Ulasan buku 1: Road To Mecca

As-Salaam

Today's depicted as a few Friday that I'd spent in my 'soho', selalunya masa ni dok dalam bas single sit of course, balik ke Johor. Tapi hari ini masih lagi tercongok depan PC, fail ada lagi sikit, sambil blog surfing dalam book worm paradiso (on right side of the blog) naik pulak semangat nak buat book review. OK kita start dengan buku pertama. tajuknya Road To Mecca by Muhammad Asad.

Buku ni bukan sekadar masterpiece pada saya tapi lebih merupakan nostalgia masa kerja kat mukmin.com, to be precise buku ni beli masa company almost nak wrap-up, so murah le harganya. senang nak ingat bulannya sebab tak lama lepas tragedi nine eleven saya pun tukar kerja. Agak lama juga nak ngabiskan bacaan buku ni sebab ini adalah buku English Literature yang pertama buat saya. Apapun ia dibaca dari tahun 2002 dan habis early 2009. Frankly speaking saya hanya mula baca buku tu seriously pada 2007 sebab sudah mula ulang alik Shah Alam - Johor Bahru, alternate week. So belasah baca dalam bas. Ia cerita pasal seorang journalis berbangsa european jew yang memeluk Islam dan akhirnya bekerja sebagai wakil diplomat Pakistan. Terus terang saya tersentuh dengan teknik penulisan yang begitu jujur dari pandangan seorang yang naif tentang Islam, beliau telah berkawan dengan putera raja Saudi, cerita tentang Muhammad bin Abdul Wahab, asal usul Shah Iran, Kamal Atarturk dan semuanya diceritakan seolah-olah kita turut bersama dalam perjalanan beliau. Menariknya ia adalah journal, travelog dan fakta sejarah yang jarang-jarang kita jumpa dalam buku sejarah. Inilah inspirasi atau milestone untuk saya membaca, dari buku ini juga minat saya membina laman blog aburazeen journal. di sini saya sertakan book review dari Islamic City.com untuk lebih detail.

The Road to Mecca - Muhammad Asad travelogue to Islam, An absorbing story of an European Jew (Leopold Weiss) (embracing Islam (Muhammad Asad) (Books - 380 pages - English, ) Regular Price: $12.50 Detailed Description:

A masterpiece of Muhammad Asad's travels in 1930s in the lands of Arabia. A fascinating account of his travels between the Libyan Desert and the snow-covered peaks of the Pamirs, between the Bosporus and the Arabian Sea. It is told in the context and, it should be kept in mind, on the time level of his last desert journey from the interior of Arabia to Mecca in the late summer of 1932: for it was during those twenty-three days that the pattern of his life became fully apparent.

The Arabia depicted in this book no longer exists. Its solitude and integrity have crumbled under a strong gush of oil and the gold that the oil has brought. Its great simplicity has vanished and, with it, much that was humanly unique. It is with the pain one feels for something precious, now irretrievably lost, that he remembers that last, long desert trek, when he rode, rode, two men on two dromedaries, through swimming light . . .

Contents:

The Story of a Story, Thirst, Beginning of the Road, Winds, Voices, Spirit and Flesh

Dreams, Midway, Jinns, Persian Letter, Dajjal, Jihad, End of the Road.

Part paling menarik bagi saya adalah 'thirst', sebab masa tu Asad menceritakan azabnya terperangkap dalam ribut pasir dan pada masa yang sama untanya mati. Mungkin saya tak ingat apa yang dia tulis tapi gambaran kesengsaraan itu melekat dalam kepala saya sampai hari ini. Nanti kalau saya sempat saya masukkan part tu dalam blog ni. ok ni dia .. "I have been without water for nearly three days now, and it is five days since my dromedary has had its last drink. It could probably carry on like this for one day more, perhaps two; but I cannot, I know it, last that long. Perhaps I shall go mad before I die, for the pain in my body is ensnarled with the dread in my mind. And the one makes the other grow, searing and whispering and tearing.."

"My throat is swollen, constricted, and every breath moves a thousand torturing needles at the base of my tongue- that big, big tongue which should not move but cannot stop moving in pain, backward, forward, like a rasp against the dry cavity of my mouth. All my insides are hot and intertwined in one unceasing grip og agony. For seconds the steely sky becomes black to my wide -open eyes..." pg28