Knock! Knock!
Familiar faces and a hit jori (couple) making us nostalgic, Barzakh comes in the disguise of your drawing room dramas, ever ready to take a place inside your home. But when an agenda knocks on our doors, do we welcome it inside? With the flashy cinematography, scenic Northern settings and a hefty budget, it’s trying so hard to break through, but wait! There is something filthy inside the fancy packaging and here we unpack all the reasons why our doors should remain shut tight.
Unabashed vulgarity of the sort that we can not imagine on Pakistani platforms is what this viral drama is spreading. It takes it up a notch with nudity, kissing scenes, homosexuality, paedophilia, necrophilia and what not! It is a bid to normalise the sort of filth we have never seen before nor expect from the Pakistani media industry. This is how masses are desensitised and such content gradually becomes more and more acceptable. With Barzakh taking things several notches up, will this be the start of a new era?
Breaking Borders
Well, if it is all so bad as we say, you may wonder, “How is such vulgarity even being allowed on Pakistani screens? Isn’t our censorship board taking care of it?” Well, the crafty crew has taken a way round it. Despite a heavily Pakistani cast and being shot in Pakistan, this drama has broken through a backdoor: an Indian TV channel. This is how they surpass the censorship board – and all limits! Airing on Zee Zindagi and available on the internet, Barzakh has broken in and it is now up to us to let it wreak havoc in our homes or not.
Naam mein kya rakha hey? (What’s in a name?)
What’s in a name? Well, quite a lot in this case. The drama is named after the Islamic concept of there being a place where souls are collected after death. This is the state of the grave where souls wait for the Day of Judgement. Under the guise of this Islam-inspired name lies totally unIslamic vulgarity. A commenter says, “It should be called DOZAKH (hell) instead of BARZAKH.”.
The storyline tells of an old man who believes that his dead wife will come back from Barzakh and that he will marry her again. This concept of a return to this world totally contradicts the Islamic understanding of Barzakh.
Age is just a number!
Using children to carry perverted themes is definitely disgusting! We take the days of innocent childhood as ones free of adult thoughts – hence the word adult -but that isn’t the case with Barzakh. Age is just a number in the worst of ways.
Two children are shown listening to a video of sexual moaning and later a little girl comments that her mother also used to make such sounds when her father was alive. A child is shown secretly watching a grown man bathing. He smiles with a lustful gaze that we don’t expect from children.
The same child is shown cracking an adult joke with his father about sex and even necrophilia.
Life after Death
Necrophilia, simply put, is having sexual desire for the dead. We see a child cracking an explicit joke about necrophilia towards which his father responds positively. This normalises such dirty conversation between relationships that demand a level of cautious respect that has been totally mutilated here.
LGBT
Necrophilia isn’t the only kind of sexual deviance getting normalised here. How could we have such a series free of homosexuality. A man is shown staring at another man’s private parts and intimate acts between two men are openly shown. Islam’s position on homosexuality is clear. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said:
“What I fear most from my Ummah is the behaviour of the people of Lut.”
Jami at-Tirmidhi 1457
Meet the Director
This isn’t the first eye-raising content brought on to the plate by director Asim Abbasi. His productions like the ultra-feminist series Churails rarely fit the Pakistani palate and so was it this time around. While viewers called the vulgar themes distasteful, Abbasi unashamedly responded, “… if you find queer/non-heteronormative storylines ‘distasteful’ please do not watch my content… I will always champion the rights of all, and tell stories that we believe in.”. The words ‘believe in’ leave an echo. Are such themes what we believe in as well or is it Allah and His beautiful Deen that we believe in?
Symbolism
The drama is loaded with free-masonic and Illuminati symbolism. The title itself has the ‘A’ letters in the form of a free-masonic symbol. Other snaps show Kabbalah symbols such as on a diary titled ‘Mahtaab’. Questionable rituals are also being shown and referred to such as an Autumn equinox.
Pick a Side
Allah (SWT) says in the Qur’an:
“Verily those who love that indecency should spread among the believers deserve a painful chastisement in the world and the Hereafter. Allah knows, but you do not know.”
[Quran 24:19]
This drama, loaded with indecency, spreading it virally comes with mixed reactions. Some call it out while others praise it in the name of art. Here we must keep clear that not only those who do indecent acts are blameworthy in Islam but also those who are okay with.
We learn in Hazrat Lut (AS)’s story that his wife was of those who received the azaab (punishment) that came down on his nation even though she was not directly involved in homosexual acts as well – she was a supporter. In these times, we see so many supporting the content Barzakh brings up. An online commenter says:
“I do not understand why our people can’t understand imagination and art. Bro, it’s pure art. If only more of these masterpieces would be on our TV channels rather than typical stories. This is breaking stereotypes… being beyond typical.”
We, as Muslims, should be very clear that the excuse of ‘art’ doesn’t simply free us of all responsibility. We are accountable for our actions especially when it comes to something that will be exposed to millions. Just like the concept of sadaqah-e-jariah (continuous rewards), we have the concept of continuous sins. In this case, those involved in making this drama bear the burden of every eye and ear that is exposed to sinful content. We see the online viewership of every single episode blowing in millions! The best we can do is to boycott all those who are involved, from the director to the actors. Also use the hashtag #nofahashi #nobarzakh as much as you can online. Remember, sin doesn’t simply spread because it is strong, it spreads because those who know it to be wrong remain silent. If we don’t condemn it today, it will become our norm tomorrow.
Now, the choice is ours. Will we be mindless consumers leaving our morals at bay or will we stand against the vile? In these changing times, such decisions will mark the fate of our nation.
