Kamran Pasha and Abdur-Rahman Abou Almajd in dialog around Mother of the Believers: A Novel of the Birth of Islam

We have a fresh opportunity to reflect about Mother of the Believers, more particularly.

At this point Kamran Pasha isn’t going to speak about his views on the Novel of the Birth of Islam only but he also speaks about great efforts should be seen in US.

Kamran Pasha.

He is a writer and producer for NBC's highly anticipated new television series Kings, which is a modern day retelling of the Biblical tale of King David. Previously he served as a writer on NBC's remake of Bionic Woman, and on Showtime Network's Golden Globe nominated series Sleeper Cell, about a Muslim FBI agent who infiltrates a terrorist group.

Kamran will soon be a published novelist as well. He has secured a two-book deal with Simon & Schuster's Atria Books to publish Mother of the Believers, an historical fiction tale showing the rise of Islam from the eyes of Prophet Muhammad's teenage wife Aisha, and Shadow of the Swords, a love story set amidst the Crusades.

And Kamran has also made strides in the video game world. He recently wrote Blood on the Sand for Vivendi Universal, the sequel to hip-hop mogul 50 Cent's bestselling game Bulletproof.

An expert on the Middle East, Kamran is one of the few successful Muslim screenwriters in Hollywood. In 2003, he set up his first feature script at Warner Brothers, an historical epic on the love story behind the building of the Taj Mahal. He is currently writing an epic film entitled The Voyage Of Ibn Battuta, which follows the adventures of a famous Arab traveler who journeyed to China in the 14th century.

This feature is being financed by the Moroccan government and produced by French production company Forecast Pictures.

Kamran holds a JD from Cornell Law School, an MBA from Dartmouth and an MFA from UCLA Film School. He spent three years as a journalist in New York City, writing for media companies such as Knight-Ridder.

Q: Mother of the Believers is much needed in this day as there are a lot of alien and enemy, I wonder why did you write it?

KP: I wrote Mother of the Believers because I wanted to tell the story of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) for a new generation of Muslims, many of whom do not read scholarly books and histories about his life.  

Many young Muslims do not truly know what a remarkable man he was and how inspiring his story is, and so I decided to write it in the form of an exciting novel to appeal to the young generation.  

I also wanted to reach an audience of non-Muslims who love historical fiction and educate them about the true beauty of Islam with my novel.

Q: Mother of the Believers is a fascinating and beautifully crafted work of historical fiction, could you elaborate on Aisha, Mother of the Believers?

KP: I wanted to tell the story from the point of view of Aisha, the Prophet's wife (may Allah be pleased with her), because she was a remarkable woman who is a wonderful role model for modern Muslim girls.  

She was not a submissive and fearful woman; rather she was fiercely intelligent and confident.  

Aisha was not only a leading religious scholar and jurist, she was also a poet and skilled politician, as well as a general who led armies into Iraq.  

She had great courage and is a powerful example that a Muslim woman is meant to be strong and not weak.  

And the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) loved her the most and died in her arms, which says much about how much he admired her strong spirit.

Q: Your work explores themes of the Birth of Islam, I would like to know the character of Umm Ruman as you'd love her to be seen through reading.

KP: Umm Ruman was the wife of Abu Bakr and the mother of Aisha (may Allah be pleased with them).  She was a deeply devout woman and one of the earliest people to embrace Islam.  

Umm Ruman served as a powerful supporter both for the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) and her husband, and served a critical role in arranging for their escape from Mecca during the hijrah to Medina.  

Had it not been for her quick wits and willingness to risk her life to protect them, both the Prophet (peace be upon him) and Abu Bakr could have been killed by the assassins that were sent to hunt them down during their escape.  

Umm Ruman was also a good role model for her daughter and helped Aisha mature quickly from a young girl into a confident woman who could serve as a spiritual leader for the whole community.

Q: We love seeing mainstream life through Aisha 's eyes, could you elaborate on reaction, please?

KP: The reason Aisha is a wonderful narrator for my novel is that she was a very human personality.  

