The Road to Mecca by Muhammad Asad | Goodreads
The Road to Mecca Paperback – January 1, 2000
by Muhammad Asad (Author)
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"A very rare and powerful book, raised completely above the ordinary by its candor and intelligence." —New York Post
"A book trenchant with adventure magnificently described, and a commentary upon the inner meaning of Arab and Muslim life, helpful to all who would achieve a more accurate understanding of the Arabs and their lands." —Christian Science Monitor
"['The Road to Mecca'] combines the adventure and scenic beauty of a good travel book, some unusually informed comments on near Eastern affairs, and a deeply thoughtful account of one man's finding of his own path." —Book of the Month Club, New York
About the Author
From his work as a journalist in the Middle East before his conversion, Muhammad Asad became an author, translator of Islamic literature, and international diplomat. His written works include his famed English translation of the Qur'an and translations of the Prophet's oral teachings.
Product details
Paperback: 375 pages
Publisher: Fons Vitae; Eighth Edition, Eighth edition edition (January 1, 2000)
Language: English
Charles
TOP 100 REVIEWER
5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent Travelogue & Conversion Memoir
March 16, 2015
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
This is a fascinating book—half travelogue and half conversion memoir. (Amazon also seems to have fixed the Kindle version, complained of in preview reviews—mine was excellent, down to the photos.)
Muhammad Asad was born a Jew, Leopold Weiss, in the Austro-Hungarian empire (in what is now Ukraine, the city of Lvov). He was prominent both in interactions with the West in the 20th Century, for example as Pakistani ambassador to the UN, and in theological work, including translation and exegesis of the Q’uran. Asad is regarded, and should be even more regarded in these days of Al Qaeda and ISIS, as a voice for a revitalized, mainstream (he would accurately reject the term “moderate”) Islam. But long before that, he was just a Westerner adrift and looking for spiritual answers.
Asad found those answers in Arabia. In many ways, The Road To Mecca is of the same genre as other travel books of Western men fascinated by Arabia in the first third of the 20th Century, such as Lawrence of Arabia, or lesser known figures such as Wilfred Thesiger (Arabian Sands). A certain type of Western man (a woman could not have had the opportunity) fell in love with the people and landscape of pre-petroleum Arabia, believing that the people had unique virtues (though they admitted the people were not composed only of virtues) and the land brought out the best in men. Some of this smacks of naïve love of the idealized noble savage, of course, and you see the same thing more commonly with Westerners and East Asian cultures like Tibet (hello, Richard Gere!). Conversion to Islam was not the norm, though, for Westerners entranced by Arabia and the Arabs. But Asad was simultaneously on a spiritual quest, and, like others before and since, after rejecting much else found what he was looking for in Islam.
Asad’s memoir is told in the form of flashbacks during a desert trip in 1927 with a traveling companion, ultimately to Mecca (not for his first time)—at the time he lived in Medina, so he had made the hajj pilgrimage several times already. In his book, he alternates descriptions of Arabian geography (as well as Syria, Iraq and Iran, and a little of the Maghreb), with descriptions of key Arabs and their personal and political doings (he knew Ibn Saud well, along with a host of lesser players, although not, apparently, the Hashemite kings of the Hejaz, deposed by Ibn Saud but later kings of Jordan to this day, and, briefly, Iraq). And all along in his book Asad is narrating his own life, and his own religious development, with apparently great honesty and clarity.
Asad rejected Judaism and became agnostic early, although he came from a rabbinical family. His main objection to Judaism is that he could not believe in a God that was focused nearly to exclusion on one people—he repeatedly and accurately contrasts Islam’s ability to embrace all kinds of people and form a new community from them with the exclusive aspects of Judaism. But Asad does not fall into the kind of crude anti-Judaic attitudes so common among modern Muslims, even though such an attitude is well supported in the Q’uran and the Sunnah, and is the historical norm in Islam. (Q’uranic verses such as 2:62, frequently quoted to make Islam seem universalist, “Surely those who believe, those of Jewry, the Christians and the Sabaeans . . . . whoever has faith in Allah and the Last Day, and works righteousness, their wage awaits them with their Lord, and no fear shall be upon them, and neither shall they sorrow” are not to the contrary—their exclusive interpretation in Islam has always been that those verses only apply to Jews before Jesus, and then to Christians before Muhammad, and have zero application today, after Muhammad. See The Reliance of the Traveler, the main Shafi’i “catechism,” at w4.4) He was, however, very opposed to Zionism and the founding of Israel, and friendly with Jews such as Jacob de Haan, a Dutch Jew assassinate by the Haganah in 1924 for favoring negotiations with Arab leaders.
Asad also seems to have considered Christianity, or so he asserts. If I had an objection to this book (although to object to someone else’s reasons for his personal conversion is obviously pretty silly), it is that he does not seem to understand Christianity at all, in that he ascribes to Christianity critical doctrines not actually found there, and ascribes his rejection of Christianity to his aversion to those (bogus) doctrines. The core “doctrine,” to which he returns repeatedly, is that Christianity (supposedly) believes matter and the body evil, and the spirit good. He contrasts this to Islam’s holistic approach, in which nothing Allah has made can be bad, and each human’s physical body and spirit are both key concerns of Islam.
But of course this is a false view of Christianity. More precisely, it is a heretical view. It is the view of the early Gnostics, the Manichees, and the Albigensians, all rejected by mainstream Christianity. They posited dualism—that, as Asad says, the body is bad and the spirit good. But mainstream Christianity holds the opposite—like Islam, it holds that all what God has created is good, though of course Islam and Christianity both hold it can be mis-used. Asad appears to have missed the key doctrine of Christianity of the resurrection of the body, found in both the Nicene Creed and the Apostles’ Creed. There is a difference between Christianity and Islam, in that Islam does not recognize original sin and Christianity does have non-heretical strains that emphasize spiritual precedence, such as the eremitic monks, but it is just not correct to posit the dualism that Asad appears to be believe to be central to Christianity.
Asad also falls into silly historical errors, such as supposing Islam’s view of the West is dictated by the Crusades, and that the Crusades were the formative moment of Western civilization, whereas in reality the Crusades were forgotten by Muslims (who won, after all) until their memory was resurrected for political purposes in the 19th Century, and were and are of minor importance in the West as well, except as a modern day tool for ignorant Americans to traduce Christianity and the West. He (in passing) also follows the common Muslim habit of erroneously ascribing important scientific inventions to Muslims, from algebra and trigonometry to “Arabic numerals” and the compass, in the usual effort to compensate for Muslim lack of scientific contributions in modern times (or, really, since the 11th Century, and even then mostly by non-Muslims under Muslim domination, and nearly all second-order scientific contributions). But these flaws are understandable and not at all germane to Asad’s basic narrative.
He also points out what are today interesting historical nuggets, such as that until the 19th Century Wahhabi “revival,” the Arabs of the Arabian Peninsula were seen as the laxest Muslims at all, and are now the most religious (not always to everyone’s benefit, then or now—Asad, while recognizing certain virtues, notes that it made them “proud, haughty men who regard themselves as the only true representatives of Islam and all other Muslim peoples as heretics”). Finally, he inadvertently confirms a variety of Western views of Islamic cultures as retrograde in certain areas as entirely correct, as when he notes how a family desperately tried and succeeded in hoodwinking him into marrying an 11-year old virgin. (He divorced her when he discovered her age on their wedding night, and did not consummate the marriage.) “[Her mother] was stupefied [by his demand to immediately divorce the girl]. She had never heard of a man who refused so choice a morsel—an eleven-year-old virgin—and must have thought that there was something radically wrong with me.”
Presumably this doesn’t really matter for Asad’s personal conversion. He was attracted to the community of believers in Islam; the fact that Islam provides answers to nearly every question in life, particularly those not directly related to spiritual matters, but to all matters of life (in this Islam is not dissimilar to such Christian groups as Opus Dei or Third Order Franciscans, though the comparison probably shouldn’t be stretched); the harmony of Muslim belief; and the peace Islam brought to the people he knew. He says himself that what he had was “a longing to find my own restful place in the world,” and he found it in Islam. One thing to keep in mind, of course, was that the 1920s were a time when many in the West, after the First World War, despaired of any future for the west. As Asad says: “A world in upheaval and convulsion: that was our Western world.” Islam offered a world united in itself, without any upheaval and convulsion, if properly ordered according to its own principles.
Asad is broad-minded, tolerant, and fascinating. Those are not characteristics in good odor among many strains of modern Islam, which tends in many cases to be anything but modern. His translation/exegesis of the Q’uran, The Message of the Koran, is banned in Saudi Arabia for supposed Mu’tazili tendencies (perceived as undermining the alleged divine nature of the Q’uran) and a willingness to strongly endorse ijtihad, or continued analysis and reasoning, in exegesis of the Q’uran. But whatever your theological predilection, these characteristics are what make Asad’s memoir very much worth reading.
