Why Did Muhammad As’ad Leopold Weiss (Austrian) Choose Islam?

There are a number of people who abandoned their former religion and accepted Islam. These people belong to various races, countries, nationalities, colours and professional groups. Many of these people were asked several questions, such as, “Why did you become a Muslim?” “What are the aspects of Islam that you like best?” by some magazines or societies, or by their own friends. Their answers were quite clear and sincere. These noble people decided to embrace Islam after thinking over the matter for a long time and studying the Islamic religion with meticulous attention. Each and every one of their answers, which we have compiled from various books and magazines and we will paraphrase in the following passages, is of documentary value. There are many lessons to be taken from these answers, and those who read them will once again feel in their hearts the sublime nature of our religion. Here we give the conession of Muhammad As’ad Leopold Weiss (Austrian), who chose Islam [1]:

(Weiss was born in 1318 [A.D. 1900] in the Lvov city of Austria [in Poland today], visited Arabic countries as a newspaper correspondent when he was twenty-two years old, admired and professed the Islamic religion, then visited all the Islamic countries, including India and Afghanistan, and published his impressions in ‘Frankfurter Zeitung’, one of the greatest newspapers worldover. Weiss worked as the publication director for Frankfurter Zeitung for some time, then, after Pakistan’s winning its struggle for liberation, he went to Pakistan with a view to cooperating with that country’s government in the establishment of a system of a religious education, and later he was sent to the United States Center to represent Pakistan. He has two books, one entitled ‘Islam at Cross-Roads’, and the other ‘The Way Leading to Mecca’. Recently he has rendered the Qur’ân al-kerîm into English. His attempt to write a tafsîr (translation of Qur’ân al-kerîm) without the indispensably required background in the basic Islamic sciences indicates that he is not in the Madh-hab of Ahl as-sunna and that, consequently, his tafsîrs and other (religious) writings may be harmful. Wahhâbîs and other groups outside (the right way guided by the four) Madh-habs present this ignorant heretic as an Islamic scholar.)

The newspapers for which I worked as a correspondent and writer sent me to Asia and Africa in the capacity of ‘special correspondent’ in 1922. In the beginning, my relations with the Muslims were no more than ordinary relations between two parties of foreigners. However, my long stay in the Islamic countries enabled me to know the Muslims more closely, which in turn made me realize that they had been looking at the world and the events taking place in the world from angles quite dissimilar to those of Europeans. I must acknowledge that their extremely dignified and composed attitude towards the events, and their approach that was much more humanistic than our own, began to stir up my interest. I was from a fanatical Catholic family. Throughout my childhood I had been inculcated with the belief that Muslims were irreligious people worshipping the devil. When I came into contact with Muslims I realized that they had been lying to me and I decided to study the Islamic religion. I acquired a number of books written on this subject. When I began to read these books with close attention, I saw in amazement how pure and how valuable a religion it was. Yet the manners and behaviours of some Muslims I had been in contact with did not conform to the Islamic principles that I was reading about. First of all, Islam dictated cleanliness, open heartedness, brotherhood, compassion, faithfulness, peace and salvation and, rejecting the Christian doctrine that “men are ever sinful,” it substituted it with quite an opposite belief which tolerated “all sorts of worldly pleasures with the proviso that they should not cost someone else’s harm and that they should not overflow the free area defined by Islam.” However, I also met some dirty and mendacious Muslims. To understand the matter better, I began to run an experiment on it, putting myself in the place of a Muslim and adapting myself to the principles I had been reading in the books, and thus examining Islam from within. I came up with the conclusion that the main reason for the increasing degeneration and decline of the Islamic world, which was already on the brink of a collapse, was Muslims’ becoming increasingly indifferent towards their religion. As long as Muslims preserved their perfection as true Muslims, they always made progress; and a downfall began the very moment they relaxed their grips of Islam. In actual fact, Islam possesses all the qualifications required for a country’s or a nation’s progress. It contains all the essentials of civilization. The Islamic religion is both extremely scientific and very practical. The principles it lays down are completely logical, intelligible to everybody, and do not contain one single element that would run counter to knowledge, to science, or to human nature. There is nothing unnecessary in it. The grotesque passages, the sophistries, and the superstitious mysticisms, which are the common properties of other religious books, do not exist in Islam. I discussed these subjects with most Muslims and castigated them, saying, “Why don’t you adhere more tightly to this beautiful religion of yours? Why don’t you hold fast to it with both hands?” Eventually, in 1344 [A.D. 1926], as I was discussing these matters with a governor in Afghanistan, he said to me, “You have already become a Muslim without you yourself noticing it. Only a true Muslim would defend Islam as earnestly as you are doing now.” Upon these words of the governor’s a lightning flashed in my brain. When I was back home I plunged into deep thoughts, finally saying to myself, “Yes, I am a Muslim now.” Presently I pronounced the statement called Kalima-i-sahâdat. [2]  I have been a Muslim ever since.

[1] These paragraphs are quoted from the book “Why Did They Become Muslims?” page 36. “Why Did They Become Muslims?” contains a few paraphrased selections from the statements made by some of the many people, who are famous great commanders, statesmen and scientists celebrities who believed in Allâhu ta’âlâ and admired Islam; these statements reflect their views of Islam. As you read them you will hear from the very tongues of these respectable people why the Islamic religion is superior to other religions. In fact, reading these explanations will provide you with an opportunity to see and admire once again the high merits of our religion, and thus feel and offer gratitude to Allâhu ta’âlâ for having been Muslims. The book is published by Hakikat Kitabevi, Istanbul. You can find the whole book and the other valuable books in the web site www.hakikatkitabevi.com.tr and download in PDF format for Adobe Acrobat Reader, EPUB format for iPhone-iPad-Mac devices and MOBI format for Amazon Kindle device.

[2]  The statement called Kalima-i-sahâdat is: “Ash-hadu an-lâ-ilâha il’l’Allah, wa ash-hadu an-na Muhammadan ’abduhu wa Rasûluhu,” which means, “I testify to the fact that there is no god but Allah, and I testify, again, that Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’ is His born slave and Messenger.” Every Muslim has to make this statement at least once in his lifetime and has to believe in its meaning.

Turkey Tribune