"The Road to Mecca", is a book written by Muhammad Asad. He is an Austrian Jewish who converted to Islam by the end of the 1920's. The Road to Mecca was not only a description for the author's trip to Mecca, but an intellectual, historical, political and novel book that describes the author's feeling of Islam and the Muslim World. Muhammad Asad was a journalist, traveler, philosopher, historian, diplomat, thinker, scholar and a great believer in the religion he decided to convert to. In this book, Muhammad Asad goes over many aspects that are related to the Muslim and their situation. From the eyes of a Western who was deeply immersed in the Muslim and Arab culture. Muhammad Asad was not like many Westerns Orientalists who wrote books and
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When describing historical events in the Muslim region, he did not just citing the events but Muhammad Asad analyzing them with a clear vision. His analysis took both sides, the side of the elite who made the decisions and the common people whom the decisions were applied upon.
Muhammad Asad was a good friend of King Abdul Aziz Al Suod, the founder of Saudi Arabia, the Shah of Iran, the King of Afghanistan, the founder of the Sonosi movement in Libya and the intellectual founder of Pakistan Muhammad Iqbal. Muhammad Asad was very close to King Abdul Aziz during the establishment events of Saudi Arabia. He gained the trust of Abdul Aziz despite their views’ differences in understanding Islam.
Beside historical events and observations, Muhammad Asad gave a lot of great input on many Islamic teachings that he learned and he thought are delightful. The five prayers, fasting, pilgrimage, Ibrahim’s story with Hajar and Ismael, Jihad and its definition, his view of the west rejection of Islam, his view on the ideal Muslim state, the Jinn, the Palestinian crisis, the Shiaa and Sunni division and a more other sensitive Islamic issues. Moreover, he was very straight sometimes in stating some opinions that disagree completely with the Wahhabi ideology, like photography, women education, modernization …show more content…
In each chapter Muhammad Asad tried to cover two to three period of time; his trip to Mecca, his youth and life in the west and his past experiences with King of Arab during the time, years ago during the founding of the Kingdom. In addition, of the unique and nice thing about The Road to Mecca was the use of the Arabic words used by common people over there. Muhammad Asad tried his best to write the exact translation of the words used. He did not just go over them as general idioms used by some other language but he would use them with accurate translation and in
When describing historical events in the Muslim region, he did not just citing the events but Muhammad Asad analyzing them with a clear vision. His analysis took both sides, the side of the elite who made the decisions and the common people whom the decisions were applied upon.
Muhammad Asad was a good friend of King Abdul Aziz Al Suod, the founder of Saudi Arabia, the Shah of Iran, the King of Afghanistan, the founder of the Sonosi movement in Libya and the intellectual founder of Pakistan Muhammad Iqbal. Muhammad Asad was very close to King Abdul Aziz during the establishment events of Saudi Arabia. He gained the trust of Abdul Aziz despite their views’ differences in understanding Islam.
Beside historical events and observations, Muhammad Asad gave a lot of great input on many Islamic teachings that he learned and he thought are delightful. The five prayers, fasting, pilgrimage, Ibrahim’s story with Hajar and Ismael, Jihad and its definition, his view of the west rejection of Islam, his view on the ideal Muslim state, the Jinn, the Palestinian crisis, the Shiaa and Sunni division and a more other sensitive Islamic issues. Moreover, he was very straight sometimes in stating some opinions that disagree completely with the Wahhabi ideology, like photography, women education, modernization …show more content…
In each chapter Muhammad Asad tried to cover two to three period of time; his trip to Mecca, his youth and life in the west and his past experiences with King of Arab during the time, years ago during the founding of the Kingdom. In addition, of the unique and nice thing about The Road to Mecca was the use of the Arabic words used by common people over there. Muhammad Asad tried his best to write the exact translation of the words used. He did not just go over them as general idioms used by some other language but he would use them with accurate translation and in