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KEN TELLS ALL
5.0 out of 5 starsThe Road to Mecca
May 4, 2010
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
This is a very well written book done in the form of a very descriptive autobiography. The author looks with his mind through his eyes at people & the world around him in a very passionate way. The inner thoughts of his life and adventures are really captivating. It starts with him remembering the dissatisfied young man he was in Austria. He leaves it to seek adventure and ends up in the Middle East & converts to Islam in 1926. Great story which includes his views about the world and those he met along the way. I was not really in tune with all his personal views but understood his basic feelings. He was born in 1900 & lived in Austria. His birth name was Leopold Weiss. His religious ancestry consisted of a long line of orthodox Rabbis except for his father who was a lawyer. His parents were not religious and this I believe led to his lack of spirituality and turning from Judaism to Islam. His view of Islam became an obsession. He loved everything about the people who lived it and its teachings. I however didn't understand how he seemed to always know all the great and powerful people who taught & ruled on the Arabian peninsula. He was the personal friend & adviser of Islamic Kings, Amirs, Sheiks, Scholars, etc . If so, one might see why he was so taken by the religion. He never the less presents himself as a humble man in tune with the simple life and seeking adventure and his place in life. Really a great book even though he presents a one sided praise of Islam and a disgust for the western civilization. Islam could be a wonderful religion if not for the fanatics who control it. He himself hints to this during his writings but does not understand that he also has become one of them. Very interesting story of a european secular Jew who found his calling with Islam and its people.
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Sergey Shyndriayev
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat Reading
August 1, 2013
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Interesting story how I was introduced to this unusual book: our leader of “Islam 101” group in local mosque Pakistani by nationality mentioned Muhammad Asad name once. I found his biography in Wikipedia. I finished his book in three evenings, it was more interesting to me than Three Musketeers that I read in my childhood. His story is so unbelievable... He was born as Jew in Lvov, worked in Germany and finally became Muslim. "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.” I am not Muslim, but have Muslim’s friends and read whole Quran twice; I’m Christian and like to have conversations with Muslims. It still amazed me how Jew converted to Islam became one of the founders of Pakistan. This book is great reading, full of adventures, stories about Arabs. Just enjoy reading. His another work is "The Message of the Qur'an", a translation and commentary of the sacred book of Islam, the Qur'an. I read it partially, somehow in my group his translation was not recommended for study.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsMust Read
November 20, 2012
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
In this extraordinary and beautifully-written autobiography, Asad tells of his initial rejection of all institutional religions, his entree into Taoism, his fascinating travels as a diplomat, and finally his embrace of Islam. Can a modern/secular mind find it way into Islam and appreciate its truth? And if so how is this possible? As I was born in and raised into a Muslim society, I took it for granted that Islam was the true calling of God. At one point in my life, I did some soul searching into what I really believed and found that while I was strong in my faith, I needed help understanding more things about Islam. I found several books that helped but this bok expressed how I really felt. Asad's experience is the perfect testimony of the modern reason finding its way into Islam and at the same time reconstructing the message and significance of Islam for the modern Muslim. It helps us understand the relevance of Quranic message for modernity.
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nadav haber
5.0 out of 5 starsThe search for inner peace
January 14, 2002
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Muhammed Assad was a gifted journalist. This gift makes the reading of his Near East adventures a highly entertaining experience. The son of wealthy Jewish parents, he came to Palestine in the early 1920's, became an Anti-Zionist and fell in love with the Arab world. He returned to Europe after many adventurous journeys, married a woman 14 years older then he was, became a Muslim, and went back East. The story is told through the memories entertained during a camel ride to Mecca in the early 1930's (although written about 20 years later).
Asad was a fearless man (he once walked from Haifa to Damscus without a passport, and later dodged bullets while trying to advise the Sanusi rebels in Libya against fascist Italy). He had an enormous talent for languages - he could speak fluent Arabic and Persian, in addition to the European languages and Hebrew.
He was immediately attracted to Islam. Even before becoming a Muslim he had nothing but praise for it. According to him, Islam is completely class -less, accommodating spiritual and physical needs perfectly.
Asad's criticism of the Western value system seems relevant today at least as it was then. We might not share his conclusion and choose Islam, but we cant deny that there is something wrong in the Western way of life.
The book DOES NOT include Asad's Indian and Pakistanian years. I do not know what book this information is from, and I would really want to get it, as I heard Asad WAS one of the people behind the estblishment of Pakistan.
I recommand this truly extraordinary and enlightening book to everyone interested in what is really going on in the world.
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Mr. Bobo
5.0 out of 5 starsyet I knew I can never be like him! May the Creator be pleased with his ...
February 10, 2018
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A man who was true human, and his true spiritual journey through physical journey. It made me jealous of him, and his adventures, yet I knew I can never be like him! May the Creator be pleased with his M. Asad.
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k iwasa
4.0 out of 5 starscharm of the middle east
November 4, 2015
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This book gives an interesting insight into the conditions of the middle east in late 1920's. A restless and very talented Viennese author joins his secular Jewish cousin at Palestine initially intended for just a half year or so, and fascinated by the Arabs. Based on his experience and knowledge, he started to write newspaper articles to supplement his living expenses in Cairo and ending up a reporter for Frankfurter Zeitung...
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P.K. Ryan
5.0 out of 5 starsRoad to Mecca
March 30, 2011
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This was a great travelogue/autobiography of one man's spiritual journey into a completely foreign world and his subsequent embrace of that world. Asad, born as Leopold Weiss, was from a Jewish family in early 20th century Austria-Hungary and during his work as a journalist he travelled extensively throughout the Muslim world. He subsequently fell in love with Arab culture and converted to Islam. His dissatisfaction with Western society is something that precedes his Middle Eastern journeys, only he never suspected where this would ultimately lead him.
"I was not unhappy: but my inability to share the diverse social, economic and political hopes of those around me-of any group among them-grew in time into a vague sense of not quite belonging to them, accompanied, vaguely again, by a desire to belong-to whom? - to be a part of something- of what?"
Coming from a Jewish background, it is not remarkable that Asad would feel alienated from European society and feel an affinity for Arabia. That being said, there is something universal in his story, about his search for meaning, for peace of mind, for some place to call home. In fact, his personal insights strike a chord with me greatly (I am a white American), and I found myself significantly relating on an intellectual and emotional level. Anyways, this is also a great depiction of the early 20th century Muslim world as Asad rubs elbows with Kings and peasants alike. Definitely worth a read.
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W. Chambers
3.0 out of 5 starsThe Book is Magnificent - the Kindle Version is Terrible
October 5, 2013
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
This book is an amazing spiritual and historical record of a very insightful European who rejects the culture of the West and embraces the culture of the East along with Islam. I won't repeat some of the five star reviews who wrote about how life changing this book can be. I just want to warn anyone away from the Kindle version of this book which is a terrible digital conversion with typos, shortened lines, and some places just gibberish on every page! The chapter headings are completely messed up and the really good photos of the main people referred to in the book are missing even though they are referred to in the text. I had to find a copy in a library to finish reading it because the mistakes were so distracting. Amazon really needs to redo the Kindle version of the book as it is more than worth reading if it was done correctly.
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Ree
5.0 out of 5 starsOne of the most underrated books of all time...
October 9, 2017
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A fascinating historical account of the middle and near east, written by an Austrian journalist. Gives one last glimpse of the region before oil took over and became king.
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The Road to Mecca
by Muhammad Asad
4.45 · Rating details · 3,884 ratings · 493 reviews
In this extraordinary and beautifully-written autobiography, Asad tells of his initial rejection of all institutional religions, his entree into Taoism, his fascinating travels as a diplomat, and finally his embrace of Islam.
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Paperback, 375 pages
Published January 1st 2000 by Fons Vitae (first published 1954)
Original TitleThe Road to Mecca
ISBN 1887752374 (ISBN13: 9781887752374)
Edition LanguageEnglish
URLhttp://muhammad-asad.com/Road-to-Mecca.pdf
Other Editions (38)
الطريق إلى مكة
الطريق إلى مكة
The Road to Makkah
الطريق الي مكة
الطريق إلى الإسلام
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4.45 · Rating details · 3,884 ratings · 493 reviews
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Yazeed AlMogren
Jul 15, 2015 Yazeed AlMogren rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
أحد أروع كتب السير الذاتية التي قرأتها في حياتي.
