Portraying Prophets in Movies
Question:
Can we watch the movies made on prophets and sahabas in positive way. Mostly scholars say these are haram because they cause disrespect and distrust. Also because the actor is not necessarily a good person and can not portray Islamic teachings in a real manner.
There is also the problem of imagination. If someone sees one actor as a prophet in movies and same actor working in another movies as a bad person there could be huge problem in Emaan (faith) and may even cause that person to .
Also, when i am reading Quranic verses about a specific prophet I automatically start thinking about that actor which I have seen in movies with deferent characters. So please rethink about these spirituals issues.
This is just to know true islamic teachings. Hope you will bear me in such sensitive topics
Answer:
I really do not understand what the problem is here and have to say such concerns make me feel sad and I explain why.
To start with, no one has a right to announce something haram unless that thing or the concept behind that thing is announced haram by the shari’ah. I therefore cannot understand how people can simply attach the label ’haram’ to whatever they do not like. The Qur’an has considered this a great sin (7:32,33). One salient feature of most of the answer to this topic that I have seen is that there is no references to any verses of the Qur'an and not even a hadith to back up the fatwa of making this haram.
Three concerns are mentioned in your question:
- causing disrespect and distrust
- actor not being able to portray Islamic teachings in a real manner
- problem of imagination
I address these in turn:
- I do not understand why if someone plays the role of a prophet of God we will be disrespecting that prophet or may lose trust in him. I simply do not see the connection here, if you see it please do let me know. The story of Jesus (pbuh) has been made into movies for many decades. Has it caused Christians to hold less respect or trust for Jesus (pbuh)? Is it not a fact that some of the tools for Christians preaching to convert others to Christianity are these very movies? Is it not the fact that some of these movies are even capable of making the viewer to exaggerate about Jesus (pbuh)?
I know that you are simply passing to me the responses that you have seen so please do not consider my criticisms a criticism to yourself:
I see the above concerns to be insult to the Muslims. As if we are talking about a bunch of ignorant and naïve kids who cannot distinguish between role playig and raality.
If a person who sees an actor in a movie finds a huge problem in his faith when he sees that actor as a bad person in another movie, then I will question the strength of the faith of that person and its basis, and also his common sense, rather than the movie. I would like to think that us Muslims like any other human being with a common sense, appreciate the difference between an actor in a movie and a prophet of God in reality.
- In terms of actors not being able to portray Islamic teachings in a real manner, again I cannot understand this. Actors are not suppose to deliver any message in a movie. It is the writer and the director that do that. Just as there can be a very good or a very bad teaching of Islam by a preacher or a scholar, there can also be a very good or very bad teaching of Islam by a writer or a director. Are all of our preachers and scholars able to portray Islamic teachings in the real manner? There doesn't seem to be much concern about the first (which I think is a much more serious problem), why should there be a sanctioning attitude about the second?
- You wrote when you read verses of the Qur’an about prophets your mind starts to think about that actor. You advised me to rethink these ‘spiritual issues’.
Which spiritual issues my dear brother?
A spiritual issue is when a person disobeys the law of his country or lies in order to gain benefit, or talks behind someone’s shoulder, or oppresses the right of others or is neglectful to his worship, etc. Thinking of an actor when reading the Qur’an is not a spiritual issue.
If you mean when you read verses of the Qur’an about a prophet the face of that actor comes to your mind then I do not see any problems with this. You have not seen that prophet anyway so your mind tries to illustrate that for you. Whatever you imagine will be influenced by the product of your past observations, either consciously or not.
On the other hand if you mean that when you read those verses instead of thinking about that prophet you start thinking about that actor himself, then this is simply problem of concentration. Without enough concentration reading the verses of the Qur’an can make a person think of many things. I can think of many verses of the Qur’an that may cause a person who does not concentrate to start imagining many irrelevant things.
To summarise, I do not consider an actor playing the role of a prophet to be haram or to be wrong or to cause disrespect or distrust in the viewer or to have necessarily bad effect on understanding the teachings of Islam.
Of course I think any sensible director will make sure that he/she will choose an actor for the role of a prophet that does not have bad reputation or is not known for acting in indecent movies or portraying an evil role. I also think a good writer of a movie script on a prophet will consult scholars to make sure the movies does not contain any mistakes. Also, an individual out of his/her own personal manner of respect for a prophet of God may decide not to watch a movie in which a prophet of God is portrayed. There is nothing wrong with this as long as it is kept as a personal preference.
The above was my answer with regard to protraying prophets in movies. This also clarifies my views on protraying the companions of the prophet (pbuh) in the movies. For this latter case I encourage you to see the overall positive impact of a few movies that have done this (this does not mean that I agree with the whole content of these movies).
Finally the reasons I wrote this makes me sad are two. One is what I mentioned above, that is, portraying Muslims as people with no common sense. Second, is that I think oppressing others and causing death and destruction in the name of the prophet (pbuh) can have significant effect in disrespecting the prophet, distrusting him (pbuh) and passing wrong information about Islam. I just hope that the same level of sensitivity could be seen in the people who seem to worry so much about portraying a prophet of God in a movie.
