5 Reasons Why These Islamic Movies/Shows

Are Anything But

Being a Muslim myself, youd think Id be engaged more than usual whenever
I watch these so-called Islamic movies/TV shows. Well, in a way, thats true.
I do feel more engaged than usual, but thus far its all for the wrong reasons;
or rather, reasons not intended by the film.

Now, I will fully admit that I havent seen all of them, from as far back as Nur
Kasih to 7 Petala Cinta. But I have seen the likes of 99 Kali Rindu, horror
movies with supposedly Islamic undertones, and Im very much familiar with
the hit television series Tanah Kubur. All of these have a few things in
common, and I find it disturbing that these are the things that pass as Islamic
in our society.

#5 Its only fabric deep


There seem to be a lot of confusion whether Islamisation and Arabisation are
one and the same, or not. While its certainly unacceptable for it to happen in
the Western world, its even more unforgivable that it happens even in Muslim-
dominant countries.

Its a little too lengthy for me to discuss the real-life implication of these things,
so lets just focus on the Islamic films/shows that Ive mentioned earlier.

Now; turban, check. Jubah, check. Beard, eyeliner, prayer beads; check
check check. Is there a problem with any of these? Nope. Not when you leave
them at that. But when theyre used as costume for some poor actor to spew a
shitty script written by a broke-ass writer to appease dumb studio execs who
condescend to the audience, thats when we have a problem.

What do I mean by that? Kindly read on.

#4 Improvements can only happen via prayers

Malay Movie Ustazs (MMU) are rarely knowledgeable when it comes to
matters of our world. You can count on them if youre possessed by a ghost or
if your house is haunted; theyll shoot some Shariah-compliant Hadoken and
all will be solved.

How come they never taught me this back in ABIM?
But when it comes to everything else, you're shit out of luck 'cause they're
nowhere to be found. Sure, you can look for them. But more often than not,
the best advice they can give you is pray, and cry while you're at it. They'd
never advise you how to get a divorce from an abusive husband; they can't tell
you what to do if you're being cheated out of your inheritance; they don't have
any advice for anyone starting a business; they don't even make good
leaders.

All they do is stay indoors and pray.

"What else are they supposed to do, then?"

Urm, hello? Umar ibn Al-Khattab was as Muslim as they come, yet he never
did disregard this world as not being worth his time. It is said that he was an
awe-inspiring man; a gifted orator; he took care of the poor and
underprivileged; and need I mention that he ran an empire? Also, it can be
said that he made peace with Christians and Jews by allowing them into
Jerusalem to pray.

How about non-caliph figures, then? Well, we have Ibn Sina, Omar Khayyam,
Sharaf al-Din al-Tusi, Muhammad al-Idrissi, and oh-so many others.

What have all these MMUs ever done? Nothing, in comparison. They can't
even give a good speech in their own living room. You can argue that they're
merely movie characters, so they can't be expected to live up to great Muslim
figures in the past. I disagree, but fair enough - just don't call it an Islamic
movie then, when it's just a romance or horror film given an "Islamic" coat of
paint.


#3 Good people are encouraged to do nothing

They say evil prevails when good men do nothing. The only thing I would add
to that saying is, "... when good men do nothing but pray for divine
intervention," which seems to be lesson these movies would like to impart on
you.

I wouldn't say that values such as patience (sabar) and resignation (pasrah)
are bad, not necessarily. But when initiative (ikhtiar) is nowhere in sight, that's
when we have a problem. You see, I believe that the order should be like this:
pray --- ikhtiar --- pray--- sabar --- ikhtiar --- pray --- sabar, until all else fails,
that's when you retreat to pasrah; not simply pray --- sabar --- pasrah!


And by pasrah, what I have in mind is something definite. Like, there's nothing
you can do about it (e.g. Hail, earthquake, flood, death, etc). But again, if you
have an abusive husband; or you're wrongfully-accused of anything; or your
crooked landlord's trying to get you evicted; or somebody's trying to cheat you
out of money; or you're being oppressed, etc... then goddammit, do something
about it.

It's hardly Islamic to do nothing and feel sorry for yourself, and that's all the
characters in these movies do! Sure, it'll work out fine for them because in
movies, writers are the "god", and they have the ability to dish out
punishments as creatively as possible. Which leads us to #2

#2 Giving human qualities to God

Tanah Kubur is the biggest offender here. You can watch some of the
episodes here, but in case you're unaware of what it's about, let's see if I can
break it down for you: Tanah Kubur is basically Kisah Benar with Divine
Intervention, or perhaps more apt if I were to say that it's a TV adaptation of
the Mastika magazine.


Each episode has a sin (or vice) as its "theme", so to speak. This sin is
manifested through a very unique character, who then portrays it in the most
cartoonish (and heavy-handed) ways as possible. Halfway through the
episode, the said character (or sinner) will die, and bizarre things happen
during their burial - and it will be up to a local undertaker, Tok Adi (Nasir Bilal
Khan), to put the "fun" back in "funeral".

The most disconcerting about Tanah Kubur, for me, mostly revolves around
how they project their prejudice onto sinners as if they have no redeeming
qualities at all. For example, when a drag queen died, he menstruated out of
his orifices; a woman who used black magic in exchange for beauty died with
boils on her face; and when a prostitute dies, a snake comes out of her
vagina.

Hrmmm... I really don't know, nor would I presume to know. But what I do
know is that God is fair and firm, but He certainly isn't vengeful. You see,
society would readily punish or at least alienate a prostitute, but as the oft-
repeated hadith goes; even a prostitute can be forgiven. Point is, we don't
know. What seems unforgivable to you and I, God could easily forgive. So
don't pretend to know how He works, and how he dishes out punishments.

Which brings us to #1.

#1 To them, God doesnt work in mysterious ways

Now, I know they'll shy away from actually answering this by saying that it has
nothing to do with money or ratings; that it's only meant for raising awareness,
and that we should remember that what we do in life has its effects in the
afterlife. Fine, I'm cool with that. But is this really the way? By acting as God's
unofficial spokesperson?


'cause that's exactly what Tanah Kubur is doing, and I can't stress this
enough: you can't presume how God look at those who have sinned, and how
He will dish out punishments - or not. Granted, some people respond to logic,
some respond to fear; as Dr. Zakir Naik pointed out. But the implication
of Tanah Kubur, it seems to me, is we should always be good lest we'll get
our comeuppance as soon as our funeral, and our family and friends will be
humiliated.

Sounds like we should fear His wrath more than we should love Him. Sorry,
but I can't agree with that.

Bottom line, God does work in mysterious ways. He knows way more than we
ever could, and we will never have Him all figured out. So if you'd like to make
a TV show that "educates" the public on how to properly conduct themselves,
may I suggest that you do so within the capacity of us as human
beings? There is one show out there called What Would You Do?, ripe to be
ripped off. Go on, give that a try.
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