Daily Times

Work on the film Muhammad (PBUH), being directed by the critically acclaimed, Oscar-nominated Iranian film director Majid Majidi, is underway. It will be a three-part historical epic about the Prophet’s (PBUH) life and the spread of Islam. This article seeks to describe and analyse various aspects of this important project.

Majid Majidi’s latest film venture will be a cinematic rendition of the life of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), a “visually rich and sensitive” account of his life. Almost 99 percent of work has been completed on the production, which has been in the making for four years and will be released sometime in two years, according to the latest reports. Focusing on a multi-faith, global audience, Majidi states that he “wanted to shed light on Arab society during that era of history, and on the childhood and youth of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). We only seek to present the Prophet (PBUH) in his best image for his nation and other nations.”

News of the film has been attracting controversy already due to reports about a possible visual depiction of the Prophet (PBUH) on screen, something which most Muslims consider to be too deeply sacrilegious an action. In a recent interview, Majidi has presented clarifications about the undertaking. He states, “There are films that have been made before. They did not show the face of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) out of respect for Islam and the Prophet (PBUH). But there is nothing about this in the religion. Only his face is not visible. He will appear physically but we will not see his face.”

The cast for the film has been announced with various actors and actresses in the roles of the companions of the Prophet (PBUH) or major figures in the narrative. Main characters include the Prophet’s grandfather Abd al-Muttalib, uncles Abu Talib and Hamzah, mother Amina, wet nurse Haleema, Abu Sufyan, the Christian monk Buhayra, and archenemy Abu Lahab and his wife.

Majidi’s productions in the past, which include masterpieces like Children of Heaven (1997) — which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 1998 — The Colour of Paradise (1999) and Baran (2001) have been critically acclaimed for their moving themes and artistic value. With an estimated budget of $ 30 million, Majidi is collaborating with top of the line technical experts in global cinema for his new project, including the makeup artist Giannetto De Rossi, three-time Academy Award winning cameraman Vittorio Storaro, renowned set decorator Aleksandar Denic and Oscar winning visual effects supervisor Scott Anderson. Majidi has co-written the screenplay, which reportedly took three years for the first draft to be completed. An extensive team of highly qualified international historians is also said to be part of the project. The director has conducted detailed pre-production of the film, including recreating exact locations in a number of countries including places in north Africa and Iran where a huge set of Mecca and Medina has been created on the outskirts of Tehran. Interestingly, Majidi has also requested permission for shooting one war sequence in the Rajasthan desert, India. “[There is a war sequence] that requires elephants in a desert region and since elephants are not found in Iran hence we were looking at India and Rajasthan as a viable location…” states the director. However, the decision to grant permission is pending owing to the sensitivities involved.

In terms of the sociology of religion, it will be deeply interesting to see the discourse that gets generated about the film, especially in terms of the debate over depiction, which happens to be one of the most sensitive topics in Islam. While oral and written narratives about the Prophet’s appearance are an important aspect of the Muslim religious corpus, visual narratives have always been an area of immense sensitivity.

In the past there have been tensions arising from the depiction of the Companions of the Prophet (PBUH) in films. When the Syrian-American Moustapha Akkad’s epic Mohammad (PBUH), Messenger of God aka The Message was released in the US, a project which did not depict the Prophet (PBUH) physically on screen, 12 members of the controversial religious group the Nation of Islam stormed three buildings in Washington DC, taking 149 people hostage and demanding that the film be destroyed. Those people had misunderstood news about Anthony Quinn’s role in the film. Quinn was perceived to be depicting the Prophet (PBUH) while he was actually playing the role of the Prophet’s (PBUH) uncle Hamza. In the case of Majidi’s film there may be greater risks involved since news about the depiction of the Prophet (PBUH) — even if the face is not being shown — will generate a tremendous buzz. While many Muslim and non-Muslim viewers consider Akkad’s film to be a true masterpiece, various extremist Muslim groups accused him of blasphemy and celebrated his death as a result of suicide bombing at a hotel in Amman, Jordan, in 2005. Majidi, aware of the sensitivities involved in the project, however, has requested people to see his work before judging it.

While the Sunni school of thought in Islam has historically considered artistic, visual depiction of the Prophet (PBUH) to be sacrilegious either since it was considered unlawful to draw living things according to the interpretation of certain Hadith, considered irreverent or impermissible as it may encourage idolatry, we do find certain historical exceptions. Comparatively speaking, the Shia school of thought has been relatively open and artistically more tolerant of the depiction of Islam’s Prophet (PBUH) and other religious personages including Hazrat Ali and Hazrat Hussain. Majidi, from Iran, will therefore be having the privilege of working under a cultural framework and interpretation that allows greater freedom for such ventures in religious narratives.

Debate among Muslim scholars is already underway. Majidi states that some Muslim scholars in Iran and Turkey have appreciated his endeavour. However, religious authorities at Egypt’s al-Azhar have insisted on the project being shelved, stating, “We demand that Iran refrain from releasing the movie, so that an undistorted image of the Prophet (PBUH) can be preserved in the minds of Muslims. We call upon all filmmakers to respect religions and Prophets.” The Grand Sheikh of al-Azhar, Ahmad al-Tayyeb, has already demanded Islamic scholars to stand against the movie and bar Majidi from releasing it. Other scholars at al-Azhar have also raised serious objections. “Since there is no direct knowledge of the Prophet’s (PBUH) personality, any depiction of him will be far from reality and will, therefore, be a lie,” states Abu Taleb. “This film will cause a rift and fitna in the Islamic world,” says Hassan El-Shafei.

(To be continued)

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