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The result of this life-time struggle with man's limited access to reality is to be an unconventional birthday gift for my son Alexander.8 In the course of this effort it dawned on me that the typical attitude of an agnostic is not an intelligent one; that man simply cannot escape a decision to believe; that the createdness of what exists around us is obvious; that Islam undoubtedly finds itself in the greatest harmony with overall reality. [...] I realize, not without shock, that step by step, in spite of myself and almost unconsciously, in feeling and thinking I have grown into a Muslim.
Introduction
MuradWilfried Hofmann was born in Aschaffenburg near Frankfurt in 1931. His university studies of German and American law began at Union College in Schenectady, New York, and concluded at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
From 19611994, he worked in the German Foreign Service, including as information director of NATO and as ambassador in Algiers and Rabat. In 1980 Hofmann accepted Islam.
Among his books, available in German, English, and Arabic, include Diarj of a German Muslim, Islam:The Alternative, Voyage to Makkah, Religion on the Risehlam in the 3rd Millennium, Islam and Qur'an, and a translation oftheQur'an into German.
Here we are producing with his kind consent a few pages from his Diary of a German Muslim; presenting a few glimpses of his experience while making his way back to Islam. [Ed.]
Istanbul, 20 July 19802
St. Paul, the Heretic
One cannot expect a reply if one asks how tall Jesus [peace be on him]3 was, which color he liked best, whether he had been fond of honey or garlic, or which shoes he put on first in the morning.
To be sure, these are all rather banal aspects of a great personality's life. But the point can be made: we know all of these and other details about Muhammad [peace be on him], the Prophet. From the Gospels, on the other hand, Jesus merely emerges as a legendary figure with vague contours.
Some attribute this difference to the difficulty of documenting the life of a person who lived 600 years before Muhammad [peace be on him].
There is a better explanation: The numerous, painstakingly collected and sifted accounts of the beginnings of Islam (ahadith), handed down to us in prestigious hadith-collection, have been given exclusively by trusthworthy eye-witness. The Gospels, on the other hand, are to a large extent rather late reconstructions, frequently based on hearsay only.
We hardly ever hear Jesus speak himself. Rather, we read later interpretations of what he meant to say.
Indeed, in as much as the New Testament is not a primary but secondary source, it by no means ranks with the Qur' an [Qur' an]. It may be better compared with an unsound collection of suspect ahadith.
To give the most disturbing example: If the principles of Islamic research had been applied, all the letters by St. Paul would have been eliminated from the NewTestament because he had never seen, met, or spoken with Jesus.
Considering the pervasive influence which St. Paul's interpretation of the events surrounding Jesus had on the ideological development of Christendom, today's Christians (in contrast to the early Jewish Christians) might as well call themselves "paulians."
Truly, the Christians heresythe reinterpretation of Jesus as God, the postulation of "Trinity" and the demonization of "the flesh"began with Saul/Paul.
Bonn, 25 August 19804
Muslim Emancipation
The idea that sacrificing a man, woman or animal can buy forgiveness is as old (and as heathen) as can be; a notion definitely preceding the recognition of God as the "Benevolent and Merciful."When Christian dogmatists justified the cruxifiction of Jesus as a "necessary sacrificial death," they continued to argue within the logic of this heathen cult of sacrifice.
In order to be able (!) to forgive, God needs(!) his Self-Sacrifice? Who, may I ask, has bound God by defining such needs and setting down such a condition? Is such thinking not sheer blasphemy?
The image of God presented to us in the Qur'an, even in such "Christian" surahs [Surahs] as al-Fatiha [al-Fatihah] and such "Christian" verses as the Throne Verse (al-Baqarah: 255), is much less humanized, much more sublime than the average Christian's concept of God. It is all the more remarkable that the Qur'an does not admit of any intercession in the relationship between the individual and his God.
"Who is there that could intercede with Him, unless it be by His leave?" (2: 255,5thsentence).
