How many of us know Muhammad Asad?

An Austrian Jew Leopold Weiss who converted to Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Asad, author of the famous book “Road to Makkah”, among his other books are “Islam and Politics”, “Towards an Islamic Constitution” and the list continues. Asad was a traveler, researcher, writer and scholar. His journey through Palestine and Arab countries make him think about Islam, he was impressed by Islam and in its study he found out that this is the perfect religion, in his own words about Islam, he says: “Islam appears to me like a perfect work of architecture. All its parts are harmoniously conceived to complement and support each other; nothing is superfluous and nothing lacking; and the result is a structure of absolute balance and solid composure.”

He came to the Indo-Pak region in the 1932 and met Allama Muhammad Iqbal, Allama iqbal the spiritual leader of Muslims of sub-continent who gave the concept and thought of a separate Islamic country on the basis of Islam, where Muslims can practice their religion with freedom, where all the minorities will be given fundamental right, where the Islamic laws will be implemented. He worked with Allama Iqbal and the Muslim leaders for the creation of the separate homeland, he was arrested in 1939 from Lahore and spent three years in prison he reunited with his family finally in 1945 when the independence movement in the Indo-Pak region was at its peak, the land of sub-continent was echoing with the slogans of “Pakistan ka matlab kia, La ilaha ilallah”, he supported and worked for the independence of a separate Muslim state which came on the globe of the world as Pakistan, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Asad was given the Pakistani Nationality on his never-ending efforts. He has close relations with Quaid e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah due to his effort for Islam.

After the independence of Pakistan, he was designated as the Director of the Department of Islamic Reconstruction which involved in the preparation and reviewing the recommendation to the drafting of the first constitution of Pakistan according the Islamic law. He also worked with the ministry of foreign affairs as Head of Middle East Division. 

The book “Road to Makkah” is about his journey of his life and his travel towards Makkah and the story of his conversion from Judaism to Islam.

In the last days of his life, he moved to Spain with his wife, where he lived till his death on February 23, 1992. He was buried in Granada.

Faryal, Aisha, Dr. Lata.... The Happy Ending?

This all started with the conversion of three female citizens who converted to Islam. Rinkal Kimari embraced Islam and her new name given “Faryal”, Eesha became Ayesha, while Dr. Lata accepted the ideology of Islam and became Hafsa.

As soon as the news was released, in some areas of the country people started celebrations while in some areas people were protesting. The celebrations were because the embracement of Islam is an achievement for the preachers of Islam as well as the Muslims across Pakistan and the whole world. On the other hand the protestors have the opinion that these ladies are forced to accept Islam, and are kidnapped before the conversion. Later a video message was on-aired on all the news channels, this video also become viral on the internet and the social networking websites. According to their video message which was on-aired on the news channels that they converted on their own and want to live their lives according to the Islamic principles. The young lady Faryal Shah who was Rinkal Kumari before said that she had accepted Islam and she has done this on her own, she was not kidnapped but she and her husband were hiding because she had threat from the community that she might be murdered. She read the Kalma on the TV and said she want to live with her husband and requested all to let her live her life.

Surprisingly, this was not accepted by the liberal and secular community as they started protesting against it, they started social media campaign about the awareness that Faryal is actually a victim. It was surprising because the liberal always speak for the “freedom of speech”, “freedom of expression”, “the freedom of so-and-so” but this time when a lady who was converted to Islam by her will and requested all that let her live her life freely with her husband, then what is the reason of their protest.

Another issue which was hot during these days was the appearance of the nationalist parties in Sindh, major nationalist parties in the interior Sindh, started protesting because the ladies belong to Sindhi community. They used the issue for their own objectives but later they failed in making it their own issue and thus the Faryal case came forward independently.

The debate was on channels, on social media and in the public circles, while the matter was in court and on April 17, 2012, news was on-aired in silence, because media don’t want to show the defeat of the liberal and secular lobby and their objectives. The Supreme Court announced that the ladies are free to either join their families or husbands, the ladies chose that they want to live with their husbands.

The media might have tried so hard to save the faces of the secular lobby but the inner hatred of them does not remain inside, after the court decision they started abusive language on the social media. A liberal social activist Marvi Sirmid was found calling name and using abusive language on the topic and to the people who were giving each other congratulation on this news. She was gone extreme in the abusive language that an educated person can’t tolerate it. Despite the media efforts and supports to Seculars they exposed themselves by their own actions.

What was the reaction of media when they accepted Islam and what is media doing when the court decision was announced, a great action of hypocrisy which can not be ignored.

If a Muslim might converted to other religion the foreign authorities, USA & UK might offered him/her security and shelter like they did to Malo’on Salman Rushdi, while the NGOs might had soared their throat by severe screaming on the media. But Faryal is a Muslim now and she did this all by herself.