I watched a DVD last night called 'The Four Feathers' (2002) staring Heath Ledger, Kate Hudson and Djimon Hounsou as Abou Fatma. Adapted from the book by A.E.W. Mason written 1902 the movie immerses the watcher in the more morally principled lifestyle of the Victorian era and contrasts that with life in the Islamic culture of the Sudan in 1884.
Both cultures are considerably different to the liberal western lifestyle we are familiar with in the early twenty first century. The greatest contrast though for me is between Heath Ledger's character Harry Feversham and Djimon Hounsou's Abou Fatma.
Harry Feversham is a young principled Christian man who has withdrawn from the British army in circumstances which portray him to his friends as a coward leaving the military to avoid serving his country. They send Harry a package containing four white feathers and this causes him to decide to travel to the Sudan with the aim of rejoining the army or at least protecting his friends.
As a result of his exploits and attempts to stay close to his regiment Faversham finds himself travelling across the desert and then being abandoned as a band of new slaves kill their captors and leave him for dead. Harry then attempts to continue on the camel the slaves had left for him because he had stopped one of them from getting a beating.
Dying of heat exhaustion and dehydration he collapses near Abou Fatma as his camel escaped into the wilderness. Fatma takes this as a sign from Allah that he is to protect Harry and so begins a brief but fast friendship of adventure as the two seek to save and protect Harry's friends from the armies of Mardi.
"So what" you say "Has this all to do the fear of God?" Well I have been very impressed by Djimon Hounsou's portrayal of characters with genuinely profound and immensely deep faith. He played Juba in Ridley Scott's 'The Gladiator' and then Abou Fatma in 'The Four Feathers.'
What strikes me about Hounsou is the way he portrays a character of unflinching conviction and unyielding faith in God. He demonstrates the serenity and certainty that comes from absolute conviction that he is about Gods business. He shows the appropriate respect or fear of God. When he is in Gods presence in prayer he is on his knees, head bowed and giving one hundred percent of his attention.
The Four Feathers shows the difference between Islam and the Christianity of the Victorian era and the way in which the Islam of that time incorporated fervent and fearful worship of God into the daily lifestyle. Meanwhile even in Victorian times Christianity was much more informal and people more discreet about their prayer and worship.
Today we Christians treat God as an adjunct to our lives. We relate to him as though he were our best friend always ready to grant our next wish. We seldom go to the house of the Lord to kneel before God. We are rarely contrite in confessing our sins. We rush around in our busy lives and include God in the most informal manner.
I am not suggesting that we convert to Islam. Nor am I suggesting that we revert to the law and Judaism. But I do believe that well founded Christians develop in their lives a healthy fear of God. We need to understand that God is the Lord and there is no other; There is no God before Him. That He is the Alpha and the Omega; The beginning and the End. That we are at His disposal not He at ours and we are the creation not the Creator.
I believe a big part of having serenity of existence and certainty of purpose comes from having the correct relationship with God. A relationship based on humility and contriteness of spirit before the Almighty God. A relationship that founded on the conviction that 'God so loved the world that he gave His only Son, Jesus Christ, that who soever believes on Him will inherit eternal life.'
Both cultures are considerably different to the liberal western lifestyle we are familiar with in the early twenty first century. The greatest contrast though for me is between Heath Ledger's character Harry Feversham and Djimon Hounsou's Abou Fatma.
Harry Feversham is a young principled Christian man who has withdrawn from the British army in circumstances which portray him to his friends as a coward leaving the military to avoid serving his country. They send Harry a package containing four white feathers and this causes him to decide to travel to the Sudan with the aim of rejoining the army or at least protecting his friends.
As a result of his exploits and attempts to stay close to his regiment Faversham finds himself travelling across the desert and then being abandoned as a band of new slaves kill their captors and leave him for dead. Harry then attempts to continue on the camel the slaves had left for him because he had stopped one of them from getting a beating.
Dying of heat exhaustion and dehydration he collapses near Abou Fatma as his camel escaped into the wilderness. Fatma takes this as a sign from Allah that he is to protect Harry and so begins a brief but fast friendship of adventure as the two seek to save and protect Harry's friends from the armies of Mardi.
"So what" you say "Has this all to do the fear of God?" Well I have been very impressed by Djimon Hounsou's portrayal of characters with genuinely profound and immensely deep faith. He played Juba in Ridley Scott's 'The Gladiator' and then Abou Fatma in 'The Four Feathers.'
What strikes me about Hounsou is the way he portrays a character of unflinching conviction and unyielding faith in God. He demonstrates the serenity and certainty that comes from absolute conviction that he is about Gods business. He shows the appropriate respect or fear of God. When he is in Gods presence in prayer he is on his knees, head bowed and giving one hundred percent of his attention.
The Four Feathers shows the difference between Islam and the Christianity of the Victorian era and the way in which the Islam of that time incorporated fervent and fearful worship of God into the daily lifestyle. Meanwhile even in Victorian times Christianity was much more informal and people more discreet about their prayer and worship.
Today we Christians treat God as an adjunct to our lives. We relate to him as though he were our best friend always ready to grant our next wish. We seldom go to the house of the Lord to kneel before God. We are rarely contrite in confessing our sins. We rush around in our busy lives and include God in the most informal manner.
I am not suggesting that we convert to Islam. Nor am I suggesting that we revert to the law and Judaism. But I do believe that well founded Christians develop in their lives a healthy fear of God. We need to understand that God is the Lord and there is no other; There is no God before Him. That He is the Alpha and the Omega; The beginning and the End. That we are at His disposal not He at ours and we are the creation not the Creator.
I believe a big part of having serenity of existence and certainty of purpose comes from having the correct relationship with God. A relationship based on humility and contriteness of spirit before the Almighty God. A relationship that founded on the conviction that 'God so loved the world that he gave His only Son, Jesus Christ, that who soever believes on Him will inherit eternal life.'
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