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

in the achievement of material goals; it is faith, and faith alone, that canrelease us from such an absorption.""Faith …?" I asked. "You again bring in this word. There is one thing I can'tunderstand: you say it is impossible to attain through intellect aloneknowledge and to a righteous life; faith is needed, you say. I agree with youentirely. But how does one achieve faith if one has none? Is there a way toit – I mean, a way open to our will?""My dear friend – will alone is not enough. The way is only opened byGod's grace. But it is always opened to him who prays from the innermostof his heart for enlightenment.""To pray! But when one is able to do this, Father Felix, one already hasfaith. You choose to lead me around in a circle – for if a man prays, hemust already be convinced of the existence of Him to whom he prays.How did he come to this conviction? Through his intellect? Would notthis amount to admitting that faith can be found through the intellect? Andapart from that, can "grace" mean anything to somebody who has never hadan experience of this kind?"A few days later, he arrived at Jerusalem. There he saw history in themaking before his very eyes."They won't be in a majority after a few years""My own observation had by now convinced me that the mind ofthe average Westerner held an utterly distorted image of Islam.What I saw in the pages of the Koran was not a 'crudelymaterialistic' world-view but, on the contrary, an intense Godconsciousnessthat expressed itself in a rational acceptance of allGod-created nature: a harmonious side-by-side of intellect andsensual urge, spiritual need and social demand. It was obvious tome that the decline of the Muslims was not due to any