always.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Get a load of this my friends!

"Muallaf" and the mystery of Rohana's numbers.

Some Singaporeans on facebook have been discussing "Muallaf" and the numbers Rohana cited, every time the poor girl got a little upset. This, to me, is exciting beyond belief.

Just a month ago, a lovely Japanese young lady named Sawaka watched "Muallaf" in Tokyo. Soon after, she emailed me and said, "I myself am a pseudo Catholic, but watching the movie made me want to read the Koran." I told her to look up quranexplorer.com and she thanked me for the website address.

Much as I would prefer that viewers who are curious about Rohani's numbers would actually pick up a copy of the Holy Quran with translations to find out what the verses were saying, I do realise that it is hard to remember the numbers and the scenes they appeared in.

So here then are two scenes where Rohani cited some numbers, which chapters those numbers came from, and the verses themselves translated into English.

After Mrs. Siva's caning episode, Brian drove Rohana home. Along the way, he said to Rohana, “You won’t have to worry about Mrs. Siva for a while. I think she’ll probably get suspended. And if your sister decides to press charges, she’ll be out for good.” To which Rohana replied, “One hundred and eight, three.”

In the Holy Quran, chapter 108 is entitled “Al-Kauthar”, and line 3 translates to “For he who hateth thee, he will be cut off from future hope.”

In the scene where Brian and Brother Anthony visited the girls in their hideout home, Brian confronted the girls by saying, “Don’t worry, we won’t let on, but you girls ran away from home, didn’t you?” To which Rohani replied, “I wouldn’t call it running away… just running to safety.” Then, Rohana interrupted the conversation by muttering “Sixteen, Forty-one” under her breath.

Chapter 16 is entitled “An-Nahl”, and verse 41 reads, “To those who leave their homes in the cause of Allah, after suffering oppression, We will assuredly give a goodly home in this world: but truly the reward of the Hereafter will be greater. If they only knew!”

For those who have plans to watch the film soon, it might be fun to bring along a little note book, or maybe even just a pen and a piece of paper, on which to jot down Rohani's mysterious numbers. Then when you get home, you can look up their meaning at quranexplorer.com to check their relevance to the scenes in which they appeared.

One movie reviewer in Singapore told me that after watching "Muallaf", he went home to his mother, gave her a hug, and asked her to forgive him for all the times he had hurt her feelings. I remember thinking to myself, "Even if the whole world now hates this film, I shall be eternally grateful, just for that one act of love and reconciliation."

How perfect God is.

taken from: http://yasminthefilmmaker.blogspot.com

Thank you Yasmin Ahmad(:

would you please take me to the movies?i would reaaaally love to watch Muallaf.pretty pretty please?
(: