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

Although outnumbered and outgunned, Umar Mukhtar successfullyfought the Italian army for many years until dictator Mussolini sent one ofhis ruthless generals, General Graziani, to contain Mukhtar's guerrillaforces. General Graziani soon brought tanks and other superior weaponsfrom Italy and erected barbed-wire fences along the Egyptian border,cutting off all supplies to Mukhtar. Without supplies, Mukhtar's forcesfaced heavy casualty against the Italian army, and started dwindling untilonly a few hundred of his men remained and he lost control of all areasexcept his own base.It was at that time that Sayyid Ahmad asked Asad if he could visit Mukhtar,analyze the situation, and advise him on what could be done to improvethe situation. Asad readily agreed. "To me Islam was a way and not an end– and the desperate guerrillas of Umar al-Mukhtar were fighting with theirlifeblood for the freedom to tread that way, just as the companions of theProphet had done thirteen centuries ago. To be of help to them in theirhard and bitter struggle, however uncertain the outcome, was as personallynecessary to me as to pray ..."And once again, as before, Asad took a risk on his life and started his secretlong journey to meet Mukhtar in the Libyan desert. He nearly lost his lifewhen he and his companions were spotted by an Italian reconnaissanceplane. The plane circled and closed in - and below stood Asad and hiscompanions on the empty desert totaly devoid of any cover - and startedfiring at them. They all lied on the ground and played dead, but the pilotapparently knew it well. He fled only when one of Asad's companions – aguerrilla himself - took careful aim and started firing at the plane. Afterevading the Italians, he eventually reached his destination and metMukhtar. The Lion was then 70 years old.Seeing that continuing the struggle at that precarious situation will onlybring loss of life and a total defeat, Asad suggested to Umar Mukhtar thathe flee to Egypt so that he may gain some strength there and later come