''Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet'' is a

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

about the life of the

Islamic prophet Prophets in Islam ( ar, الأنبياء في الإسلام, translit=al-ʾAnbiyāʾ fī al-ʾIslām) are individuals in Islam who are believed to spread God in Islam, God's message on Earth and to serve as models of ideal human behaviour. So ...

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...

based on historical records and on the stories of living American Muslims who call Muhammad the Messenger of God. It was produced in 2002 by

Alex Kronemer Alexander Kronemer (born 19 June 1960, Pennsylvania, United States) is a writer, lecturer, and documentary filmmaker whose work focuses on religious diversity, Islam, and cross-cultural understanding. He is the co-founder and executive producer o ...

and

Michael Wolfe Michael B. Wolfe (born 3 April 1945) is an American poet, author, and the President and Co-Executive Producer of Unity Productions Foundation. A secular American born in Cincinnati, Ohio to a Christian mother and a Jewish father, Wolfe converted ...

of Unity Productions Foundation and Kikim Media.

Content

The film takes viewers not only to the Arabian desert and ancient

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

ern sites where Muhammad's story unfolded, but also into the homes, mosques and workplaces of some of America's estimated 7 million Muslims to discover the many ways in which they follow Muhammad's example. Scholars on Islam provide historical context and critical perspective.

Appearances

Among the people in the film, the following are included: * Karen Armstrong - Former nun, author on

Abrahamic religions The Abrahamic religions are a group of religions centered around worship of the God of Abraham. Abraham, a Hebrew patriarch, is extensively mentioned throughout Abrahamic religious scriptures such as the Bible and the Quran. Jewish tradition ...

and 2008 TEDPrize winner * John Voll - Professor of Islamic history,

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

Seyyed Hossein Nasr Seyyed Hossein Nasr (; fa, سید حسین نصر, born April 7, 1933) is an Iranian philosopher and University Professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University. Born in Tehran, Nasr completed his education in Iran and the United St ...

- Professor of Islamic Literature, George Washington University, and a well-known Islamic scholar, honored at the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

Reuven Firestone Reuven Firestone is an American academic and historian of religion, who serves as the Regenstein Professor in Medieval Judaism and Islam at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion's Skirball Campus in Los Angeles and Affiliate Prof ...

- Scholar of Islam and Judaism,

Hebrew Union College Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

Daisy Khan Daisy Khan is a Kashmiri-American Islamic campaigner, reformer, and executive director of the Women's Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality (WISE), a women-led organization committed to peacebuilding, equality, and justice for Muslims a ...

- Executive director of ASMA Society and wife of Feisal Abdul Rauf *

M. Cherif Bassiouni Mahmoud Cherif Bassiouni (Arabic: محمود شريف بسيوني ; 9 December 1937 – 25 September 2017) was an emeritus professor of law at DePaul University, where he taught from 1964 to 2012. He served in numerous United Nations position ...

- Professor of Law,

DePaul University DePaul University is a private university, private, Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Congregation of the Mission, Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th-centu ...

, 1999

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...

nominee. *

Mohammed Zakariya Mohamed Zakariya,born 1942 in Ventura, California, is an American master Arabic calligrapher and an American Muslim convert. Biography Mohamed Zakariya was born in 1942 in Ventura, California. Later he moved to Los Angeles with his family. ...

- Muslim convert and master Arabic calligrapher * Hamza Yusuf - Muslim convert and co-founder of Zaytuna College *

- Muslim convert and author of The Hadj * Jameel Johnson - Muslim and Chief of Staff for Congressman

Gregory Meeks Gregory Weldon Meeks (born September 25, 1953) is an American lawyer and politician who has been a U.S. representative from New York since 1998. He is a member of the Democratic Party and has chaired the House Committee on Foreign Affairs since ...

* Kevin James - Muslim convert, Supervising Fire Marshall from New York City Fire Department (arson investigator and 9/11 first responder) * Najah Bazzy - Muslim Critical Care Nurse, Dearborn MI (Appears with her husband, Ali, and daughter Nadia) * Abdullah El-Amin - Local Imam * Anwar al-Awlaki - Scholar, former Chaplain at

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , preside ...

, former Imam in California and Washington D.C. * Sayed Hassan Al-Qazwini, the

Imam Imam (; ar, إمام '; plural: ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a worship leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Islamic worship services, lead prayers, ser ...

of The Islamic Center of America and very respected Shia scholar

Funding

Funding for ''Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet'' was provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Arabian Bulk Trade, Sabadia Family Foundation, Irfan Kathwari Foundation, El-Hibri Foundation, Qureishi Family Trust, and many individual contributors.

Distribution

''Muhammad'' was originally broadcast nationwide on December 18, 2002 on PBS and has since been rebroadcast on well over 600 individual PBS stations. The United States viewership is estimated to be over 10 million. The documentary received worldwide broadcast in many languages on National Geographic International in December 2003 and many other countries. The film is used in communities, schools, universities, religious congregations, and civic organizations throughout the United States to increase Americans' understanding of Muslims and Islam. Guides to facilitate discussions of the film's themes are available through the 20,000 Dialogues project and the Islam Project. The DVD of the film was re-issued in 2011 and includes the dialogue guide and lesson plans for teachers to use the film in the classroom.

References

External links

''Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet''
at

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