Now you can watch Makkah's glory on big screen in Dubai

Saman Haziq/Khaleej Times
August 23, 2018

For the first time in the UAE, people - including non-Muslims - who have never visited Makkah, can experience the holy city like never before as the Islamic Information Centre in Dubai is set to screen the movie One Day in the Haram.

Packed with insider knowledge and information, this unique documentary sheds light on the most sacred place on Earth, offering us an exclusive look at the inner workings of the great mosque of Makkah, also called Al Haram Mosque (which means the sacred mosque in Arabic), through the eyes of the people working there. The Haram mosque is the largest in the world, and surrounds Kaaba.

British filmmaker Abrar Hussain, who is the director of the film, spent over a year researching different aspects of the great mosque of Makkah to bring out the most complete and compelling vision of the Haram ever produced. "We went through a very rigorous research phase, where I researched every aspect of the Haram, and interviewed countless workers before deciding on what aspects would be filmed," he said.

Talking about the film, Hussain told Khaleej Times: "The film covers all aspects of the Haram from the perspective of the people who work there. The film goes into incredible detail about the departments and the processes that run the Haram on a daily basis. Some of the departments featured in the film include the Imam Department, Zam Zam Department, the Religious Affairs Department, the Kiswah factory, the Haram's maintenance and IT departments, the social media department, and the online Quran teaching department. The film also shows in great detail the religious aspects of the Umrah, and features a section on the current expansion of the Haram."

Every year, millions of pilgrims come from all over the world to visit this holy city, and the film looks at the logistics and processes put in place to cater for the service of so many people. While focusing on the different departments within the Haram, it brings to light some of the human characters responsible for the running of this huge institution. "The film also discusses important issues related to the love Muslims have for this holy place, and we see some of the Islamic rituals associated with the Haram. We seek to explain to a non-Muslim audience some of the history and traditions behind it," he said.

It is 90 minutes in length and structured around the five daily Islamic prayers. The main aim of the film, Hussain said was to show how successfully the Haram is run, how efficeintly organised its departments are, and how seriously its workers take their jobs. 

"The Haram represents the source of Islam, it's the birthplace of the religion, and up to now it has been pretty much an unseen world, something not properly documented. So I think one of the main aims of the film was to reveal Makkah to the world, to produce something that had not been experienced by audiences before."

"I see the film as a beautiful way to share the beauty of Islam, so that a non-Muslim can watch it, and learn something about the religion, and get a sense of how peaceful and tolerant Islam really is. I also hope the film provides an inspiration to the millions of Muslims around the world who yearn to visit Makkah, but have not yet had the opportunity to do so."

The film will be screened on Friday at the Madinat Jumeirah Theater (shows at 2.30pm/5pm/9.30pm). Tickets can be bought on www.islamicic.com/oneday at Dh50.

Director of Islamic Information Center Rashid Al Junaibi said: "The moment we saw the trailer we knew that we want to get the screening rights for the movie in UAE. The Center sees this movie screening as an opportunity to share the message of Islam and showcase a place loved by millions of Muslims across the globe.

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News Network
March 10,2020

Tehran, Mar 10: Twenty-seven people have died from methanol poisoning in Iran after rumours that drinking alcohol can help cure the novel coronavirus infection, state news agency IRNA reported on Monday. The outbreak of the virus in Islamic republic is one of the deadliest outside of China, where the disease originated.

Twenty have died in the southwestern province of Khuzestan and seven in the northern region of Alborz after consuming bootleg alcohol, IRNA said.

Drinking alcohol is banned in Iran for everyone except some non-Muslim religious minorities. Local media regularly report on lethal cases of poisoning caused by bootleg liquor.

A spokesman for Jundishapur medical university in Ahvaz, the capital of Khuzestan, said 218 people had been hospitalised there after being poisoned.

The poisonings were caused by "rumours that drinking alcohol can be effective in treating coronavirus," Ali Ehsanpour said.

The deputy prosecutor of Alborz, Mohammad Aghayari, told IRNA the dead had drunk methanol after being "misled by content online, thinking they were fighting coronavirus and curing it." If ingested in large quantities, methanol can cause blindness, liver damage and death.

Iran has been scrambling to contain the spread of the COVID-19 illness which has hit all of the country's 31 provinces, killing 237 people and infecting 7,161.

According to IRNA, 16 out of 69 confirmed cases have died of coronavirus infection in Khuzestan as of Sunday.

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News Network
March 2,2020

Paris, Mar 2: A global agency says the spreading new virus could make the world economy shrink this quarter, for the first time since the international financial crisis more than a decade ago.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says Monday in a special report on the impact of the virus that the world economy is still expected to grow overall this year and rebound next year.

But it lowered its forecasts for global growth in 2020 by half a percentage point, to 2.4 per cent, and said the figure could go as low as 1.5 per cent if the virus lasts long and spreads widely.

The last time world GDP shrank on a quarter-on-quarter basis was at the end of 2008, during the depths of the financial crisis. On a full-year basis, it last shrank in 2009.

The OECD said China's reduced production is hitting Asia particularly hard but also companies around the world that depend on its goods.

It urged governments to act fast to prevent contagion and restore consumer confidence.

The Paris-based OECD, which advises developed economies on policy, said the impact of this virus is much higher than past outbreaks because "the global economy has become substantially more interconnected, and China plays a far greater role in global output, trade, tourism and commodity markets."

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Agencies
May 1,2020

Saudi Arabia has initiated refund of work visa fee to foreigners unable to travel to the Kingdom due to the suspension of international flights in the aftermath of Covid-19 pandemic.

Several work visas were cancelled, following which the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, in cooperation and coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, announced the refund. The cancellation and refunding of the stamped visas will be considered effective from the date of issuance of the royal decree on March 18, reported Saudi Gazette.

As a precautionary measure to curb the spread of coronavirus, the Kingdom suspended all international flight. The ministry of health in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday announced 1,325 new Covid-19 coronavirus cases and 169 recoveries. With this, the total number of cases in the Kingdom now stands at 21,402, while recoveries stand at 2,953, as on Wednesday reported KT.

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