WEBVTT

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[music]

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January 2006, two million
Muslims more than ever

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are on the pilgrimage to Mecca
while a neighboring Iraq,

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the US is still fighting their
war on terror. At the same time,

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a Palestinian suicide
bomber kills 20 Israelis,

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and in Europe right-wing extremists handled
pork to refugees with the malicious intent to

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keep the Muslims amongst them hungry.

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January 2006,

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we are beginning a journey, with our camera,
we head out to explore the frontline

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between the Muslim world and the West. And our
guide to the present is a man from the past

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someone who already 80 years ago
crossed all borders between countries,

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cultures, and religions.

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Leopold Weiss,

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a European who went forth to discover
Islam became a friend of Arab kings,

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played an important role in the creation
of Pakistan and wrote an acclaimed

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new translation of the Quran.

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Leopold Weiss,

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a Jew who took the road to Mecca.
Leopold Weiss who became Muhammad Asad.

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Ladies and gentlemen (inaudible)

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the frosting gross temperature
minus 80 degree Celsius

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and partly cloudy, (inaudible).

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But our journey starts far away from the
deserts of Arabia in Leopold\'s birthplace

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at the eastern edge of the
former Austro-Hungarian Empire.

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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I was originally Jew,

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but I had no religious inclination
as such but living in the desert

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and traveling through the desert
brings one closer to God.

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It was the feeling of absolute loneliness

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facing God and the feeling
of insignificance

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in the midst of nature and dependence

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on one central power. I went to

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the head of the Muslim community. And I
told, \"If I want to become a Muslim,

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what shall I do? \" He said,
\" It is very simple.

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Give me your hand. \" And I gave him my
hand. Then he said, \" Repeat after me,

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La Ilaha Illallah Muhammad Rasool Allah.\"
Which I did, he says you are a Muslim now.

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I myself was born as a European.
When I was 13 years old,

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I agreed that Muslims are Barbarians
and that Islam is a false religion so,

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because I wasn\'t God bred. It was
bred into me in my school times

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from my childhood. It was much later

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when I started moving
about any Muslim world

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and coming to know something about Islam
that I recognize how false these ideas were.

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[non-English narration]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[music]

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1940, the Leopold\'s family flees to
Vienna escaping from the approaching

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first world war. This is an adventure
that liberates the rebellious teenager

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from his Orthodox Jewish hometown.
Amongst the agnostic

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assimilated Viennese Jews, he quickly loses interest
in his faith and soon rejects all religions.

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[sil.]

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We arrive in Vienna in 2006 just
when right-wing politicians

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are fighting against the
construction of a new mosque.

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[sil.]

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[non-English narration]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[non-English narration]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[music]

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1922, an uncle invites Leopold
to visit him in Jerusalem,

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but what starts out as a family visit
turns into a life-changing journey.

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Leopold read the Arabian Nights as a child.

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And his romantic expectations are now being
fulfilled by the real Arabs he meets.

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He enjoys their hospitality and is
enchanted by their traditional lifestyle.

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With a passion of an explorer,

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he starts to travel all over the Near East.
And the result is that

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despite his Jewish background, Leopold increasingly
feels that Zionism, causes great injustice

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against the Palestinian Arabs.
Back in Jerusalem,

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he gets into heated arguments with the leaders of the
Zionist movement and despite being in the Jewish homeland

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is further away from his ancestors
religion than ever before.

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(inaudible) three minutes.
Eighty years later,

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our flight to Tel Aviv is canceled
several times because of heavy fighting

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between Hezbollah Militias and
the Israeli Armed Forces.

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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So we… Within this case

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we have the 8 meter wall. And I have to tell
you something which is very, very interesting.

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You know, the wall is very photogenic

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but it will… it will not leave
a lot of ecological damages.

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The thing is that many people consider Muhammad
Asad as somebody who can tear down walls

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between nations, between societies, and
between religions. I know about it generally.

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I know the… the story. Uh… Some Jews…

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some Jews left the Jewish side
and moved to the other side.

