CAIRO, Aug 22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Cairo-based Al-Azhar University, the world’s first university and foremost source of Islamic rulings and research, gave the final go-ahead on Tuesday for an unprecedented film on the life of the Prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him, news agencies reported.
The film, “Mohammad, the Last Prophet,” by former Disney director Richard Rich, was approved in principle on May 16th by Al-Azhar’s Center for Islamic Research - on the condition that an image of the Prophet’s paternal uncle, Hamza ibn Abdul-Muttalib, be removed, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Al-Azhar gave its final approval Tuesday upon the deletion of Hamza’s image from the film.
The 90-minute animated film tells how Prophet Mohammad (SAW) preached in the Arabian holy city of Mecca and the difficulties he faced more than 1,400 years ago. It also illustrates his departure for Medina and his efforts to spread the message of Islam.
The film, which has both Arabic and English versions, targets the world’s more than one billion Muslims, according to the partner production company - Badr International Corp., registered in the British Virgin Islands.
The production was designed in Burbank, California, under the supervision of Islamic law professor at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), Khaled Abu el-Fadl, according to Badr International.
The producers and directors avoided personifying the Prophet Mohammad (SAW), who is represented by a bright light and an off-screen voice.
Al-Azhar’s approval of the film will make it easy to pass Egyptian censors, where Al-Azhar has direct influence, as well as in other Arab and Muslim countries where the University also has clout.
The film is the first animated co-production between companies from the U.S. and the Middle East; a collaboration of Rich-Crest Animation studios and Syria’s Badr International Corporation.
Some scholars have already expressed concerns that the producer worked for Disney, a company that previously angered Muslims by deciding to support an exhibit in which Occupied Jerusalem was stated as the capital of Israel.
Disney previously produced a colorful and engaging biography of Malcolm X, the African-American nationalist Muslim leader who, after traveling to the Middle East to study Islam, decided to aim for better race relations between African-Americans and whites in the U.S.
Egyptian movie critic Samir Fareed has said in the past that the movie came at the right time, in the light of the distorted image of Arabs and Muslims being presented in the Western media, the UAE newspaper Al-Ittihad reported in June.
In Egypt in 1926, Al-Azhar stopped famous Egyptian actor Yousef Wahby from acting in a movie where he was to personify the Prophet Mohammad (SAW). Wahby was then asked to submit a formal apology, which he eventually did, Al-Ittihad reported.
The only other major film production to chronicle the life of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was The Message, a 1977 film by Syrian director Moustapha Akkad in which the Prophet (SAW) was neither portrayed nor voiced-over. The Prophet’s (SAW) uncle, Hamza, however, was portrayed in the movie by Anthony Quinn.