بسبب موقف مع أحد أصدقاءه يبدأ الصحفي النمساوي محمد أسد (ليوبولد فايس سابقًا) كتابة سيرته الذاتية ليخبرنا عن رحلاته وكيف تحوّل الى الإسلام، استغرقت كتابه هذا الكتاب سنتين تحدث فيها عن بداية حياته ونشأته في اوروبا وكيف كان يريد تحقيق حلمه بأن يكون صحفيًا لامعًا، أتاح له تحقيق هذا الحلم بالسفر الى سوريا وفلسطين ومصر والأردن والسعودية وايران والهند والكويت وافغانستان، قابل في هذه الرحلات العديد من الملوك والسفراء والسياسيين امثال ملك ايران رضا بهلوي وا ...more
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Ibrahim Abdulla
Dec 15, 2012 Ibrahim Abdulla rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
يمكن أن أسمي القراءة لمن اعتنق الإسلام -خصوصاً من مسلمي أوروبا أو أمريكا- بأنها قراءة من خارج الصندوق، فأشخاص مثل محمد أسد، روجيه غاوردي، جيفري لانغ، حمزة يوسف، وغيرهم (آمنوا) عن قناعة ومبدأ، فالتغير إلى ديانة أخرى مجازفة ومغامرة بحد ذاتها، و تغير لنمط الحياة بأكمله؛ لهذا فإن أعمالهم غالباً ما تكون مؤثرة لأنها تخرج صادقة من القلب .
أول ما شد انتباهي في الكتاب هو أسلوب ليوبولد السردي الساحر؛ فأن تجعل من عملية إخراج الدلو من البئر عملية طواف نفسي، وصياح البدو أغاني جميلة، والصحاري المقفرة أماكن خيا ...more
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أحمد أبازيد Ahmad Abazed
Feb 03, 2012 أحمد أبازيد Ahmad Abazed rated it really liked it · review of another edition
هذا كتابٌ لا يندم قارئه
!
رحلة روح .. و قصّة حضارة .. و متعة لا تنتهي ..
أوصي به
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منال الحسيني
May 25, 2018 منال الحسيني rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
من أكثر الكتب المؤثرة التي قرأتها في حياتي، كتاب رائع مكتوب بشفافية عالية وباسلوب صادق وعفوي يلمس العقل والقلب معاً
أنصح بقراءته بشدة
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Alp Eren Topal
Aug 12, 2011 Alp Eren Topal rated it it was amazing
There are enough reviews by other people, which does the justice to the book. Yet I just want to add that Leopold Weis/Muhammad Asad's life is the testimony to one thing:
Can a modern/secular mind find it way into Islam and appreciate its truth? And if so how is this possible?
As I was born in and raised into a Muslim society, I took it for granted that Islam was the true calling of God. Yet after I have started studyin social sciences and Western society, the question above has become increasingly pressing for me. Because the answer to this question would help me decide whether Islam was really universal in its essence or I was living a truth-regime.
Esed's experience is the perfect testimony of the modern reason finding its way into Islam and at the same time reconstructing the message and significance of Islam for the modern Muslim. It helps us understand the relevance of Quranic message for Modernity.
Finally I'd like to say that vividness of the experiences in the book occasionally made me cry; something I experience so rarely. Towards the end, the cry "Lebbeyk!" was echoing in my own heart. (less)
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وضحى
Mar 23, 2012 وضحى rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
هو ليس الطريق إلى مكة فحسب!
هو الطريق إلى ذاك الهاتف البعيد من أقاصي الروح!
أوليست أرواحنا تائهة في جنبات هذا العالم الكثيف تلتمس قبساً من نورٍ يضمن لها سلامة الوصول إلى الغاية ..؟
هي حتماً كذلك..!
هذا الكتاب هو سيرة للنمساوي الصحفي والكاتب والمفكر ليوبولد فايس والذي غيّر اسمه لمحمد أسد بعد إسلامه ..
يحكي لنا رحلته من الغرب إلى الشرق وما بينهما، وعن تجاربه المثيرة والتقائه شخصيات لامعة-سياسية،ثورية، دينية وغيرها- في الشرق الأوسط على امتداد ما يزيد عن خمسٍ وعشرين عاماً..!
يبثّ لنا في جنبات هذا الكتاب ت ...more
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Tim
Oct 09, 2013 Tim rated it it was amazing
Shelves: islam, islam-autobio
The more I try to make sense of my path so far as a Muslim, the more the experiences seem to expand themselves in front of me and escape words. I cannot pin down what I'm living, seeing, realizing into language. I can only approximate, and at times try to make sense of it through the writings of others.
The idea of Islam being a consummation of all primordial divine truth, (and therefore not a "late" religion, but ONE religion) is the concept that has spoken to me most as of late. In this light, the particular message of this book is one of return through "new" beginnings. Or as we in Islam describe our conversion process, it is a RE-version to the primordial Religion - through submission (Islam) to the ultimate.
Muhammad Asad narrates his story through a method of weaving in and out of past and present events related to his journey to the Arab and Persian worlds. Immersed in this back and forth narrative is his spiritual progression and viewpoints on Islam derived from his esoteric experience of the divine as related to his outer experience of "brotherhood". In this way, Asad's style is a beautiful metaphor for Islam as a faith, and for the way that The Qur'an itself is written. What we know as existence or creation intersects at all points of the physical, spiritual and mental, and with this life-altering paradigm of unity in all areas, we can see where the many strains of reality constantly cross one another, and in Islam, are inseparable parts of a totality.
Asad describes a restlessness in this book that I've felt since my teens, and that compelled him as a European to travel to the Arab world and ultimately embrace Islam. It was a cultural shift, an acceptance of a new way of life that was exemplified through physical emigration. This resonated profoundly when I first looked at this book. Asad's conception of this restlessness is not a need for adventure per se, but more of a desire to get to the root of things, and therefore the need to experience. It's also not a sensual addiction, it's just a drive to get to the authentic. I'm there, and looking back, I've always been there. Islam to me offers an opportunity of full immersion into not only a faith (and "faith" has meant "dualism" in my past), but a complete life. Tawhid. Unity. Sociological and cultural acceptance. Discovering through a journey - physical, mental and spiritual. Asad describes it best on p. 374: "Longing need no longer remain small and hidden; it has found its awakening, a blinding sunrise of fulfillment." (less)
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Nawal Al-Qussyer
Jul 25, 2016 Nawal Al-Qussyer rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: changed-the-way-i-see-the-world
يالله جمال هذا الكتاب لا يوصف. سأعود لادراج مراجعة شاملة
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Sooma Ahmad
Jun 02, 2018 Sooma Ahmad rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
رحله في البحث عن الذات والايمان .. كتاب ممتع جدا انصح فيه .
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غيث حسن
Jul 06, 2017 غيث حسن rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
قسوة الترحال المتوارية وراء الأسلوب الطافح بالفتنة.
كل تلك الأعوام من الانغمار في العالم الإسلامي لدى محمد أسد النمساوي اليهودي والمسلم بعد ذلك، هو طريقةً للاحتفاظ بمنظومة المشاعر والتفكير كي تبقى متأهبةً حتى لا تختزل الحياة في بعدٍ واحد هو الضياع .... ضيع نفسك تجدها، كانت الكتابة لديه شكلا من أشكال تحويل المعرفة إلى احتفال دائم كما يقول رولان بارت حيث يجعل من العرضي الزائل لحظة خالدة في التاريخ الإنساني.
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وليد
Jun 01, 2013 وليد rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
على كل من يريد قراءة الكتاب , أن ينتبه لهذه الأخطاء :
قبيلة شمّار : شمّر
قبيلة الصلوبة : الصلبة.
قبيلة عنازا : عنزة
قبيلة الروالا : الرولة
ميناء ربيغ : ميناء رابغ
درية : الدرعية
ابن مسعد : ابن مساعد
ابن راشد : ابن رشيد
فيصل الداويش : فيصل الدويش
وادي تايما : أظنه يقصد " وادي تيماء "
وادي بيشا : وادي بيشة
سلطان بن بوجاد : سلطان بن بجاد
.
.
منطقة البالوش: منطقة البلوش.
.
.
أما عن هذه السيرة العظيمة فهي لعمري تستحق وتستحق. لم أكتف منها تماماً , لا بد من قراءتها مرة ومرات أخرى .
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Monzer ۞
May 15, 2016 Monzer ۞ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
دمع عيني حجة لك يا اسد , رحمك الله !
اجمل كتاب اقرؤه في عام 2016 ....
-المراجعة قريبا -
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نورة عبدالملك
Apr 02, 2019 نورة عبدالملك rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
محمد أسد ذو الأصول النمساوية، والجذور اليهودية، أضاع نفسه ليجدها في الصحراء العربية، كلما ازداد تيها في مفازات الصحراء اقترب من المعنى، وكلما التقى الموت وهبه الحياة، وعندما ارتحل عن مسقط رأسه وجد الوطن، وحينما أطلق روحه عرف الحرية، ولما ابتعد عن زيف المدينة وصل إلى الهدف، لقد تجرد من أي شيء، ليصل لكل شيء.
هذا ما كنت أردده طوال القراءة.
