The essays in this book, written as far back as in the 1940s, aim to contribute something of a clarification the confusion prevailing in the Muslim Ummah as to the scope and practical implications of Islamic law.
Muhammad Asad's colleague and contemporary Alamma Iqbal once wrote "I have no need of the ear of Today. I am the voice of the poet of Tomorrow". If Iqbal was/is the voice, then Asad must be the pen. I saw this collection of essays by Asad as a tangible expression of Iqbal's more abstract forward thinking. Everything from his philosophy on Islamic jurisprudential renewal to his vision for Pakistan has complete relevance to today's world. Asad is both a bridge between the past and the future and an eloquent intermediary between the East and West. The section in which he pens responses to an Austrian newspaper's questions about God and Religion should be read by anyone who truly wants to understand how Islam answers life's biggest spiritual and societal questions. Overall, a great collection that begs to be re-read and discussed at length. As his wife Pola Hamida mentions in the introduction, it is a true shame Asad didn't publish more before he passed.
A good book. Especially the first essay (The Law of Ours). He gives a clear explanation of what not the true sources of islam are, namely the very old opinions of different scholars (not that those scholars intended to be a part of the source). He advocates that the only true sources of islam are the Quran and the ahadeeth. Further, islam changed from moral habits to mechanical habits, because men are not thinking for themselves and/or reading the Quran with conscious (and itjihad) but are only following (blindly) what scholars have said. This is of course nothing new, as he said himself, since already in the 12th century -and even before that- there were educated Muslims complaining about the way Islam was taught (via the so called madhabs).
This book is actually collection of Essays produced by Muhammad Asad. The book is good in a sense to explore Muslim civilization and faults that prevail in this community since centuries. I liked this book very much and will certainly recommend to other. This book will surely correct the concept of its readers and let them know how much Islamic teaching are being corrupted and in what way the defenders of those corrupt material paralyzed the Muslim community. I would also like to recommend two other books written by the same author that are, to my mind, one of the best books. That are "The Message of the Quran" and "The Road to Makah".
These essays are actually based on his speech on various events where he was invited to give a talk about Islam. They are very easy to be understood and his thoughts are still relevant until today, even though they were delivered more than 50 years ago. The most striking one is "This Law of Ours" where he discussed and argued on how the Islamic knowledge was presented, the impact of ijtihad and classification of usul fiqh to our understanding on syariah nowadays.
Asad is one of the numerous scholars who believe in religious revival through a literal reading of the canon. Interestingly they all agree on the virtue of literalism but disagree radically on what exactly is the "literal meaning" of things.
I came to know about Muhammad Asad through a small video clip on YouTube last year or so, and this is his third book I have finished reading (while I'm reading a fourth in parallel).
The first section "This Law of Ours" deals with the law of ours, i.e. Sharia. As Asad repeatedly emphasizes in many of his other works, there is a major difference between Sharia and Fiqh. Sharia is supposed to be the framework on which rest of laws are built upon. These laws can change. The Sharia doesn't, and it's meant to be concise, and simple. Asad emphasizes the importance of ijtehad, and how the opinions of scholars or jurists of the past, which although can guide us, are not binding at all. He talks about the decay of Muslim civilization, and offers some explanations for that.
The second section talks about the meaning of Pakistan, and these essays were written during the time leading to the Independence of Pakistan. The book also includes his radio talks which he gave to uplift the spirit of people who were dealing with extreme poverty and awesome grief due to the horrors of Partition.
There are essays related to Islam and the West, and Jerusalem. But for me, the section that had the most effect on me was "The Answers of Islam", which deals with some deep questions about man, universe, life after death, purpose of existence, etc.
I love his way of argumentation. At certain points, in all his works, when he's finished making his point, you have no choice but to accept what he says. (That's not to say he's always right in everything. He's also human, after all.)
Overall, great book. Also, somewhat rare, weirdly. Shouldn't be.
"An ideology like the Islamic one there can be no dividing-line between the spiritual and the worldly spheres- and therefore also no dividing-line between man's faith and his practical life"
The author in many essays speaks about the Muslim world and society how it became, how it is, and how it "could be" if we change it. Our Islamic world is full of contradiction and Islam without a doubt has been tarnished between the years, politics, and our endless interventing traditions. All this he states at length in his book, yet what's amazing is this book was written after the world war two yet explains exactly how we are YEARS later! Sadly we are getting worse.. books like this should be in-listed in our educational system. Lastly, the only problem I faced was with the big words