‘Bilal: A New Breed of Hero’ – The Reviews are In and Muslims are Pretty Divided

An Emotionally Powerful Story of Love and Courage – Marwa Azab

1. It shows a love story between a boy and a girl. Then, they grow up, to be even more in love. The young man is prepared to die for her. She is hurt to watch him face any harm. This was not a passionate sensationalized Hollywood love story. This was a story of sibling love. I am tired of only one type of love being portrayed in movies. It was refreshing to see a beautiful love story unfold between a brother and sister.

2. The movie portrayed issues such as slavery, racism and greed from inside out. For example, when watching the movie, you clearly feel the souls acting out these struggles. The focus was on the inside struggle, on the conversation the soul has with the mind on topics like freedom.

3. The writers did an excellent job building complex scenes of emotions such as fear, courage, sadness, pride, kindness, hate, empathy & compassion. Specifically, their depiction of fear and courage. One quote from the movie to highlight the emotion fear — “They are only as strong as the fear they put inside us”. I enjoyed watching the character of “courage” grow up and the character of “fear” diminish as Bilal’s mind evolved.

4. Many scenes were emotionally powerful for me. Specifically, scenes where Bilal was simultaneously experiencing two opposite emotions (or more). The Western mindset is based on linear thinking, true cannot be false and false cannot be true. Thus, feeling two opposite emotions creates dissonance and is discouraged. Western thinking is also heavily based on Aristotle’s philosophy. So, people who feel opposite emotions are seen as confused. This is not the case in other Eastern traditions that is based on a non-constant truth, true can be false and vice versa.

5. Moral values such as kindness, sibling love, sacrifice, truthfulness was exemplified across many scenes. I wish there was less violence so that younger audiences would reap the benefits of seeing these moral lessons.

6. The real catalyst for Bilal’s courage and dissolvent of his fears were at best vaguely alluded to as “the movement.” The intentional exclusion of the words Islam, Muhammed, Quran (even when quoting verses from Quran!) was obvious. Someone watching the movie will have no idea what that “movement” is. The only thing we know about this movement is that it advocates for equality, kindness and belief in one God. Is it a tactic used by the director to keep the audience in suspense? Is this left out because that “movement” is Islam, and mentioning that might compromise the success of the movie (given current Islamophobia)? Is it left out because they cannot depict Muhammad, and could not find creative ways to do that?

7. Although the movie was portraying idol worshipers, it is clear that idols can also be things like money. This is implied in the advice of Bilal’s master, who says “I worship whatever that impounds me,” in reference to money. This advice is in stark opposition to Bilal’s “you only can enslave yourself.”

I loved the movie and found it inspirational on many levels. As far as criticisms such as leaving out the name of the “movement,” the benefits out way the cost big time. The movie is NOT one step in the right direction. It is 1000 steps in the right direction and by no means a final destination. What we need to do is support such movies and think of creative ways to address these shortcomings.

#BilalANewBreedOfHero #BlackHistoryMonth

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