No Khalifah, no iman, no saint, no one can intervene for a third person in the Christian sense of "mediator."
In other words, even as early as the 7th centuryA. D. the Muslim faithful were released from the tutelage implied in the administration of sacraments and thrown into an unmitigated, direct, existentialist relationship with God.
A relationship that is more becoming for modern man, grown-up man.
Bonn, 27August 1980s
Seal of all Prophets
The concept of a One-and-Only God inevitably had to develop in the course of man's intellectual maturation. Polytheism had to transform itself into a hierarchy of gods, if only because each conqueror superimposed his tribal god(s) over those of the subdued.
This was a decisive stage in the process towards the recognition of a highest ranking of the gods.
The Jewish breakthrough to monotheism was flawed because it continued to view Jehovah as a tribal god.
Jesus corrected this misconception. But the message of this son of God became warped when his followers took his kinship with God literally.
Another prophet had to come who would preach the sublime One-and-Only God for all. This final breakthrough is the monumental contribution of Islam to the spiritual development of mankind. The fact that perfection and truth cannot be improved upon makes Muhammad the "Seal of all prophets".
Bonn, 2 September 1980
Islam á la carte?
Even a former agnostic adept of Ludwing Wittgenstein is tempted to approach Islam selectively. In particular, one tries to distinguish in the Qur'an between eternally valid theological statements and outdated rules for the conduct of daily life. One seeks to be reasonable, avoiding exaggeration, and therefore to drop, as overruled by the passage of time, the "antiquated" aspects of the Book.
Prayer five times a day? Fasting for 29 days? Foregoing alcohol and interest payments? Not bad perhaps but simply no longer practicable in a modern technological society.
As one responds that way one has begun to bowdlerize the Qur'an, choosing from it a la carte, and engaging in selective submission to the will of God.
Converts to Islam are known to exude a quite, secure sense of direction; they seem to be in joyful harmony with themselves and their environment.
But how is one to experience what Islam can do unless one' s submission is total?
Bonn, 11 September 1980
Muslim in spite of myself
For some time now, striving for more and more precision and brevity, I have tried to put on paper, in a systematic way, all philosophical truths which, in my view, can be ascertained beyond reasonable doubt. The result of this life-time struggle with man's limited access to reality is to be an unconventional birthday gift for my son Alexander.8
In the course of this effort it dawned on me that the typical attitude of an agnostic is not an intelligent one; that man simply cannot escape a decision to believe; that the createdness of what exists around us is obvious; that Islam undoubtedly finds itself in the greatest harmony with overall reality.
Thus I realize, not without shock, that step by step, in spite of myself and almost unconsciously, in feeling and thinking I have grown into a Muslim.
Only one last step remains to be taken: to formalize my conversion.
Bonn, 25 September 1980
"La ilaha illa-llah, Muhammad rasulu-llah"
My confession of faith, the shahadah, has been deposited with the Islamic Center in Cologne: "La ilaha illa-llah, Muhammad rasulullah." As Islamic names I chose Murad Ferid. As of today I am a Muslim. I have arrived.
1. Murad Wilfried Hofmann, Diary of a GermanMuslim (K61n: Islamische Bibliothek, 1407/1987).
2. Ibid.,pp.45-46.
3. All square brackets are inserted by the editor.
4. Ibid.,p. S3.
5. Ibid.,p.54.
6. Ibid.,p.SS.
7. Ibid.,p.56.
8. The collection of these philosophical truths is now available as a publication of 16 pages only: A Philosophical approach to Islam (German editions: 1981,198 3; English edition: 1983).
9. MuradWilfried Hofmann, Diary of a German Muslim,-p. 57.
10. "I5 Il5ha ilia Allah Muhammad Kasul Allah" [there is no dicty but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah].
MURAD WlLFRIED HOFMANN
Formerly a German Diplomat & author of several books on Islam, Bonn, Germany
Copyright Da'wah Academy, International Islamic University, Islamabad Autumn 2008