-------
Related Topics:
- Making Pictures of Prophets
--------
January 2017
Farhad Shafti
Can we watch the movies made on prophets and sahabas in positive way. Mostly scholars say these are haram because they cause disrespect and distrust. Also because the actor is not necessarily a good person and can not portray Islamic teachings in a real manner.
There is also the problem of imagination. If someone sees one actor as a prophet in movies and same actor working in another movies as a bad person there could be huge problem in Emaan (faith) and may even cause that person to .
Also, when i am reading Quranic verses about a specific prophet I automatically start thinking about that actor which I have seen in movies with deferent characters. So please rethink about these spirituals issues.
This is just to know true islamic teachings. Hope you will bear me in such sensitive topics
Answer:
I really do not understand what the problem is here and have to say such concerns make me feel sad and I explain why.
To start with, no one has a right to announce something haram unless that thing or the concept behind that thing is announced haram by the shari’ah. I therefore cannot understand how people can simply attach the label ’haram’ to whatever they do not like. The Qur’an has considered this a great sin (7:32,33). One salient feature of most of the answer to this topic that I have seen is that there is no references to any verses of the Qur'an and not even a hadith to back up the fatwa of making this haram.
Three concerns are mentioned in your question:
- causing disrespect and distrust
- actor not being able to portray Islamic teachings in a real manner
- problem of imagination
I address these in turn:
- I do not understand why if someone plays the role of a prophet of God we will be disrespecting that prophet or may lose trust in him. I simply do not see the connection here, if you see it please do let me know. The story of Jesus (pbuh) has been made into movies for many decades. Has it caused Christians to hold less respect or trust for Jesus (pbuh)? Is it not a fact that some of the tools for Christians preaching to convert others to Christianity are these very movies? Is it not the fact that some of these movies are even capable of making the viewer to exaggerate about Jesus (pbuh)?
I know that you are simply passing to me the responses that you have seen so please do not consider my criticisms a criticism to yourself:
I see the above concerns to be insult to the Muslims. As if we are talking about a bunch of ignorant and naïve kids who cannot distinguish between role playig and raality.
If a person who sees an actor in a movie finds a huge problem in his faith when he sees that actor as a bad person in another movie, then I will question the strength of the faith of that person and its basis, and also his common sense, rather than the movie. I would like to think that us Muslims like any other human being with a common sense, appreciate the difference between an actor in a movie and a prophet of God in reality.
- In terms of actors not being able to portray Islamic teachings in a real manner, again I cannot understand this. Actors are not suppose to deliver any message in a movie. It is the writer and the director that do that. Just as there can be a very good or a very bad teaching of Islam by a preacher or a scholar, there can also be a very good or very bad teaching of Islam by a writer or a director. Are all of our preachers and scholars able to portray Islamic teachings in the real manner? There doesn't seem to be much concern about the first (which I think is a much more serious problem), why should there be a sanctioning attitude about the second?
- You wrote when you read verses of the Qur’an about prophets your mind starts to think about that actor. You advised me to rethink these ‘spiritual issues’.
Which spiritual issues my dear brother?
A spiritual issue is when a person disobeys the law of his country or lies in order to gain benefit, or talks behind someone’s shoulder, or oppresses the right of others or is neglectful to his worship, etc. Thinking of an actor when reading the Qur’an is not a spiritual issue.
If you mean when you read verses of the Qur’an about a prophet the face of that actor comes to your mind then I do not see any problems with this. You have not seen that prophet anyway so your mind tries to illustrate that for you. Whatever you imagine will be influenced by the product of your past observations, either consciously or not.
On the other hand if you mean that when you read those verses instead of thinking about that prophet you start thinking about that actor himself, then this is simply problem of concentration. Without enough concentration reading the verses of the Qur’an can make a person think of many things. I can think of many verses of the Qur’an that may cause a person who does not concentrate to start imagining many irrelevant things.
To summarise, I do not consider an actor playing the role of a prophet to be haram or to be wrong or to cause disrespect or distrust in the viewer or to have necessarily bad effect on understanding the teachings of Islam.
Of course I think any sensible director will make sure that he/she will choose an actor for the role of a prophet that does not have bad reputation or is not known for acting in indecent movies or portraying an evil role. I also think a good writer of a movie script on a prophet will consult scholars to make sure the movies does not contain any mistakes. Also, an individual out of his/her own personal manner of respect for a prophet of God may decide not to watch a movie in which a prophet of God is portrayed. There is nothing wrong with this as long as it is kept as a personal preference.
The above was my answer with regard to protraying prophets in movies. This also clarifies my views on protraying the companions of the prophet (pbuh) in the movies. For this latter case I encourage you to see the overall positive impact of a few movies that have done this (this does not mean that I agree with the whole content of these movies).
Finally the reasons I wrote this makes me sad are two. One is what I mentioned above, that is, portraying Muslims as people with no common sense. Second, is that I think oppressing others and causing death and destruction in the name of the prophet (pbuh) can have significant effect in disrespecting the prophet, distrusting him (pbuh) and passing wrong information about Islam. I just hope that the same level of sensitivity could be seen in the people who seem to worry so much about portraying a prophet of God in a movie.
-------
Related Topics:
- Making Pictures of Prophets
--------
January 2017
Farhad Shafti