The Lady of Heaven

~ سلام We’re at the start of June and it’s my first blogpost of 2022 😅 If you’re new here, I used to post regularly but writing about the topics I want to cover exhausts my emotional energy. Does anyone else also think this years gone by really fast? Life moves quickly sometimes. I have been busy and in short I’m occupied with Corporate; Charity and Creative work. There’s a lot I’ve wanted to say about the Charity work in particular so if you’re interested or have specific topics in mind, leave a comment or get in touch 💚

Today I’m sharing my reflections on The Lady of Heaven, what is described as an “epic historical drama film”. The film interweaves a story focusing on the holy personality of Bibi Fatima s.a, the daughter of Prophet Muhammedﷺ, with contemporary brutality of ISIS terrorists against Shia Muslims. The events of the film set in modern day Baghdad cleverly mirror the oppression faced by the Prophet ﷺ’s Shia following his death. It also overtly pays tribute to the suffering faced by Bibi Fatima s.a, as the start of the film hauntingly shows the murder of a mother named Fatima who was killed for being Shia. Ironically the actions of some Sunnis today now mirror the oppression and aggression showed in the film as they have been physically and verbally assaulting Shias and others who choose to support or watch it.

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Faces One of the primary causes of tension for the film is that it “shows the face of the Prophetﷺ”. I have a few points to make on this. I counted that a disclaimer specifying that holy faces were not physically shown came up on screen four or five times in total at the start and end of the screening. Refer to the 4th picture in the slideshow above that I captured whilst watching the film in cinema. For most of the scenes with the Prophetﷺ present, his face was angled away from the camera or there was light flowing from his face thus hiding his physical features. In some scenes a face was visible and this was achieved through CGI. A viral petition has been asserting that an actor was hired to play the Prophetﷺ, but this is false. Some have even said that the face of Bibi Fatima s.a was shown in the film, but this is another false claim. Her face was never shown as her headscarf included a veil similar to a niqab. I’m certain that the people spreading these lies have not even seen the film. That being said I personally prefer for faces of holy figures to solely be represented through light and was a bit surprised when I saw the face of the Prophetﷺ and Imam Ali a.s. shown, albeit through visual effects. I recall a Shia who watched the film when it first screened in America saying a similar thing but that it wasn’t their biggest issue (we’ll get onto that). Something else worth considering is that paintings of holy figures and religious personalities is accepted in some cultures. Showing the face of the Prophetﷺ seems to be an agreed ‘no go’ across the Western world (🇫🇷🙅🏽‍♀️); however this is not the unanimous norm across the Middle East. In Iraq for example –where the film was set– it is common for religious personalities to be honoured through artistic depictions such as paintings. This does in fact include the Prophetﷺ. Take a look at the 7th photo above of an Iraqi painting of Imam Ali a.s for reference. In sum, the argument of the face is an issue of differing cultural norms and thus its understandable why it has been unsettling for some in the UK market. As someone who has actually seen the film, I would add that the difference between how the Prophetﷺ was portrayed here compared to what we have seen in the past in France for example comes down to respect. In France, Prophet Muhammedﷺ was literally illustrated as a caricature; whereas in the Lady of Heaven his face is only visible for a few brief moments and there is always glowing light present to symbolise his holy status.

Racism The next point I thought was important to bring up was racism. My initial hesitation towards watching this film came from accusations of racism and because of this I lowered my expectations going in. Several of the antagonist’s including Abu Bakr and Aisha (who are father and daughter and thus share the same skin colour) were played by black actors which is where I believe the criticisms of racism stem from. My view now is that I don’t think the film is racist because there were other ‘villains’ who were not played by black actors and there were positive and side characters who were also played by black actors. If it was revealed that the casting choices of the few antagonists who were played by black actors was indeed a conscious choice (*like in a typical Bollywood movie*) to evoke further negative feelings from the audience, then I would agree that the film is racist. The reason I am currently not siding with this view is because I lack the historical knowledge of whether or not Abu Bakr for example was actually black. If you do have this information then please pass it on and I’d be happy to make an edit and include it. Edit: Thank you to one reader who sent me a link evidencing that these figures were considered to be “black or very dark skinned” (photo 5). Someone else also told me that it would be unsurprising if they were black due to hijra (emigration).

The cloak I watched the film on its opening day with my mother by mere chance (photo 3) and some of my family watched it separately later the same day. Most of the rest of my (Sunni) family on the other hand are signing the petition to have the film removed. Those who watched it on June 3rd all agreed that one of the stand out scenes was of Hadith e Kisa. The story of the cloak was illustrated with simplicity and respect. Our highlight was the blue and white illuminated animation of angels in heaven who were shown to be looking down upon the household of the Prophetﷺ (with their faces not visible).

