Serial Documentary (13) on the Life of the Prophet

Filmed in Lahore, Pakistan, 2009

In April 2009 Baytunur received a grant from an individual donor to produce a documentary on the life of the Prophet. Researched, conceived and directed by the Baytunur team this documentary currently stands at the post-edit stage.


The Serial Research:

1.The Life of Muhammad, A translation of Ibn Ishaq’s Seerat Rasul Allah by A.Guillame, OUP, Karachi, 1990. [Urdu: Seerat Rasool Pak (s.a.w.) berawayat Ibn-e-Ishaq, translated by Allama Muhammad Athar Naeemi, Maktabah Nabawiyya, Lahore, H.1421]

2.The Life of Muhammad, By Muhammad Hussain Haykal, translated by Ismail Ragi A. Al-Faruqi, Darul-Ishaat, Karachi, 1999. [Urdu: Hayaat-e-Muhammad (s.a.w.) , Muhammad Hussain Haykal, Alhamd Publications, Lahore, 2007 ]

3. Muhammad, His life based on the earliest sources, Martin Lings, The Islamic Texts Society, U.K., 1991. [Urdu: Hayaat-e-Sarwar-e-Kainaat Muhammad, Martin Lings, translated by Syed Moinuddin Ahmed Qadri, Progressive Books, Lahore, 1994.]

The Serial Format: 

The total programme duration is 20 minutes shot all on location at various mosques and maqams of Lahore, Pakistan.

The format of each episode is in the broad sequence of A Narration from the life of the Prophet (on the selected topic from one particular book) given by a narrator followed by one focal point of the narration which Scholars expand and give further insight on.

The Narrators:

1. Taimoor Khan Mumtaz, Architect, Lahore
2. Dr. Marium Rafat, Lahore

The Scholars:

1. Suheyl Umar, Director, Iqbal Academy Pakistan, Lahore 
2. Mufti Ghulam Sarwar Qadri, Jamia Rizvia, Model Town, Lahore 
3. Dr. Ejaz Akram, LUMS, Lahore 
4. Mufti Kamaluddin Ahmed, LUMS, Lahore 
5. Dr. Basit Koshul, LUMS, Lahore 
6. Allama Shehzad Mujadidi, Editor Fiqh Batin, Lahore 
7. Dr. Naumana Amjad, Punjab University 
8. Dr. Nasir Afghan, IBA, KArachi
9. Syed Rizwan Zamir, University of Virginia, USA

KASHFUL MAHJUB: On Sufism

Translated by Dr. Aslam Ansari,
Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan.
Commissioned by Baytunur Trust


In Data Sahib's lifetime it seems that there was as much confusion on religious knowledge as exists today. On his student's request thereof he wrote Kashful Mahjub in order to clarify certain concepts.

Excerpt from the chapter "On Sufism - Tasawwuf":

"Allah Almighty and Exalted has said, “And there are servants of God the Compassionate who walk on the earth with humility, and when they are addressed by the illiterate (in a manner unbecoming to them) they say, “Peace (be on you)”. The Messenger of God (PBUH) has said, “Whoever heard the voice of the Sufis and does not believe in (the truth of) their prayers, is inscribed in the eye of Allah as negligent.”

In these times, however, God Almighty and Exalted has kept most of the people veiled from these people (sufis) and their affairs, and the mysteries of this persuasion have been hidden from their hearts. Hence a group of people assumed that this exercise is limited to the correction only of external aspects (of man), without inner experiences. Another group thinks that this (Sufism) is no more than a formal custom with no reality and substance. Such assumptions have been stretched to the extent that following the mockers and scholars of worldly outlook, such people have altogether denied the reality (of Sufism), and have felt happy while having been veiled from these matters. Consequently, the common people followed them, washed away their quest for purification from their inner selves, and have put away the practice of the early (Muslims) and the companions of the Prophet (PBUH).

Thence it was that Shaykhs of this path, may God have mercy on them, said, “Purity is not from amongst the attributes of man. Man indeed is clay and clay is not without impurity. For clay is nothing but impurity, and man can not walk away from impurity.” Therefore, purity cannot be exemplified by acts (afa’l), nor can human nature be destroyed by strict religious practices. Therefore, the attribute of purity related neither to acts nor to inner states; and its name is not related to nouns are honorific names. ‘Purity’ is the attribute of ‘friends’ (Sufis) and they are suns unclouded. For purity is the attributes of friends (lovers), and friend is the person who is dead in so far as his attributes are concerned; he subsists in the attributes of the Friend (God). The states of such people, in view of the people concerned with meaning, is as clear as the sun. When God’s beloved, Muhammad the chosen one (PBUH), was asked about the matter of Harith, he said, “(He is) the man whose heart Allah illumined with the light of faith. It is why his face shines like moon, and he is lustrous with the Divine light, as it has been aptly been said (verse):

“The light of the sun and the moon,
when commingled, becomes model
of the purity of love and (faith in) Unity.”"