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But in a way you\'re Asad opponent because
you are the father of this new wall here.

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Yeah, I convinced (inaudible)
that we are losing

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the Jewish majority. We need immediately
to separate ourselves and to become

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back Jewish state. And
the idea was and then

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when he became prime minister the second
time the same night, he called me home.

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Arnon, please bring me
your disengagement map.

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My mate was a strategic map
that in fact if I can summarize

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Jews here, Arabs there, this was the idea.

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[sil.]

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This is the Bedouins from…
from Anata village.

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No, no, only it will be for Luna parks and
for exhibitions, otherwise is going to be

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hopefully part of the high tech society.

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Or he will keep a better
intent for… for tourism.

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It\'s like Indian reserve. It\'s
not a way of life anymore. No.

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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You are doing a wonderful job

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by trying to bring his personality
to this very unpleasant picture.

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And we can analyze if he is a
real person a… a… a figure

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that we can follow him, or
this is an… an… an episode.

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And I think it\'s an episode. These
people never ever change the world,

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even in Germany in the 30s, I\'m
sure we had thousands of thousands,

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maybe millions of… of the right people, they
couldn\'t change the… the word of history.

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No, no. And I think he\'s very nice.

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[music]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[music]

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[sil.]

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English, Arabic. English. Where are you from?
Austria. Okay, for us this is the problem?

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Yes. Please, but just step backwards.

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We are on the road to Mecca. But that this
Israeli checkpoint, it\'s now us who are held up

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paradoxically because we are not Muslims
and don\'t have pilgrim\'s permits.

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[sil.]

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1926, Leopold Weiss buys converts
to Islam and becomes Muhammad Asad.

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Full of enthusiasm, he embarks on
his first pilgrimage to Mecca.

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Already before his conversion, he
had eagerly studied the Quran.

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For him, it\'s not only the answer to the
spiritual emptiness that he had felt,

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but especially to his rejection of Western
materialism in Europe\'s Roaring \'20s.

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In Saudi Arabia, he no really
feels at home. And he writes,

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I am no longer a stranger.

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[non-English narration]

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[non-English narration]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[non-English narration]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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I know the man very well. He comes
to Mecca sometimes with me.

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I used to bring together

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some of those Muslim scholars.
And he will discuss with them,

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he feels so happy.

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Woman in the early days of Islam
were fighters, were scholars,

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they used to attend every society.

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And nowadays, they want to put
them in rooms and lock them.

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So this is not Islam, he wanted what
happened in the early days of Islam

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to come back again.

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Of course, the majority of
Muslims are against the debate.

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I mean except very few people
and they impose their opinion.

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But the problem is covering the hair.

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And he did a study, a beautiful study

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showing that in Islam, you don\'t as a
lady, you don\'t have to cover your hair.

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[sil.]

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During the time of his
visit in the early days,

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Saudi Arabia was still open for
different views, different opinions.

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It was the real Mecca.
Things had changed down.

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Right now unfortunately,

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there is only a one opinion
\"anything else is wrong.\"

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So we have to change this.

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Yeah, Mohammed Asad,

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someone, I mean even he passed away,

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someone who can contribute. Yeah.

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[music]

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[music]

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We are on the road to Mecca again,

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but this time it ends for us on the
motorway exit in the middle of nowhere.

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1932, Asad leaves Saudi Arabia.

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He\'s curious to get to know other Muslim
communities in Turkistan, China, and Indonesia.

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In India, he meets Muhammad Iqbal who
dreams of creating a separate Islamic state

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as a solution for the religious bloodshed
between Indian Muslims and Hindus.

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Iqbal\'s vision of Pakistan quickly
becomes Asad\'s own dream.

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He campaigns by writing
books, gives public lectures

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and hosts radio programs. And he drafts
the outline for an Islamic Constitution

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in which he especially secures
equal rights for women.

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This paves the way for the first female
leader of an Islamic state, Benazir Bhutto.

