A book review that seeks to decipher two pilgrimages on the same path separated by a century
By Kashif-ul-Huda, TwoCircles.net,
Spirituality is what separates humans from other living beings. I have been a seeker for the last few years. I have read a number of books, visited graves of saints, made ablutions at Haridwar and toured the ghats of Banaras; I have sat in the qawwali mehfils and even seen dervishes dance.
When the opportunity presented itself to go on an Umrah trip, I decided to take this pilgrimage of mind and body that Muslims have been doing for over 1400 years. I decided to take along Muhammad Asad’s book ‘The Road to Mecca’ to get an idea of what these lands must have felt like to an outsider about 90 years ago.
‘The Road to Mecca’ is put into the category of autobiography, but in reality it is a hajj travelogue. It is a story of hajj journey that took Jewish-born Austrian Leopold Weiss about three decades to complete and to emerge from that journey as a Muslim, who chose the name of Muhammad Asad (1900-1992). Unlike Asad, I am a born into a Muslim family but, like him, I am also an outsider to the Arab practices and customs. These may not be completely unfamiliar to me as I have grown up learning stories of Prophet Muhammad and his companions, about Arab scientists and Persian poets, about caliphs and Sufis.
The decade 1920s-30s were a time of great upheaval in Arabian lands and Leopold Weiss who was not religious, found himself traveling across a very harsh land inhabited by a very hospitable people. Unlike other Westerners, he immersed himself in local culture and understanding of their customs & practices. He learned Arabic and Farsi, travelled by camels and horses across the desert and the rocky landscapes and met Bedouins and emirs and rebels. He came to a better understanding of Islam and says, he himself didn’t know when and how but slowly he realized that he had become a Muslim.
Arab countries of today are different but the social upheavals that we see now in these lands are similar to what Asad saw almost a century ago – old governments and authorities are falling apart, new groups fueled by religious passions using violence to enforce their interpretations, foreign forces moving in to secure natural resources. As if only players have changed but the game remains the same!
Asad was a witness to the unfolding of historical processes that will set in motion forces that are to give shape to the Arabia that we see today – modern nation states ruled by oligarchs, curbs on women & minorities, religious extremism dominating the mainstream, capitalism that competes in vulgar display of wealth.
As part of the Umrah ritual, pilgrims circumambulate (do tawaaf of) the Kaaba seven times. I occupy my thoughts in zikr while my body moves around this simple black cube. I have prayed in mosques where the grandeur of the architecture is supposed to remind you of the greatness of Allah – as if saying if creation can create such beautiful building then how magnificent will be the Creator? – but, the Kaaba is where human intellect and creativity surrenders itself to the greatness of Allah by offering a most humble structure possible.
Makkah Royal Clock Tower
This humble building has a certain charm to it; I can’t help but occasionally turn my face towards the Kaaba, taking mental pictures of the first house of God. At a certain angle during circumambulation, you look up and your glance slips up from the Kaaba to an ominous looking building that seems to compete with the Kaaba for your attention – the Makkah Royal Clock Tower. Its purpose is not to tell you the time or even to remind you about the greatness of Allah, the phrase ‘Allah-u-Akbar’ right above the clock notwithstanding. Later I asked a long-time Bangladeshi resident of Makkah about it, only to get it described as ‘manhoosiyat’.
I go back to Asad and his beautiful description of the Kaaba and hajj. Asad got disillusioned with what he saw happening to his favorite people and favourite land. He wrote – “It hurts me to think of what the future might bring to it. I am told that the King is planning to open up his country to faranjis, so that he may gain money from them: he will allow them to dig for oil in Al-Hasa, and for gold in the Hijaz – and God alone knows what all this will do to the beduins. This country will never be the same again …”
Business and trade was always all around Masjid Haram but never before had capitalism raised its ugly head looming over the Kaaba itself.
Asad was in love with Arabs and Muslims and it shows through his writing. He supported the Saudi King Ibn Saud, in fact, also went on a dangerous mission for him. He supported the armed struggle waged by the Senussis of Libya. He even travelled across British and Italian controlled territories in Africa to meet the ‘Lion of the desert’ Omar Mukhtar. (But) later, disillusioned with the Saudi Kingdom and disheartened with the failure of the armed struggles, he left Arabia to see Muslims of the rest of the world.
He met poet Muhammad Iqbal in pre-independence India and worked enthusiastically for the idea of Pakistan. He even became Pakistan’s first Envoy to the United Nations. But Asad didn’t fare well in Pakistan either, and left the country to write this book ‘The Road to Mecca’, which turned out to be a best-seller.
Perhaps recognizing that establishment of Muslim states (such as Saudi Arabia or Pakistan) is not the solution; he devoted much time in translating Quran, which was published as ‘The Message of the Qur’an’.
He dedicated his translation to “people who think,” inviting Muslims to start thinking again instead of just accepting Islam because it happens to be the religion of their forefathers.
Code for the book purchase from amazon: