He offers a critique of the Western purview of the universe, man, history, knowledge and society of which had a good understanding.
As far as English translations of the Qur'an are concerned, Muhammad Asad (1980) is the third Muslim translator after Pikthal (1930) and Abdullah Yusuf Ali (1934) to convey the message of the Qur'an on a mass scale through English language. Earlier, Alexander Ross and George Sale, in their translations adopted a biased and prejudiced approach and made efforts to distort the Qur'anic message for their vested interests. Muhammad Asad, through his translation and commentary, made a brilliant attempt to re-examine these distortions objectively.
Muhammad Asad's translation has an extraordinary literary sweetness and intellectual depth. On the first page, as a caption, he writes this part of a verse of the Qur'an: "liqaumin Yatafakarün" which translates as:

"For People who Think"

That is to say that the message of the Qur'an can be grasped by those who think, thus Qur'an focuses on rational understanding of the Truth. According to the Qur'an, the reason is useful in the realisation of the truth but it needs to be kept under the guidance of revealed knowledge.
In the Foreword of his commentary, Muhammad Asad writes that two things distinguish the Qur'an from all other religious scriptures:
1. The Qur'an places more emphasis on reason and invites man to think and reflect in order to believe.
2. According to the Qur'an, a person's physical and spiritual life is interconnected, so social and religious life of an individual is inseparable
There is no contradiction in mundane and spiritual life. Islam is the religion based upon the requirements of human nature which simultaneously takes into account the social, political, intellectual, psychological spiritual and other needs of man. The inseparability of physical and spiritual aspects of man have particularly been addressed in the Holy Quran.
Since the intellectual tendency of modern man is mostly towards rational understanding, Muhammad Asad has made a good effort to remove the barriers in the rational and practical understanding of the Qur'an. Thus this translation is indispensable for the intellectual class of the society.
'The Message of the Quran ' has set new precedents in the interpretation of the Holy Quran and it still works as a beacon of light for the translators of modern age. In his commentary, he mostly depends upon some noted classical and modern commentators of the Qur'an like Tabari, Zamakhshari, Ibn Kathir,Razi, Ragheb Isfahani,Ibn Manzoor, Rashid Ridha, Mufti Muhammad Abduh etc. In order to reach the most authentic interpretation, he puts special emphasis on etymological and linguistic aspects, he has translated some words and phrases so beautifully that they significantly help to reach the real message of the Qur'an.
For example, he has translated 'Taqwa' as 'God consciousness' , 'Al Kitab' as 'the divine writ', 'Kafir' as 'those who are bent on denying the truth', 'Jizyah' as 'the exemption tax' etc.
By doing so, Muhammad Asad makes an earnest effort to dispel doubts raised by the critics of Islam with rational arguments and scientific reasoning. He reiterates that often the Qur'an uses parables, allegories and metaphors to express some metaphysical facts and draws the human mind by presenting them in the form of symbols and parables. For example, the Qur'an uses metaphors in describing the issue of 'Istawa ala al-Arsh' ,the scenes of heaven and hell etc. and according to Muhammad Asad it has been done to draw similarities so that they are rightly understood. At certain places, he relies more on the interpretations propounded by the modernist Muslim thinkers like Mufti Muhammad Abduh and Rasheed Ridha who place more emphasis on rational understanding. At many places, he tries to rationalize certain metaphysical events ( which seem to be against the intellect) which are at times in contrast with the traditional understanding of the Qur'an. Actually at many places, he resorts to 'ijtihad' i.e., independent reasoning in the interpretation of the Quranic text.
For instance, he describes the event of 'meraj' just a spiritual experience instead of a physical incident, he describes the burning of Ibraheem (AS) as a parable. According to him , 'fire' refers to the fire of persecution and not the actual fire in which he was thrown. At many places he takes the angels described in the Qur'an a metaphor for power. It is needless to say that these kinds of interpretations are unacceptable as the contradict the mainstream understanding of the Quran. Thus, in order to avoid misunderstandings at such places, readers should also consider reading the mainstream commentators like Ibn Kathir, Tabari, Razi etc. His interpretation is not necessarily without flaws and should be examined in the light of Qur'an and Sunnah.
Wilfred Hotman, a German new Muslim, has rightly called Muhammad Asad "Europe's gift to Islam" infact "The Message of the Quran" is his precious gift to those interested in religion and spirituality throughout the world. ( Concluded)

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