CHAPTER FIVE

MUHAMMAD

Th e fi rst and, until now, only feature-length fi lm about the Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam, premiered in London on 29 July 1976. Th e fi lm has two titles: Muhammad, Messenger of God and The Message. Th e fi rst is the original title, but it was rejected by some ulama, so another name was chosen.1 Th ree weeks later the Arabic version of the fi lm, called Al-Risalah (Th e Message), was released in another London cinema. Both versions ran until 29 September 1976 (Observer Review: August 1, 1976; August 22, 1976; October 3, 1976). Because of the opposition it aroused, the fi lm was not shown in many cinemas but can be seen on video or dvd, and the main European broadcasting companies occasionally show it on television. Although the fi lm has been reviewed in some popular cinema magazines, it has not received much academic attention. I have traced one article that discusses it briefl y (Hasenberg 2002: 42) as an illustration of the prob- lems fi lm raises for some religious groups. Th e only other academic article devoted to this motion picture does present a complete analysis. It is written by the present author and was published in Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations in 2006.2 This chapter will discuss the film and compare its portrayal of Muhammad with the portrait of the Prophet in Muslim tradition and with what is off ered in modern biographies of Muhammad. It will subsequently look at the pictorial images of the Apostle and conclude with an analysis of the attitude of the Muslims towards representing the Prophet in images and fi lm.

1 Personal communication by Ghassan Ascha, 24 September 2004 (see also Pym: 187). 2 ‘Th e Image of Muhammad in The Message , the First and Only Feature Film about the Prophet of Islam’, Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 17/1: 77–92. Th e present chapter is a revised and elaborated version of this article. 190 chapter five

1. The Film Itself

Prelude Th e production of a feature fi lm about Muhammad will always run into diffi culty, not least because of Arabic culture and the Islamic religion. Islam prohibits the depiction of creatures. Although—remarkably enough—photographic images have been readily accepted in Muslim countries, the legal scholars of al-Azhar University in Cairo protested in 1927 when the actor and director Yusuf Wahba announced that he would play the role of the Prophet on-screen. In 1930 they objected again, and this resulted in a general prohibition against the portrayal of Muhammad, which is still in force (Shafi k: 48–49). Photographs and fi lms, however, have been accepted since they are regarded as signs and not as creations. Muslims see a photograph as a pattern and thus not as something that gives things a soul. Photographs and fi lms are comparable to shadows—they reinforce the power of God rather than compete with it, since they are nothing but a combination of light and shadow presenting God’s creation without changing it (Shafi k: 49). During the 1930s an enormous fi lm industry emerged in Egypt, which continued to develop aft er World War Two and is currently one of the foremost fi lm industries in the world. At the end of the 1950s the fi lm industry of Lebanon also became important and remained so until civil war broke out in 1975 (Shafi k: 2). Th e fi lm Jesus Christ Superstar premiered in 1973; it was shown in countless cinemas all over the world and made a deep impression on audiences. Of course, this did not remain unnoticed by Muslims and an initiative to produce a similar fi lm about Muhammad followed. Th is met with a great deal of opposition, however. Rumour had it that the role of Muhammad would be played by Charlton Heston, who had played Moses in The Ten Commandments, the fi lm released by Cecil B. DeMille in 1956. Th e producer and director, Moustapha Akkad (1935–2005), a Syrian residing in the United States who had not made any other fi lms previously, asked a group of Muslim religious scholars at Cairo’s al-Azhar University to approve every page of the screenplay. Th e members of the Shi‘ite Council of Lebanon also gave the fi lm their approval. Th e solution Akkad had found was that the Prophet himself would not appear on-screen at all. Only his staff and camel would be vis- ible. Akkad decided to focus the fi lm on Muhammad’s uncle Hamza.