She was strong, confident and opinionated, but by her own admission she had many flaws, including a quick temper and fits of insecurity and jealousy.  

She was not a plastic saint, but a human being just like you and me.  She had to overcome her flaws and when she made mistakes, she learned from them.  

There is so much to learn from the example of Aisha's humanity for all Muslims. And the reaction to using her voice as the narrator has been largely positive. Muslims who read my book have mostly said they appreciated the humanity and honesty of Aisha's perspectives on things, and her flaws only made her more believable and relatable.  

Islam was sent to guide real people with flesh and blood, strengths and weaknesses, not for imaginary saints who never make mistakes, and Aisha's voice helps us to understand that.

Q: How should Beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) be shown for Western readers?

KP: The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) was the best of human beings and his life speaks for itself.  

There is a tendency among modern Muslims, however, to elevate him further than he wanted, to hold him up to be so perfect in the imagination that he no longer resembles the human being described in the Holy Qur'an and the Hadiths. The Prophet (peace be upon him) was the greatest of men not because he was unlike other men, but because he was just like us and chose to master the weaknesses we all struggle with.  

He ate and drank, slept at night and had marital relations.  

He would get tired and sometimes saddened by the burdens of his destiny.  Most of us would have given up and become bitter and angry after so many years of being rejected by the idolaters.    

And yet he kept to his mission and used his daily life to show mankind that we can be choose to be better.  

That is why I portrayed him in my novel in accordance with the early Islamic histories, which do not fear to discuss his humanity.  

The wonderful thing about our Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) is that he was a human being who struggled with the same impulses that we face, and he ultimately triumphed.  

He was not a supernatural being, so if he can do it, so can we.  That is the lesson of the Prophet's life for mankind.

Q: I wonder how should Western Representations of the Muslim Woman be faced and corrected.

KP: The bets way to correct Western misunderstandings about women in Islam is to correct Muslim misunderstandings about women in Islam.  

Many Muslims today mistreat women and hold them back from education and success.  This is a complete violation of Islam.  As I show in my novel, the early Ummah was filled with powerful women like Aisha, Khadija, Fatima, Umm Ruman, Sumaya and so many others (may Allah be pleased with them all).  

These were not oppressed women but confident, intelligent leaders of society that both men and women admired.  

They were businesswomen, scholars and even warriors who fought beside men. Muslims themselves have forgotten that our community was founded by powerful Muslim women, and until we return to honoring their example in the way we treat our mothers, wives, sisters and daughters, the world will never know the true beauty of women's role in Islam.

Q: The Prophet Muhammad married Aisha when she was nine. They forget that in those times, girls often got married soon after their menses, what did you add?

KP: In the foreword to my novel, I discuss this issue at length.  I used the popular account of Aisha's marriage at the age of 9 to illustrate that such marriages were the norm throughout the world until very recently and did not cause controversy until the modern age.  

Prior to modern times, life expectancy was short and girls were considered women and married off shortly after their cycles began.  

In the United States, girls were being married as early as ten years old until the 1920s.  

The Virgin Mary (peace be upon her) is said by Christian scholars to have been around the age of 12 when she gave birth to Jesus (peace be upon him).  

Only in the last few years have some deranged people tried insulting the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) for marrying Aisha at a young age.  

But in Aisha's lifetime, not one of the Prophet's enemies among the idolators or the Jews or Christians ever criticized or even commented on his marriage, as it was considered completely normal.  

I should note that I personally believe Aisha (peace be upon her) was actually probably at least 14 years at the time of her marriage as she was present at the Battle of Badr one year later and the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) forbade anyone under the age of 15 to be on the battlefield.

Regardless, her age was a non-issue in her lifetime and people who try to attack our beloved Prophet (peace be upon him) on this issue are likely to be sexual perverts themselves.  As the Sufi pirs say, the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) is a mirror -- when you judge his life, you only see your own character reflected back at you.

Q: You hope a day comes that novels about Prophet Muhammad, Aisha and Ali become as commonplace in Western literature as the diverse and beloved books on historical figures such as Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Cleopatra and Queen Elizabeth I, I wonder how can get that hope to come true.

