Daily Times

Issues about embodiment
are being widely discussed and senior religious clerics in Saudi Arabia, which exercises a strictly puritanical, iconoclastic Wahabi interpretation of Islam, have been alarmed too. “Depicting prophets is against the laws of Islam. It violates the sanctity and sacredness of the Prophet (PBUH),” says Al-Hekmi. “There is no justification whatsoever for the picturisation of the Prophet (PBUH). This involves caveats — perhaps, the most important one being that no one deserves to embody the Prophet (PBUH),” he said. Al-Munea insisted that the portrayal of the Prophet (PBUH) by “illegible persons” distorts his image and leads to “mocking him and lowering his stature”.

However, trends in the Muslim world have been changing lately. Yousuf-e-Payambar, a television series about Prophet Yusuf, directed by Farajollah Salahshoor, was aired in Iran in 2008. Directed by Syrian Abdul Bari Abu El Kheir, Hassan, Hussein and Muawiya was broadcast during Ramadan in 2011 in the Middle East in which three Arab actors portrayed the lives of the three religious figures. It divided Muslim scholars on the issue of the depiction of the Prophet’s (PBUH) companions and family and received mixed reactions from the audience. The authorities at al-Azhar tried to intervene and stop the airing but failed; showing how, perhaps, traditional sources of religious authority are weakening as new scholarship emerges. It also shows the increasing role of corporate interests and investments in such projects. We are living in a changing world.

However, Majidi’s project is about the Prophet (PBUH) himself and not his companions, and hence, is a project of immense sensitivity and greater importance. While the central source of Islamic Law, the Qur’an, does not explicitly prohibit a visual depiction of the Prophet (PBUH) according to many scholars, the Muslim socio-religious tradition has generally always regarded visual portrayal to be impermissible. Majidi’s project on the Prophet’s biography may well spur an intense debate on the legal corpus of Islam, including the place of Islam’s scripture and the role of Muslims’ traditional heritage in shaping Islamic law.

Another central aspect of importance may be the historical narrative and epistemology itself. Historical narratives and sources in the Sunni and Shia schools of thought have considerable differences in certain cases. One could clearly see both the themes of depiction and history converge in the latest controversy about the television series Omar — about the second Caliph of Islam — aired on a privately owned Saudi satellite channel MBC and Qatar TV during the holy month of Ramadan in 2012. While the show divided Sunni Muslim scholars who argued whether it was permissible to depict visually Hazrat Omar or not, many Shia groups denounced the series because it portrayed Hazrat Omar to have good relations with the Prophet’s (PBUH) family, something that is not historically accepted in Shia opinion. Hassan, Hussein and Muawiya, being produced with a Sunni lens on history, was discarded for its “purgation of Muawiyah” and “subverting Shia beliefs” by senior Shia scholars. “The Iranians [through Majidi’s film on the Prophet (PBUH)] want to mix religion with many Persian traditions that have nothing to do with Islam,” says Sidqa Fadhel, a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in Saudi Arabia. The intricacies related to perceptions about the upcoming project are immense, as is already visible.

Since the release of The Message in 1976, not only has film technology changed, but the world too. Majidi’s film will arrive in a post-9/11 scenario, where perceptions of Islam have changed dramatically in many ways. We live in times when painful memories of the blasphemous caricatures, as well as the Innocence of Muslims video, are fresh too and every international project about the Prophet (PBUH), somehow, gets contextualised in terms of these controversies. Already one Islamic scholar at al-Azhar has likened Majidi’s film to the blasphemous Danish cartoons. Interestingly, few people know that Majidi pulled out of a Danish film festival in 2006 protesting against the publication of blasphemous caricatures of the Prophet (PBUH) in Denmark, stating, “I believe in God and live with my beliefs in every single moment of my life. I would like to protest against insulting any religious belief and icon.” When the blasphemous Innocence of Muslims video was released on YouTube in 2012, Majidi, among other Iranian directors, issued a statement saying, “Such a move would never harm the radiant face and image of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).” He further stated, “Those who have produced the sacrilegious film intend to portray Islam and its prophet as a Taliban-like sect, but to no avail.” It would be interesting to see if the audience takes these important views into account once the film is released.

Such projects also have a deeper, geo-political dimension to them. In the case of The Message, the Muslim World League in Saudi Arabia rejected the project even though it had been approved by the religious authorities at al-Azhar in Egypt. The Saudi government exerted pressure on Morocco to stop the production and Kuwait withdrew its financial support to the project. Ultimately, the late Muammar Gaddafi of Libya supported the project and it was completed. The larger, geo-political implications of the present project are immense too. It may be hailed as an ‘Iranian’ project instead of a project directed by an Iranian director. Such perceptions could well add complexity to the inner, socio-political relations between Muslim countries including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt. An article in Saudi Arabian newspaper Arab News already considers this film to be “Iran’s bid to stir sedition in the Muslim world.” Analysts have also rendered it as a possible “political project by Iran to ‘spread Shiaism’ in the region.” Sociologically speaking, it is also important to realise that Majidi’s project may well be interpreted as a Shia project fuelling intense Shia-Sunni tensions in societies like Pakistan where sectarian violence is already rampant.

The director has dedicated his film to “the enlightenment of humanity”. “The world knows Islam with terror…I wanted to make a film to show the real face of Islam.” Majidi’s project will raise complex debates related to the reality of sacrilegious actions, portrayal of the Prophet (PBUH) according to Islamic law, tradition and culture as well as the place for creativity and art in Islam. It will challenge Muslim notions of reverence in many ways, perhaps redefining these. While Muslims search for the meanings of ‘tradition’, ‘modernity’, ‘sanctity’ and ‘sensitivity’ in a changing world, their leading film director may raise intricate questions that will, in many ways, define the future of the Muslim worldview and the perceptions of Islam in a globalising world.

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The writer teaches Sociology at the University College Lahore (UCL). He can be reached at naqibhamid@gmail.com