Journey to the End of Islam is author Michael Muhammad Knight's second travel book about experiencing and documenting lesser known Islamic expressions throughout the world, the first being Blue Eyed Devil: A Road Journey Through Islamic America, which exclusively focused on exploring the United States' "weird" history of Islam. This book begins with Knight musing on the fact that nearly every minority religion has been persecuted and vilified at some point in American history, including its Mormons, Catholics, Jews, etc - and yet all of these faiths have become somewhat "mainstream" over time, especially Catholicism. He then wonders if Islam has become the most "un-American" religion in the nation's history, in terms of how many people regard American Muslims and their faith. Along the way, Knight discovers that there is no such thing as a "real", "fake" or "universal" Islam - and despite the claims of many "moderate" Muslims, culture and religion are intertwined. The only "universal" aspect of Islam is the holy Qur'an in Arabic, but even that is interpreted differently by different people - and even scholars who try to come to a consensus about what this or that verse means, disagree with each other. So nothing, literally no-thing binds Muslims together as a cohesive community - this to the chagrin of many Muslims as well as non-Muslims who want to believe that they are "all the same" for very different reasons. After having had that realization, that there is no such thing as a "universal" Islam, Knight was much more able to objectively explore different expressions of Islam without being overly judgmental.
At one point, however, his "inner fundamentalist" came out while in Pakistan as a man was trying to sell him what appeared to be a Sufi equivilant to a healing voodoo doll. This culminated when a man spoke glowingly about the Prophet and Sufi saints as if they were small gods, until Knight could no longer take it and said that he was a Muslim because Muslims don't worship human beings like the Christians worship Jesus. Indeed, as with many converts to Islam, the notion that Muhammad was fully human is what Knight found attractive upon discovering the religion. The same thing occurred during his pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, but this time his reaction was to extreme fundamentalism and the rudeness of people rather than mysticism. The Saudi government doesn't want Muslims to do anything that isn't "explicitly" recorded in the Qur'an and the Bukhari Hadith collections. So, they don't want you to pray for the Prophet at his tomb, they don't want you to go up on certain hills to say prayers, they certainly don't want you to break into chanting and drumming.
In Syria, Knight sees Islam through Biblical eyes. Whereas in Pakistan Islam had a "Hindu" feeling to it, in Syria many Islamic events and people were compared to Biblical figures. There was also the Mosque of the forty "Abdals." I had never heard of this before reading the book. "Abdal" literaly means "substitute", and the forty Abdals are believed by some Muslims to be the forty most pure-hearted individuals on the planet. Whenever one dies, God chooses someone else to take their place. While not gods themselves, the forty Abdals are regarded as nearly divine themselves, so much so that some Muslims believe the universe would cease to exist if they did not exist. When Knight traveled to Ethiopia, he was introduced to a semi-psychoactive plant known as "chat." Most of the religious authorities claim it is forbidden, but that doesn't stop many people from using it - even those who consider themselves devout Muslims. He also explored the connection between Marcus Garvey and Haile Selassie I. Selassie is regarded as the return of Jesus Christ by the Jamaican Rastafari movement, and is venerated as a hero in Ethiopia. While anti-Muslim himself, some Ethopians regard Selassie as a unifier of all Ethopians, regardless of creed. This is what sometimes happens as history turns into myth, and then myth is read as history.
In Cairo, Egypt, Knight is able to pray in the exact spot that Malcolm X and Denzel Washington portraying Malcolm X prayed at. This was a sacred moment for Knight, as the Autobiography of Malcolm X and the Spike Lee film about Malcolm were his bridge into an expression of Islam, like sacred texts, that he could identify with and as a rectifier of his father's racist ideology. He also spoke of how the Sphinx's nose was damaged. According to one account, Napolean ordered a cannon to be shot at the nose because it resembled a black person. Another account claimed that a Sufi Shaykh ordered the Sphinx to be destroyed upon discovering that Muslim pilgrims were offering their prayers to it, and leaving gifts. The culmination of Knight's journey was the pilgrimage to Mecca, the Hajj. On the way, he read through the booket that the Saudi embassy wants all pilgrims to read. It basically says that you will become a non-Muslim if you do any of a million things while on Hajj. You are not allowed to think (let alone say) that Shariah based penalties such as amputating limbs for stealing, are "harsh" or not conducive to a modern view of justice. You are not allowed to "worship graves". You are not allowed to ask the Prophet to intercede on your behalf when you pray, etc.
During the Hajj, Knight became severely tested and heard the voice of his ego screaming that he was better than all of his fundamentalist fellow pilgrims. People were rude, and didn't regard each other's well being. They pushed and shoved, and didn't even spare women and the elderly from their rushed behavior. Knight had to act as a "bodyguard" at several points, just so people wouldn't be crushed while trying to say a prayer for more than a second. A young "religious officer" (Mutaween) tried to intimidate Knight by asking to see what was in his bag. So Knight gave him the bag, and the officer said, "no, I'm just looking." Whereupon Knight said, "you look at the bag, while I look at you." The Hajj continued to test Knight as he was confronted with the literalism of Saudi doctrine. The story of Abraham and his intention to kill his son on God's "command" came to the surface of his mind. There was no way to dance around the meaning of it; submission to God was more important than love for your own child. Abraham would have been tried for murder had this happened today. Knight began to think of how this affected Ismail or Isaac (depending on the source) later in life, and the relationship between father and son. Or perhaps God gave the child his own holy book that explained everything to him, to soothe his mind - and only the rest of us have to wonder why. That idea made me feel better, that perhaps Ismail was made to forget or was given an explanation that none of us have, so he could live a normal life. Otherwise what a cruel thing that poor boy had to face in the name of loyalty.
If you are interested in the lesser known aspects of Islam and religion in general, and like the "gonzo" type of journalism, this is definitely a book you should read before you die. It's not structured to be neat and perfect, and sometimes the narrative falls away due to tangents. But there is a lot of valuable information in it that should be considered.
