Review: Life of Muhammad
New PBS Miniseries Provides a Glance at the Prophet
As I kicked back in my humble American bungalow, pictures of modern Arabia peppered the television screen; images of immaculate mosques surrounded by dusty homes, desert planes under a beaming sun, and a sea of white robes, indistinguishable of race or gender, in pilgrimage to the holy city of Islam. While these images transported me to a distant land, they didn’t fully capture the main character of PBS’s new three-part series, Life of Muhammad. After all, the Prophet Muhammad was born into an Arabia that was just a shadow of its modern version. The luxury of the present is unlike the brutish pre-Islamic landscape. While these images add clarity to an often overlooked assumption that the East is different than the West, applying a Western lens in understanding the East is much like wearing far-sighted glasses when you are nearsighted; things just look blurry.
Perhaps this is why the three-part documentary series starts each episode with a quest to “uncover the real Muhammad.” How many of us can attest to really knowing the life of a man who has forever changed the scope of history, a man who has been ranked as the number one most influential person in history; a man who’s held in the very high esteem of at least 1.6 billion people, who, unfortunately, may only be known to us from Western perspectives of Danish cartoons and homemade YouTube videos? If you wish to understand the “real Muhammad,” then PBS’s miniseries is a great place to start.
Life of Muhammad is structured in three, one-hour documentary episodes. The first two installments show the Prophet Muhammad’s struggle and persecution. The last episode reveals his role as a leader and statesmen over one of the fastest growing nations. This structure aligns itself with the two names of the Prophet: “Muhammad,” signifying his character during his struggles, and “Ahmad” to signify his character when he was victorious. Since Muslims view Prophet Muhammad’s life as a model for all of mankind, understanding his behavior during the highs and the lows provides an example for how to conduct oneself during life’s peaks and troughs.
