A History of God
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.
Reviewed by AbdulBasir
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