Before the Light Movie {Product Review}

Before the Light is described on Amazon:

From Badr International comes the long-awaited series, Animated Stories of Islam, relating some of the great stories that took place before, during and after the Prophet Muhammad. Before the Light, the first film in the 3-part series, relates significant events that took place before the birth of Prophet Muhammad. It is a story of miracles – the miraculous discovery of the well of zamzam, and then, centuries later, the miracle of its rediscovery by the Prophet’s grandfather Abdulmuttaleb; the miracle of his father Abdullah’s life; and finally, the miracle during the Year of the Elephant, the year the Prophet was born. There miraculous stories – all works of God – prepared the way for the message of Islam to shine bright during Muhammad’s Prophethood, and for centuries to come.

Prophetic History

One thing I really enjoy about this movie is that it brings to life stories that you don’t find in typical Islamic children’s books. We have numerous stories of prophets and companions of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), but the story of Zam Zam from origination to today is typically glossed over, if not skipped entirely. Some history and a little variety in children’s media is a good thing, in sha Allah.

Depiction of the Prophet (sws)

Fine Media Group does a great job of not depicting any prophet, and never having a prophet talk in the first person while making the cinematics smooth. If you weren’t watching for it, you may not even notice how a prophet never speaks or is pictured!

The only downside I can think of (if it is one) is Before the Light will have a hard time competing against more commercialized movies in terms of climax in the story and and engaging material. When put against something like Wall-E, most kids will choose the movie with music and a climatic story. There are areas in the movie that would be considered climatic, but there is not much time given to the story leading up to it, so the effect is minimal. Still, I don’t think all movies need to be an emotional roller coaster, so it may not be a concern.