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In 1947, Pakistan becomes
an independent state

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in circumstances that Asad could not
have foreseen. The petition from India

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causes religious massacres with half
a million killed on both sides.

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[sil.]

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[non-English narration]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[non-English narration]

00:53:50.000 --> 00:53:55.000
[non-English narration]

00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:18.000
[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[non-English narration]

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I\'m sure Muhammad Asad must have visited

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this place number of times. It is very pity

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that the meeting of the
Asadian society in Lahore

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is being held in this Haveli. It is. It is.

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There was a time when I thought that I
would change my name to Muhammad Asad.

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I spoke to one of my teachers. I said,
\"What about changing my name?\" He said,

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\"If you want to?\" I said, \"What about
Muhammad Asad?\" And he said, \"Why?\"

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I said, \"Because, you know, he is my
mentor. And he is the one who brought me

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together with Allah, and the Quran,
and the Quranic understanding.

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And that is why.\" And he said, \"Don\'t you
think it\'s more important to be like Asad?\"

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To actually as I said before carry on Asad

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in your life, then just a change of name.

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I have about 100 English translations of the Quran because
I have been collecting them from all over the world.

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And I have found Asad unique.

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I absolutely new that should actually

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because he\'s the first person or the
only person so far who has God,

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I would use it the slang here the guts to say it and
would not take pressure from society and translated to,

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you know, please, the
public actually, the men.

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This is a good job he was done.
It\'s a wonderful job.

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[sil.]

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[music]

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I had a great dream about Pakistan.

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And somehow I feel that it\'s at this age,

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umm… I feel that that… that
dream has been betrayed.

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And umm… I am very much in world of
Pakistan though I have left Pakistan.

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And it\'s just so painful

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to see Asad faith in creating

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the state which he wanted to create
of Pakistan. I live in States.

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I love United States. It\'s a great place.
But at the same time…

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And… and it\'s so painful to see
Pakistan in the state it is today.

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1And I feel that Mohammed Asad was there, maybe
could have benefited so much, I\'m sorry,

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from… from his experience and umm… would
have made this state that no enough,

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none of us would have to go out. That\'s
Mohammed Asad. This is not the platform

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for your grievances to bring out. And we
want to give you all of a balanced picture.

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No, no, this is too critical. Okay, okay, all
right. What is the failure? In many things

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we have been successful. We are the seventh
nuclear States, after all you cannot

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make it out of magic. This needs
scientific work and hard work.

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In agriculture, we have our production in every
crop. And every field has gone five times

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then it was in 47, in many fields.

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Allah didn\'t want me to… us
to explore on this line.

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[sil.]

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[music]

01:03:50.000 --> 01:03:54.999
1951, Asad is at the peak
of his political career

01:03:55.000 --> 01:03:59.999
and becomes Pakistan\'s envoi
to the United Nations.

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Now he wants to campaign for Muslims worldwide and is
quite successful in fighting for the independence of

01:04:05.000 --> 01:04:09.999
the North African colonies.

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But to his dismay is forced out of
his position after only one year

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because his fellow Muslims in the Pakistani
delegation had plotted against him.

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Deeply disappointed,

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he turns his back on politics and decides to write
his autobiography hoping it could help to promote

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a better understanding between the west and the Muslim
world. It seems he\'s more successful with this.

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\"The Road to Mecca\" soon
becomes a best-seller.

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Out there on the bow, please
do not bring a chair,

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standing only, walk while
you\'re aboard do not run.

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Please, do not remain standing, you will be asked
to have a seat. Keep your feet on the deck,

01:05:00.000 --> 01:05:04.999
not up on the railing. And keep your voices low, please for the
comfort of those around you. If you\'re gonna use the cell phone,

01:05:05.000 --> 01:05:09.999
they\'re greatly restricted. If you have children with you, make
sure you stay with him. They\'re not running through the ship.

