The Road to Mecca

It has been quite a while since I managed to finish reading a book even though I started reading quite a few. After some months they are still "works in progress". I'm however happy to note that my latest attempt at completing a book was a success. My wife managed to find a book that I have been looking for for quite a while a few weeks back. I started slowly but it picked up pace and I managed to finished it over the recent weekend, thanks in part to my short trip to Jakarta beginning on 18 February.

The book, The Road to Mecca was absorbing to say the least but it was also enlightening and fulfilling. It has been quite a while since I get so much satisfaction out of reading a book. I was trying to figure out the reasons for this. Maybe it was because the subject matter was so close to the heart. Maybe I was anxious to know about how my own religion (of which I was born into) was viewed by an "independent" party.

There were a few things in the book that kept me glued to it. For one, I am amazed at how a "Westerner" from a Jewish family who became disillusioned with religion and became a "free thinker" can "fall in love" with the Bedouin Arabs and their lifestyle. He then surmised that all the positive values of the people were the result of them embracing the tenets of the religion brought by the last Prophet of Islam and finally decided to "return to his natural religion".

I just completed my first reading. I need to read it again very soon so that I can enhance my understanding of what the writer is trying to say. Sometimes we take for granted what God has given us. We fail to value these including our belief in God. It takes "an outsider" to remind us that we are the chosen ones but somewhere along the way we have taken a diversion from the straight path.

It is my believe that to fully "appreciate" the book we need to know the author first. His family background, his education, his training. Knowing that he is a journalist, you can easily understand how he managed to describe a situation so succinctly or elaborate it so beautifully. I envied him for being able to meet up with the legendary Lion of the Desert, Sidi Umar al-Mukhtar, at his battlefield against the Italians. At the same time, I doubt I would have been able to carry out the mission had it been assigned to me, a born Muslim. I'm amazed at his description of his first hajj trip including the sea trip from Cairo.

It was definitely good reading. I would recommend it to everyone to read it, both Muslims and non-Muslims. I now want to get hold of the other works of Muhammad Asad, including , The Message of the Quran, which all reviews seems to agree that it is among the best translations of the Quran.

Go buy the book and read it. You can get it at Times (or was it MPH), One Utama, I think. It only costs RM30.00