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[ Monday, January 12, 2004 ]

 

The Movie "Maryam"

I saw the movie "Maryam" with my family today. I had heard about it, but since it's an indie film, it hadn’t been playing nearby. It came out on video last summer. I actually enjoyed the film, although at times it was very intense. I recommend watching it.

Maryam clearly has a good heart and wants to understand her cousin, Ali, an orphan who intends to study physics at college in America. One can literally see her personal growth throughout the movie, especially as she learns about her family's past and sees the people around her change as the tension of the hostage crisis comes to a boiling point. One can literally see her loss of innocence. I don't relate to Maryam much, but I do understand where she is coming from, especially when she is embarrassed by what she perceives as her parents being too strict. (I have to admit that her parents do seem somewhat hypocritical though. They don't want her to drink, yet they do. They don't want her to date, yet her mother advises her on how to get rid of her cousin, Ali, who is sent with her as chaperone to a party.) At the part where Maryam calls Ali while he's praying, my mother exclaimed, "Doesn't she see that he's praying? How could she not know that?" "Well, she probably wasn't taught about salah, Ummy." I replied. But that's the reality.

Ali is depicted as one whose thoughts are always with Iran and his past. His heart is with his country, and he's angered by the fact that the U.S. is supporting the Shah. He just can't seem to fit into the "Western" world, and that's especially apparent as he's introduced to Maryam's lifestyle and other Iranian students' protests. I feel like I can relate to his anger, frustration, and disappointment at his inability to make things right and to make people understand.

The irony of the movie—and this kept hitting me throughout it—is that it mirrors the post 9/11 tensions. The movie contains real news footage from 1979 and shows the protests and backlash against Iranian-Americans.

The Lives of Man: The Second Life (Dunya): Maturity

IV. Maturity

 Maturity = peak of one’s lifetime and the attainment of one’s full power

 Ibn al-Jawzi divides the human lifespan into five periods:
• Childhood – ends at age 15
• Youth – extends to age 35
• Maturity – ends at age 50
• Seniority – ends at age 70
• Decrepitude – ends in death

 At the peak of one’s faculties and maturity one may expect to attain wisdom.

 At age of forty, the Prophet (pbuh) became the Messenger of Allah.
• It becomes clear by this age whether any person is ultimately intended for good or evil, virtue or corruption, for there are certain signs which appear and predominate.

 Imam Malik: “We used to know people who studied until they were forty, after which they would so occupy themselves with practicing what they knew that they had no free time left to turn to anything worldly.”

Next post: The Lives of Man: The Second Life (Dunya): Seniority

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