Throughout the book, this journey to Mecca is intertwined with other perspectives on the history of Islam and the Arab universe of discourse, and the author's own gradual developing into a Muslim. Finally, he notes that he is writing about an Arab worldly concern which is lost in past, "under a strong natural spring of oil and the gold that oil has brought" (9).
It is clear in the origin chapter that this is a opus truly in love with the environment of the Middle East, specifically Saudi Arabia in this case. He begins in the middle of his story, six years after his conversion. He writes of his adjacent friendship with Zayd, a Saudi Arabian warrior, and of a intercept in the desert for noon prayer. The author heaps laudatory descriptions on the natural wonders of the desert and climate and he particularly heaps praise on the King, whom he remembers most for his beneficence and friendship.
The importance of Mecca as a religious center is stress in "Thirst." In that same chapter, the symbolic meaning of hunger as a spiritual need is also suggested. The chapter focuses on the steadfast friendship of Zayd and his individualizedity and spirit as examples of Arabs and their kinship with the world of the desert.
The harsh environment gives the Arab character a virtue and economy: "Nature in her austerity has forced man to avoid all diffusion in behavior and to suppress all doing dictated by his will or by outward necessity
The author's take is that Islam as a religion would create far reform individuals and societies were it not for Hesperian influence: "Under the impact of Western cultural influences, the souls of many Muslim men and women are easily shriveling. They are letting themselves be led away from their in one case belief that an improvement of living standards should be but a means to improving man's spiritual perceptions" (347).
In "Jinns," Asad deals with a publication of mysteries of the culture he has adopted---the supernatural jinns, or desert forces which foregather tricks on travelers, and the gypsy tribe, the Sulubba.
This chapter like many others covers several topics---the travels in the desert with Zayd, deeper glimpses into the culture and military struggles and intrigues of the Arab and Islamic world, the wonders of the natural world of the region, and, above all, the faith and generosity of the people; "May god give you life, O wayfarers! Partake of our bounty!" (247).
In " jump of the Road," the author takes a look back to the start of his personal and spiritual journey. The author lived a remarkable life of travel, proceeding and transformation. Born in Poland, Asad was a part of a prosperous Jewish family and was raised in the European Jewish tradition. He wants us to consider that the way we see the world is not the besides reality, but "manifests itself only in the shape, and to the extent, of its reflection in our minds: and so each of us can perceive of 'reality' only in conjunction with his own experience" (45). He is verbalism that perhaps he was a Muslim all along, patronage his European Jewish childhood, and only discovered it over a long period of time (47). He notes that he began to wane Judaism because there seemed to be no "universal message" in that religion. The God of the Jews, he writes, seems to neglect non-Jewish people in his ultimate plan for salvation (56).
The author again makes clear that he loves the religion, land, culture and people w
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