Movie Review: Khuda Ke Liye
knicq posted in Knicqisms on November 7th, 2007
I had seen “Khuda ke Liye”, the movie, some time ago. It was a disappointing experience and I had wanted to share that disappointment here in knicqland. Nothing led to anything, and the sharing never happened. Incidentally, when the movie was released here in the UAE, a certain euphoria gripped the Pakistani community simply because here was finally a Pakistani movie decent enough to take your friends from across the border to. I wonder when will our collective India-fixation leave us. (Sigh!) Perhaps just about the time the Indian media is liberated from its Pakistan-fixation. Another discussion, another time. Anyway, I ended up getting drawn into a discussion, and thought I might as well make it into an update. Here goes then, a response sent in two installments:
- The one maulana who lifts the veil on the reality of Islam, and the true message of Islam is shown listening to music in the background as he performs his ablution.
- The girl’s father who is worried about her ‘berahrawi’ and marrying into non-Muslims is shown to be a bigot of the first grade, himself guilty of adultery all his life.
- One of the protagonists is shown being confused and apologetic about the Islamic injunction that a Muslim man may marry from ahl-e-kitab, but a Muslim woman might not. Not surprisingly, but completely unrealistically, the protagonist is shown professing his undying love for the US just when the US forces are torturing him senseless - literally.
In the end, the movie seems to close with the message that music heals all, as the newly re-united family sits around a campfire and the music breathes life into the paralyzed body of one of the members - just before the reverted-to-music-ex-driven-to-extremism protagonist raises the Azan.
Our media and the so called ‘intellectual elite’ must stop being so apologetic about Islam. They have a responsibility to break the established stereo-types and tell the world Islam’s perspective on life, not a musician’s perspective of Islam.
A much much better job is one here by someone more in tune with what needs to be done today to counter the western propaganda.
b) What that fanatic mulla is made to say in that movie is often atrocious, and pretty much mostly un-Islamic. We all know that. And herein lies the basic flaw of the movie. It fails exactly where it had the greatest responsibility. The movie had to differentiate line between the ignorant mullah leading our village folk into the death fields and the learned scholar bringing our youth back to the basics of our deen. This mullah in the movie starts out as a Maulana Tariq if not Dr. Asraar, when he logically and knowledgeably guides an educated Muslim youth away from an un-Islamic way of life, but then he quickly transforms into a jaahil mullah who abets the kidnapping and forcing into a marriage of a young Muslim girl. Here one wonders if Shoaib Mansoor is venting his own frustration at having lost his protege to Maulana Tariq’s efforts.
Yes, it is a fact that Islam’s PR department is today hijacked by a few ignorant mullahs. The world already knows that. The world also thinks that all Muslim scholars and religious community leaders are similar ignorant bigots. The movie and those behind it, when aspiring to bring to fore the realities had an inherent responsibility to underline the fact that such mullahs were far and few, and while we may have a leadership crises, we still have amongst our ranks the likes of Dr. Asraar, Dr. Zakir Naik, Dr. Farhat, and Maulana Tariq who are doing a stupendous job of guiding the youth as well as non-youth on the path of deen.
The movie seems to tow the secular/western line as it assumes an apologetic tone about the tenets of Islam in the institution of marriage. It goes a step further, and continues to subtly imply that Music is indeed not discouraged in Islam, and that in prohibiting it the Muslim scholars are indeed not presenting the Islamic perspective. Nowhere is this point more subtly implied than the scene where while the ‘right’ Islamic scholar is shown performing ablution with a record playing in his room. Imagine a Dr. Israr or Dr. Naik doing this!
The implication in this scene is subtle, yet simple. If the scholarly authority on Islam who saves the day can listen to Music, and that too just as he is preparing to offer prayers, it is most certainly mubaah, not just allowed, to listen to Music.
This movie was less a presentation of the realities we Muslims face in today’s world, and more a case for the acceptance of Music as a deeni tenet no less.
Shoaib Mansoor seems to have sat down to himself wondering, “So who are the people who oppose Music?”. Perhaps he drew up a list of all such elements, and then proceeded to present them all in negative light in the guise of presenting the Muslim Perspective in the post 9/11 world.
The end result is just this: Do whatever you want, just let us have our music.
We have a history in the sub-continent of not only including un-Islamic practices in our deen, but also making them divinely ordained in due time. A pertinent example is Qawwali for instance. The reverence reserved by some for an otherwise entertaining art-form will have, and often does have foreigners thinking the Qawwali, ma’az Allah, is one of the pillars of Islam.
