By Shaik Zakeer Hussain, TwoCircles.net,
Bengaluru: In most comic books, the staple is rather simple: there is a superhero, then there are people and then there is an oppressive evil doer, who needs to be fought to save the world. Superman fights Lex Luthor, Batman fights the Joker, Spiderman fights the Green Goblin. They all wear different costumes, live in different cities, but the ultimate element is still the same: The fight between good and evil, truth and falsehood.
An Australia based businessman and religious scholar Soner Coruhlu, who wants to tell the world, especially the younger lot the struggle between truth and falsehood from its alpha to omega is banking on this formula, but with a little twist.
Started by Coruhlu in 2006, Prophecy Comics has till date released four books, illustrating the creation of the heavens and the earth and central to these series are the heroes: Prophets and Angels, and the villain: Satan.
Coruhlu says that the first series deals with the creation of the space time continuum, the angels, the jinn but in particular the human species. “The story continues to illustrate the contention and enmity that Satan begins to develop towards Adam (pbuh). The following books deal with a deeper analysis of the creation and this tension between the devil and Adam (pbuh). Though Iblis (Satan) is the arch enemy of humanity the 4th book illustrates his cunning by making humanity hate one another even going so far as to causing hatred between brothers. Thus it sets the stage for humanity’s struggle and purpose here on earth as God’s vice regents. A sample text is the following from issue 1: “there are those who contemplate the creation and say, our lord you did not create all that exists for naught! Surely there is a purpose to this existence beyond that which is finite””
While he has avoided any graphical depiction of Prophets and Angels, Satan, however, is shown as the fire emanating dreadful monster. When asked what made him conceptualize Satan, in such a fashion, Coruhlu explains that, “If you ask anyone across the globe what comes to mind when you think of the devil or when you think of an angel most will answer in a way that illustrates a rendition from Hollywood or the likes. Mostly a detailed humanoid or in the case of the angels a human with pigeon wings. It was therefore a step back into the unknown where we only illustrate known characteristics such as light, or fire and a non Muslim actually commended us at a Supanova convention stating that our abstract image was more in line with a depiction if the unknown in comparison to what others present.”
“According to scriptures, there is nothing Satan hates more than the human species. So much so, that he is willing to live a life of eternal torment in Hell fire due to his tireless attempts to lead humanity astray. We thought it best to add a remark to emphasise this reality into the overall image and soon that through too became a reality,” reads the depiction of the evil being on his site.
So, what made him turn to comic books to propagate the message of Islam? Soner Coruhlu says that, “the last 40 years have shown rapid progress and change and it was no longer enough for Imams, not unlike myself, to try and inspire or motivate our youth to adhere to their religious beliefs and values. While there were many options of interest in the materialistic world there were no such options in spiritually inclined endeavors. It is for that reason I wanted to create a new medium interesting to the youth of our century, to teach the religious scriptures.” He says, it is not enough for Imams to “simply lecture from a pulpit”.
But will this unique method really work to draw young people towards religion? Coruhlu says that though progress has been slow, as he has not been able to reach out to wider audience, due to financial restraints, he is still optimistic. And to prove his point, he ends with an anecdote from his experience at Supanova Pop Culture Expo (Australia), “We were at the Supernova and across our stall was an artist who drew demonic images and in fact was dressed as such himself with makeup to complement his outfit (horns and all). At this stage we had only completed one issue and my students kept asking why we were next to such a stall. I said that this is perhaps Divine intervention. Sure enough at the end of the day after eyeing our stall for so long he approaches us and requests to buy the first issue. We do the neighborly thing and give him a signed copy. The next day we find that he is not dressed in the same manner and he actually compliments us on the quality and message requesting notification of later editions.”
Link:
http://www.prophecycomics.com.au/