Water Becomes Foul If It Stands Motionless

"I slam came over me like a robber who enters a house by night, stealthily, without noise or much ado: only that, unlike a robber, it entered to remain for good. But it took me years to discover that I was to be a Muslim ..."

Asad once asked an old Bedouin about why he moved from one place to another and not settle in one area, firm some land, and rest in peace. To this the Bedouin replied, “If water stands motionless in pools, it becomes stale, muddy and foul; only when it moves and flows does it remain clear ...”

Asad’s own life became a reflection of those few words of the old Bedouin. At a young age, he left Vienna for Berlin. Leaving his degree incomplete, he left for Jerusalem. From then on, he started his long journey in North Africa, Near East and Central Asia, never staying at one place for long. As he traveled through the Muslims lands, both before and after his becoming a Muslim, he met and made friendship with many prominent leaders, such as King Abdul Aziz, the founder of Saudi Arabia, and later King Faisal, his wise son, King Abdullah of Jordan, Reza Khan, who later became Reza Shah Pahlavi of Iran, Sayyid Ahmad, the great leader of the north African Sanusi movement, Umar Mukhtar who was fighting till his last breath to expel the ruthless colonial rulers out of his country, Sayyid Maududi, the chief architect of Islamic renaissance of the 20^th century, and Allama Iqbal, the great poet-philosopher and spiritual founder of Pakistan.

After becoming a Muslim, he lived in Saudi Arabia for six years – but often moving from one place to another making friendships with prominent figures and enjoying their hospitalities. Then he left Saudi Arabia and came to the Indian Subcontinent in 1939. There Allama Iqbal persuaded him to cancel his further travel plans in Far East and to work on constructing the intellectual premises of the future Islamic state. After Pakistan was created in 1947, he was appointed to organize and direct a Department of Islamic Reconstruction. In 1952, after twenty six years of absence from the West, he came to New York and became Pakistan’s Minister Plenipotentiary to the United Nations.

Asad later married Pola whom he met in New York. She was working in the State Department and was part of the US Delegation to the United Nations in New York. Unsatisfied with her Catholic background, she had her own independent journey to Islam. After years of studying, she became a Muslim just a few months before she met Asad. And within days of her marriage, she discovered the primary fault of her husband ..

It was November 1952 and she just moved to her husband’s New York apartment when Asad was invited by Dr. Schuler Walace, Director of The School of Oriental Affairs, to give a lecture on Islam and the current problems of the Muslim world. The audience was to be mostly comprised of post-graduate students of international affairs. After the lecture, he was to answer questions from the audience. Asad accepted the invitation. Although Pola Asad was anxious to see her husband speak in front of such a group of intelligentsia, it appeared that her husband was not much concerned about it. A day before the meeting she asked him whether he prepared the manuscript for the speech. “It is almost ready”, said Asad. She waited the whole day for some news about the speech being ready. Finally, when the day came, Asad sat down five minutes before leaving the apartment and jotted down a few notes on a small piece of paper and told her that was it. At the podium, Dr. Wallace introduced Asad to the crowed, and Asad started talking enthusiastically, so much so that he even forgot to consult his “notes”. He spoke for long time and received much ovation from the crowed after the speech ended, which was then followed by questions and answers. The whole session lasted several hours. This was how Pola Asad pointed out her husband’s primary fault: a lack of vanity, nay a total lack of vanity. Asad gave many formal speeches and interviews in both Muslims countries as well as in western cities in front of educated gatherings, but he did not keep records of those and thus many of those valuable speeches were lost, said Pola Asad.

Asad spoke highly of her and said that even though she would deny it due to her modesty, but she had always inspired him and he could not possibly have produced a quarter of what he had done had he not have her moral support. Asad’s works include, “The Message of the Qur’an” (a translation and commentary on the Qur’an), “The Road to Mecca”, “Islam at the Crossroads”, “Sahih al-Bukhari: The Early Years of Islam”, "This Law of Ours", and “The Principles of State and Government in Islam”.

From Pakistan, Asad later moved to Morocco and there he completed his masterpiece, “The Message of the Qur’an”, which took seventeen years to complete. He later settled in Lisbon. There this giant Muslim intellectual breathed his last in 1992.

And so he finally settled in peace, from which he was never to move again. Never again was he to mount on his dromedary and let it resume its stride on the desert sand. Never again was he to look at the distant sand dunes, and cherish a desire to visit the land that lay beyond the horizon and to know the life style of its people ...

Water becomes foul if it stays motionless. So it must move on, and journey across many lands, passing through valleys, and plains, and crevices, and deltas; picking up gems from one place and dropping at another. But one day it has to come to the end of its journey, and leave its legacy, and drop to the ocean.

For that is where it came from, and that is where it must return ...

Bibliography:
Muhammad Asad, "The Road to Mecca", London, 1998
Muhammad Asad, "Islam at the Crossroads", Delhi, 1991
Muhammad Asad, "This Law of Ours", Kuala Lumpur, 2000
"A Tribute to Muhammad Asad", a video presentation by IIS

By Mushfiqur Rahman.           Posted 3/20/2001