National Geographic’s “The Story of God,” a TV series looking into three major world religions, Morgan Freeman has recently begun its focus into Islam. Freeman, 79, says that Christianity, Judaism, and Islam share three main tenets: good thoughts, good deeds, and good words.
In the second season’s first three episodes, Freeman will focus on the themes “The Chosen One,” “Heaven and Hell,” and the “Proof of God,” in which he investigates religious leaders and varying major beliefs.
In a segment that aired earlier this June, Morgan Freeman visited the Islamic Center in Washington D.C. to speak with a scholar of the Islamic tradition and a calligraphist. Freeman enters the Mosque courtyard to examine the meaning of Qur’anic verses, and discusses the significance and beauty behind Qur’anic calligraphy.
Freeman says, “For Muslims, the Qur’an is the holy revelation of God’s word. The very existence of the words of the Qur’an is proof of god. Drawing these words has become a high form of art – a way to invoke the presence of God and all who gaze at them. No matter which language they speak.”
This National Geographic special may aid in the ongoing discussion between Muslim countries and the Western World, most notably regarding Islam-targeting stereotypes and Western fear that stems from them.
