Madina Archives

Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board

A History of God on TV May 20th 9-11pm
bhaloo
05/19/01 at 12:18:14
slm Tracing three religions, all with one God By M.S. Mason Many documentaries on religion have aired this year, most of them only of middling importance, all of them open to controversy. But the difficulty of the discussion is a sign of its significance. And one of the most interesting documentaries about religion you are likely to see this year is "A History of God" (A&E, May 20, 9-11 p.m.), based on the bestseller by Karen Armstrong. The film traces the rise of monotheism after its first break with ancient paganism. Along with Ms. Armstrong herself, filmmaker Bram Roos has recruited other biblical and religious scholars to speak for their religions. The resulting TV film presents the nuances of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam with fresh historical interpretations.   "A HISTORY OF GOD": Raphael’s painting "God speaks to Moses" depicts a manlike God. Different concepts of God, and how they evolved among the world’s three monotheistic religions, are explored in a new TV documentary based on the bestselling book "A History of God" by Karen Armstrong. CORBIS   Take the story of Abraham and Isaac. According to the Hebrew Scriptures, Abraham is told by God to sacrifice his only child, Isaac, as a burnt offering. At the last moment, an angel forbids the sacrifice of the child, and God supplies an animal for the sacrifice instead. What most of us might find surprising is that in the ancient pagan world the sacrifice of a child was not unusual. So in forbidding the sacrifice of Isaac, God is in effect moving Abraham and his descendants away from the harsh paganism from which he'd come. No more children are to be sacrificed. The film goes on to explain that eventually the prophets understand Yahweh to forbid all sacrifice. He is understood to be more than a tribal god, more even than the most important god among many. Yahweh is the God of all nations, as Isaiah says. When Jesus comes, his early followers do not think of him as God, but as the Messiah, Armstrong says. But over three centuries, the idea of the Trinity evolves and splits the church down the middle. Roman Emperor Constantine convenes the Council of Nicea, and members are ordered to decide whether Jesus is God, the Son, or a human being exalted by God. The Council of Nicea proclaims Jesus is God and that the trinity includes God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Squaring this idea of the trinity with monotheism turns out to be a lot of work for churchmen through the centuries. Islam and Judaism never have the same problem. The author of 14 books and a famed religious commentator, Armstrong says that researching "The History of God" brought her back to faith. Although she was once a Roman Catholic nun, she left her order and the church. "I knew too much history. It seemed to me to be all man-made. I limped away from the experience," she says. "But when I began researching my book 'A History of God,' I found that, despite my background, there was an immense amount in the three monotheistic religions that I really could relate to. And I found the unanimity of the religious quest extraordinarily impressive. "It seems that this is what human beings do, and working in isolation from each other, Jews, Christians, and Muslims kept asking the same kinds of questions and having the same kinds of ideas about God," Armstrong says. "It's part of who we are. It awakened me to the possibility of faith again." Armstrong says she had doubts as to how theology could translate into television. Reached by phone at her home in London, she says she finds Americans eager to talk about theology, even though lancuage comes under great strain when people talk about God. "I'm speaking to people in bookstores and on the streets — and the amount of serious, innovative, and intelligent questioning that is going on about how to put religion into the idiom of the 21st century is very exciting," she says. Human beings constantly encounter a sacred dimension of experience, and they talk about it in different ways, she says. But God goes beyond personality. Jews, Christians, and Muslims have all warned against anthropomorphizing God, she says. In the TV film, Dr. Maher Hathout of the Islamic Center of Southern California explains that God is so great that He has no limits. To try to imagine God is to impose limits on Him. "What is? God is," he says. "If you limit God even in your imagination, you are creating God. Imagination is but the summation of the five senses. You can't do that to God." What is amply illustrated in the TV film and in Armstrong's comments, is that the major religions have a deep commitment to compassion. "To nurture hatred, or bigotry, or resentment of any sort is going to keep you from the divine," she says. "I find it ubiquitous in all the religions that the way to [God] is by compassion. "Charity and loving kindness have replaced sacrifice in the temple," she says.
NS

Re: A History of God on TV May 20th 9-11pm
Anonymous
05/20/01 at 22:08:01
Assalamu alaykum, I was researching about the book on which the documentary was based and about karen armstrong when i came across a book by someone called "Ibn Waraq" titled "Why i'm not a muslim" which is basically a hate book against islam and muslims.From the synopsis and the readers' reviews it seems worse than salman rushdy's book. I was wondering if any of you read it. It's my personal opinion that such books against islam should be read and scrutinized by muslims so that we can respond to them because non-muslims WILL read them.And unless they hear the other side of the story (by muslims) , they will assume that these lies against islam and the prophet (pbuh) are true. What do you all think?