أقرأ النص، ثم أعيد قراءته بصوت أعلى تلذذاً بعباراته، الوصف ساحر بشكل مهيب، سامحه الله فلغته الأدبية تركتني حيرى أمامها، ماذا أقتبس وماذا أدع؟ لذا فقد حاولت أن أتمس ...more
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harun
May 05, 2007 harun rated it it was amazing
Recommends it for: those seeking religion
When I first read this book it instilled in me a wonderous vision. When I read it again it filled me with a critical history. When I picked it up a few years later, I read it as a man searching. In this, it's great.
This book changed the direction of my life. It was not because I was lost, for I still am lost today, but it showed me that people do change the worlds in changing themselves.
The book is an autobiographical account of an Austrian Jew named Leopold Weiss who through time and experience becomes Muhammad Asad. This is a vignette of his life from his childhood in Europe to his work in Jerusalem and his wandering in Arabia at the behest of then King AbdulAziz Ibn al-Saud.
Asad is a journalist, and his book is a wonderful anecdote. The stories are great, but moreso is the weightiness of his message. It's written in an old world style when there was a heroism to that which people did. The house of Saud is characterized as one rarely sees them... human. But amidst its history, religion, and talks of self, there is this idea of journeying towards something.
I like this book the same reason I like Kerouac , but it means more simply on part with its religious undertone, and the nature of the man.
Asad's book leaves him after Arabia, but, in life, he goes on to serve in the U.N., translate an authoritative scholaraly version of the Quran, and befriend kings, ministers, and people who shaped the 20th century.
This less review than hero-worship, but if the first chapter doesn't grab you. I'd say nothing I review will. (less)
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Asmaa M
Jan 18, 2017 Asmaa M rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: سير-ذاتية, فكر, دين
هذا الكتاب من الكتب التّي يصدق عنها ما قاله العقاد يوما أنّها تجعلُك تعيش حيواتٍ في حياة واحدة، وتُضيف لعمرك أعمارًا.
رحلة في أعماق الرّوح.
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Lamia Al-Qahtani
Jul 10, 2013 Lamia Al-Qahtani rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
أسلوب أدبي جميل يمتلكه محمد أسد وعقل واع وقلب مؤمن يرى بعين الفن ويصف بطريقة ساحرة الصحراء والبدو والقهوة واﻷهازيج واﻷغاني والموسيقى واﻷشجار والكثبان والجو.
وصف ساحر لكل ما مر به في طريقه إلى مكة من شمال نجد، وهي رحلة قصيرة يتكلم فيها عن طريقه إلى مكة ثم يذكره حدث ما بمغامرة حدثت له من قبل فيعود بنا لذكرى هذه الرحلة -فلاش باك- وقد كانت رحلة طويلة سافر فيها إلى الحجاز ونجد وبيشة التي كان أول أوروبي يدخلها والشام وفلسطين والعراق وإيران وتركيا والكويت وأفغانستان وباكستان وغيرها والتقى خلالها شخصيات ...more
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Sayaf
Apr 01, 2011 Sayaf rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: favorites
أؤمن بأن هناك تجارب كثيرة تستحق القراءة سواء لأناسٍ أحياء أم أموات ،
لكن مثل تجربة محمد أسد في هذا الكتاب لا أتوقع أننا سنجد مثلها الا القليل جداً ،
رؤية محمد أسد في هذا الكتاب تجاه الاسلام تحتاج لدراسة من قبل المسلمين اليوم ،
الكتاب ليس قصة اسلام فقط ، هو دراسة لمجتمع اسلامي ورؤية صحيحه للاسلام ،
من قبل شخص نمساوي دخل في الاسلام بعد ما كان يهودي الديانه ،
لو كان هناك نجمة سادسة لوضعت ست نجمات لهذا الكتاب فقط
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Marmor Owais
Dec 25, 2013 Marmor Owais rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Recommended to Marmor by: Ghadasedik
Shelves: 2014-reads, changed-the-way-i-see-the-world
من أفضل ما قرأت علي الإطلاق، رحم الله محمد أسد
رجل عرف الإسلام بقلبه قبل أن ينطق به لسانه،
رجل أدرك الكثير من الحقائق ما زالت تستعصي علي
الفهم بالنسبة لنا، حقاً وصدقاً يهدي الله من يشاء.
هذا الكتاب يعد من أفضل ما قرأت لعدة أسباب ، فهي رحلة رجل بحث عن الإيمان، عرف كثير من الشعوب وتعرف علي كثير من الناس، تحدث عن الشخصية الإيرانية وفسرها بأسلوب ومنهج جديد .. إيران تبدو لي غامضة في كثير من الأحيان، في كل مرة تنجلي جزء من الحقيقة وليس كلها ولكني أحب القراءة عن إيران أعجبني تحليله لسيكولوجية المجتمع ال ...more
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Heba
Feb 01, 2017 Heba rated it really liked it · review of another edition
عشت بأجزاء منه ساعات لا أنساها!
لي عودة مع التفاصيل واقتباسات
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Najla Hammad
Mar 21, 2012 Najla Hammad rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
هذا الكتاب رائع رائع رائع!! من أروع الكتب التي قرأتها.
ندمت جدا على وجود هذا الكتاب على أرفف مكتبتي منذ زمن دون أن أطّلع عليه.
محمّد أسد، المفكر الصحفي النمساوي اليهودي الأصل، تحدث عن رحلته إلى بلاد العرب وعن إسلامه بسطور مزخرفة بالحب والفلسفة.
بيّن وجهة نظره كيهودي سابق، وأوروبي عن قضية فلسطين، وذكر اجتماعه بحاييم وايزمن - وهو من أهم زعماء الحركة الصهيونية بعد بلفور- وتحدث كثيرا عن كرم العرب المُذهل تجاه المسافر وعن علاقاتهم الإجتماعية.
وكأوروبي أيضا، نقل لنا وجهة نظر الأوروبيين تجاه العرب.
وفي هذا ...more
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Batool
Jul 26, 2015 Batool rated it liked it · review of another edition
Shelves: سير-ذاتية
هذا الكتاب أكل نصف عمري، ليس حرفيًا بالطبع لكنني استغرقت ما يقارب الثلاثة أشهر لإنهائه. مدة طويلة جدًا بالنسبة لي وبالنسبة لكتاب سيرة ذاتية.
أحب السِير وأستطيع أن اقرأ السير في وقت خرافي فقط لأنني استمتع بعيش حياة مختلفة تمامًا.
محمد أسد أو كما كان ليوبولد فايس، هرب من خواء الغرب كما يقول للجزيرة العربية بعد أن بحث جيدًا في الديانات ليدخل نهاية في الإسلام.
الكتاب عمومًا مميز وأسلوب محمد في السرد جيد جدًا. لكنّي أعتذر لكل الأصدقاء هنا. لم أجد الكتاب الفايف ستار كما وصفوه!
رجل ذكي ليوبولد لكن وجدت ...more
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Safa Rawashdeh
Jul 28, 2018 Safa Rawashdeh rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
كتاب ممتع لا تمل من قراءة صفحاته ، أسلوب السرد لطيف وخفيف ومليئ بالأفكار القيّمة . خفّة الكتابة غمرتني بشعور إني علي أنا أيضاً أن أكتب عن ما مررت به ، فالعبرة ليست في عظمة الأحداث بل في قرءتنا لها وتفسيرها .
تحدث الكاتب عن كل شيئ ، قصة كاملة لحياته وتاريخه الذي عاصره .
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Abdullah Abdulrahman
Feb 12, 2013 Abdullah Abdulrahman rated it really liked it · review of another edition
دائماً هناك شيء مثير في حديث من هو من خارج بيئة ما لا ينتمي إليها في أصواله عن بيئة مختلفة كلياً, أو لأكون أكثر وضوحاً عقيدة أخرى جديدة عليه.. نعيش نحن كمسلمون في الإسلام بالوراثة, بينما عاش "محمد أسد" الإسلام بقناعاته وإيمانه الثابت من الداخل به, فقد رأى بعينيه وقلبه وعقله أن هذة العقيدة هي العقيدة الحسنه, هي الروح التي يبني عليها الإنسان إيمانه التام ويشعر بإكتمال روحه فيها من الداخل. حديثه ووجهة نظره حول العرب وطبيعة الشعوب الإسلامية كان حديثاً شيقاً بشكل كبير, خلق من خلاله نمط جديد من أنماط ...more
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Murtaza
Aug 04, 2013 Murtaza rated it it was amazing
Shelves: favorites
Muhammad Asad (Leopold Weiss) was an Austrian convert from Judaism to Islam in the early 20th century. His life took him across the Muslim world and into the orbit of some of its most important contemporary historical figures. This book is part travelogue, part biography, and part exploration of his journey towards Islam.
Asad was a personal adviser to King Abdulaziz bin Saud during the period in which the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was formed, and his reflections and observations of Arabia before this period are quite remarkable. As he himself states at the book's outset he is describing a world which no longer exists (and this book is decades old already); so this book has an incredible time-capsule like feel.