Terrorism Another pro of the film is its exposure of ISIS. ISIS doesn’t need exposure in the sense of clout, we know who they are (if you don’t, it must be nice inside that bubble you’re in 😳). Terrorism is a running theme in both time periods explored. In terms of ISIS, we witness their inhumanness up close and are exposed to things we may typically be sheltered from seeing. i.e. the cage of Shia men being burned to death. The film certificate does come with warnings for gore, and blood is shown but more so in the historical action scenes. I urge Sunnis to watch the beginning till when Fatima is murdered at least just to feel something about Shia deaths. In these six months alone far too many Shia lives have been lost to different terrorist attacks across the globe. Fatima could have been me; or my mother, and I’m sure other Shia viewers saw this too. We have absorbed so much grief that seeing it on screen was shattering and I think other people need to feel that as well. A different angle on exposure that was taken (minor spoiler warning) is when a little boy is forced to wear a suicide vest and bomb a mosque of Shias who were commemorating the martyrdom of Bibi Fatima s.a. This moving scene brings the helplessness of a little boy to the forefront. It highlighted that a lack of companionship is what may lead people to fall victim to ISIS as he laments that his friend “left” him the last time they met. Laith offers the boy a hug and he saves the worshippers. Laith later shares in a News interview that he hopes more people would learn the story of Lady Fatima s.a. I agree.

Acting Some people have said that the acting in the film was not too great. I thought it was generally fine but there was room for improvements. Laith (the son of Fatima who was murdered) for example was a bit stiff at times yet cute, but he’s only young so I’d say that’s fair. The pronunciation of certain names was a bit funny to me but I suppose it was intentional.

Everything Everywhere All at Once Allow me to make a digression for the sake of comparison and change of pace. ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ (henceforth referred to as EEAO) is a film that came out last month but is only now dying down from its hype. It received high praise from movies goers and I saw many people say they were “sobbing” whilst watching the movie. I enjoyed the film, but I wouldn’t be as eager to rewatch because there was too much going on visually for my liking. The film offered wonderful representation for the East Asian community and covered important themes such as acceptance for who you are, which is why I think it performed so well. The Lady of Heaven isn’t a film made for ‘Shia representation’, however it offers that as a byproduct of the characters and themes. I did not shed a tear during EEAO, perhaps because I did not directly relate to it. My eyes did water at several points of The Lady of Heaven though. When the character Fatima was murdered and when Bibi Fatima s.a was physically attacked were notable moments. I brought up EEAO to say that it is a shame that Shia’s can’t have an ounce of the same representation and experience because people who dislike the film want to cause issues for those who don’t.

Demographics With the previous point in mind, I am super curious to know the audience demographics. I was almost tempted to move to the stage when everything ended to take a quick survey and find out how many Shia/Sunni/non Muslims were in attendance. The screening I was in had five visibly presenting Muslims that I could see, besides myself and my mum. The majority of the crowd were middle aged white people who may or may not have been Muslim. The aura of the room felt respectful as heck and accepting. EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THE ROOM STAYED TILL THE CREDITS FINISHED. That’s something out of the ordinary to me and we joked that people thought it was a Marvel film. Something else that struck me about this viewing was that people clapped at the end! I joined in out of confusion but it was quite sweet.

Rushed For what is quite a lengthy film my family pointed out that some bits felt a bit rushed. More context could have been given to certain events or personalities e.g. Aisha’s relationship with the Prophetﷺ. I would have appreciated more time spent on the life of Bibi Fatima s.a. as the plot does of course cover chapters of her life, but the emphasis was more on her legacy and the application of the lessons from her life and death, rather a dedication to recounting her life story.

