Star Wars and Islam

Star Wars was inspired by Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With A Thousand Faces . This book is a chronicling of every story, myth, legend, and religious text that has found common ground in its telling throughout human history.

Now you can imagine that something that has been inspired by so much human history is going to resonate with a huge audience.

This is an audience with varying opinions and nostalgic experiences that are tapped into through this cultural product.

For me, seeing JJ Abrams new Star Wars trilogy has brought back the experience of how Star Wars resonates with the Islamic faith.

You wouldn't see it because it's not explicit, but Star Wars brims with the ethos, mantras, and mission of Islam. In fact, it does so uniquely and in a balanced manner.

Islam and Muslims. Separate and Together.

The infallible and the fallible.

Intertwined.

Those that can never be perfect, who follow an ideal of perfection.

Why?

Not to attain perfection but to emancipate themselves from mediocrity and attain their full potential as instruments of a higher purpose.

To completely submit.

‘Submit’? That’s a tough one to swallow in the 21st Century

To submit is a tough thing for people today to swallow. Especially in an era of pointing out brainwashing or putting the individual on a pedastal.

But we ALL submit to things.

On a daily basis too!

On several occasions in Obi-Wan’s training of Anakin, Obi-Wan chastises his apprentice in the way he uses the Force.

Anakin sees it as a tool and tries to bend it to his whim. He does so more menacingly when he transforms into Darth Vader.

Obi-Wan points out that the force is not a play thing. It is something to fully submit to in order to understand.

We live in an age of information but also of trying to attain a deeper understanding of things. In order to do that, we have to submit to them.

Whether its our political ideas, hobbies, careers, or personal relationships, when we give priority to something, we are submitting to it. By internalizing these things and prioritizing them, we show submission.

The Jedi in their own world are surrounded by people of the like, who submit to a variety of ideas. However, regardless of all the different things they can submit to, they chose to submit to the source of all life….The Force.

God gives us free-range and choice in doing so. We have the choice to submit to what we believe in and is important to us. Moreover, we reinforce that submission with our actions.

Like the Jedi who gains enlightenment through submission to the force, for a Muslim it is not hard on the tongue to say that he is a Slave of God.

He becomes, a ‘free slave’ with this decision.

The Light and the Dark

The fight of light and dark in the Star Wars universe is another aspect that I feel is reminiscent of the Islamic tradition. The opening chapter of the Qur’an, called Surah Fatiha (The Opener), summarizes the essence of the Qur’an and it's predecessors:

Show us the straight path, the path that You [God]have favored. Not the path that shows You anger, nor the path that goes astray.

The good path imbues balancing what is the living force (that which is around you) and the big picture or prophecy. Balancing the worldly life and the after life.

Jedi are told to curb their desires for the greater good. The light also believes that you cannot control the Force. That the Force is its own entity and does as it wills. The Jedi are merely instruments of the Force. “May the Force be with you” and “If the Force wills” are God-conscious affirmations consistently made by these knights of the light.

The same goes for Muslims, who believe a righteous life, is one that pleases God. To please God, you must be His instrument of good.

Contrast this with the dark side, which strives to have dominion of the Force. This viewpoint believes that you can use the powers of the Force to bend to your will and seek out your own pleasures.

Moreover the dark side believes that the corporeal life is all there is, and so it's followers seek to maximize their power, lusting for its pleasures, even trying to find ways to extend it.

In Islam, the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), implores to live life like a traveler: simply.

You can see the same with the Jedi who travel in simple robes and are reminded about humility, duty, and that the corporeal life is a temporary one.

“Humility is not thinking less of yourself. Humility is thinking about yourself, less.” — — Mufti Ismail ibn Musa Menk

Patience

Another important message that resonates from Star Wars is the power of fear, lack of faith, and importance of patience (sabr). Sabr is incredibly important for a believer. It is even a characteristic of God, As-Saboot.

You can see a parallel between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. Anakin in the Clone Wars is known as “The Hero Without Fear,” yet he is blinded by fear, making irrational decisions that stray from the Jedi Code and ultimately lead to his downfall.

“Fear leads to anger, anger to hate, hate to suffering. Fear is the path to the dark side.” — -Yoda

Now, you might say that this is un-Islamic; that we have incredible fear of Allah, as Muslims.

That is true, but fear in the context of Star Wars is meant to show fear of worldly things. Jedi believe that these fears are of temporal things, like wealth and off-spring.

Many times in the Qur’an, Allah reminds us to not let wealth and children stray us from remembrance and consciousness of God. It is Anakin’s fear of losing his wife that causes him to do unspeakable things, and commit sacrilegious atrocities.