He travels through Iran, Iraq, Palestine and North Africa as well and provides his insights into what life was like there before the tumult of modernity fully engulfed these places years later. Throughout his travels he provides broader reflections on his view of Islam as a Westerner, and explains in sequential detail his decision to ultimately adopt the faith and a completely new identity as a Muslim.
Asad had an utterly incredible life (I won't recap it all here), starting as a young aspiring journalist in Vienna and ending up as Pakistan's first ambassador to the UN upon the creation of that state. The writing is riveting, and his ruminations on spirituality and culture are a moving accompaniment to a story which would have been enthralling for its content alone.
Especially interesting to me were his observations of Islam, but particularly of Muslims 'fitra'(the Islamic concept of human nature) and the synthesis of spirituality and action in their lives. The honesty and clarity of his writing about the religion was moving and brilliant. He covers ostensibly heavy topics in a manner which makes them flow effortlessly.
This book has a really timeless quality, and as I mentioned it is a wonderful time-capsule of these countries and of a world which exists only in fragments today. On top of all this the book is a page-turner, fantastically written and exciting. Unreservedly recommended to anyone. (less)
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عبدالرحمن الراشد
Sep 04, 2013 عبدالرحمن الراشد rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
وأنا أطوي الصفحة الأخيرة من الكتاب قلت في نفسي: لن تقرأ مثله في عمرك إلا مرةً أو مرتين كأقصى تقدير!
سطور أدبية رفيعة وفلسفة كونية عميقة وتجربة جريئة .. هو سلمان النمساوي ! يشبه سلمان الفارسي في بحثه عن الحقيقة .. يرفعك في درجات اليقين بدينك القويم..حين ترى هذا الأوربي الذي تربّى تحت ظلّ أبوين يهوديين .. يفرّ من دياره في الغرب ليستقر إلى الشرق عند صحراء نجد!
ومغامراته أضافت للكتاب ميزة كبيرة .. فمن تسلله إلى سوريا دون أوراق رسمية إلى رحلته للكشف عن خيانة فيصل الداويش..ومن تمرده على أهله إلى زوجته ...more
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Diaa
Feb 09, 2014 Diaa rated it liked it · review of another edition
هذا الكتاب يتناول قصة اسلام الصحفي النمساوي ليوبولد فايس الذي قام بتغيير اسمه الى محمد اسد بالرغم من ان هذا الكتاب يصنف كسيرة ذاتية الا انه يعرض حقيقة واضحة جلية هي ان عامل الجذب للاسلام خصوصا اجتذاب الغربيين هو الوسطية في الاسلام والاتزان الذي يحققه هذا الدين بين الروح والجسد فهو دين دنيا ودين وعلم وعمل ودنيا واخرة ولعل طبيعة الحياة في الصحراء والعادات والتقاليد كان لها دور في استمالة محمد اسد الى الاسلام فالصحراء هي رمز للنقاء والصفاء الذهني وطبيعتها الجغرافية تحلق بالانسان وتسمو بروحه الى منا ...more
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إيمان عبد المنعم
Jan 09, 2017 إيمان عبد المنعم rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
حسنا ..
يبدو أني تأخرت كثيرا حتى قرأت هذا الكتاب المهم ، لذا وجدت كثيرا مما قرأت مر علي من قبل ،
لكن الجميل في كتاب الطريق إلى مكة ليس مجرد مفاهيم شديدة العمق عن ديننا ومجتمعنا وحضارتنا ، بل كيف وصل محمد أسد إلى كل ذلك ، نعم الجميل هو الطريق كما اختار المؤلف الاسم قاصدا واعيا وكما أصر على تصور سيرته في ختام الكتاب كقنطرة يعبر بها فوق هاوية مفجعة وسط ملايين من البشر منذ آلاف السنين وحتى قيام الساعة .
أي نور سكب في روح هذا الرجل لتكون بهذا الصفاء والتجرد والمثابرة ، أي نور هداه وسط دياجير الظلام التي ...more
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Khalid Albadrani
Aug 14, 2011 Khalid Albadrani rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
بعد قراءة للنسختين الأصلية والمترجمة, أستطيع القول أن ترجمة (رفعت علي) غير ناقصة, إلا أنها تنبيء عن جهل المترجم بتاريخ الجزيرة العربية والمدن والأماكن فيها.
أسماء أشخاص ومدن كثيرة أخطأ في ترجمتها, شمار=شمّر, ابن راشد=ابن رشيد, الراس=الرّس, ابن بليحيد=ابن بليهد, ابن مسعد=ابن مساعد وبعض الأسماء والتواريخ الأخرى.
عدا هذه الأخطاء في الترجمة لايوجد شيء آخر.
أعجبتني صراحة محمد أسد في آراءه كثيراً.
لفتني في الكتاب أفكاره الفلسفية عن الحضارة وفهمه للدين والعدل والمساواة. هناك أيضاً انتقادات عديدة, للوهابية ...more
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محمد حمزة
Jan 20, 2017 محمد حمزة rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
لم تتسنّ لي كتابة مراجعة لهذا السِفر الرائع الماتع، لكن تجدون هنا مقدمة الكاتب -بصيغة صوتية- والتي ذكر فيها باعثه على التأليف وأمور فكرية مهمة أخرى:
كتاب الطريق إلى مكة | المقدمة | محمد أسد:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S90L...
قناة مِداد مسموع
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يـٰس قرقوم
Jan 31, 2017 يـٰس قرقوم rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: إسلام, تاريخ
لي عودة هنا...
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The Road to Mecca
by Muhammad Asad
4.45 · Rating details · 3,884 ratings · 493 reviews
In this extraordinary and beautifully-written autobiography, Asad tells of his initial rejection of all institutional religions, his entree into Taoism, his fascinating travels as a diplomat, and finally his embrace of Islam.
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Paperback, 375 pages
Published January 1st 2000 by Fons Vitae (first published 1954)
Original TitleThe Road to Mecca
ISBN 1887752374 (ISBN13: 9781887752374)
Edition LanguageEnglish
URLhttp://muhammad-asad.com/Road-to-Mecca.pdf
Other Editions (38)
الطريق إلى مكة
الطريق إلى مكة
The Road to Makkah
الطريق الي مكة
الطريق إلى الإسلام
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4.45 · Rating details · 3,885 ratings · 493 reviews
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Quo
Mar 27, 2017 Quo rated it really liked it
Recommends it for: Anyone interested in learning more about Islam or the search for identity
Shelves: reviewed
The Road to Mecca represents a most interesting & exceedingly interior pilgrimage tale of Leopold Weiss, born in 1900 in what is today Lvov, Ukraine (previously Lemberg in Galicia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), descendent of a long line of rabbis. The book is in fact the autobiography of Muhammad Asad and the story of this most radical transformation is quite stunning, a conversion of faith enmeshed in a long pattern of travel & work as a journalist by the erstwhile Weiss, whose rather affluent family moved to Vienna when Leopold was still fairly young.
Curiously, his grandfather wanted Leopold's dad to follow his path as a rabbi, though he chose to become a lawyer with a distinctly secular stance. Meanwhile, it was hoped that Leopold would complete his university degree in Vienna & become a lawyer like his own father, the source of another familial disappointment, as Leonard failed to complete his studies, dropping out to become a journalist, over time based primarily in the Middle East & the Arabian Peninsula & working for the Frankfurter Zeitung & other newspapers.
Leopold's many constructive encounters while seeking something "more meaningful" in life, include a brief stint in Berlin with early filmmaker F.W. Murnau (Nosferatu based on Bram Stoker's Dracula), explorations by camel & train across Syria & Iraq and time with members of the House of Saud, including King Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud in what became Saudi Arabia. Over time, the outsider who had once attended Hebrew school, though more for its cultural content, while even developing a fluency in Aramaic, experiences a gradual but rather complete transformation.
There is also a memorable intersection involving a discussion of theology with a Jesuit priest on a ship bound for Egypt & Turkey and another with the chairman of the Zionist Committee of Action in Palestine, where although of Jewish origin, the author feels a "strong objection to Zionism", taking issue with the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and stating his opposition with Dr. Chaim Weismann, attempting to point out that long before the Hebrews came to the area as "conquerors to Palestine, there were many Semitic & non-Semitic tribes settled there--including the Amorites, Edomites, Philistines, Moabites & Hittites, with the descendants of many of these peoples still resident in the area."
Gradually, the man who began life as Leopold Weiss experiences a metamorphosis, converting to Islam & becoming in the process Mohammad Asad.
Islam did not seem so much a religion in the popular sense of the word as, rather, a way of life; not so much a system of theology as a programme of personal & social behavior based on the consciousness of God. Nowhere in the Koran could I find any reference to a need for "salvation" or a mention of original or inherited sin; sin meant no more than a lapse from the innate, positive qualities with which God was said to have endowed every human being. There was also no trace of any dualism in the consideration of man's nature: body & soul seem to be taken as one integral whole.
