Date 4th Shawal, 1444 Hijri / 25th April 2023
Book Series I Islam at the Crossroads by
Muhammad Asad
By Shoaib Janjua
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Ground Rules
• Listen carefully and take notes so that you can grasp the concepts well
• You can write your comments and questions in chat. The speaker will answer
them either right away or towards the end in Q&A.
• Females will be encouraged to write their questions in the chat box as opposed
to using to mic.
• Note down your reflections so that we can take practical actions in our lives post
the session, In shaa Allah
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Life of Muhammad Asad
• Birth Jul 1990 Austro-Hungarian Empire with Jewish origin
• 1922 – Journalism career movement to Muslim World
• 1926 – Acceptance of Islam
• 1932 – Meeting with Allam Iqbal, Pakistan Movement
• 1939 - 3 Years in Prison
• 1947 – Department of Islamic Reconstruction, Pakistan
• 1949 – Foreign Office
• 1952 – Left Pakistan
• Contact by President Ayub Khan and Gen Zia Ul Haq
• Books – Translation of Sahih ul Bukhari, Road to Mecca and few
others
• 1992 - Death – Granada
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What do we mean by Crossroads?
Under the impact of new ideas and conflicting currents,
so characteristic of the period in which we are living,
Islam can no longer afford to remain an empty form. Its
magic sleep of centuries is broken; it has to rise or to die.
The problem facing the Muslims today is the problem of
the traveler who has come to a crossroads. He can
remain standing where he is; but that would mean death
by starvation. He can choose the road bearing the sign
"Towards Western Civilization"; but then he would have to
say good-bye to his past forever. Or he can choose the
other road, the one over which is written: "Towards the
Reality of Islam". It is this road alone which can appeal to
those who believe in their past and in the possibility of its
transformation into a living future.
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Main chapters of the book
The open road of Islam
The spirit of the West
The shadow of the crusades
About Education
About Imitation
Hadith and Sunnah
The spirit of Sunnah
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Chapter 1: The open road of Islam
▪ Globalization leading to the transfer of ideas and thoughts
▪ Are the impacts leading us closer to our direction or away from it?
▪ Why we need to study the foundations and motive forces of both western
civilization and Islam
▪ Moral foundations of Islam
▪ Religion is complete answer of life
▪ Worship of Allah SWT in all matters of life
▪ One complex moral responsibility
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Chapter 1: The open road of Islam
Islam for it is neither a mystical doctrine nor a philosophy. It is simply a
programme of life in accord with the "laws of nature" which God has decreed
upon His creation; and its supreme achievement is a complete coordination of
the spiritual and the material aspects of human existence. In the teachings of
Islam, both these aspects are not only " reconciled" to each other in the sense
of leaving no inherent conflict between the bodily and the moral existence of
man, but the fact of their coexistence and -actual-inseparability is insisted upon
as the natural basis of life .
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Chapter 1: The open road of Islam
Our actions and endeavours must have the idea of God and His Oneness for
their centre - in accordance with the words of the Holy Our'an: " I have not
created the invisible beings and mankind to any end other than that they may
[know and] worship Me”. Surah 51:56). Thus, the conception of "worship" in
Islam is different from that in any other religion. Here it is not restricted to the
purely devotional practices, for example prayers or fasting, but extends over the
whole of man's practical life as well: If the object of our life as a whole is to be
the worship of God, we must necessarily regard this life, in the totality of all its
aspects, as one complex moral responsibility. Thus, all our actions, even the
seemingly trivial ones, must be performed as acts of worship; that is, performed
consciously as constituting a part of God's universal plan.
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Chapter 1: The open road of Islam
The position of Islam in this respect is unmistakable. It teaches us, firstly, that
the permanent worship of God in all the manifold actions of human life is the
very meaning of this life; and, secondly, that the achievement of this purpose
remains impossible so long as we divide our lives into two parts, the spiritual
and the material: they must be bound together, in our consciousness and in our
actions, into one harmonious entity. Our notion of God's Oneness must be
reflected in our own striving towards a coordination and unification of the
various aspects of our life.