01:05:10.000 --> 01:05:14.999
We don\'t want to spend lot of… My
father used to… when I was very young,

01:05:15.000 --> 01:05:19.999
when I went to sleep, he would… he would
read stories to me. And one of them was

01:05:20.000 --> 01:05:24.999
the Caliph\'s talk. There were fairy stories about the
Orient by somebody who had never been to the Orient.

01:05:25.000 --> 01:05:29.999
Of course, that\'s right exactly.

01:05:30.000 --> 01:05:34.999
And umm… they were just modeled
on the Arabian Nights.

01:05:35.000 --> 01:05:39.999
And there was, there was the thing. So he would…
he would… he liked to do that. I like to hear it.

01:05:40.000 --> 01:05:44.999
I can remember also always
going out for walks with him.

01:05:45.000 --> 01:05:49.999
I was, of course, an enormous

01:05:50.000 --> 01:05:54.999
uh… admirer of… of my father.
He was a very striking man.

01:05:55.000 --> 01:05:59.999
He was, he was uh… very self
possessed and very good looking

01:06:00.000 --> 01:06:04.999
and… and very articulate. So we would,

01:06:05.000 --> 01:06:09.999
he would take me along. And I was always
very glad to go for walks with him

01:06:10.000 --> 01:06:14.999
and talked about all sorts of things. He talked about the
west and about Islam. What he thought real Islam was

01:06:15.000 --> 01:06:19.999
umm… and the only time when he decided

01:06:20.000 --> 01:06:24.999
to go for a walk without taking me
was when he learned during the war

01:06:25.000 --> 01:06:29.999
that uh… his father and his sister

01:06:30.000 --> 01:06:34.999
had been killed at the Nazi regime.

01:06:35.000 --> 01:06:39.999
And I saw him weep. I mean not weep in
the sense of… of breakdown or anything,

01:06:40.000 --> 01:06:44.999
but certainly tears welled up in his eyes.
(inaudible) and he said,

01:06:45.000 --> 01:06:49.999
\"I\'m just going for a walk.\" For
the first and only time I think,

01:06:50.000 --> 01:06:54.999
he said, \"No, no, I\'m going alone.\"
And he went for a walk alone.

01:06:55.000 --> 01:06:59.999
This is a very emotional day.

01:07:00.000 --> 01:07:04.999
Today\'s, you know, September 11th,
will be passing World Trade.

01:07:05.000 --> 01:07:09.999
The ship will come to a stop.
We ask you please

01:07:10.000 --> 01:07:14.999
to be courteous and keep it quiet.

01:07:15.000 --> 01:07:19.999
Here comes the World Trade Center.

01:07:20.000 --> 01:07:28.000
[sil.]

01:07:30.000 --> 01:07:34.999
[music]

01:07:35.000 --> 01:07:39.999
So that\'s New York.

01:07:40.000 --> 01:07:44.999
It was, of course, here that
he wrote \"The Road to Mecca\"

01:07:45.000 --> 01:07:49.999
after he resigned from the United Nations.

01:07:50.000 --> 01:07:54.999
You know that he wanted to go back to
Europe. And he had nostalgic feelings about

01:07:55.000 --> 01:07:59.999
things like winter. And he was
fond of music and always talk.

01:08:00.000 --> 01:08:04.999
I can even remember, when we used to listen
sometimes to the radio, to concerts,

01:08:05.000 --> 01:08:09.999
and there would be a pause in
between various movements.

01:08:10.000 --> 01:08:14.999
And… and people would then be
allowed to cough, of course.

01:08:15.000 --> 01:08:19.999
Uh… He said sentimentally
that reminds me of Europe.

01:08:20.000 --> 01:08:24.999
Also our words to that effect, you know, people were coughing
because it was cold. Of course, it was a winter concert.

01:08:25.000 --> 01:08:30.000
[sil.]

01:08:50.000 --> 01:08:58.000
[sil.]

01:09:00.000 --> 01:09:04.999
(inaudible) and my beloved
husband, Eustace (inaudible)

01:09:05.000 --> 01:09:09.999
we love you, we miss you and we\'ll
never forget you. God bless you.

01:09:10.000 --> 01:09:18.000
[sil.]