Re: A History of God on TV May 20th 9-11pm
Ruqayyah
05/21/01 at 17:51:38
[slm] and of course, wouldn't you know it, Border's carries Ibn Waraq's book! sigh. i flipped through it and wasn't too pleased. I completely agree w/ you anonymous, i think it's our duty to be prepared to answer questions that people will have about information they read in awful books like these. I think on my part, it takes patience though when i try to read them, because I get so infuriated. especially when i see so many books like these line the shelves at Borders when there are so many other good ones out there that people are missing out on. [wlm] Ruqayyah

Re: A History of God on TV May 20th 9-11pm
se7en
05/21/01 at 22:55:34
wa alaykum as salaam wa rahmatAllah, Anonymous, my imam actually spoke about this specific book in class once.. he said that yes, it is important for Muslims to read these books, look at what they say, address their "arguments" and shut 'em down... but he also said that the people who should do this are those that are well equipped with knowledge about Islam, knowledge that comes with *serious* and *intense* study... it's really dangerous for the average Muslim to read things like that (just as it's dangerous for Muslims to visit missionary/anti-Islamic sites) because our lack of knowledge in certain areas might cause us confusion or doubt... It might be a good idea to look for a response to the book (I think I've seen some online) or ask your local imam to take a look at it and comment on it... I know Ahmad Deedat tore apart satanic verses when it came out... I think that if you're interested in seeing what Rushdie said, you should look at Deedat's commentary instead of reading the actual book... in the same way it might be good to read what knowledgeable people have to say about warraq's work instead of reading the trash itself. wAllahu 'alam. wasalaamu alaykum.

Re: A History of God on TV May 20th 9-11pm
Arsalan
05/22/01 at 02:14:35
[slm] I never knew that Ahmed Deedat did a rebuttal for Rushdie's book (?) Is it in the form of a book or tape?  What's it called?  Where can I get it?

Re: A History of God on TV May 20th 9-11pm
Kashif
05/23/01 at 03:16:55
assalaamu alaikum Furthermore, Ibn Warraq is actually a Jew. Kashif Wa Salaam

Re: A History of God on TV May 20th 9-11pm
AbdulBasir
05/23/01 at 11:07:25
[slm] Back to the original post, did anyone watch this program? How was it? [slm]

Re: A History of God on TV May 20th 9-11pm
chachi
05/23/01 at 20:52:58
Regarding the book do what i do order an excellent book on islam and also ask friends to order that book...then the bookshop will stock several copies of a GOOD book on islam...learn to USE the media! i noticed a while ago that certain x-tian evangelists would put books from the history section against islam in the religious section of islam and hindu's would do likewise ...

