Remembering Muhammad Asad and his 'Message'

February 2012 marks twenty years of the death of Muhammad Asad (1900-1992) (right), translator and interpreter of the Qur'an. The exact date however is between the range of the 20th and 23rd of that month.

Asad's demise is the death of no ordinary soul, for he was undoubtedly one of the most influential thinkers of Islam of the twentieth century.

Born Leopold Weiss, he was of Austrian-Polish origins, and had converted to Islam at the age of 26. He wrote with considerable scholarship on many aspects of Islam but it is with The Message of the Qur’an (first published in 1980) that he will always be remembered.

Asad's approach to the Qur'an

Asad believed that one primary cause of the incomprehensibility of many previous English translations of the Qur’an was that the translators approached the task in a too formalistic manner, concentrating on direct words translation, when they should ideally be founded on a mastery of the classical Bedouin Arabic.

In his words, “in order to grasp [the Qur’an’s] spirit correctly, one must be able to feel and hear this language as the Arabs felt and heard it at the time when the Qur’an was being revealed, and to understand the meaning which they gave to the linguistic symbols which it is expressed.”

His aim was “to render its message comprehensible” to the non-Arabic speaking public. The end product was a work as beautiful as it is humanly possible. If an understanding of the Qur’anic messages is the acid test of its translation, The Message was far superior to the other translations published  before it, and today, twenty years later, it continues to have its readers thinking, and reflecting, over its contents.

In a notable phrase, Asad commented that it was not the Muslims that made Islam great but it was Islam that made the Muslims great – and I don’t think he would object if the word Islam is replaced by the Qur’an - thus, armed with an understanding of the messages from on high, there is much that Muslims today can contribute to mankind and moral civilization. It is in this respect of communicating divine messages that The Message has no equal,  and unlikely to be equaled, in our lifetime.   

A few factors contributed to making The Message what it is, and  an affirmation that Asad was as qualified as anyone for the task, having spent a considerable time in the Arabian deserts. He proceeded on certain core fundamentals, which included (i) the need, as noted, to look at Qur’anic purports, (ii) that the Qur’an must be translated as part of a whole writ, that is, there is a need to harmonise the verses found throughout the surahs, (ii) that events referred to in the Qur’an must be examined not as the end, but in respect of their inner relevance to ethical teachings, (iii) and that reference must also be made to noted classical works.

Applying scholarship in explaining Qur'an

His explanatory notes are an inseparable part of the work, helping readers to better understand his translations. Nevertheless, the notes  serve more than that – he uses them  to highlight fundamentals of faith, and to introduce  new perspectives.

This is one of its outstanding features, the scholarship and understanding which we rarely see in Qur’anic translations.   

When the work came out in 1980, it was path-breaking, allowing readers an insight into many propositions which were then generally ambiguous and incomprehensible to many.

It is only natural that any translation of the holy writ will attract criticisms of which many are probably unjustified, for the Qur’an cannot possibly be translated – still there was  a need, an extremely urgent one at that time,  and indeed for all time, for a comprehensible work that would be useful to non-Arabic speaking readers.

To the ordinary Muslims who, for one reason or another, could not master the Arabic language beyond few short Qur’anic surahs, The Message could have been enlightenment. If previously we had been told in many translations to read the Qur’an in a particular manner (73: 4), Asad focused on what matters the most, that is, the lessons that could be drawn from the 114 surahs – thus we must according to his translation: “…recite the Qur’an calmly and distinctly, with the mind attuned to its meaning.” [emphasis added]

By focusing on the messages of the Qur’an, his interpretation focused beyond translation per se. To read the Qur’an is a noble act, but if it is to really serve the purpose it has been revealed, then readers must also understand its purports.

People accept and remember better what they can understand – as Asad put it, of the need for “thoughtful consideration of the meaning to be brought out [from the Qur’anic verses].” This is just one simple point, yet the impact is potentially massive.  

Until today The Message remains the most outstanding translation of the divine writ, helping many to understand something that they in all probability had not been able to do previously. Not many translated works move the human spirit, this one has the potentiality of doing just that.   