01:09:25.000 --> 01:09:29.999
[music]

01:09:30.000 --> 01:09:34.999
Islamic fascism chases you with the sword.

01:09:35.000 --> 01:09:39.999
They do not know peace that you
cannot… you cannot discuss

01:09:40.000 --> 01:09:44.999
with these people. Enough with
discussions, they only know fire.

01:09:45.000 --> 01:09:49.999
And they will use Allah freedom to defeat
us. Do not think they will not, they will.

01:09:50.000 --> 01:09:54.999
If I was in Saudi Arabia right now, they
would have cut me off a long time ago,

01:09:55.000 --> 01:09:59.999
just for bare legs. Never mind that, just for
bare legs. I will just kill her just for,

01:10:00.000 --> 01:10:04.999
you know, not wearing stocking and having a legs…
The world is different. People are different.

01:10:05.000 --> 01:10:09.999
New Yorkers are different. How
they have changed post 9/11?

01:10:10.000 --> 01:10:14.999
[sil.]

01:10:15.000 --> 01:10:19.999
He would be very upset today
that 9/11 is being used

01:10:20.000 --> 01:10:24.999
and the war on terrorism which is
really quite a sinister notion because

01:10:25.000 --> 01:10:29.999
uh… the suggestion that you have a war
against an… an indeterminate enemy

01:10:30.000 --> 01:10:34.999
who can\'t even formally and
legally concede defeat,

01:10:35.000 --> 01:10:39.999
means that it\'s something forever.

01:10:40.000 --> 01:10:44.999
The criticism that he would
have of Muslim societies

01:10:45.000 --> 01:10:49.999
is… is not only to do
with greater fanaticism.

01:10:50.000 --> 01:10:54.999
All the development\'s not, societies are
not fanatic of course, but the fact that

01:10:55.000 --> 01:10:59.999
there are certain movements which are uh…
fanatical and which have even used terror.

01:11:00.000 --> 01:11:04.999
He… he would be totally against that.

01:11:05.000 --> 01:11:13.000
[music]

01:11:35.000 --> 01:11:39.999
Asad might have responded with the saying
of the Prophet, the ink of the scholar

01:11:40.000 --> 01:11:44.999
is more sacred than the blood
of the martyr. Already in 1970,

01:11:45.000 --> 01:11:49.999
Asad is concerned that the Quran
is more and more misinterpreted

01:11:50.000 --> 01:11:54.999
and misused for political goals. This motivates
him to undertake his biggest task yet,

01:11:55.000 --> 01:11:59.999
a new translation and
commentary of the Quran.

01:12:00.000 --> 01:12:04.999
To work on it, he wants to be amongst
Muslims again but also closer to Europe.

01:12:05.000 --> 01:12:09.999
He settles in Morocco and estimates
that it will take him four years.

01:12:10.000 --> 01:12:14.999
17 years later, his opus magnum
is finished. And he dedicated to

01:12:15.000 --> 01:12:20.000
people who\'d think.

01:12:50.000 --> 01:12:55.000
[sil.]

01:13:05.000 --> 01:13:09.999
[sil.]

01:13:10.000 --> 01:13:14.999
I first met him in 1981

01:13:15.000 --> 01:13:19.999
when I was sent by a magazine
to do an interview with him.

01:13:20.000 --> 01:13:24.999
He made an impression, I… I
became very attached to him.

01:13:25.000 --> 01:13:29.999
He was very supportive to me when
I was publishing my first book…

01:13:30.000 --> 01:13:34.999
So we became very good friends.

01:13:35.000 --> 01:13:43.000
[sil.]

01:14:45.000 --> 01:14:49.999
[sil.]

01:14:50.000 --> 01:14:54.999
I think the real significance of his life is encapsulated
in that extraordinary Quranic tafseer he did

01:14:55.000 --> 01:14:59.999
which really brings the Quran alive.

