awareness of it. It crept, however, unlike the sneaking thieves who steal houses at night and then run away; Islam crept into my heart to stay for ever.
Since the time of my embracing Islam, I have tried to study Islam and learn its teachings as much as I could. I have studied the Quran and Hadith(narrative relating deeds and utterances of Prophet Muhammed(Peace be upon him). Moreover, I have studied the language of the Quran, its history and what was said for it and against it. I have passed five years in Hejaz and Najd in an attempt to be inspired by the rise of Islam and its teachings on original places that witnessed the hands of the Arab Messenger. Since Hejaz is the meeting place of Muslims form various lands, I was able to compare between the various religious and social points of view that are current in modern times. These comparative studies gave birth to an invincible belief and firm certitude and that Islam, as a relgious and social phenomenon, is still the greatest driving force that mankind has known until the present, despite what Muslims suffer from in the way of backwardness and inactivity. Since then my greatest concern has been the question of reviving it.


Muhammad Asad
(Formerly Leopold Weiss)
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(1) Why We Embraced Islam, by Arafat K. El-Ashi, Vol. 1, p. 103 and Islam, the First and Final Religion, p.111.
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