MUHAMMAD ASSAD LEOPOLD WEISS (Austrian)
This
is a note from the webmaster - The file on Muhammad Assad /Leopold
Weilss might contain errors. A brother has written with some facts
that does not match these in this revert story. I'm not going
to dig into this, but if anybody has any facts in either direction
- please contact me!
/Ibrahim
(Weiss was born in 1318 [A.D. 1900] in the Livow city of Austria
[in Poland today], visited Arabic countries as a newspaper correspondent
when he was twenty-two years old, admired and professed the Islamic
religion, then visited all the Islamic countries, including India
and Afghanistan, and published his impressions in 'Frankfurter
Zeitung', one of the greatest newspapers world over. Weiss worked
as the publication director for Frankfurter Zeitung for some time,
then, after Pakistan's winning its struggle for liberation, he
went to Pakistan with a view to co-operating with that country's
government in the establishment of a system of a religious education,
and later he was sent to the United States Center to represent
Pakistan. He has two books, one entitled 'Islam at Cross-Roads',
and the other 'The Way Leading to Mecca'. Recently he has rendered
the Qur'an al-karim into English. His attempt to write a tafsir
(translation of Qur'an al-karim) without the indispensably required
background in the basic Islamic sciences indicates that he is
not in the Madhhab of Ahl as-sunnat and that, consequently, his
tafsirs and other (religious) writings may be harmful. Wahhabis
and other groups outside (the right way guided by the four) Madhhabs
present this ignorant heretic as an Islamic scholar.)
The newspapers for which I worked as a correspondent and writer
sent me to Asia and Africa in the capacity of 'special correspondent'
in 1922. In the beginning, my relations with the Muslims were
no more than ordinary relations between two parties of foreigners.
However, my long stay in the Islamic countries enabled me to know
the Muslims more closely, which in turn made me realize that they
had been looking at the world and the events taking place in the
world from angles quite dissimilar to those of Europeans. I must
acknowledge that their extremely dignified and composed attitude
towards the events, and their approach that was much more humanistic
than our own, began to stir up my interest. I was from a fanatical
Catholic family. Throughout my childhood I had been inculcated
with the belief that Muslims were irreligious people worshipping
the devil. When I came into contact with Muslims I realized that
they had been lying to me and I decided to study the Islamic religion.
I acquired a number of books written on this subject. When I began
to read these books with close attention, I saw in amazement how
pure and how valuable a religion it was. Yet the manners and behaviours
of some Muslims I had been in contact with did not conform to
the Islamic principles that I was reading about. First of all,
Islam dictated cleanliness, open heartedness, brotherhood, compassion,
faithfulness, peace and salvation and, rejecting the Christian
doctrine that "men are ever sinful," it substituted
it with quite an opposite belief which tolerated "all sorts
of worldly pleasures with the proviso that they should not cost
someone else's harm and that they should not overflow the free
area defined by Islam." But I also met some dirty and mendacious
Muslims. To understand the matter better, I began to run an experiment
on it, putting myself in the place of a Muslim and adapting myself
to the principles I had been reading in the books, and thus examining
Islam from within. I came up with the conclusion that the main
reason for the increasing degeneration and decline of the Islamic
world, which was already on the brink of a collapse, was Muslims'
becoming increasingly indifferent towards their religion. As long
as Muslims preserved their perfection as true Muslims, they always
made progress; and a downfall began the very moment they relaxed
their grips of Islam. In actual fact, Islam possesses all the
qualifications required for a country's or a nation's progress.
It contains all the essentials of civilization. The Islamic religion
is both extremely scientific and very practical. The principles
it lays down are completely logical, intelligible to everybody,
and do not contain one single element that would run counter to
knowledge, to science, or to human nature. There is nothing unnecessary
in it. The grotesque passages, the sophistries, and the superstitious
mysticisms, which are the common properties of other religious
books, do not exist in Islam. I discussed these subjects with
most Muslims and castigated them, saying, "Why don't you
adhere more tightly to this beautiful religion of yours? Why don't
you hold fast to it with both hands?" Eventually, in 1344
[A.D. 1926], as I was discussing these matters with a governor
in Afghanistan, he said to me, "You have already become a
Muslim without you yourself noticing it. Only a true Muslim would
defend Islam as earnestly as you are doing now." Upon these
words of the governor's a lightning flashed in my brain. When
I was back home I plunged into deep thoughts, finally saying to
myself, "Yes, I am a Muslim now." Presently I pronounced
the statement called Kalima-i-sahadat.[The statement called Kalima-i-shahadat
is: "Ash-hadu an-la-ilaha il'l'Allah, wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan
abduhu wa Rasuluhu," which means, "I testify to the
fact that there is no god but Allah, and I testify, again, that
Muhammad a.s. is His born slave and Messenger." Every Muslim
has to make this statement at least once in his lifetime and has
to believe in its meaning.] I have been a Muslim ever since.
You ask me, "What aspect of Islam attracted you most?"
I cannot answer this question, for Islam has penetrated and invaded
my entire heart. There is not a specific aspect, therefore, which
affected me more than the others did. Everything I had not found
in Christianity I found in Islam. I cannot tell what principle
of Islam I feel closer to me. I admire each and every one of its
principles and essentials. Islam is a gorgeous monument. It is
impossible to separate any of its parts from its entirety. All
its parts are pivoted, clenched on one another in a certain order.
There is a tremendous harmony among the parts. There is not a
single part missing. Each and everyone of its parts is in its
proper place. Perhaps it was this extremely admirable order which
attached me to the Islamic religion. No. What attached me to the
Islamic religion was the love I had for it. You know, love is
composed of various things: Desire, loneliness, ambition, elevation,
zeal for progress and improvement, our weaknesses mixed with our
strength and power, the need for someone to help and protect us,
and the like. So I embraced Islam with all my heart and love,
and it settled in my heart so as to never leave there again.
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