I found Asad's commentary on the Crusades of considerable interest, calling this a "defining moment for western civilization, a wave of intoxication that brought tribes & classes together, providing a shared cultural awareness + a sense of unity but also causing intellectual damage--the poisoning of the western mind." Reading about the transformation of Leopold Weiss in becoming Mohammad Asad from an author who has such a keen sense of Islamic history and cultures made The Road to Mecca a fascinating book. Asad indicates that he decided to become a Muslim "not because I lived among them so long; rather I decided to live among them because I had embraced Islam." Asad goes on to comment...
Throughout the years I have spent in the Middle East--as a sympathetic outsider from 1922 to 1926 and then as a Muslim sharing the aims & hopes of the Islamic community ever since--I have witnessed the steady encroachment of Muslim cultural life & political independence + European public opinion that labels any resistance to this incursion as xenophobia. The West's main argument is always that the political disruption & Western intervention is not merely aimed at protecting "legitimate" Western interests but also at securing progress for the indigenous peoples themselves.
This was of course before WWII & the discovery of oil further changed the dynamics of that intervention, eventually leading to independence for many of the countries where Mohammad Asad lived. The author later spent time as a compiler of Muslim history, writing books on the nature of the Koran & Islam, still later serving as Pakistan's Ambassador to the United Nations when that country became independent, splitting from the Indian subcontinent in 1947. I can not begin to capture the many roads that Asad traveled in The Road to Mecca but the book is extremely thoughtful, quite personally revealing & very well-written.
Curiously, at some point I thought of the intriguing novel by Kurban Said, Ali & Nino, a novel that featured a Jewish fellow in Azerbaijan who converts to Islam, marrying a Georgian Christian woman, a book that was first published in Vienna just before the outbreak of WWII. And yes, Asad does make it to Mecca and speaks candidly about his experiences there.
It may be that someone who was raised a Jew within a Christian landscape prior to WWI & perhaps survived WWII & the Holocaust because he changed both his residence & his identity is particularly empowered to provide insight into Islam, a quality that someone who has known no other faith can not. The sister & father of the former Leopold Weiss, among many other Jews living in Vienna at the time of the Anschluss or the German annexation of Austria, perished in the Holocaust, along with countless others.
I recommend this book highly to anyone interested in Islamic history or in reading about a unique search for personal identity. *Interspersed are many black & white photographs which add context to Asad's story. (less)
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Dr.Abdulkarem
May 12, 2015 Dr.Abdulkarem rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
كتاب؛ ليس بسيرة ذاتية، وليس برحلة.. كما قاله المؤلف بحق... بل هي رحلة بحث عن الحقيقة المجردة... البحث عن الله، وعن دين الله؛ ذا النبع الصافي.. رحلة في الجزيرة العربية؛ بداية القرن العشرين... تفسير معاصر، ومنطقي لكثير من منطلقات الملل اليهودية، والمسيحية، والمحمدية... بيان لأساس ما يُسمى الأخوان المسلمون.. ونشأتهم؛ أيام عبد العزيز بن سعود... وانقلابهم عليه.. نظرتهم المجردة.. في إطار أهداف محمد بن عبد الوهاب.. وتطبيقاتهم؛ لتلك الإصلاحات.. حياتهم؛ اي الإخوان (حتى اليوم) ما بين دم، وموت، وجنة..
قصة ر ...more
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عمر
Jul 30, 2012 عمر rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
يا الله، حقًا؛ من يرد الله أن يهديه يشرح صدره للإسلام، حقًا وصدقًا ويقينًا؛ من يرد الله به خيرًا يوفقه إلى كل خير.
رحم الله محمد أسد، لقد وجد طريقه بإذن الله عن طريق البحث والرحلات المتفرقة في الجزيرة العربية في سيناء والقدس والأردن ودمشق ومصر والمملكة السعودية وبغداد وإيران وكابول وتركيا وعاد إلى ألمانيا وليبيا، التقى العديد من الشخصيات المؤثرة في التاريخ كالشاعر محمد إقبال رحمه الله، والزعيم الشيخ أحمد إدريس السنوسي، والثائر عمر المختار، وكان على صداقة مع الملك عبد العزيز بن عبد الرحمن بن سعود، ...more
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Abu Hasan محمد عبيد
May 18, 2011 Abu Hasan محمد عبيد rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
كنت أعتقد أن هذا الكتاب هو السيرة الذاتية لمحمد أسد... فإذ بي أفاجأ بأنه، على ضخامته، ليس سوى شيء من سيرة سنوات عمره الإثنين والثلاثين الأولى عموما، والسنوات الخمس الأخيرة منها خصوصا، وهي السنوات الأولى لإسلامه المليئة بالأحداث والمغامرات
هدف المؤلف من كتابة سيرته هو (رفع الحجب السميكة والأستار الثقيلة التي تفصل بين الإسلام وحضارته عن العقل الغربي)
كتب المؤلف سيرته على شكل قصة، تبدأ برحلته الأخيرة في الصحراء، والتي يكاد يُشرف فيها على الهلاك، وتنتهي بوصوله إلى مكة، في رمزية واضحة لقصة اعتناقه للإس ...more
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أبو يوسف
May 02, 2013 أبو يوسف rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: favorite-books
لأول مرة أنتهي من كتاب وأعزم على قرائته مرة آخرى ...... من الكتب التي لابد لك من قرائتها قبل أن تموت......تجنب طبعتي ّمكتبة مكتبة الملك عبدالعزيز و مكتبة العبيكان المنقحتين لحوالي ٦٠ صفحة !! قاتلهم الله أنى يؤفكون
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إسراء البردان
Sep 26, 2018 إسراء البردان rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: سيروتراجم
رجل ك هذا تستحق أن تُقرأ سيرته الذاتية والذي أسماها "الطريق إلى مكة" لكن الحقيقة طريقه كان للتوحيد, للإسلام ,ربما عبر عنه بمكة لأنها منبع الرسالة الأولى منذ عهد إبراهيم حتى بعث الله نبيه -صلى الله عليه وسلم- هي رمز للتوحيد, للقبلة, للعقيدة ..
أرى ان المراجعة تُهدر قيمة هذا الكتاب ربما اكتب بضع كلمات لأنوه أنه كتاب يستحق أن يُقتنى ويُقرأ مرة بعد مرة ...
شاكرة للرجل في كشك بيع مطبوعات المجلس الأعلى للثقافة في أحد معارض الكتاب بمدينتي لانه أصرَّ إصرار عجيب على أخذي للكتاب ,أخبرته أن نقودي نفدت ولا أم ...more
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Abeer Alamri
Jan 20, 2012 Abeer Alamri rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
" لقد تحقق أخيرا رغبتي أيام صباي أن أنتمي إلى مدار معين من الفكرات والآراء, أن أكون جزءا من أمة مؤلفة من أخوة"
بالفعل ! تحقق ما أراده محمد أسد في كتابه الرائع " الطريق إلى الإسلام ". في هذا الكتاب يصف محمد إسلام رحلته الشيقة من الظلام إلى النور, كيف ترك بلده النمسا وتجول عبر البلدان الإسلامية والعربية كمراسل صحفي لأحدى الصحف. رغبة منه في سد الفراغ الروحي الذي كان يعاني منه, لم يكن يعلم في رحلاته تلك كيف أنه كان ينجذب لاشعوريا نحو الحق .. كيف انبهر بمقدار الأمن والرضا الداخلي الكبير الذي كان ينعم ...more
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Nick
Aug 29, 2014 Nick rated it really liked it
By turns achingly beautiful, exasperating, illogical, and penetrating, The Road to Mecca is one extraordinary man's transformation from disaffected European to devout Muslim. Along the way, this journalist became friends with the King of Saudi Arabia, got to know the Shah of Iran, and met just about every player in the Middle East in the first part of the 20th Century. His perspective is skewed, flawed, and deeply insightful. It's a huge corrective to the Western media's simplistic and idiotically one-sided reporting on the Arab world. Yes, he's annoyingly dismissive of Western attitudes at times, but that's to help us better understand the Arab point of view. And he's simply wrong a good deal of the time, because he's made the journey of transformation and it has made a partisan out of him, a partisan who sees deeply but not always fairly.
