STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF CHAPTER “END OF THE ROAD” FROM
“THE ROAD TO MAKKAH” BY MUHAMMAD ASAD
INTRODUCTION:
Muhammad Asad was a born jew who converted to Islam. The Road to Makkah is basically a spiritual
autobiography about how he embraced Islam. Asad a restless soul in search of real truth and inner
discovery leaving his European life and stepping in muslim world. This book deals with some
important aspects Islamic and western civilization. Asad in very attractive way described basic
trhmodern methods of science and knowledge from west but also western forms of life. So, this can
one of the reason of decline of muslims. He also potrayed Arabian life as “Life in its majesty” and
compared it with western life. He discussed both inner life and its communion with outward
manifestation.
ANALYSIS OF TWELFTH CHAPTER “END OF THE ROAD”:
This work deals with stylistic study of elements of narrative discourse in chapter “End of the Road”.
This is the last chapter of the book. This text exploits elements of narrative discourse in order to show
relationship between past and present. Major elements like flashbacks, time shift, graphology,
foreshadowing, elaboration and titles are used in text.
TITLE OF THE CHAPTER:
As the title “End of the Road” signifies that journey of Asad came to an end. His inner restlessness
and longing for inner discovery came to satisfaction. He found the real purpose of his life and
embraced Islam. Makkah was his destiny and Kaaba as the goal of his longings. He came to know
about real meanings of Islam as “self-surrender to God” and according to Koran man’s natural
inclination. Asad is using concluding technique and after a long spiritual journey finally he meet his
goal.
USE OF FLASHBACKS AND TIME SHIFT:
This book is not written in chronological sequence but there are use of flashbacks and time shift.
Flashbacks are used to connect past experiences with presents events. We can take some examples
from text.
“But perhaps not so stranger if one considers what Islam stands for – my very first experience as a
Muslim among Muslims was one of brotherhood . . .
In the first days of January 1927, I set out again….” (pg 346)
In start of chapter Asad started moving towards Makkah from medina. So as dromedaries were
bringing them nearer to end of their road he remember about his pilgrimage many years before with
Elsa. We can see to and forth movement in time from past to present in whole book.
When Zayd tried to console Abu Said by making reference to ABRAHAM AND HIS heavenly ram
and said “look up: dost thou see that lighted path in the heavens ?” and then Asad narrating the story
of Hagar and Ishmael.
GRAPHOLOGICAL AND LEXICAL LEVEL:
Graphological features are concerned with punctuation marks, capitalization and
foregrounding etc. punctuation is used in writing for rhythm, pause and form of writing.
“Who receive us with a loud, ‘May God give you life, O strangers, and be you welcome’
(pg344).
There is a frequent use of commas in this chapter as we can see in example given above.
Commas are used to create temporary pause in sentence. And quotation marks are used to
show speaker’s direct speech. There is also use of dashes in text as “which is qibla – that is,
the direction of prayer – for entire Islamic world” (pg368). Dashes are used for emphasis or
abrupt change of thought. Capital letters are used for names of people, place, titles and
religious terms. So these devices are used by author to create rhythm and form in text.
USE OF ARCHAIC TERMS:
There is also use of archaic terms like ‘art thou’, ‘thou hast’, ‘gush forth’, ‘thee’, ‘gush forth’,
and ‘brethren’ etc. archaic terms are not obsolete they are used for specific purposes and
usually an old-fashioned quality of story- telling.
FOREGROUNDING:
Technique of foregrounding is also used in this chapter. We can see that Muhammad Asad
putting emphasis on Islam and Man’s natural inclination towards it. Using words or idioms
like ‘brotherhood’, ‘self-surrender’, ‘inner freedom’, ‘proud modesty’ shows how he
foregrounded picture of Islam in eyes of reader. He also portrayed majestic picture of
‘Kaaba’ as perfect cube, centre of universe and goal of longing.
SENTENCE TYPE:
Muhammad Asad used elaborative style and long sentences. Long sentences are used with
devices like commas, colon, semi-colon, quotation marks and dashes. There is a frequent use
of both compound and complex sentences. For example:
“There is nobody in sight, for at this time of day the men must have gone out to look after
their camels; the many black tents near the acacia tree down below in the valley are silent in
the silence of the rainy afternoon”(pg344, 345).
COHESION AND COHERENCE:
Cohesion and Coherence are two important features of any text. Grammatical and lexical
cohesion is used. Personal reference as ‘and we can hear him as he runs in wide circles…’
and demonstrative reference as ‘And here is the night’ and comparative reference ‘a dog
barks – just as he barks in all the nights’. Conjunctions are used to connect different words
and clauses and phrases. Causal conjunction like ‘born a son to her master and thus had
become the object of so much hatred’. Temporal conjunction like ‘a well, which henceforth
came to be known as…’. There is greater use of these devices in order to creat unity among
different elements of text.
CONCLUSION:
Muhammad Asad had presented all ideas with smoothness and flow and there is a logical
connection between series of events. By using narrative style and different writing techniques
he embellished the text and made in presentable to reader. In last chapter the concluding style
is very much prominent. As we can see that his all longings and searching come to an end.
Through his life long journey he beautifully portrayed true picture of Islam and this text can
enlighten the minds of those Europeans who have wrong picture of Islam in their minds from
the time of crusades.
