A ROAD TO MECCA - The Journey of Muhammad Asad (Film Trailer)

A 2008, 92 min

A ROAD TO MECCA - The Journey Of Muhammad Asad follows the path taken by Leopold Weiss, alias Muhammad Asad, from the outskirts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to Israel, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and New York. The places he lived and visited are examined, and at the same time a complex portrait of Islam unfolds.

Along the way Asad's thoughts are juxtaposed with current problems between East and West. The film crew visits his friends and family, experts and scientists, admirers of his work and numerous chance acquaintances who know little, a great deal, or who will learn about this now-forgotten reformer.
The fact that an Austrian is the key to a better understanding of these worlds is somewhat of a surprise. Muhammad Asad was a visionary whose thoughts and ideas nearly made him a Martin Luther for Islam. A forgotten writer, philosopher, dreamer, and also one of Pakistan's founding fathers and ambassadors to the UN. His writings about the world view, law and philosophy of Islam, and his translation of the Quran, which scientists and academics even today consider his translation one of the very best, exercised enormous influence on modern theological thought in this religion. He saw himself as a kind of mediator, though his religious convictions and political sympathies were clearly divided, and their problematic nature is repeatedly depicted in the film. As a result of his work Asad became one of the most significant cultural intermediaries between the East and West, which makes it surprising that solely a small number of people are now familiar with the name Muhammad Asad.

In its structural principle of capturing statements and counterstatements, A ROAD TO MECCA The Journey Of Muhammad Asad studiously avoids facile answers, and it insistently points out contradictions. The areas where contact takes place and conflict has developed in the present day are depicted and examined from a different perspective. Biographical details, quotes from his writings, private photographs and film material are interwoven to reveal a variety of lives in a touching way: simple Saudi Bedouins, Palestinian refugees, Ariel Sharon's advisors, Pakistani Asadians (as his followers are called) and the individuals Asad met on his journey.

With his ideas always present in the background, the film shoots down some deeply rooted prejudices, at the same time illustrating the great distance separating fundamentalist ideas that support terrorism and a profoundly humane Islam. A Palestinian protagonist sums it up: "Asad taught Islam's true ideas, that it forbids terrorism. Islam is peace. Islam is brotherhood." Though at the beginning A ROAD TO MECCA The Journey Of Muhammad Asad is set mostly in the Arab world, by the time scenes of a 9/11 memorial ceremony in New York are shown it becomes clear that fanaticism represents a global problem.

In the end the story the film tells is also one of tragic failure. Archival footage of Leopold Weiss, alias Muhammad Asad, shows a frail, wise old man who still had a sharp mind. While he may have been naïve in his youth, this was more than compensated by his critical view of humanity in later years. "I fell in love with Islam," he said matter-of-factly shortly before his death in 1992, "but I overestimated the Muslims."

Georg Misch has successfully portrayed both the positive and negative sides of the two worlds with sensitivity and objectivity. Nothing is left out, not even the fact that, as Asad's life came to an end, he was deeply disappointed by the state of the Islamic world, its intellectual isolation and the intolerance of extremists.

A ROAD TO MECCA The Journey Of Muhammad Asad reveals the timeless nature and continuing relevance of the life and work of this outstanding Austrian.

Script
Georg Misch, Miriam Ali de Unzaga

Director
Georg Misch

Sound
Hjalti Bager-Jonathansson

DOP
Joerg Burger

Editing
Marek Kralovsky

Music
Jim Howard

Academic Advisers
Miriam Ali de Unzaga
Günther Windhager

Producer
Ralph Wieser

Produced by
Mischief Films -- Vienna

In co-operation with
ORF, arte, NMO (Holland)

Supported by
Vienna Film Fund
RTR - Fernsehfond Austria
City of Vienna/PID

Technical Details:
OmU, HDV, 35mm, Dolby Digital

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Documentary
• Muhammad Asad
• Leopold Weiss
• Mekka
• Jewish
• Austro-Hungarian Empire
• Israel
• Palestine
• Saudia Arabia
• Pakistan
• New York
• Islam philosophy
• Quran
• Quran translation
• modern islam
• Saudi Bedouins
• Palestinian refugees
• Ariel Sharon
• humane Islam
• peace
• Georg Misch
• Miriam Ali de Unzaga
• Hjalti Bager-Jonathansson
• Joerg Burger
• Marek Kralovsky
• Jim Howard

[MischiefFilms]

Just click 'A Road to Mecca' on our website mischief-films and you will find the Paypal Account.

[MischiefFilms]

Hi! The DVD will be available finally - from the 15th of May. It´s the Original Version with English, French, Spanish, Arab, Turkish, Hebrew, Bosnian and German Subtitles. It will be possible to buy it from our website Mischief Films.

[ahmed4y4n]

Muhammad Asad was possibly the closest most influential man in the 20th century to truly understand Islam.

His translation and commentary of the Quran is highly controversial among fundamentalists as it is very reformist or as i say, more traditional in that Prophet Muhammads interpretation of the Quran is discovered by Asad.

The movie explains and goes into more details on this topic of interpretation and translation of the Quran.

[bihorac78]

super video allah razulolsun

[belbala2]

How can i get a paper copy of the book "Road to Mecca" ?

i whould like to by it. Thank you, shokran wa ssalamu 3alaikom :)!

[DerWegNachMekka]

@muimrm:

You have to see the film before you can judge it. It is 90 minutes long, the trailer is just an ad.

[KelbAlrai1990]

@ahmed4y4n Oh yes I agree, his commentary on the Quran is probably one of the best I've seen, and it helped me give me along with Khaled Abou El Fadl my understanding of Islam I have today, Muhammad Asad was a great man, we need more scholars like him, to bring out what Islam really is, I've been Muslim for almost 7 years, I would've left it earlier after I hung out with the Salafi crowd which I nearly lost my faith because of them but I discover the thoughts of Asad and Fadl it really helped me

[IbnDarwish]

Mohammad Asad was born Leopold Weiss in Ukraine, the son of a Jewish barrister and grandson of an orthodox rabbi. In 1926, he converted to Islam and became Muhammad Asad. "The great mistake," he once explained, "is that most of these leaders start with the Hudood [crimnal punishments]. This is the end result of the shari’ah [Islamic Law], not the beginning. The beginning is the rights of the people. There is no punishment in Islam which has no corresponding right."

[IbnDarwish]

Mohammad Asad (Leopold Weiss) was a great writer and an enlightened thinker. In his translation of “The Message of The Qur’an” - which is a translation for the thoughtful, who is willing to take a refreshing look - Mohammad Asad gives an interestingly rationalized translation and commentary. He has also written “Islam at the Cross Roads," the whole of which I have read and enjoyed reading; and, I wish every Muslim read it, especially the youth.

[muimrm]

I don't like seeing islam dramatized in films like this.

how about making a documentary instead of making cheap sound effects to attract more unwanted people

[xanderkhaan]

Hyksos kings or hyksos / Israelites came from Asia they invaded Egypt they were kicked out after 100 yrs they then conquered the land of Canaan and called it Israel many Jews today r Ashkenazi’s they got kicked out of palistine by the romans and went to that land of khazara in Russia and the king and his empire converted to Judaism they are European and our not Semitic

[DerWegNachMekka]

We can't post the link here, just go to mischief-films D O T COM