History of God Review
AbdulBasir
06/19/01 at 17:09:30
[slm] I'm guessing no one saw "A History of God" since no one made any comments about it. Perhaps it got lost in the mix since it aired originally around the time everyone was talking about the PBS documentary about Islam. I finally got to view the program today and I can't say enough good things about it. I expected it to be good since it was based on Karen Armstrong's book "History of God" and she was the main consultant for it. Those of you who have read Karen Armstrong's books know that she is one of the best, if not the best, mainstream Western writer in terms of impartiality and accuracy in writing about Islam. The program discusses the "history" of monotheism. That is, it deals with the progression and evolution (and from our perspective distortion in many instances) of the concept of God in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition. So it begins with the "beginnings" of monotheism with the story of the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob AS) and how the idea of one and only one God began to develop. Then it moves on to the progression of this belief further along in the history of the Jews, such as how the God of the Old Testament becomes more distant and mysterious and so on. The program then moves along from Jewish history (after discussing the further changes in Jewish conceptions of God through the Prophets like Elijah and Isiaah) to discuss the founding of Christianity after Jesus AS and the development of such ideas as God-incarnate and the Trinity. I must say that the program gives an absolutely excellent and very concise synopsis and explanation of Arianism, Original Sin, God-incarnate (even explaining the distinct theology of Greek and Eastern Orthodox from Western Christian theology on this subject), the Council of Nicea and the Trinity, and the difficulty that these present to pure monotheism. The program then discusses Islam and I personally couldn't find anything really wrong with it. Unlike the PBS documentary and other programs in the past where we find lots of things to complain about, I can't really think of anything really significant. It is a wonderful depiction of Islamic belief and the concept of Tawheed. It even goes into how Tawaf is representative of Tawheed and the concept of the brotherhood and sisterhood of humanity in Islam. (The biggest "goof" was not really a goof but when they were talking about the relevation of Surah Alaq they showed the Arabic script of at-Tiin instead) One of the landmarks of this program, and I think the reason (Allahu 'Alam) it gave such an accurate and fair portrayal of Islamic belief was that the people interviewed on it, other than Armstrong, were Aminah Mcloud and Maher Hathout, and I'm sure a lot of us know them by their works. Both did a commendable job in my opinion. And if one also looks at the credits afterwards, you will find the following people in addition thanked (which tells a lot about this program by itself): Syed Hosein Nasr, Imam Siraj Wahaj, Michael Wolfe, Yusuf Islam, the Islamic Society of D.C., Islamic Society of Chicago and Islamic Center of Southern California. Much credit should be given to Ms. Armstrong and the producers of the program for seeking out these Muslim resources for the program. It definitely showed in the final product subhanallah. The part of the program that struck me the most is something very minor, but profound I think. At one point in the program Armstrong mentions the "core" areas where important religous traditions originated during a certain point in history. So she mentions China and Confucianism and Taoism, and the viewer sees a shot of China, then she says the Indian subcontinent with Jainism, Hinduism and Buddhism and the viewer sees a Hindu temple, and then she mentions Europe with Greek rationalism and the viewer sees the Parthenon. And then she mentions the Middle East, where she mentions the word monotheism. And what image do we see as she says monotheism? A masjid! Subhanallah. This was completely unexpected because I expected to see some Jewish or Christian symbol. Just imagine what a non-Muslim viewer was expecting to see! (and mind you this segment of the program was even before any discussion about Islam). This was just a brief image in a segment of the program lasting only a few seconds, but it has a significant message to the general public who know little about Islam. And that is that Islam is monotheism and that it is not unlike the roots of monotheism in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Few laypersons use the term Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition; this is phrase coined by the Western intellectuals and scholars of religion who appreciate the roots of Islam and realize its relation to the other two faiths. The average person does not have knowledge of this, and in one fleeting, but in my opinion powerful image, the viewer sees that Islam is monotheism, and is part of that Judeo-Christian tradition that they know so well. This is an important message to give. The program gives this message later on when it specifically discusses Islam, but this one image early on in the program really struck me. Film/television is a powerful medium, and a brief image can have as much, if not more impact than anything said in the program. When I saw the masjid in History of God it reminded me of the images of hijabi kids playing (and smiling) on the VH1 Yusuf Islam documentary which was revolutionary and eye-opening to the average non-Muslim viewer who is accostomed to understanding (and seeing) Muslim women in images denoting sadness and opression. I must rank this program very highly not just in terms of its portrayal of Islam but in its overall merit. Here's one quote by Armstrong in the program that I liked, very relevant in our modern society where we seek and succumb to wordly things and stimulants to replace our yearning for God: "Throughout human history, men and women have experienced a hidden sacred dimension of life which is beyond their normal thoughts, ideas and experiences. And we seek ecstasy, we seek to go beyound ourselves and experience this other, this dimension of something else. If we don't find it in religion, we look for it in other activities, in art, in sport, in sex, and drugs, mistakenly, because this is the way we are constituted. We are as human beings able to have and experience and conceive of ideas that go beyond what we can grasp. This is part of the human condition." Since we are concerned mostly about how Islam is portrayed, I believe this ranks up there with the best we have seen. And I would rank it higher than the recent PBS documentary "Islam: Empire of Faith", which was good but as we pointed it out in the other thread, had its share of problems. "A History of God" may only specifically discuss Islam for about fifteen minutes, but those fifteen minutes are very good. And the program I highly recommend to anyone interested in religious studies in general, whether Jew, Muslim or Christian. [slm]

Re: A History of God on TV May 20th 9-11pm
Arsalan
06/20/01 at 04:22:29
[slm] Jazak Allahu Khairan yaa Abdul Basir for doing a wonderful review of the program.   So now the million dollar question is: How can I obtain a copy of the program?

Show me the money!
bhaloo
06/26/01 at 10:14:44
slm [quote] So now the million dollar question is: How can I obtain a copy of the program? [/quote] And the answer to the million dollar question is: http://www.islamicbookstore.com/isemoffait2p.html For $26.50. Now when do I get my million dollars? :)

Re: A History of God on TV May 20th 9-11pm
AbdulBasir
06/26/01 at 10:32:46
[slm] Brother bhaloo, I believe he wanted to find out where to find the program "History of God", not "Islam: Empire of Faith"...Arsalan, you can find it though at the A&E online store...and I'll be waiting for the million dollars...I think I'll give it to bhaloo though since he had the good intention and should be rewarded for it ;) [slm]
Individual posts do not necessarily reflect the views of Jannah.org, Islam, or all Muslims. All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the poster and may not be used without consent of the author. The rest © Jannah.Org