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Chapter 1: The open road of Islam
It is to be found in the fact that Islam, as a teaching, undertakes to define not
only the metaphysical relations between man and his Creator, but also - and
with scarcely less insistence - the earthly relations between the individual and
his social surroundings. The earthly life is not regarded as a mere empty shell, a
meaningless shadow of the Hereafter that is to come, but as a self-contained,
positive entity.
God-consciousness - in the wider sense just explained - constitutes, according
to Islam , the meaning of human life. And it is this conception alone that shows
us the possibility of man's reaching perfection in his individual, earthly life.
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Chapter 2: The spirit of the West
▪ Considerations of practical utility and dynamic expansion
▪ Experimentation to discover potentialities of life, no moral reality of its own
▪ Unbelief in the existence of what’s described as Soul
▪ Its deity is Comfort
▪ Impact of Roman Empire on Western civilization
▪ Impact of Islamic Civilization on Western Civilization
▪ Antagonism towards any form of spiritual claim over man
▪ Champion of everything antireligious in principle and action
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Chapter 2: The spirit of the West
What we call the "religious attitude" is always based on the belief that there
exists an all-embracing, transcendental moral law, and that we human beings
are bound to submit to its commands. But modern Western civilization does not
recognize the necessity of man's submission to anything save economic or
social or national requirements. Its real deity is not of a spiritual kind: it is
Comfort. And its real, living philosophy is expressed in a Will to Power for
power's sake. Both have been inherited from the old Roman civilization.
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Chapter 2: The spirit of the West
Western civilization does not strictly deny God, but has simply no room and no
use for Him in its present intellectual system. It has made a virtue out of an
intellectual difficulty of man - his inability to grasp the totality of life. Thus, the
modern Occidental is likely to attribute practical importance only to such ideas
as lie within the scope of empirical sciences, or, at least, are expected to
influence men's social relations in a tangible way. And as the question of the
existence of God does not belong prima facie to either of these two categories,
the Western mind is, on principle, inclined to exclude God from the sphere of
practical consideration.
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Chapter 2: The spirit of the West
The real intellectual foundations of the modern West are, as already mentioned,
to be found in the old Roman conception of life as a purely utilitarian proposition
without any transcendental considerations. It can be expressed as follows:
"Since we do not know anything definite - that is, provable by means of scientific
experiments and calculations about the origin of human life and its destiny after
bodily death, it is better to concentrate all our energies on the development of
our material and intellectual possibilities without allowing ourselves to be
hampered by transcendental ethics and moral postulates based on assumptions
which defy scientific proof." There can be no doubt that this attitude, so
characteristic of modern Western civilization, is as unacceptable to Christianity
as it is to Islam or any other religion, because it is irreligious in its very essence.
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Chapter 2: The spirit of the West
The dawn of the industrial era with its glamour of stupendous material progress
began to direct men towards new interests, and thus contributed to the
subsequent religious vacuum of the West. In this vacuum the development of
Western civilization took a tragic turn - tragic from the viewpoint of anyone who
regards religion as the strongest reality in human life. Freed from its former
bondage to Trinitarian Christianity, the modern Occidental mind overstepped all
limits and entrenched itself, by degrees, in a decided antagonism to any form of
spiritual claim upon man. Out of a subconscious fear of being once more
overwhelmed by forces claiming spiritual authority, Europe became the
champion of everything antireligious in principle and action. And thus it returned
to its old Roman heritage.
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Chapter 2: The spirit of the West
No doubt, there are still many individuals in the West who feel and think in a
truly religious way and make the most desperate efforts to reconcile their beliefs
with the spirit of their civilization; but they are exceptions only. The average
Occidental- be he a Democrat or a Fascist, a Capitalist or a Communist, a
manual worker or an intellectual- knows only one positive "religion" , and that is
the worship of material progress, the belief that there is no other goal in life than
to make that very life continually easier or, as the current expression goes,
"independent of Nature". The temples of this "religion" are the gigantic factories,
cinemas, chemical laboratories, dance-halls, hydro-electric works: and its
priests are bankers, engineers, film stars, captains of industry, record
sportsmen.
