Noah! The film has recently been premiered in cinemas around the world featuring some famous and great characters from the Hollywood film world. The dramatic scenes and apocalyptic hoo-ha employed by the makers of the film will no doubt impress cinema goers, and further increase the hype and excitement surrounding it.
The original story, whether in the Bible or in the Quran, contains all the dramatic elements necessary to thrill the minds of modern audiences. When I came to learn about the release of this film and was requested to speak on the subject in my Friday sermon, addressing the Muslims and in particular the younger Muslim generation, about the nature of this film from an Islamic perspective, my first instinct was what difference would it make if people were excited and had already planned to watch the film.
However, on reflection, the subject seemed to be of much greater importance and could not be simply ignored, This critique is not directed at the creativity displayed by the makers of the film. On the contrary, we support the creative spirit of the human mind or intelligence. It is God given gift.
However, we are extremely concerned when religious figures such as Noah or their religious historical significance is subjected to distortion and to personal interpretations of the subject by the filmmakers who may not necessarily believe in those figures.
Noah is regarded as one of the five prophets of greater resolve; others being Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad, peace and Mercy of Allah be upon all of them. Each one of them in their lifetimes, through their teachings and scriptures, covered far wider and longer periods of time and revealed God’s guidance for humanity, as far Islam is concerned.
The story of Noah, peace be upon him, has much more drama and spectacular events to attract modern curiosity than when dramatized through modern technology. However, Noah is a religious historical reality for Muslims and as important in their creed and belief system as any other prophets. When such important historical aspects of the life of a great prophet are dramatized and distorted for commercial purposes then it can only serve one purpose; that is to maximise the profit and earnings from that film.
That overriding purpose changes the whole approach to the story told in the film. The Quran tells us Noah’s story, as part of the unseen events known only to Allah, and has been revealed to us to serve as a warning to avoid a similar fateful destiny, and that Noah’s way was the way of salvation and turning to God. Any such film, inevitably, distorts this perspective and presents it simply as a spectacular event.
When a Muslim watches and gasps at such a distorted and dramatized story ,and compares it against what is revealed in the scripture, his conscience adopts that perspective view of the story he has just seen subconsciously, and he loses all sense of its divine dimension for learning the lessons from it in one’s own life.
Whilst some films have provided innocent entertainment for people looking to take comfort in their own lives, there is no doubt that film makers continue to use any opportunity and the technology available to produce different interpretations for some historical events. In doing so they are engaging in and promoting the desensitisation of people’s beliefs, cultures and traditions.
In the past, desensitisation openly involved forms of brainwashing. Now the process has become much more subtle, and embraces good manners, a modern appoach to freedom and rights: all very neat and tidy. But, films such this are not only about entertainment and the wow factor, they also help to desensitise long held beliefs and faith in such prophets.
Such an attitude detracts from any notion of sacredness in faith and religious teachings and results in Noah becoming just another character in just another story, that we come away with from the cinema and it becomes irrelevant in our lives.
We Muslims need to be aware of the sacred aspects or nature of such stories as they contain guidance and reject rebellion from the path of God and keep our lives on the straight path. Remember, they are delivered to us as warning too.