I don't think anyone in the West can understand Iran, or Iraq, or any of the other countries of that part of the world, without reading this book as a starter. And his lyrical descriptions of traveling by camel will make you want to put down the book and jump on a plane to make your way through the desert too. I recommend the book highly, not because it's a complete guide to anything, but because we of the West desperately need to understand other parts of the globe better, and this is a good corrective to begin with. (less)
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Sul6an
Mar 13, 2014 Sul6an rated it liked it · review of another edition
رجلٌ هارب من ماديةِ الغرب ، له دمٌ لجوج في البحث عن الحقيقةِ ، بحثَ في اليهوديةِ فلم يقتنع بتلكَ الرؤيةِ بأنهم شعب اللهِ المختار ، و بحثَ في المسيحيةِ فما أقنعتهُ فكرةُ " الخلاص " و رأها تفرقة غير مبررةٍ - من وجهةِ نظرة - بينَ الروحِ و الجسد ، و جاءَ بهِ قدرهُ إلى الشرقِ العربي ، ليدخُلَ رويداً رويداً في الإسلام عن طريقِ إعجابهِ بطبائِع العرب ، و أخلاقياتهم في التعامل . رجلٌ له تاريخه في المغامراتِ و الرحلاتِ ، فبِدءاً بالقُدس إلى مِصرَ إلى دمشق و الأردن و العراق إلى بلادِ فارس ، و غيرها من رحلا ...more
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Hafsa
Aug 13, 2008 Hafsa rated it it was amazing
Shelves: islam, literature
I was supposed to read this book five years ago...in an Islamic Religious Thought and Practice class. For whatever reason, I couldn't get into it--at all--which is crazy considering I couldn't put it down this time around.
This book is brilliant because you can read it on so many levels- first, as a man's personal journey into faith (which includes some pretty harsh critiques of the system in which he was raised). Second, as a detailed history of a very critical period of recent Muslim history. It was so fascinating to read that he personally knew and was close to so many historical figures-- Ibn Saud, the Grand Sanusi, etc. And third, as an introduction to Islam.
Asad's writing style is magnificent--he is able to articulate, thru his words, things that most Muslims just "feel."
I think in many ways his book is still relevant today-- although so much has changed/ been cemented. East and West can't necessarily be seen as such diametrically opposing systems, as he posits in this book. (less)
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ذكرى فلفلان
Sep 27, 2014 ذكرى فلفلان rated it it was amazing
Shelves: favorite
"مهما كان قدرُ الجمال الشكلي الذي يمكن للإنسان أن يصنعه بعقله ويده، سيكون من قصور الخيال أن يظنّ أنّه يتناسب مع عظمة الله، ولذلك فإن أبسط شكل يمكن أن يدركه العقل البشريّ هو أعظم شكل يتناسب مع عظمة الله" ولأن الله مرتبطٌ بالجمال أينما كنّا فإنني أستطيع أن أطلق على هذه الرحلة الإيمانية التي حدثت بدون قصدٍ للكاتب أنها سلسلة أحداث تأخدنا إلى كل مكان..
ستسافر من كرم البدو إلى فكاهة مصر
رائحة شجر البرتقال في القدس إلى سوريا
إيران وأوروبا وإلى كافة بقاع الأرض
ستقرأ عن الاستعمار، تاريخ المملكة وآل سعود
ستحض ...more
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Huda
Sep 14, 2009 Huda rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Recommended to Huda by: Mrs.NJD
Shelves: arabic-books, religion
اعتقدت في البداية أنني سأقرأ عن قصة إعتناق أحد الأوروبيين لدين الإسلام
لكني الآن أميل إلى تصنيفها من السير الذاتية أو المذكرات أو أيا كان
محمد أسد
صحفي نمساوي اعتنق الإسلام في حقبة زمنية حساسة جدا مليئة بالأحداث، وبالرغم من هذا نجده في كل منها! أمره عجيب
!!
بداية تعرفه على الملك عبدالعزيز مؤسس مملكتنا الحبيبة
زيارته للأزهر أيام الاستعمار
ومقابلته للشخصية الفذة في ليبيا ، عمر المختار
وغيرها
أتسائل ماذا سيكون رأيه إذا مازار المملكة بعد كل هذه السنوات
ورأى "النقلة" التي تنبأ بها مسبقا؟
:)
شكرا د.نجود
أظننا نحت ...more
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Hasan El gebaly
Sep 07, 2011 Hasan El gebaly rated it it was amazing
كتاب رائع لأقصى درجة
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Nojood Alsudairi
Oct 30, 2007 Nojood Alsudairi rated it it was amazing
Recommends it for: All good readers
Shelves: non-fiction, fiction
Just read it even if you do not care to know about Islam. A great traveller's story.
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Charles
Feb 21, 2015 Charles rated it it was amazing
This is a fascinating book—half travelogue and half conversion memoir. Muhammad Asad was born a Jew, Leopold Weiss, in the Austro-Hungarian empire (in what is now Ukraine, the city of Lvov). He was prominent both in interactions with the West in the 20th Century, for example as Pakistani ambassador to the UN, and in theological work, including translation and exegesis of the Q’uran. Asad is regarded, and should be even more regarded in these days of Al Qaeda and ISIS, as a voice for a revitalized, mainstream (he would accurately reject the term “moderate”) Islam. But long before that, he was just a Westerner adrift and looking for spiritual answers.
Asad found those answers in Arabia. In many ways, The Road To Mecca is of the same genre as other travel books of Western men fascinated by Arabia in the first third of the 20th Century, such as Lawrence of Arabia, or lesser known figures such as Wilfred Thesiger (Arabian Sands). A certain type of Western man (a woman could not have had the opportunity) fell in love with the people and landscape of pre-petroleum Arabia, believing that the people had unique virtues (though they admitted the people were not composed only of virtues) and the land brought out the best in men. Some of this smacks of naïve love of the idealized noble savage, of course, and you see the same thing more commonly with Westerners and East Asian cultures like Tibet (hello, Richard Gere!). Conversion to Islam was not the norm, though, for Westerners entranced by Arabia and the Arabs. But Asad was simultaneously on a spiritual quest, and, like others before and since, after rejecting much else found what he was looking for in Islam.
Asad’s memoir is told in the form of flashbacks during a desert trip in 1927 with a traveling companion, ultimately to Mecca (not for his first time)—at the time he lived in Medina, so he had made the hajj pilgrimage several times already. In his book, he alternates descriptions of Arabian geography (as well as Syria, Iraq and Iran, and a little of the Maghreb), with descriptions of key Arabs and their personal and political doings (he knew Ibn Saud well, along with a host of lesser players, although not, apparently, the Hashemite kings of the Hejaz, deposed by Ibn Saud but later kings of Jordan to this day, and, briefly, Iraq). And all along in his book Asad is narrating his own life, and his own religious development, with apparently great honesty and clarity.
Asad rejected Judaism and became agnostic early, although he came from a rabbinical family. His main objection to Judaism is that he could not believe in a God that was focused nearly to exclusion on one people—he repeatedly and accurately contrasts Islam’s ability to embrace all kinds of people and form a new community from them with the exclusive aspects of Judaism. But Asad does not fall into the kind of crude anti-Judaic attitudes so common among modern Muslims, even though such an attitude is well supported in the Q’uran and the Sunnah, and is the historical norm in Islam. (Q’uranic verses such as 2:62, frequently quoted to make Islam seem universalist, “Surely those who believe, those of Jewry, the Christians and the Sabaeans . . . . whoever has faith in Allah and the Last Day, and works righteousness, their wage awaits them with their Lord, and no fear shall be upon them, and neither shall they sorrow” are not to the contrary—their exclusive interpretation in Islam has always been that those verses only apply to Jews before Jesus, and then to Christians before Muhammad, and have zero application today, after Muhammad. See The Reliance of the Traveler, the main Shafi’i “catechism,” at w4.4) He was, however, very opposed to Zionism and the founding of Israel, and friendly with Jews such as Jacob de Haan, a Dutch Jew assassinate by the Haganah in 1924 for favoring negotiations with Arab leaders.
Asad also seems to have considered Christianity, or so he asserts. If I had an objection to this book (although to object to someone else’s reasons for his personal conversion is obviously pretty silly), it is that he does not seem to understand Christianity at all, in that he ascribes to Christianity critical doctrines not actually found there, and ascribes his rejection of Christianity to his aversion to those (bogus) doctrines. The core “doctrine,” to which he returns repeatedly, is that Christianity (supposedly) believes matter and the body evil, and the spirit good. He contrasts this to Islam’s holistic approach, in which nothing Allah has made can be bad, and each human’s physical body and spirit are both key concerns of Islam.
But of course this is a false view of Christianity. More precisely, it is a heretical view. It is the view of the early Gnostics, the Manichees, and the Albigensians, all rejected by mainstream Christianity. They posited dualism—that, as Asad says, the body is bad and the spirit good. But mainstream Christianity holds the opposite—like Islam, it holds that all what God has created is good, though of course Islam and Christianity both hold it can be mis-used. Asad appears to have missed the key doctrine of Christianity of the resurrection of the body, found in both the Nicene Creed and the Apostles’ Creed. There is a difference between Christianity and Islam, in that Islam does not recognize original sin and Christianity does have non-heretical strains that emphasize spiritual precedence, such as the eremitic monks, but it is just not correct to posit the dualism that Asad appears to be believe to be central to Christianity.
