A Majidi Movie under the Shadow of Discussions
The Iranian director Majid Majidi’s long-awaited latest movie “Muhammad: The Messenger of God” was released on October 28. The movie that had 10 years of pre and post-production process was at the heart of harsh discussions even before any details were released about it. The discussions were centered in two areas. First was the opinion that finds it inappropriate to depict Prophet Muhammad even ...

Majidi's Portrayal of the Prophet and Its Analysis from a Histor
Fourteen centuries have passed over the divine call of the last prophet, Muhammad Mustapha (pbuh) - the call that had started in Mecca and invited people to unite around the common ground of monotheism. Within this period, countless works about the life of the Prophet have been published both in prose and in verse, in the West and the East. Scholarly or literary writing about the Prophet still c...

The Fox Came Out One Day
Ahmed Shawqi (1868 – 1932) was an Egyptian writer crowned as ‘The Prince of Poets’ (Amir al-Sho’araa’) by his contemporaries. Among his plays, prose, and poetry, which include ‘The Way of the Mantle’ (Nahj al-Burda), a tribute to the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), are a number of short poems about the lives of animals. The following selection comes courtesy of ...

The Animals and the Ark
Ahmed Shawqi (1868 – 1932) was an Egyptian writer crowned as ‘The Prince of Poets’ (Amir al-Sho’araa’) by his contemporaries. Among his plays, prose, and poetry, which include ‘The Way of the Mantle’ (Nahj al-Burda), a tribute to the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), are a number of short poems about the lives of animals. The following selection comes courtesy of Joe Bradford, who has skillfully rendered ...

Hui Legends of The Companions of the Prophet
There is the well-known Prophetic Hadith, ‘Go seek knowledge even as far as China’. Today, China has a Muslim population of over 23 million. This is divided into two main groups – the Turkic speaking Uyghurs in north-western China, and the Hui people. The Hui number over 10 million people, and live mainly in the central and northern provinces – there are over 200,000 in Beijing, for example. The ...

Mawlid Ceremonies in the Ottoman Empire
Mawlid in the Blue Mosque There is no definite information about how the ceremonies that were organized to celebrate Prophet Muhammad's birthday, or Mawlid, which is generally accepted as falling on 12 Rabi’ al-Awwal, started in the official Ottoman protocol.  The general opinion, arrived at by working from the records of some waqfs (charitable foundations) is that the celebration of this occa...

The Prophet's Mosque │ Masjid Al-Nabawi
Construction of the Mosque When the Prophet emigrated from Makka to Madina, one of the first things he did was to construct a mosque there. One of the first buildings ever constructed by the Prophet himself, the Mosque of the Prophet was always at the center of all the Prophet’s activities in Madina. At the same time, it has served as an example to most subsequent mosques and masjids built in Is...

First Poems of Praise for Prophet Muhammad
At the heart of a human being’s circle of love lies the love of Allah. It makes one grow into a mature, dignified, proud and complete being; every kind of beauty stems from it. Next to the love of Allah comes the love of His Messenger. In truth, the path to the love of Allah is bound with the love of His Messenger. The Prophet (pbuh) himself relates in one of his sayings how the love for him is ...

Muhammad: The First and the Last Prophet
Without a doubt everything has been created from the secret treasure / For the sea of love rose and moved with the winds of love Aziz Mahmud Hudâyi Haqiqat-i Muhammadiyya and Nur-i Muhammadi within Sufi Culture The Sufi understanding states that all the other Prophets were the proxies of Prophet Muhammad in this world before he emerged. This act of proxy is the representation of Haqiqat-i Muhamm...

Mawlana's Love and Devotion for Prophet Muhammad
Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi was profoundly devoted to the Prophet. Mawlana’s deep love, respect and devotion to Muhammad (pbuh) were based on these reasons: The greatness of his name and worth. His superior, worthy, respectable and influential personality. His beautiful virtue, his being subject to divine grace and favor, and the universality of the great mission and message he brought. M...

Iranian Director Calls for Muslim Unity
Iranian director Majid Majidi has said that “Muhammad (Sal Allahu alayhi wa Salim, Peace and Blessings be upon him)”, his latest film project on the life of Prophet Muhammad (sAwS) in his childhood, seeks solidarity in the world of Islam. Speaking at a press conference held for the first international festival for the creation of a logotype representing the Prophet, Majidi, said that the film in...

The Madina of Awliya' Chalabi
Every city has a history. This history is sometimes found in books and other times in the legacy that has passed on to the generations that follow. There are certain cities on earth whose historical pasts live not just in their written culture and monumental works, but in the hearts of people forevermore. This information that is recorded by written history and certified by historical legacy bec...