National Geographic follows three pilgrims from Malaysia, South Africa, and the United States as the travel to Mecca for the hajj.National Geographic follows three pilgrims from Malaysia, South Africa, and the United States as the travel to Mecca for the hajj.National Geographic follows three pilgrims from Malaysia, South Africa, and the United States as the travel to Mecca for the hajj.
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Film Review:Inside Mecca
Inside Mecca is a National Geographic documentary film directed by Anisa Mehdi in 2003, which is about three pilgrims travelled to Mecca for the Hajj. Mecca is a legendary city, it is located in the western mountains of Saudi Arabia. Only Muslims are allowed to come here to the city and pray in the large mosque called Al-Masjid Al-Haram in center of which the famous Kaaba is located. The sacred pilgrimage known as the Hajj in Mecca unites millions of people all around the world because it is a mandatory duty for Muslims. The documentary provides detailed vision about the pilgrimage today. The feelings and thoughts of participants are supported by a narrator who comments them and gives historical information about the importance of the Hajj in Islam. The film does not have any special effects but it has a background music and the busy atmosphere of the actions and the sounds of loud prayer make the viewer to be more and more emotional. The pilgrimage is a chance for people to pray for Allah to be forgiven and they thrive to do their best during the Hajj by behaving properly as well as by having only rightful thoughts. Even though the pilgrimage can be perceived as an ideal world in action, pilgrims experience challenges during the Hajj.
The film shows the storyline of three pilgrims: Dr. Dilma O'Leary from the United States, Khalil from the South Africa and Ismail with his wife Asma from Malaysia. Each of them have different backgrounds but religious duty to perform the Hajj and the motivation to be closer to the God unite them. It is interesting to note that they do not play roles but share with their true experience. This is what makes the viewers to be excited and to feel themselves as a part of the action. They prepare for the Hajj by expanding the Koranic knowledge, reading and understanding prayers as well as praying as it is required in the Islamic law.
Before they start pilgrimage, individuals have to enter in the state of Ihram. Ihram is the important inner sacred state of person when people perform pilgrimage. During Ihram, they have to be very patient, prevent any negative emotions as anger as well as any physical intercourse. The philosophy of Ihram is that the identical white clothes represent sameness in performing the Hajj despite a person being wealthy or poor, educated or not, or any other factors.
After the attainment of the state of Ihram, people move to the symbolic center of their faith-the Kaaba and walk seven times around it as the Prophet Muhammad did. The Kaaba is a stone building with golden doors that was traditionally built by Adam and rebuilt by Abraham after the Great flood. It is interesting how the director always makes links between the historical background of Islam and current actions during the pilgrimage. This shows that people try to perform in the same way as the prophets which were the guides of ideal human behavior in order to enjoy the bliss of heaven. In addition to the pilgrimage, some pilgrims thrive to live the Islamic ideal as Khalil by doing donations for people in need. People do it because it is said in the Quran that "whatever wealth you spend on welfare-supporting sincerely the cause of God-it is multiplied several-fold" (Rahman 2009, p.27). The donations as zakat and sadakha expected to strengthen a muslim's religious faith, especially during the Hajj where a person can gain greater amount of barakat.
However, the Hajj is not an ideal place as it can be expected because there are cases when pilgrims face challenges which make it difficult to stay in the state of Ihram. For example, during the first day of the Hajj in the valley Mina, Khalil was not able to stay with South African pilgrims because he was discriminated due to his skin color. He said that "it was very painful to see this condition during the Hajj" (34min06sec). As Khalil, Dr. Dilma also had awkward experience when local women questioned her religious belief because some male pilgrims were paying attention to her, probably because of her light skin color and unusual beauty. On the other hand, Ismail had quite a different story that he was living in better conditions with additional services because he was able to financially afford it. Despite the idea that during the pilgrimage people are treated equally before the God, these situations show that it is not the case in the real world.
The minor challenges are that some pilgrims had to walk under the heat of the Sun and the crowd of people led to wildness, chaos and emotional state of mind. It can be seen from the scene in the Mount of Arafat which is a place of mercy where Adam and Hawa reunited and the Prophet Muhammad delivered the last sermon. This is the place where millions of people do the standing at Arafat to pray and cry pleading for relief from inner burdens. It is a very emotional scene, they do pray with hope to be forgiven because it is said in several verses of the Quran that "God will pardon or overlook men's lapses, provided the overall performance is good and beneficial" (Rahman 2009, p 19). It reveals that pilgrims face both mental and physical difficulties during the Hajj.
The given analysis of the film shows how difficult it to perform pilgrimage but pilgrims do it for Allah, because it is said in the Islamic law as a duty of each Muslim. The faces of pilgrims after the completion of Hajj show happiness, desire to begin a new life and become a better version of themselves which means that the director shows both the negative and positive emotions of pilgrims that makes him unbiased. The film reveals the power of Islamic law and how Muslims adhere to it, and hope to attain redemption from God as it is promised in Quran by doing good deeds.
References:
Rahman, F. (2009). "Major Themes in Quran." Chicago: University of Chicago Press.p.12-44.
References:
Rahman, F. (2009). "Major Themes in Quran." Chicago: University of Chicago Press.p.12-44.
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- ainurtemirbolat
- Apr 12, 2020
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- Budget
- $1,000,000 (estimated)
- Runtime56 minutes
- Color
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