The Ideological Journey of Muhammad Assad (Leopold Weiss) from a Secular to An Islamic State

Muhammad Assad, with his earlier name Leopold Weiss (1900-1992) was an Austrian convert from Judaism to Islam in 1926. After conversion he devoted his whole life for the revival of Islam. This research explores Muhammad Assad’s conceptual pathway of shift, from living in a secular environment to idealize an Islamic state. With a qualitative approach, this study analyses the basic question of what ideological back-ground led him to change his political religion. The study finds that Weiss started moving away from his parent’s religion, in his late teens. Amongst the crucial debates of religion, science and secularism, during his stay at Vienna University, he could not satisfy his spiritual need and intellectual thirst. Consequently, Leopold Weiss became fed-up with the purely secular state theory. Before, 1926 as he embraced Islam, formally, his political thought migrated from secularism to a religious state, finding his ideals in an Islamic State.