The life Of Muhammad Asad , Leopold Weiss (1900-1992)

But somehow I did not quite share the perplexity of the others. I made myway out of the throng and beheld, at a distance of perhaps ten paces, adromedary crouched on the ground. It was fully saddled — in exactly theway I later saw camels saddled … and in the saddle sat a man dressed in awhite-and-brown-striped abaya with short sleeves. His kufiyya was drawnover his face so that I could not discern his features. In my heart I knew atonce that the dromedary was waiting for me and that the motionless riderwas to be my guide; and so, without a word, I swung myself on to thecamel's back behind saddle in the way a radif, a pillion rider, rides in Arablands. In the next instant, the dromedary rose and started forward in along-drawn, easy gait, and I felt a nameless happiness rise within me. Inthat fast, smooth gait we traveled for what at first seemed to be hours, andthen days, and then months, until I lost count of time; and with every stepof the dromedary my happiness rose higher, until I felt as if I wereswimming through air. In the end, the horizon to our right began toredden under the rays of the sun that was about to rise. But on the horizonfar ahead of us I saw another light: it came from behind a huge, opengateway resting on two pillars — a blinding-white light, not like the lightof the rising sun to our right — a cool light that steadily grew in brightnessas we approached and made the happiness within me grow beyondanything that words could describe. And as we came nearer and nearer tothe gateway and its light, I heard a voice from somewhere announce, "Thisis the westernmost city!" — and I awoke.Seven years later Weiss converted to Islam and became Muhammad Asad.A few years after he became a Muslim he came across the note where hehad written down the above dream many years before. By then, he wasliving in Saudi Arabia and became a close friend of King Abdul Aziz IbnSaud. The King was in the habit of listening to Qur'anic commentary afterthe daily Isha prayer in the palace mosque. One night after the commentarysession finished, he took Asad into his inner chamber for casual talk as hedid many times before. This time the discussion turned into about true