Asad also falls into silly historical errors, such as supposing Islam’s view of the West is dictated by the Crusades, and that the Crusades were the formative moment of Western civilization, whereas in reality the Crusades were forgotten by Muslims (who won, after all) until their memory was resurrected for political purposes in the 19th Century, and were and are of minor importance in the West as well, except as a modern day tool for ignorant Americans to traduce Christianity and the West. He (in passing) also follows the common Muslim habit of erroneously ascribing important scientific inventions to Muslims, from algebra and trigonometry to “Arabic numerals” and the compass, in the usual effort to compensate for Muslim lack of scientific contributions in modern times (or, really, since the 11th Century, and even then mostly by non-Muslims under Muslim domination, and nearly all second-order scientific contributions). But these flaws are understandable and not at all germane to Asad’s basic narrative.
He also points out what are today interesting historical nuggets, such as that until the 19th Century Wahhabi “revival,” the Arabs of the Arabian Peninsula were seen as the laxest Muslims at all, and are now the most religious (not always to everyone’s benefit, then or now—Asad, while recognizing certain virtues, notes that it made them “proud, haughty men who regard themselves as the only true representatives of Islam and all other Muslim peoples as heretics”). Finally, he inadvertently confirms a variety of Western views of Islamic cultures as retrograde in certain areas as entirely correct, as when he notes how a family desperately tried and succeeded in hoodwinking him into marrying an 11-year old virgin. (He divorced her when he discovered her age on their wedding night, and did not consummate the marriage.) “[Her mother] was stupefied [by his demand to immediately divorce the girl]. She had never heard of a man who refused so choice a morsel—an eleven-year-old virgin—and must have thought that there was something radically wrong with me.”
Presumably this doesn’t really matter for Asad’s personal conversion. He was attracted to the community of believers in Islam; the fact that Islam provides answers to nearly every question in life, particularly those not directly related to spiritual matters, but to all matters of life (in this Islam is not dissimilar to such Christian groups as Opus Dei or Third Order Franciscans, though the comparison probably shouldn’t be stretched); the harmony of Muslim belief; and the peace Islam brought to the people he knew. He says himself that what he had was “a longing to find my own restful place in the world,” and he found it in Islam. One thing to keep in mind, of course, was that the 1920s were a time when many in the West, after the First World War, despaired of any future for the west. As Asad says: “A world in upheaval and convulsion: that was our Western world.” Islam offered a world united in itself, without any upheaval and convulsion, if properly ordered according to its own principles.
Asad is broad-minded, tolerant, and fascinating. Those are not characteristics in good odor among many strains of modern Islam, which tends in many cases to be anything but modern. His translation/exegesis of the Q’uran, The Message of the Koran, is banned in Saudi Arabia for supposed Mu’tazili tendencies (perceived as undermining the alleged divine nature of the Q’uran) and a willingness to strongly endorse ijtihad, or continued analysis and reasoning, in exegesis of the Q’uran. But whatever your theological predilection, these characteristics are what make Asad’s memoir very much worth reading.
(less)
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Δx Δp ≥ ½ ħ
Feb 24, 2009 Δx Δp ≥ ½ ħ rated it it was amazing
Shelves: i-me-mine, a-day-in-the-life, got-to-get-you-into-my-life
...sebuah usaha untuk belajar mengarifi hidup dari jatuh bangunnya para aktifis meraih segenggam cinta... memberi kekayaan batin kepada kita tentang betapa penuh warnanya perjalanan hidup manusia (M. Fauzil Adhim)
baca ulang edisi Inggrisnya
kisah seorang anak manusia, dalam menjawab kegundahan hatinya akan pencarian Iman dan Tuhan. membaca buku ini, kita akan terlempar pada masa-masa suram awal abad dua puluh, pada kehidupan seorang remaja pemberontak.... yang di tengah kegundahan dan kecewanya nekat betualang ke luar negri. siapa sangka jika petualangan nekatnya ke Afrika, malah menyeretnya ke jantung peradaban salah satu agama terbesar, Mekah. apa yang ingin dia akhiri di Afrika, justru menjadi awal bagi masa depannya
memoar-otobiografi ini diceritakan bak novel petualangan, diwarnai keajaiban-keajaiban yang mencengangkan--betapa Tuhan menyambut dengan tangan terbuka hambaNya yang kembali kejalanNya--kita akan terhanyut dalam perjuangan berat seorang anak muda liar saat mengarungi ganasnya padang pasir, dikejar-kejar bangsa barbar, sampai terseret pada gejolak peperangan antar suku dan terjebak pada titik nadir hidup dan mati. siapa sangka jika petualangan liar dan nekat itu akan membuat kehidupan hidupnya jungkir balik.... dan takdir, tak pernah kehabisan kejutan yang tak terduga baginya.
dan di Mekah, Tuhan menjadi saksi kelahiran seorang manusia baru bernama Muhammad Asad, orang yang dulu dipanggil Leopold Weiss--salah seorang pemikir Islam kontemporer terbesar di abad 20--, namun dengan jiwa yang berbeda.
bagi penggemar film petualangan ala Lawrence of Arabia dan petualangan herois ala buku termasyhur karya Karl May bahkan pecinta novel magis The Alchemist-nya Coelho, buku ini adalah paduan sempurna ketiganya. Petualangan fisik yang dibalut petualangan iman. meski buku ini ditulis oleh orang yang beralih agama menjadi seorang Muslim, saat anda membaca buku ini, Anda tak perlu merasa diislamkan.
......I begin to look upon myself with distant eyes, as you might look at the pages of a book to read a story from them; and I begin to understand that my life could not have taken a different course. For when I ask myself, 'What is the sum total of my life?' somthing in me seems to answer, 'You have set out to exchange one world for another-to gain a new world for yourself in exchange for an old one which you never really possessed.' And I know with startling clarity that such an undertaking might indeed take an entire lifetime....
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hanan al-herbish al-herbish
Jan 29, 2012 hanan al-herbish al-herbish rated it it was amazing
قصة جميلة , طوفت بي في الصحراء , والجبال , والثلوج ..
في الأمصار العربية , اسواقها , حياتها , و ساكنيها ..
هو ليست رحلة , ومناظر , ومتغيرات , هو فلسفة وفكر عميقين جدا ً ,
احببت تفكير محمد اسد كثيرا ً , واذاعته بواطن الاشياء , وفلسفة الطبيعة ,
السماء , النجوم , والناس..
لقد احببت الصحراء ... وتمنيت ان ازور الكثبان الرملية , والعب في الرمال,
واعد النجوم في روض سماء الصحراء الخصيب ...
لقد استمتعت في قراءتي , ولأول مرة اقرأ عن تاريخ المملكة . والملك عبدالعزيز ..
اضاف الى معلوماتي الكثير, عن تاريخ حكام الممل ...more
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melissa madjid
May 05, 2010 melissa madjid rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: ebook, unfinished
Leopold, before changing name into "Muhammad Asad", has wrote this noble book to read..
not only read, but truly make a person-or as we are-to have more answers about basic belief in islam
this is one of which i love the most...
Leopold's first exposure to Islam occurred during his initial trip to
Jerusalem when he witnessed a group of people praying in congregation.
It somehow disturbed him to see so real a prayer combined with almost
mechanical body movements, and one day he asked the imâm, who
understood a little English: "Do you really believe that God expects you to show Him your respect by repeated bowing and kneeling and
prostration? Might it not be only to look into oneself and to pray to Him in the stillness of one's heart? Why all these movements of your body?
He replied: How else then should we worship God? Did he not
create both, soul and body, together? And this being so, should man not
pray with his body as well as his soul?” He then went on to explain the
significance of the various movements of the prayer.
This was an important moment in Leopold's life, since he would
one day observe: Years later, I realized that with his simple explanation
the hajji had opened to me the first door to Islam. (less)
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Matthew Moes
Jul 31, 2011 Matthew Moes rated it it was amazing
Shelves: biography-memoir, philosophy-religion-spirituality
Anything but a straightforward autobiography, this is a beautifully written memoir by a rare individual that transports the reader to a completely different time and place; and yet the observations and assessments of everything from the religious to the political are still relevant now and a great stimulus for discussion.
I especially enjoyed Ch X entitled, "Dajjal", as it contains his "conversion" story, which as in many cases is more of a self-discovery amidst a scathing critique of the contrast between Islam and the demise of Muslim civilization. There is plenty more of that to wrestle with here, and I cannot help but wonder what he would say today. I consider this a must-read for anyone who wishes to be literate in modern Islam.
I saved some of my favorite quotes in my quotes application. I am sure I would find much more if I read it again with a pencil in hand! (less)
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Spirituality, Mind-Body, Gender, Ecology, Ageing, Peace, Scrapbook (in English and Korean)