01:15:00.000 --> 01:15:04.999
Not perhaps necessarily for Muslims who grow
up in the tradition, but it\'s the only Quranic

01:15:05.000 --> 01:15:09.999
uh… commentary I have
read that really makes

01:15:10.000 --> 01:15:14.999
the Quran intelligible for Westerners.
And the reason he\'s able to do that is

01:15:15.000 --> 01:15:19.999
because inside he is a westerner and also he\'s someone
who had been through the enlightenment experience,

01:15:20.000 --> 01:15:24.999
the whole intellectual experience
of the West brought that to bear

01:15:25.000 --> 01:15:29.999
on his understanding of Islam, not
as a scholar looking at it… at it

01:15:30.000 --> 01:15:34.999
from the outside. But as
a believer looking at it

01:15:35.000 --> 01:15:40.000
from… from the inside.

01:16:15.000 --> 01:16:20.000
[sil.]

01:18:00.000 --> 01:18:05.000
It is, it means, self-surrender.

01:18:30.000 --> 01:18:35.000
[non-English narration]

01:18:45.000 --> 01:18:53.000
[sil.]

01:19:20.000 --> 01:19:24.999
I asked him at one point. If he saw
himself as a modernist in Islam

01:19:25.000 --> 01:19:29.999
or as a reformist, and he didn\'t like

01:19:30.000 --> 01:19:34.999
either of those terms at all. He said,
\"I\'m just a Muslim who tries to find out

01:19:35.000 --> 01:19:39.999
in the text what is right
uh… at the present time.\"

01:19:40.000 --> 01:19:44.999
And of course, that does make
him in a sense a modernist

01:19:45.000 --> 01:19:49.999
because the big division, I
think, is between traditionalists

01:19:50.000 --> 01:19:54.999
who say, what is there
is true for all time.

01:19:55.000 --> 01:19:59.999
And the modernists who are always
seeking to reinterpret the text

01:20:00.000 --> 01:20:04.999
on the basis of uh…
contemporary human experience

01:20:05.000 --> 01:20:09.999
that sense, I think one sees
him as very much a pioneer of

01:20:10.000 --> 01:20:14.999
some of the uh… sophisticated

01:20:15.000 --> 01:20:19.999
umm… uh… Muslims like Tariq Ramadhan
and so forth who have embraced

01:20:20.000 --> 01:20:24.999
an understanding of Western culture, who
have actually grown up in the West,

01:20:25.000 --> 01:20:29.999
but also part of the Muslim world. Nowadays
we don\'t live in a world of separation.

01:20:30.000 --> 01:20:34.999
Whether we like it or not, we
are all part of each other.

01:20:35.000 --> 01:20:40.000
[sil.]

01:21:45.000 --> 01:21:50.000
[sil.]

01:22:00.000 --> 01:22:08.000
[music]

01:23:00.000 --> 01:23:04.999
[music]

01:23:05.000 --> 01:23:09.999
Rumor has it that the way even book

01:23:10.000 --> 01:23:14.999
burnings of Asad Quran.

01:23:15.000 --> 01:23:19.999
Emotionally and financially exhausted,
he withdraws to Europe, until 1987,

01:23:20.000 --> 01:23:24.999
settles in Spain attracted
by its Muslim history.

01:23:25.000 --> 01:23:29.999
He plans to revise his Quran
translation once more,

01:23:30.000 --> 01:23:34.999
but old age and prolonged illness
prevent him from finishing.

01:23:35.000 --> 01:23:39.999
He dies on the 20th of February 1992

01:23:40.000 --> 01:23:44.999
alone and secluded.

01:23:45.000 --> 01:23:50.000
[music]

01:24:15.000 --> 01:24:23.000
[music]

01:27:20.000 --> 01:27:28.000
[sil.]

01:28:25.000 --> 01:28:30.000
[sil.]

01:28:35.000 --> 01:28:40.000
[sil.]

01:28:45.000 --> 01:28:53.000
[sil.]

01:29:00.000 --> 01:29:08.000
[sil.]

01:29:15.000 --> 01:29:23.000
[music]