The Message
“O’mankind; listen well. I may not be with you much longer, the weak among you, feed them with what you eat, dress them as you are dressed. You will meet your GOD and He will call you to account for your actions. Let those who are present, warn those who are absent. You are all descendent of Adam and the best among you is he who regards The GOD most. Think deeply of what I say, let all your feuds be abolished, you must know that every Muslim is the brother of every other Muslim and all Muslims are brother of one another, between Muslims their are no races and no tribes. You must not take anything from your brother except what is given freely. Do not oppress and do not be oppressed.
O’ my people, I am but a man, it may be that the angel of death will visit me soon and death will overtake me. But I have left you a book, revealed by GOD, the Quran which is light and guidance”.
I only had faint memories of watching the Arabic version of The Message with my father several years ago when I was a kid. It’s such a wonderful execution, a profound movie. How do you tell the story of how Islam came to be and Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) without ever showing or hearing the Messenger of God? Moustapha Akkad executes this challenge wonderfully, using POV shots and clever cinamotgraphy and making everyone around him talk to him.
Nowadays, I see a lot of Islamophobia on social media, with people claiming that Islam doesn’t belong in the West. And you know what? Yeah, they’re right.
Islam teaches kindness and respect, to be good to your neighbors regardless of their faith, to treat women as equals, and to uphold their rights and dignity at a time when women were bought, used, and discarded, not seen as equals to men. It teaches that slaves and their masters are equals, that there are no races or sects, everyone is judged by their character and actions, not their background.
Does the West represent this? Look at how fornication and other immoralities are normalized.