Ramadan Through Film
Introduction
This Ramadan, I'm trying to be a lot more intentional with my media consumption, so I'm going to work on something different with my movie watching habits.
For my non-Muslim friends: during Ramadan, it's encouraged to read the Quran in full at least once. Normally I try to do one chapter (or juz - there are 30 of them in the Quran, 30 days in Ramadan) each day. Each chapter typically covers different themes: justice, family, truth, moral clarity, God-consciousness, etc.
This year I'm going to look for a specific theme that speaks to me within each juz and will try to watch one film that connects to that theme, in an attempt to connect the movie thematically with elements in the Quran (with as little blasphemy as possible).
I’ve spent my whole life loving movies for the way they help me understand myself and the world around me. I’ve also spent my whole life with the Quran, and my relationship with it has defined so much of who I am. Both of these things have been fundamental to who I am and yet they’ve always lived separately. This year I want to see what happens when I bring them together.
The Quran is so overwhelmingly rich and layered that even after 26 years of familiarity, I still feel like a complete beginner. This year I hope to use my love for film to find a new way into each juz and see things I’ve never seen before.
Juz 1 - The Message (1976)
The first juz introduces the oneness of God and faith's foundations, so there's no better place to start than a movie about Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) and Islam's rise.
The first verse of the Quran: "In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds" (1:1-2).
I'm really grateful to have been raised with Islam as a strong part of my life & I'm super grateful for my relationship with the religion, especially in how it has shaped me personally, spiritually & in my relationships. I hope it continues to grow in my life. I’m going to start this project with my faith and God in mind. I want to bridge my interests with my religion, a force that has fundamentally shaped my worldview.
Islam to me is a prescription - everything the religion asks us to do is a clearer way to coexist with the rest of the world at large. Properly following the principles of Islam should aspire to make you understand the human condition better and be at peace with the way the world works. Logically speaking, attaining this state of mind should allow you to understand art better and see it in a unique way. I’m excited to train myself to think about the world in this sense and bridge my hobbies and interests (film) with my understanding of spirituality.
Juz 2 - A Man Called Ove (2015)
This juz talks about severa lconcepts, but there is a heavy emphasis on clear moral guidance, righteousness, and patience in daily life. "Righteousness is not that you turn your faces toward the east or the west, but righteousness is one who believes in Allah, the Last Day, the angels, the Book, and the prophets and gives wealth, in spite of love for it, to relatives, orphans, the needy, the traveler, those who ask, and for freeing slaves..." (2:177)
Modern society oftentimes abandons the notion of community with a strange emphasis on individualism, breaking awareness beyond oneself. Today's economy & capitalist values make it really easy to be served by greed, not need, creating a system that manipulates and brings forward our self-centered ego.
In Arabic, the word fitrah refers to our innate nature, the pure state of being we're all born with that instinctively recognizes truth and goodness. The Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) said, "Every child is born upon fitrah.” It's not simply about being sinless, but about having a clear moral compass that points you toward goodness and doing right. I’ve always said that the rituals Islam asks from Muslims generally are prescriptive. If you pray five times a day and fast Ramadan without being a kind person, then you have missed the point. We do the things Allah asks us so that we can be kinder, stronger, and better within our respective communities.
Looking at A Man Called Ove through this lens reminds me how universal these principles are. I'm not trying to Islamize secular films, but rather the goal is seeing how human stories often naturally reflect spiritual truths. Ove's path isn't explicitly religious, yet it perfectly captures fitrah in action. His grouchy exterior and suicidal tendencies are simply responses to life's hardships - trials and tribulations that distance us from our pure nature. His reluctant interactions with his neighbors, specifically the immigrants next door (and more importantly the cat; the cat distribution system never fails), gradually strip away these layers of acquired cynicism. Ove falls into isolation and cynicism because of a series of tragedies - which are ultimately, in the Islamic view, tests sent from God.
Each connection Ove forms is a kind of spiritual navigation, bringing forward his original kindness hidden deep beneath the grief and isolation. The film reaffirms the notion of fitrah: our essential nature is toward goodness and community. Islam may help many reach purification faster, but it’s also within our human nature to strive for it. It feels right. The Quran is just our guide to that state - and I’m grateful that I was born with the conviction to have that fitrah.
Allah creates customized tests for everyone shaped around our specific spiritual responses. There are many ways to fail those tests but ultimately there is one path to succeed within these tests: demonstrating patience. For Ove, he rediscovers patience through unwanted neighbors and a cat disrupting his isolation. A disguised nuisance becomes what saves him. Another metaphor for the divine test: what may seem like an inconvenience is almost what our souls require. The patience Ove demonstrates can be akin sabr, a spiritual surrender and a form of patience that we should all strive towards.