Here I am reminded of what Mushtaq Ahmad Yousufi had to ay about Qawwali. He had no problems with Qawwali as an art form, worst things, he believed, were called art. His problem with Qawwali was that it had assumed the very personification of piety in assuming the role of an Islamic art-form.
I digress. But the point remains that when a Muslim speaks about Islam he must limit himself to what Islam says, not what he believes Islam ought to have said to accommodate his personal preferences.
November 8th, 2007 at 5:04 am
One of your more cogent posts. When I see stuff like this, I’m reminded of a document published by a US Think Tank.
Have a look here:
http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/2005/MR1716.pdf
Appendix C on Page 61.
November 8th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
Excellent post! You should write more often
November 9th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
Tariq: Quite an eye-opener this document, isn’t it? And to think this was back in 2005. Why can’t our think tanks write a similar document outlining what needs to be done to bring the wayward west to salvation?
Moderate Enlightenment: Never before has ‘moderate enlightenment’ been more pertinent than when commenting on this movie.
Thank you for he kind words. Writing more often? If only…
November 9th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
knicq bhaiyya! i hope you are well, inshaAllah.
(i read earlier today about a bridge collapse (?) in dubai, and meant to check in.)
will have to come back and comment properly on your post in its entirety, but i just wanted to let you know that i’m still chewing over this line:
But the point remains that when a Muslim speaks about Islam he must limit himself to what Islam says, not what he believes Islam ought to have said to accommodate his personal preferences.
of course, the fact that i’m thinking about this too much is a bit sad. it’s a good point. thank you for the thought-provoking line.
November 12th, 2007 at 10:58 am
Yasmine, thanks for the comment. I look forward to your detailed comment - its always nice to get feedback from one’s favorite bloggers.
It says something about the small world we have become when I find out about a bridge collapse in Dubai from someone two continents away. It was an unfortunate accident, with precious lives lost, one waiting to happen in this one big construction site we call the city of Dubai. The probability of an accident happening when it seems the whole city is coming up simultaneously is a statistical certainty. 20th/21st century Man’s obsession with concrete jungles and over-trading is beyond me.
Now that you put it this way, even I find this line thought-provoking. Thats why I said its fun to have feedback from yous guys
November 12th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
But the point remains that when a Muslim speaks about Islam he must limit himself to what Islam says, not what he believes Islam ought to have said to accommodate his personal preferences.
Well said.
Or, to be put it another way: We change the reality around us to fit Islam. We do NOT change Islam to fit the reality around us.
December 19th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
“But the point remains that when a Muslim speaks about Islam he must limit himself to what Islam says, not what he believes Islam ought to have said to accommodate his personal preferences.”
Ay, there’s the rub.
For we have never agreed over the many interpretations - so who speaks for islam?
Is your interpretation the right one? or Dr Israr’s or Tahir ul Qadris’s or Ghamdi’s?
It all depends which School you lean towards? Traditionalists will say one thing and Progressives another.
Trust the experts? scholars? we have been doing that for centuries. I have my scholar to quote and you have yours.
You will find a bunch of people to gather around you and I will find a group who agree with me.
And we will both claim to understand Arabic and the sources, Traditions and Jurisprudence…and so on…
April 12th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Hafeez: My apologies for the delayed response.
You touch upon an oft repeated argument, and it carries some water too - as unfortunate as that is in itself. The ulema had a responsibility to unite us, unfortunately for the Muslim ummah they have only created schisms.
In the current context though, I doubt Shoaib Mansoor’s interpretation was backed by any of the ulema.
Generally speaking, I believe your comment carries the answer to the problem also. “And we will both claim to understand Arabic and the sources…”
Quran and the sihah sitta are in Arabic, we should not both claim to understand Arabic, we should both KNOW arabic to at least be able to read the Quran and Hadeeth for ourselves. The kalima/tauheed guides us all the time, and for the most part we need not follow any alim for the interpretations. The books are not encrypted. They are meant as hidayat for all of us, and for the most part we can go through our lives without having to approach the ulema for interpretations.
The ulema only come into picture when we grapple with complex issues, which happens very rarely.
Personally, I go through my daily life with all of my questions about faith and most of my other questions answered by Quran o Hadeeth directly. Not much rub then eh?