Accountability and intendment

I intend to do two things, briefly  – first, to examine the position taken by Asad in respect of man’s accountability for their actions, and secondly, by restricting to only one part from a Qur’anic verse, to show Asad’s understanding of a particular Qur’anic intendment.

On the first, that is man’s accountability for their deeds, the Qur’an typically refers, metaphorically, to, for example, God sealing man’s heart and the like. The fundamental is that God guides those He wills, and that “[Muhammad] art only a warner…” (11:12).

A notable feature of Asad is the stress that there is no inconsistency between God’s guidance of whomever he wills, and of a person’s responsibility over his actions. In relation to “God has sealed their hearts and their hearing, and over their eyes is a veil” (2:6), he wrote:  “this “sealing” is attributed to Him:  but it is obviously a consequence of a man’s free choice and not an act of “predestination”.

Similarly, the suffering which, in the life to come, is in store for those who during their life in this world have willfully remained deaf and blind to the truth, is a natural consequence of their free choice – just as happiness in the life to come is the natural consequence of man’s endeavour to attain righteousness and inner illumination.”  

Sticking to the same theme, he referred to “man’s moral obligations to use his inborn gifts - intellectual as well as physical - in the way intended by God.” Thus, in the note to the translation which reads “He guides whom He wills onto a straight way” (2:142), Asad wrote: “He guides onto a straight way him that wills [to be guided.]” Surah 76:3 re-enforces this perspective: “Verily, We have shown him the way: [and it rests with him to prove himself] either grateful or ungrateful.” Interestingly, he was of the view that Adam’s knowledge of “names of all things”(2:31) was intended to refer to “man’s faculty of logical definition and thus, of conceptual thinking.”

Asad’s view of Satan is also worthy of note.

He noted, citing classical authorities,  that the original Arabic word is often used to represent “(exceedingly evil) propensities in man’s own soul, and especially all impulses which run counter to reason and morality...”

Man and Satan’s relationship was explained by him thus: “Iblis (or Satan) should tempt man, but should have no power to seduce those who are truly conscious of God. Thus, the Qur’an makes it clear that despite his ostensible “rebellion” against his Creator, Satan fulfils a definite function in God’s plan: he is the eternal tempter who enables man to exercise his God-given freedom of choice between good and evil and, thus, to become a being endowed with moral free will.”

The Qur’an tells us that Satan shall deny its role in leading man to go astray, for Satan will say on Judgment Day, “Yet I had no power at all over you: I but called you – and you responded to me. Hence blame not me, but blame yourselves.” (14:22)

Two themes emerge clearly from Asad from what has been said previously – first, man shall be accountable for his own moral failings; and secondly, man could not put the blame for that on satanic forces because man are in charge, for the decision to act one way or the other rests with us humans: “…We have let loose all [manner of satanic forces] upon those who deny the truth – [forces] that impel them [towards sin] with strong impulsion?” (19:83).

Asad's depth

I want to conclude by referring to just one specific example relating to human behavior which again displays Asad’s contribution in re-stating the rationale behind Qur’anic commands. The traditional translation of 4:29 goes something like this: “Do not wrongfully eat the property of others except by trade, by mutual consent.”  

Asad’s translation of the same is this: “Do not devour one another’s possessions wrongfully – not even by way of trade based on mutual agreement…”  

It is obvious which one has a more in-depth moral and ethical fibre. Our sense of fair play, and our experience, would suggest that it may still be wrongful to acquire property of others even if it appears to be based on mutual consent of the relevant parties, and the Qur’an asks of us not to use our “oaths as a means of deceiving one another, simply because you are more powerful than others.”(16:92).

It is suggested that in respect of mutually agreed transactions, the presence of any of the following factors would amount to a wrongful conduct for the purpose of the verse: cheating, fraudulent misrepresentation including deliberate concealment of material fact, duress, illegality, and abuse of fiduciary position. All these are oppressive conducts, and inconsistent with established and noble Islamic tenets.  

The Message of the Qur’an is the most comprehensible and thought-provoking English translation of the divine writ ever published, a force de riguer.  Its pages deserve to be perused.

* Wan Azlan Ahmad is a Harakahdaily reader. A new edition of Muhammad Asad's The Message of the Qur'an is available locally from www.ibtbooks.com.