| Muhammad Asad |
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| 1992 deaths | |
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Asad a former Jew, was a descendant of a long line of rabbis, except his father, who became a barrister. Asad received a thorough religious education that would qualify him to keep alive the family's rabbinical tradition. He was proficient in Hebrew at an early age and was also familiar with Aramaic . He had studied the Old Testament in the original as well as the text and commentaries of the Talmud , the Mishna and Gemara , and he had delved into the intricacies of Biblical exegesis, the Targum. He accepted Islam in the year 1926. He 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." He travelled extensively throughout the Muslim world and witnessed firsthand many of the liberation movements which had started to form in the early part of the twentieth century with the aim of freeing Muslim lands from colonial rule. He travelled to India where he met and worked alongside Muhammad Iqbal the poet-philosopher who proposed the idea of an independent Muslim state in India which was later to become Pakistan. Asad was appointed the first Pakistani ambassador to the United Nations . Towards the end of his life he moved to Spain and lived there with his fourth wife, Paola Hameeda Asad until his death. Asad wrote several books; some of the prominent ones are Road to Mecca, an account of his travels through Muslim lands and his conversion to Islam, as well as his thoughts on the growing Zionist movement. He also wrote The Message Of The Qur'an , a translation and brief commentary on the Muslim holy book which is based on his own knowledge of classical Arabic and also on the authoritative classical commentaries. It has been acclaimed as one of the best, if not the best, translations of the Quran into English although it has been criticised by some traditionalists for its Mutazilite leanings. He also wrote a translation and commentary on the Sahih Bukhari, the most authoritative collection of Hadeeth 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 most Muslim sects except 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. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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