Da Vinci Code!

Yesterday I went to see “The Da Vinci Code” film and today I went for another film called Saint Mary an Iranian production about the story of Virgin Mary since she was born till she had birth of Jesus peace be upon them.
We know that the Da Vinci Code has caused a large fuss! I read the novel couple of years ago, just as it was getting famous! And I remember that at one stage I felt the novel too informative for me… I really felt lost and I had to go and search online for the art/architecture works mentioned. I felt fascinated by all that! But afterwards I managed to create a balance and realized that a lot of what is mentioned in the book is actually all in the author’s head.
And in the movie they draw our attention to the fact that the book and the film is actually what the author is presuming and not the truth. In a line where Sir Teabing says “the mind sees what it wants to see” or something like that, as he was explaining his theory about the Last Supper and the new concept of the holy grail.
So all the analysis that the author did when dealing with Da Vinci’s paintings and the history events that happened with the Knight templars and so on are one way of looking at things and creating a sort of interweaving web between them. Is it the truth? It’s hard to say yes or no! I’d like to think that there [might] be some sort of truth in it.
Again, in the novel you’ll realize the fact that Jesus is a prophet, a man with extraordinary features and not the son of God! And it claims that the church did change these facts and made a god out of him. To a certain extent this is what most Muslims believe! We do believe that Jesus is a prophet of God and that people who came after him made a god out of him and of his mother. But Jesus on the Day of Judgment would say that he had nothing to do with that!
[[And (remember) when Allah will say (on the Day of Resurrection): “O Issa (Jesus) son of Mariam (Mary)! Did you say unto men: ‘Worship me and my mother as two gods besides Allah?’ “He will say: “Glorified are You! It was not for me to say what I had no right (to say). Had I said such a thing, You would have surely known it. You know what is in my inner self though I do not know what is in Yours; truly, You, only You, are the All-Knower of all that is hidden (and unseen).]] Holy Quran 5:116
And as far as the idea of having a holy bloodline and that Jesus got married and had a descendant… I don’t know much about that from an Islamic point of view, but from what I heard we think that Jesus did not got married.
In the movie near the ending Robert Langdon mentioned his own faith in Jesus as he was once trapped in a well and he prayed for Jesus to save his life and that’s what happened! I can’t remember reading this in the novel. But in any case this is an attempt to show people that this novel and the movie is not anti-Christ as a lot of angry people all over the world claimed.
I do understand the anger and the endless attempts to ban the movie and before that the novel! But is it indeed the right call to make? And should we as Muslims rush into the main stream of opposing the movie/novel without understanding what it is all about?!
We do respect other people’s choices of belief! And we accept the fact that we are different! But at the same time we only believe in what God has told us! And that is what we think is the truth!
It seems that the talk and debates after the Da Vinci Code is gonna continue for a while! Which reminds me about an evening that will take place on the 30th/June titled “Beyond the Da Vinci Code – Muslim and Christian responses to the Jesus controversy”. This will be the launching event of Islam Festival Edinburgh| August 2006!
Well… make sure to pass by if you happen to be around and check this for more details about the evening.
And as it happens to be I read this good article by a Muslim scholar [who’s a former priest] and his opinion about all the fuss around the Da Vinci Code.