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Chapter 3: The shadow of the Crusades
▪ Pride of Greeks and Romans, Racial Superiority
▪ Balanced reflective attitude of mind towards others, but disturbed balanced
and emotion bias in case of Islam
▪ Unscientific partiality of European writers in case of Islam
▪ Crusades – Hostile contact with the world of Islam
▪ Western civilization post Crusades
▪ Destruction of Muslim Spain
▪ Anti-Islamic feelings deepened and grew to permanency
▪ Hate is declining but what’s the rootcause?
▪ Europe opening up for Islam?
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Chapter 3: The shadow of the Crusades
(In case of Islam) Western attitude is not one of mere indifference, as in the
case of other "foreign" religions and cultures: it is one of deep-rooted and
almost fanatical aversion; and it is not only intellectual but bears an intensely
emotional tint. The West may not accept the doctrines of Buddhist or Hindu
philosophy, but it will always preserve a balanced, reflective attitude of mind
with regard to those systems. As soon, however, as it turns towards Islam, the
balance is disturbed and an emotional bias creeps in. With very few exceptions,
even the most eminent of European orientalists have been guilty of an
unscientific partiality in their writings on Islam.
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Chapter 3: The shadow of the Crusades
It was then, for the first time in history, that Europe conceived itself as a unity -
and it was a unity against the world of Islam. Without indulging in undue
exaggeration we can say that modern Europe was born out of the spirit of the
Crusades. Before that time there had been Anglo-Saxons and Germans, French
and Normans, Italians and Danes: but during the Crusades the new political
concept of "Christendom", a cause common to all European nations alike (and
by no means identical with the religious concept of "Christianity") was created:
and it was the hatred of Islam that stood as godfather behind the new creation..
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Chapter 3: The shadow of the Crusades
But even before the last remnant of Muslim Spain, the Kingdom of Granada,
had been re-conquered by Christian Spain in 1492, a third event of great
importance marred the relations between the Western world and that of Islam:
the fall of Constantinople to the Turks. In the eyes of Europe, the Byzantine
Empire had still retained something of the old Greek and Roman glamour and
was regarded as Europe's bulwark against the "barbarians" of Asia. With its
ultimate fall, the gateway of Europe was thrown open to the Muslim flood. In the
warlike centuries that followed, the hostility of Europe against Islam became a
matter not only of cultural but also of political importance; and this contributed to
its intensity.
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Chapter 3: The shadow of the Crusades
So far as Western civilization is concerned, a turning towards Islam could
possibly, come about after a series of terrible social cataclysms which would
shatter the present cultural self-conceit of the West and change its mentality so
thoroughly as to make it apt and ready to accept a religious explanation of life.
Today, the Western world is still completely lost in the adoration of its material
achievements and in the belief that comfort, and comfort alone, is a goal worth
striving for. Its materialism, its denunciation of a religious orientation of thought
are certainly increasing in force, and not decreasing as some optimistic Muslim
observers would have us believe.
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Chapter 4: About education
▪ Looking towards West for regeneration will lead to destruction of self-confidence
▪ Both are not compatible in spirit
▪ Education based on European culture experiences won’t bring anti-Islamic
influences?
▪ Religious belief losing ground among the intelligentsia
▪ Western Civilization – antireligious
▪ Islam is never a barrier to progress and science – not use the western lens
▪ No slavish submission to the intellectual attitude of the West
▪ No philosophy from Europe. Only natural sciences and mathematics
▪ Imitation of outward leads to assimilation of the worldview
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Chapter 4: About education
Islam has never been a barrier to progress and science. It appreciates the
intellectual activities of man to such a degree as to place him above the angels.
No other religion ever went so far in asserting the dominance of reason and,
consequently, of learning, above all other manifestations of human life. If we
conform to the principles of this religion, we cannot dream of eliminating modern
learning from our lives. We must have the will to learn and to progress and to
become scientifically and economically as efficient as the Western nations are.
But the one thing Muslims must not wish is to see with Western eyes, to think in
Western patterns of thought: they must not wish, if they desire to remain
Muslims, to exchange the spiritual civilization of Islam for the materialistic
experimentation of the West, whether Capitalist or Marxist.
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Chapter 4: About education
Biology as such, or physics, or botany, are neither materialistic nor spiritual in
their scope and purpose; they are concerned with the observation, collection
and definition of facts and the derivation from them of general rules. But the
inductive, philosophical conclusions which we derive from these sciences - that
is, the philosophy of science - are not based on facts and observations alone
but are to a very large extent influenced by our pre-exisiting temperamental or
intuitive attitudes towards life and its problems.
It is not the study of modern, empirical sciences that could be detrimental to the
cultural reality of Islam, but the spirit of Western civilization through which
Muslims approach those sciences.
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Chapter 4: About education
If I were to make proposals to an ideal Educational Board governed by Islamic
considerations alone, I would urge that of all the intellectual achievements of the West only
natural sciences (with the aforementioned reservations) and mathematics should be taught
in Muslim schools, while the tuition of European philosophy, literature and history should lose
the position of primacy which it holds in today's curricula. Our attitude towards European
philosophy should be obvious from what I have said above. And as for European literature, it
should certainly not be overlooked - but it should be relegated to its proper philological and
historical position. The way in which it is taught at present in many Muslim countries is
frankly biased. The boundless exaggeration of Western values and concepts naturally
induces young and unripe minds to imbibe wholeheartedly the spirit of Western civilization
before its negative aspects can be sufficiently appreciated.
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Chapter 5: About Imitation
▪ The imitation – individually and socially – of the western mode of life by Muslims is
undoubtedly the greatest danger for the existence – or rather the revival – Islamic
Civilization.
▪ Influential people pushed Muslims to adopt western mode of progress
▪ Outcome of feeling of inferiority
▪ Impossible to imitate a foreign civilization in its intellectual and aesthetic design
without appreciating its spirit.
▪ Free ourselves from spirit of apology for our religion
▪ Live with his head held high
▪ Islam – a clearly defined program of Individual and social life – a perfect answer
▪ Towards the reality of Islam
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Chapter 6: Hadith and Sunnah
▪ The Sunnah is key to understanding of the Islamic rise
▪ Key to the present regeneration
▪ Observance of Sunnah is synonymous with Islamic Existence
▪ Neglect of the Sunnah is synonymous with decomposition and decay of Islam
▪ Islam – complete reconciliation between the moral and material side of Islam
▪ “What ever the Prophet enjoins you, accept; and whatever he forbids you, avoid.”
(Hashar: 7)
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Chapter 6: Hadith and Sunnah
▪ Say (O Muhammad): If you love God, follow me: God will love you and forgive you
your sings; God is Forgiving, a Dispenser of Grace. Say: Obey God and the
Apostle! But if they turn away, behold, God loveth not the Unbelivers” (Al-Imran:
31, 32)
▪ Islamic system of hadith tradition and remarkable work
▪ It is impossible to live according to the Sunnah of our Prophet and to follow the
Western mode of life at one and the same time
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Chapter 7: The spirit of Sunnah
▪ Morally and intellectually bound to follow Prophet SAW
▪ “He doesn’t speak of his own desire” Najam 53:3
▪ Training of man in a methodical way to live permanently in a state of
consciousness, wakefulness and self-control
▪ Muhasba – saying of Hazrat Umar Ibn al-Khatab R.A
▪ Social importance and utility – more cohesion
▪ The personality of the Greatest Man becomes deeply embodied in the very routine
of our daily life
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Summary
▪ Islam as superior to all other religious systems because it embraces life in its
totality. It takes World and Hereafter, soul and body, individual and society, equally
into consideration.
▪ It takes into account not only the loft possibilities of human nature but also its
inherent limitations and weaknesses.
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What actions are you going to take from now
on?
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