Life of Muhammad Asad
Rashid Jahangiri has submitted the following post.
Muhammad Asad (1900-1992): The Pakistani Connection.
On the Pakistani blog, All Things Pakistan, an article on Maulana Muhammad Asad is posted.
Now a documentary is made on his book, A Road To Mecca.
In October 2007, I wrote my comments. I am copying it here:
My two cents on Muhammad Asad.
1) Muhammad Asad, accepted Islam on the hands of Maulana Sadar Ud Din, Imam of Berlin Mosque, Germany, run by Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement. His name is still written in the registers of converts to Islam.
2) Muhammad Asad’s first translation of Holy Quran, was financed and published by Saudi king Ibn Saud. In more than one places in his translation/tafseer (commentary), and in particular Sura Al-Maaidah (Ch 5) verse 117, and Sura An-nisaa (Ch 4) verse 157 (foot note 172) [references are from the latest edition; its photo is in your article] Eisa AS (Jesus Christ) is DEAD. He will NO longer return in flash. Well, Saudi king did not like it and asked Asad to change it. Asad refused and said to the king: You are an Arab, your language is Arabic you translate it. King replied: I agree with what you say, but what should I do about Mullas? As Asad refused to change translation, the king said: I have no choice but to burn all copies of it. So, his first translation/tafseer of Holy Quran was burnt. Then Asad with his own finances published it, again. He published it (I think) only once. And it is with out index. The latest edition, the one you have posted, is with index. Interesting point is that when Maulana Muhammad Ali, an elder of Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement in his English translation/tafseer of Holy Quran (first edition published in 1917), and in Urdu translation/tafseer ‘Biyan-ul-Quran’ said the same thing he was rejected by Muslims and his translation/tafseer was burnt by Al-Azhar university, Cario (it is another fact that the same university now translates his English and Urdu books into Arabic language for Arab readers). I guess Muslim thought is finally catching up as no one has objection to Asad translation/tafseer of Holy Quran.
3) Muhammad Asad in his book ‘A oad to Mecca’ has written chapter on Dajjal, which basically points to Caucasian Christian Nation of Europe and North America. Interestingly, the same point was raised LONG BEFORE, by elders of Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement including Maulana Muhammad Ali, Muslims find difficult to accept it. Just like other points such as Jihad and Jinns. Maulana Muhammad Ali wrote a book: ‘Al-Maseeh-ud-Dajjal-o-Yaajooj-o-Maajooj’ (translation: The Anti-Christ and Gog and Magog). Here is the link:
http://aaiil.org/text/books/mali/gog/gog.shtml
Link to article:
http://pakistaniat.com/2007/04/16/muhammad-mohammad-mohammed-asad-message-quran-koran-road-mecca-pakistan/#comments
Link to documentary:
http://www.aroadtomecca.com/sub2.php?ID=3&S=E
From Zahid Aziz:
After visiting the above-mentioned blog, I also posted a comment on it, which at present is awaiting moderation. It is as below.
Asad’s Message of the Quran was first published in around 1962 in the form of part 1, covering the first 9 chapters of the Quran. The publisher was the well-known Rabita Al-Islami of Saudi Arabia. Then it was noted that on several verses he had expressed exactly the same view point as that in the English commentary of the Quran by Maulana Muhammad Ali (d. 1951), the Lahore Ahmadiyya leader. In particular on the issue of whether Jesus died a natural death or was raised bodily to heaven, Asad had expressed the same view as the Ahmadis.
The publishers recalled his book and destroyed it. Asad then continued to complete his work and published the full work, as we know, in 1980 or so.
When Asad was in Lahore during the 1940s he used to meet Maulana Muhammad Ali. In fact, the Maulana has mentioned him (though not mentioned meeting him) in the Preface of his book ‘A Manual of Hadith’. There is even a person alive today in the USA, Colonel (retired) Mahmud Shaukat, who remembers Asad in Pakistan, and he recalls that Asad also used to visit another prominent Lahore Ahmadi, Dr Saeed Ahmad (d. 1996, and head of Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement from 1981).
When Asad’s full work appeared in 1980, I reviewed it. No doubt it is a work of great scholarship and merit. However, I referred to the statement by Asad that it was as a result of learning Arabic from Bedouins of Arabia that he could properly understand the meaning of the Quran. I pointed out that if you ask a Bedouin about the word ‘raf’ as used about Jesus in the Quran, the Bedouin will tell you that it means that Allah lifted Jesus physically to heaven. But that is not Asad’s view! I gave some other similar examples as well. An understanding of statements in the Quran is not based only on language but also on the principles laid down in the Quran.
The acclaim given to Asad’s work shows, in a way, the mental confusion and lack of integrity in the Muslim world. Maulana Muhammad Ali’s commentary is denounced as heretical for expressing certain interpretations in several places, but the same interpretations are to be found in Asad’s commentary! In fact, in the interpretation of some stories of the prophets, Asad has departed more from the traditional views than Maulana Muhammad Ali.
From Usman:
In the same blog another poster says the following about Muhammad Asad:
“I have not read any of his writings but understand that his main focus was on the primacy of Quran over any all other sources such as Hadith and Sunna as he felt that Quran had been over-ruled by secondary sources.(http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/531762/posts )”
I posted a comment pointing out that this issue (supremacy of Quran over secondary sources) is also one the distinctive features of the Ahmadiyya school of thought, and taken together with Zahid Aziz’s and Rashid Jahangiri’s posts, it seems Muhammad Asad may have been influenced by the Ahmadiyya movment more than what is generally known or accepted. The moderator did not approve the post (al least not as of yet..2 days since posting).