in that sense, Asad may not seem modernist, in that his aqeedah has more to do with an all-but-extinct-1000+years-ago philosopher-approach to Islam. but at least in Road and Message he expressed that the problem with Muslim leaders with whom he dealt was that they were too satisfied with the status quo. to that point it could be easy to find his arguments compelling. but when it comes to what guidance to seek from Islam, he would have said, i believe, that there is a sphere for religion and one that religion has no place in. to me that challenges (wrongly) the traditional assertion that every aspect of life is within Islam (though obviously many aspects of life have no ruling associated with them other than simply “mubah”). and taking all of his writings which can be characterized thus, i think of him as modernist.

but alhamdolillah, i am not his judge, nor anyone else’s. :) and Judgment is only for Allah.

I know that it first came out in 1934, and it has been modified by Muhammad Asad over the years. The most popular Swedish translation – I live in Sweden – of the meaning of the Qur’an comes with Asad’s notes from his own translation, so I am aware of some of the bizarre aqeedah. I also have his Road to Mecca but I haven’t read it yet. I agree with you that Ismail Royer – walhamdulillah – takes the position of ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jama’ah so I wouldn’t compare him to Asad in that sense. Actually, I was sceptical when I first picked up “Islam at the Crossroads” and didn’t expect to get much out of it, exactly because of what I knew of Muhammad Asad’s aqeedah. But as I read it I was reminded of this text by Ismail Royer since the message is very similar. I wouldn’t describe him as a modernist, even in the later part of his life, since he still stood by what he wrote in his “Islam at the crossroads” later in life.

I was very happy to hear about Muslimmatters.org. It sounds like its filling a void.

when a person who has been incarcerated, sentenced without justice to such a long sentence, rights such words about MM… it really moves my heart. may Allah make his time in prison easy, may He soften the hearts of those who can pardon him, parole him, or reverse the judgment against him. may Allah make MM worthy of such hope and praise.

as for Muhammad Asad… Muhammad Asad did recognize the kind of intellectual dissonance that Ismail Royer describes. but i would say, especially in light of Asad’s Message of the Qur’an, that the two men took divergent paths from that nexus. Asad all but completely denies the miracles of Allah, the angels, the Jinn, and more facts for a Muslim — for Asad all are more or less allegorical devices or mere means to explain the wisdom that less-developed minds could not otherwise grasp.

i have read Asad’s opus-translation of the Qur’an cover-to-cover including every footnote and appendix, and i have read his Road to Mecca. i have islam at the crossroads but never studied it in depth. correct me if i am wrong, please, but crossroads was written while he was fresh from Saudi Arabia, and i believe even before he became Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN? that would place the book much earlier than either of the two much longer works. it’s possible that Asad’s deviation in aqeedah had not yet taken as firm a root in his mind at the time he wrote crossroads… though that book, if i am not mistaken, had a profound impact on the Muslim League, and even fomented (or fermented) the drive to partition… to create a state whose founders had very modernist ideals…

I would like to say JKH for kind words to Br. Ismail and his family. Ismail is wrily happy to read all your responds, and thank you for all the dua’s that you are macking for him and his family. JKH Esselamu Aleikum

ummfatima

May Allah grant you strength and patience during your trials and allow you to use this time to draw nearer to Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala.

Your brother in Islam,
Ahmad

In regards to this discussion, the conflict may there between Western society and Islam, but the mere existence of brothers and sisters such as you and I, who find the balance and equilibrium in troubling times…is proof that Islam also has the capacity to adapt and will continue to until we overcome. Perhaps its a consequence of our negative thinking that we see this conflict to be unsurmountable to the point that we cannot imagine how the Western can become Islamic. The brother wears a basketball jersey trying to look like `tuff`but that same jersey has the name of Abdul-Jabbar on it`s back. On one level yes, we can call it schizophrenic, but the first Muslims had to bear the same trials and were in their own way schizophrenic and if Abu Bakr (ra) were here today, even us Muslims would diagnose him as depressed, emotional and majnun…but that`s only if we look through the glasses of the kuffar…

But in regards to modernity, scientific advancement and the Muslim future in the West, Muslims have forgotten the nature of Islam. Just as you mentioned that Islam is the natural state of the soul, it will always remain no matter how unusual it may seem at that moment. Anything can be Islamicized. We have Allah`s promise and the American giant is losing it`s balance. When it falls the ground might rumble but the giant that has always stood will remain standing: Islam.

What I would like to ask you my dear brother is something that you most likely have contemplated and if you haven`t I would definitely like to hear your thoughts and ideas, especially from where you are:

Activism has grown as a result of historical events. But we write, protest, `fight`for the rights of our imprisoned or hungry or dying brothers, but only as long as we do it from the comfort of our air-conditioned homes, at ease in front of our wide computer monitors.
This In-Activism is obvious and almost blatantly hypocritical but we still do it almost because it`s easy and gives us an arrogance for performing a `good deed`…it is not getting us anywhere and so I ask:

If anything, what can we do about it? What sort of `new and innovative`methods should we try? How might we affect true change?

Jazaka Allahu khayran for your time and May Allah free you.