In fact, it is to such an extent that, because of Anakin's efforts to save his wife, that she dies. He fulfilled his own premonition through his fear.

Contrast this to Obi-Wan. He, like his brother Anakin, gained fame in the Clone Wars.

Obi-Wan Was nicknamed “The Negotiator” for his ability to stop battles before they even started. His diplomatic skills were the talk of the galaxy, echoing his patience and importance to for preservation of life.

Patience is powerful. Patience imbues God-consciousness and duty.

Try spending 20 years waiting for a renewed hope in the galaxy.

Obi-Wan’s social structure had completely collapsed with the Great Jedi Purge. His brothers and sisters had been slaughtered, yet he stuck to his duty and protected Luke Skywalker in the harsh dessert of Tatooine.

Waiting.

Waiting for hope to return to the galaxy.

And it’s not to say that Obi-Wan was not challenged in his faith. When he found out that his entire order of Jedi had been massacred, he did not go on a vengeful spree of death like Anakin did with the Tusken Raiders who caused his mother’s death, killing men, women, and children.

No.

In that moment, Obi-Wan did what he could to save the remaining Jedi and then went to live the last twenty years of his life protecting Luke Skywalker, a sliver of hope in the dark times that had befallen the galaxy.

Allah says that if someone harms you than you have right to retribution, but to forgive is better.

He says this a lot.

And even when He is harsh, we find that the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), enacted those passages with a gentle touch. This is embodied in Obi Wan. He lives by this, even when confronting his lost brother, Anakin on the fiery planet of Mustafar.

He is extremely reluctant to duel and eliminate his now-dark side friend. Even, after dismembering Anakin and watching his former apprentice burn in agony, Obi-Wan could not go down to finish the job. It is not the Jedi way.

Don’t let regrets stop you from action

Even the idea of how we believe that just because you are born a Muslim does not mean you are guaranteed that you will die one. The story of the tragic hero, Anakin Skywalker is one that proves this point.

Anakin, was the Chosen One who would bring balance to the force and peace to the galaxy. Yet, by succumbing to his desires, he would fall to the dark side, rise as the most powerful force of evil in the galaxy, and almost completely wipe out the good in the universe.

Just because you are born a believer does not mean you will die one. At the same time, just because you sin profusely, does not mean that you can’t one day see the light again.

And in the same story of Anakin Skywalker, redemption is attained. With the help of his son, Luke, Darth Vader is able to return to the light, destroy Emperor Palpatine, and ultimately fulfill the prophecy that he was born into.

He brought balance back to the Force.

God commands Muslims to continue asking for His mercy. Muslims believe that when they make a big deal of their sins, to God, they are not so big, and repentance is key to our salvation. On the same note, Muslims believe that when they don’t make a big deal of their sins, they are a huge deal to God.

Going back to Anakin’s story, to a Muslim, its a formidable example of both the power of redemption and the danger of extremism. The whole tragedy of Anakin could have been avoided, had Anakin realized that when he let Palpatine kill Mace Windu (In Revenge of the Sith), that he had not fallen completely from the light. That happens through regular and consistent wrongdoing, and even then, there is a chance for redemption.

Succumbing to your inner darkness does not absolve you from the light. The light still burns. Had Anakin realized this, he would have known that he could still make things right.

He believed that this ONE ACTION was irredeemable and his guilt spiralled him into committing far greater atrocities. Its how many people who try and follow a religious faith feel devastated when committing sin. THey feel that they can’t come back from the shortfall.

They may also find themselves falling into a downward spiral, like Anakin, who actually spent twenty years of his life (half of his life) falling into deeper misery and ‘sin’.

Why?

To medicate his every-growing, heavy conscious for the actions that he had committed. Darth Vader rose and became his facade, his coping mechanism for his faults.

What he really needed was to break out of the spell, through redemption. To know that redemption had ALWAYS been possible. It took his son, Luke, to show him love and hope to face his grief with humility.

Anakin stayed on the dark side because of fear that he would never be able to gain forgiveness.

That is his tragedy.

Twenty years of suffering.

In Islam it is acknowledged you can work to make a change back to God. It may be a difficult path but redemption is not impossible. You just have to be able to seek forgiveness, both from God and from those that you have wronged.

“And seek forgiveness of Allah. Lo! Allah is ever Forgiving, Merciful.” Qur’an Chapter 4, Verse 106

So there you have it

Star Wars has meant and continues to have deep meaning to a variety of people from different backgrounds and experiences. Its timeliness is linked to its success and this is one person’s experience on this classic tale.

If you enjoyed it. Please leave a comment. If you didn’t enjoy it, than please share your differences on it.

Peace be with you!