ISLAMIC VIDEO PRODUCTIONS [IVP]
It was the in year 1986, when I and my family were busy helping our friends in setting up an Islamic Center or Mosque for the South Bay of Los Angeles county. We purchased a house on Walnut Street and converted that into a prayer hall and area for people to attend the prayers and learn about Islam. A series of speakers and speeches were presented every Sunday and I was one of them. I wrote papers on Quran and Time dimensions, Quran and Space sciences, ..etc. Being a Spacecraft Engineer/ Scientist myself, Magellan Space Mission was my last project with NASA/ Hughes Space Craft. Meanwhile, I found out that we were using the same classical method of verbal speeches to communicate Islamic teachings while the AUDIO VISUAL technology for communication was expanding widely.
I decided that AUDIO-TECHNOLOGY must be used to propagate Islamic Teachings in this day and age so that the American mainstream may understand Islam. In addition I had the background of film making and producing due to my association with such great personalities like music Directors Naushad, Muhammad Rafi, Dilip Kumar, Majrooh Sultan Puri, and many others of the Indian Film Industry. With this background I started ISLAMIC VIDEO PRODUCTION in and around 1988 to produce documentaries on various Islamic subjects. Of course being the Space Aircraft Engineer /Scientist and NASA/Huges Award winner, I produced my first documentary "TIMELESS TIME" and I selected my daughter, Moonie Ahmed, who was still a
student at University of Southern California (USC). Timeless Time showed the time dimensions as stated in the Quran and perhaps for the first time showed the relativity of time as understood in the noble Quran. This video was so popular that even the Islamic Center of Leicester, England jumped to sign exclusive distribution rights through out Europe and Middle East. Here in USA, Canada it was the most widely seen among colleges and students. I was asked to show and explain it at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
My next production was "MUSLIM SPAIN" (SPANISH MUSLIMS). There were only TAPES AND CASSETTES during the 80s and early 90s. No Discs or DVDs had been invented yet. My wife and I went to Spain for a vacation and surprisingly found a significant Islamic and Muslim history there, which inspired me so much that I visited Spain four times in researching into the Muslim history of Spain and used my super VHS camera. I had a great professor of Spanish Muslim history, DR. Thomas Irving [Talim Ali], who guided me very well into this subject in details. My initial VHS tape production of Spanish Muslims was a great success all over the USA and other countries. Knowledge of Muslim History in Spain was scarce.
Hence the people who knew through of my documentary were crying about the sad history of Islamic Spain, where Islam after 750 years of rule was vanished through Spanish inquisition and disunity of Muslim Kings. The greatest tragedy in the history of Islam indeed.
I met Abdul Rauf Aryan at the Islamic Center of South Bay - Los Angeles, which had just started. I was very impressed by his in depth knowledge of noble Quran, Hadiths, Islamic history, and Islamic ideology. Mr. Aryan’s main complaint was Muslim nation was not united and had no one leader to guide them. This disunity will bring the decline of Muslims in the world. Mr. Aryan was originally from Jerusalem connected to the scholars and the imam of Al Aqsa Mosque. He took me to Jerusalem and showed me the great monuments of Islam, Christianity and Judaism. My visit to Jerusalem gave me an opportunity to use my professional movie camera and I brought with me numerous scenes from Jerusalem.
Then with the help of Mr. Aryan, who constructed the whole story, I produced the documentary “DOME OF THE ROCK”. In my documentaries, I made it a point to employ American professional narrators from Hollywood or other organizations so that the language will be easily understood by the main stream Americans, who had no knowledge of Islam in the past. Accents by narrators were not allowed. The Dome of the Rock, which narrated the significance of Al Aqsa Mosque and the entire history of Islamic Jerusalem along with the Christian and Judaism histories. The Dome of the Rock became the biggest hit and was called the best Islamic documentary in the USA by the National ICNA. Thousands of cassettes were distributed and sold. My tapes of the Dome of the Rock reached every home in LOS ANGELES, NORTHERN CALIFORNIA and ultimately many parts of the World.
My next venture was the production of "QURAN and SPACE SCEINCES", "THE LAST DAY", "ISLAM: AFRICA TO AMERICA", and "GOD OF ABRAHAM". I was invited by the Mufti Council of Russia and they showed my "GOD OF ABRAHAM" along with several Muslim films and documentaries. To my great surprise my documentary, "GOD OF ABRAHAM", was given an award by the Mufti Council of RUSSIA as ISLAMIC ENLIGHTENMENT!!! It was dubbed in Russian and other languages. Later, I produced "NOOR OF ALLAH", the Islamic history of Russia at the request of a few Russian scholars there after traveling through Uzbekistan.
Next big event was that Indonesia dubbed all my documentaries to their Indonesian language, re-designed the covers with better colors and arts, and then distributed them in large quantities. The country of Nigeria patronized my "DOME OF THE ROCK" and became a distributor in that country and even showed it to the President of Nigeria. Similarly many other countries like Egypt, JORDAN, India distributed my videos, except for Pakistan.
I went to Portugal and made “RAIDERS OF MADINA “ and then made “Death of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him”. I have also revised my old film “PRESERVATION OF THE HOLY QURAN” and "Preservation of HADITH" with new and modern pictures.
During these adventures and new idea evolved at Tashkent, Uzbekistan to build a MUSLIM UNIVERSITY IN AMERICA with Islamic architecture. Of course several people from different countries have helped me sincerely. I thank them from my heart and May Allah reward them.
"All my documentaries can be seen on YouTube under names like "Zahir AhmedIVP" or simply write the title and by "Zahir Ahmed". You ca visit my YouTube Channel at: https://www.youtube.com/@IslamicVideoProd/featured
Once again, the idea has been to use the Audio Visual Technology to propagate Islam specially in main stream America after sufficient research and authentication by the experts."
Documentaries writer, Director, and researcher,
Zahir Ahmed
For more information, please visit our website at: www.miu-research.org