KP: This will only happen if the Muslims follow my example and start writing such books.  In recent years Muslims have created all kinds of taboos around art, and many are afraid to write novels about the heroes of Islam.  

Which is ridiculous, since such novels have been written by Muslims for centuries. The Mughal emperors compiled the Hamzana -- recently translated in English as "The Adventures of Amir Hamza" -- which contains many wonderful stories and tales about the Prophet's uncle Hamza.  

Stories about the Prophet (peace be upon him) have appeared in Muslim poetry and art for a millennium.  

One of my favorite poems is "Yusuf and Zulakha" by the 15th century Persian poet Jami, which is a wonderful story based on Surah Yusuf of the Holy Qur'an. The great Muslim poet Rumi also composed many hugely popular poems about the Prophet (peace be upon him) and Sahaba (may Allah be pleased with them). These were works of art and not meant to be read as scholarly tomes.  

Instead they were meant to inspire Muslims with love for our beautiful religion through art and storytelling.  

Under the influence of foolish fanatics, Muslims today have stopped producing such beautiful stories and art, and as a result we have widespread ignorance in the Ummah about the great heroes of Islam.  

Only when Muslims return to their ancient tradition of art and storytelling will their be new novels on the Holy Prophet (prayers of Allah and peace be upon him), Ali (may Allah ennoble his face), Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) and all the great heroes of Islam.

I have tried to light the way with "Mother of the Believers" and now other Muslims must follow and create their own novels and art.

Q: What about the future of American Islamic novels?

KP: The future of American Islamic novels rests in the hands of Muslim writers. Instead of complaining about how Islam is being portrayed in Hollywood and Western media, Muslims must seize the initiative and start offering Americans and others their own authentic voices about Islam.  

That is what I have done and that is what I encourage all Muslim writers to do as well.

Q: Professor Denise Spellberg found The Jewel of Medina a "very ugly, stupid piece of work" how did you find it?

KP: I think the media drama around The Jewel of Media was unnecessary and demeaning to everyone involved.  I know the author Sherry Jones and she is a very nice and kind woman who did the best she could.

She admired the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) and Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) and simply wanted to write a book that showed how empowered early Muslim women were and how advanced the Prophet (peace be upon him) was in his attitudes toward women.  

For her efforts, she was maligned in the press and treated disgracefully.  

We Muslims are better than that.  Instead of finding fault with The Jewel of Medina, we need to write the stories of the great heroes and heroines of Islam ourselves.  

We have the responsibility to offer our own perspectives through art and literature rather than sit back and criticize the work of others.  I encourage Muslims to show the world how much we love our Holy Prophet (peace be upon him), not through protest and anger, but by living ethical lives and producing great works of art that honor his memory.

Q: There're Anti-Muslim Literature, Anti-Muslim Conspiracies Science, Anti-Muslim hate Literature, I wonder how can we face or stop them.

KP: There has always been anti-Muslim rhetoric and there always will be.  The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) said that Islam began as a strange and unusual phenomenon, and that is how it will be at the end as well.  

Islam is clear water, and most of mankind is mired in its own ugliness that it cannot bear to look at that water and see its true face reflected back.  

Our task is not to waste our energy trying to fight a never-ending stream of anti-Muslim bigots, but to simply ignore them and let our own lives reveal the true character of Islam.  

That is why the Holy Qur'an advises Muslims to avoid arguing with ignorant people and to simply say to them "peace."  We should not despair about the forces that are pitted against Islam.  

The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) had far greater forces arrayed against him, and far less odds of Islam surviving, and look at how history turned out.  

No anti-Muslim bigot will be able to defeat Islam, as Allah has promised in the Holy Qur'an that Islam has been sent to triumph over all other ways.  

So we should simply play our part in the historical process with honesty, integrity and good cheer.  

Anyone who fights Allah will lose, so obsessing over the hate-mongers is a waste of time.  

Let us live the lives of true Muslims and let that light shine from our souls to illuminate the darkness.

Abdur-Rahman: Thank you very much, I appreciate your great novel.