Protests Saved the best till last (pls I’m kidding). Opposers of the film said it was made to cause disunity amongst muslims, but thats not true. The film did not mention Shia and Sunni, what it did was depict an account of history that some Muslims hold to be accurate. There is a petition circulating to have the film banned from the UK and it gained 84,000 signatures in a day. ✨Coincidentally✨ some cinemas in Birmingham have already removed the film from their listings and it’s possible that others will follow suit. What I have seen in the two days since this film has been released is that it’s actually Sunni Muslims who have been causing divisions. Petitioning to remove a film because you dislike it is one thing, but chanting “Shia kafir” (kafir = infidel) outside cinemas screening the film does not bode well with the camp of unity. A clip of a protester directly threatening the writer Yasser Al-Habib by name and saying that they will get the film banned in the UK was reacted to by Al-Habib himself and I can’t say he seems fazed. From my observation, those boycotting and protesting the film have caused more sectarian division than the film itself. Take a look at photos 8 & 9 in the commencing slideshow of a protest in Bradford, captured and kindly shared by a friend. My resounding thought after initially watching the film has been that the people protesting are those who should watch it. It really is so ironic that these “peaceful” but not at all peaceful protests are taking place given the subject matter of the film. The universal message of Islam and any religion is of love and spreading peace is actually mentioned more than once in the film. In the speech given by Bilal at the request of the Prophetﷺ in Madina, the says that “everyone is free to practice their religion”. The Quran states that “there is no compulsion in religion” which is at odds with the actions of these protestors who mimic the extremist ‘my way or death’ sentiment. It is again a shame that people who are checking up to hear each others verdicts of the film have to also ask if they were safe or ran into problems at the hands of protestors. Edit: Imam Qari Asim, Deputy Chair of the UK Government’s Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group, has been stripped of his government positions due to his “support for a campaign to limit free expression” as he publicly showed support for the protests. The letter linked above makes direct reference to “anti-Shia hatred” which is a step in the right direction to expose the reality of anti-Shia discrimination in the UK.

[Edit It’s been a week since I published this post and I’ve had some new reflections I wanted to include. I planned to add this in sooner, but as you may guess from what I said at the start, I have not had the energy for it. I have added in more photos to the slideshow as well as a few additional comments to ‘Face’; ‘Racism’ and ‘Protests’. The rest of my thoughts will be merged into this paragraph. Let’s begin by rewinding to the last line of the second paragraph in this post. The irony I mentioned is beyond ironic at this point. I’m deeply concerned by some of the things I have witnessed this past week. From open threats of murder against Shias (photo 12), to Sunnis refusing to take action in protecting Shias by taking a minute to report such heinous threats. The photo I just referenced is unfortunately one of many. As a Shia myself, I am not at all surprised at seeing such disgusting comments, however I decided to bring it to light on my Instagram for those who would be. I encouraged my followers to report people such as the boy in photo 12 because whilst Shias may be used to digesting prejudice on extreme levels, we can and need to change our reaction. ‘Allies’ also need to step up because this is extremely draining for us to tackle alone. Although this example may have come from an immature boy who is hiding behind a keyboard, I personally cannot take the chance that he will not enact his threats. We cannot afford to not take this seriously. I will not become numb to Shias being killed by terrorists, and it alarms me that we live in a society where closet terrorists safely coexist amongst us. This is not a stretch as some people have actually been bringing photos of ISIS members along with them to protests. The police have made no arrests and I fail to understand why that is. I urge the police to investigate those making death threats against people who watch the film, or simply hold differing views to them. I also urge them to investigate the people who support these threats i.e. the people ‘liking’, and ‘retweeting’ comments such as those shown in photo 12; which has since been removed from Twitter due to violating the website’s terms. It also saddens me that many Sunnis have chosen not to accept a basic call out to report potential terrorists. The link I had been sharing took the same amount of time to fill in as a the petition to ban the film. Hence why I am disappointed that I had to resort to convincing some of my own family members to file a report by stating that if we do not take action against such extremists today, they may claim my life tomorrow (photo 13). Call me an idealist, but I think the energy of those protesting would be better placed in calling out real oppression faced by the ummah. Or is it the case that the Shia portion of the ummah does not qualify for sympathy? Islam states that we are all equal but some still think they are ‘more equal’ than others. Civilians in Afghanistan are facing daily persecution under Taliban rule, particularly Hazaras who are majority Shia. If more people speak about this we may be able to achieve some form of positive change. Something else I wanted to touch on is ‘Shia akhlaq’ because of a comment by a Shia Hazara I saw early last week. The comment suggested that Shias supporting the film have poor akhlaq; I disagree. If there are Shias who are showing support for the film by violently threatening those who oppose it (similar to the actions of some Sunnis) then I would definitely say that those groups have poor manners. Showing support in and of itself has nothing to do with akhlaq in my opinion. The film’s writer is a controversial figure (who I have no allegiance to) but supporting his film does not equate to supporting his personal views; if that is the angle implied in the person’s comment. If we talk about the film contents only as I have mostly focused on, Shias do hold the account of history given in this film to be true. That being the case, what is impolite about being in favour of a cinematic depiction of our version of history? Why are we trying to be respected by our oppressor? I will not water down my faith to appease the majority. Someone else told me that I cannot expect Sunnis to maintain positive relations with Shias as a consequence of this film being aired. Why? This film has just brought our religious differences to the big screen, I don’t think that validates the urge to be unpleasant towards those who do not share your view. Moreover I constantly witness slander against Shias and yet I’m able to maintain positive relations with Sunni Muslims. Yesterday happened to be the date of the latest protest in London. In the same way that I happened to watch the film on its release date due to being in the right place at the right time, I was also present at the location of yesterday’s protest when it was set to take place. When I was reminded of the protest (that ultimately seemed to have been cancelled) whilst I was already at its location, I decided to give a short interview for a Bengali News channel. This will be released if the channel decides to cover further developments surrounding the film as they had already covered a protest for it last week. The reporter initially tried to dissuade me from giving an interview as she explained that publicly sharing a view that opposes the overwhelming majority of the Bengali UK community would lead to my ostracisation. She advised me to be careful with this in mind and to stick to writing this blogpost which hides my face. I responded by telling her that I’m not scared of expressing my views because of potential bullies and I asked her to take a photo of me which I have now included in the slideshow (photo 18 👋🏽). Before the reporter arrived I decided to visit the cinema to confirm whether the film was actually being screened. It was not. I asked one of the staff members for the reason for it being removed and they said it had “done its rounds” at that location. A typical film can stay in theatres for up to six weeks so I find it hard to believe that a film had run its course in just under one week. I followed up by asking if the protests had anything to do with it and they ‘could not comment’. Lastly I asked if the police who were present (photo 19) had anything to do with it and they confirmed that there “may be a protest”. On a different note related to cinemas, it turns out that the Executive Director of the film was present at the screening I attended. My mother and I noticed that he stood out because he was in a suit and socialised with some attendees, but I didn’t recognise him until now after having seen several of his recent interviews. He has been participating in News interviews and debates (the relevant portion in the linked video begins from the 23:12 timestamp) supporting the right of the UK public to watch this film. Since this film has been released in the UK, it quickly became a talking point across the country and was one of the trending topics on the internet (photo 10 & 11). The main point of discussion is surrounding freedom of speech as many non-Muslims have been saying that the actions of those getting a film banned (photo 14) because it offends them infringes on the rights of those who do wish to watch it (photo 15). Within a few days we went from people not being able to see the film because it was removed as a result of protests; to it being sold out in the remaining cinemas screening it (photo 16), and now it looks like the film is fully banned. After reading my blogpost a Sunni friend of mine wanted to watch the film with me, except I cannot find any available listings. Just this morning a friend of a friend went to watch the film in one of its remaining locations and hours later when I tried to plan a trip for my friends, I found that there were no viewings available (photo 17). It’s possible that no viewings were showing up as it was sold out, however it is far more likely that they were also removed due to protests. If it becomes possible then I will try to take them to watch the film. Let’s end this segment with some positivity. In Ramadhan I led an initiative to promote UK based Shia businesses on my social media through Instagram Guides. I’ve grown fed up of only hearing of Shias when they have been killed and wanted to use my small platform to uplift a minority group. If you would like to show your support then take a browse through the various businesses I have showcased thus far and feel free to submit recommendations.]

If you were unaware or couldn’t tell by now, yes I am Shia (or trying to be because its an honour I don’t really deserve). You might be thinking its easy for me to say what I just said because of where I’m positioned in this situation. So lets switch the story. Let’s say that a film on the same topic was made by a Sunni production team (which, anyone is welcome to go ahead and do by the way) and it portrayed scenes that are at odds with my beliefs. What would I do? Well, I certainly wouldn’t make egregious statements describing the contents of the film before I have even seen it myself. I even refrained from commenting on this film until I saw it for myself as well so thats so I’d say thats standard procedure. After watching the film I probably would share my thoughts in personal or public circles, but would I viciously attack people who agree with the film with my words and actions? No. That goes against the Prophetﷺ’s sunnah. As much as I might feel discomfort at watching a portrayal of things that contrast my personal beliefs in a film; I’m sure I would appreciate seeing a visual summary of events from the other side so I can better understand Sunni hadith. I invite Sunni Muslims to watch this film and take it as a starting point into understanding another view of history. You might learn something valuable in the process.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I have said this before but please watch the film for yourself and form your own judgements, or take it as a chance to learn something new. This post is not an invitation to debate with me on politics/history/religion so respect both of our time and avoid trying.

If you want to watch a film without getting harassed, good luck 世界。

此致敬礼，欣妍 – From Nabeela.

https://linktr.ee/nabblo

لا إله إلا الله محمد رسول الله علي ولي الله وخليفة رسول الله