... the timeliness and the timelessness of these thoughts ... -- By Hasan Zillur Rahim, editor of IQRA, the quarterly magazine, published in San Jose, CA.

Timeliness and Timelessness

In 1987, Asad published This Law of Ours and Other Essays, a collection of articles on Muslim religious and political thought he had written over the years but had not published, including "Answers of Islam," "Calling All Muslims," and "A Vision of Jerusalem." In fact, it was his wife, Pola Hamida, who recovered them after going through some of his old papers and, recognizing their importance, insisted that they be published. "I believe the reader will be struck, as I have been," she wrote in the foreword to the book, "not only by the extraordinary timeliness and the timelessness of these thoughts and predictions, but also by their consistency."

I had the good fortune of corresponding with Muhammad Asad. In 1986, I read The Road to Mecca and was so moved and persuaded by the author's narrative that I resolved to somehow make contact. (The only other book to have similar impact on me, albeit from a different perspective, was the Autobiography of Malcolm X.) Soon I came across an interview with Asad in a magazine called Arabia, published out of England. I wrote a letter to the editor of Arabia to forward to Asad. To my amazement, Asad soon replied from Spain. "I was deeply touched by your letter," he wrote, "which was forwarded to me by Dr. Fathi Osman. Thank you for your appreciation of my work; it is for people like you that I am writing." In my letter I had expressed the hope that he would continue his life story from where he left off in The Road to Mecca. "I have promised my wife, who has been insisting for a long time," he replied, "that I should continue and complete my memoirs. My next work will be just that and of course it will, of necessity, include my years in India and Pakistan...Please pray that God will allow me to accomplish this work." Our correspondence continued for a while until Asad became too ill to reply.

After Asad died in Spain in 1992, I wrote to Pola Hamida Asad, who informed me that the sequel to The Road to Mecca was only partially completed by Asad—part one—and that she herself would complete part two. It would be called Homecoming of the Heart, "a title which he himself suggested." (The book is not yet available in the United States.)

Muhammad Asad stood alone among contemporary Muslims for his extraordinary perception of, and contributions to, Islam. With his command of the English language, his knowledge of the Bible and biblical sources, as well as Jewish history and civilization, Asad was more successful than most in communicating to Muslim and non-Muslim readers the essence of Islam in both its historical and timeless context.

But beyond words and books, Asad wanted to see the living body of Islam flourish in the modern world. Although distressed by the sad state of the Muslim world and its reactive agenda, he remained optimistic to the end that a new generation of Muslims eventually would rise to make his dream a reality.

It is easy to imagine Asad approving of the peaceful yet vigorous activism of American Muslims in defending the tenets of their faith and in striving to bring a balance to American society. He would, in particular, have invested high hopes on Muslim youth for their idealism and their ability and eagerness to think and reason. Asad abhorred extremism in all its forms. "And thus We have willed you to be a community of the Middle Way" was a Qur'anic verse he quoted often, explaining that in Islam, there was no room for revolution, only evolution.

Asad was the conscience of thinking Muslims. "The door of ijtihad will always remain open," he used to say, "because no one has the authority to close it." As Islam enters the most critical phase of its development in the West, Muhammad Asad's legacy assumes an urgency no thinking Muslim can afford to ignore.

Hasan Zillur Rahim is editor of the quarterly magazine IQRA, published in San Jose, CA. Books by Muhammad Asad may be ordered from Kazi Publications, 3023-27 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago, IL 60618, (312) 267-7001, or from Threshold Books, 139 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT 05301, (802) 257-2779.