REVIEW OF THE STORY LION OF THE DESERT

Lion of the Desert is the dramatic action epic of the struggle of

Omar Mukhtar, leader of the Muslim resistance in North Africa in the
1920's and 30's, against the imperialism of Mussolini and the Italian army.
Despite the challenge of overcoming the fascist Italian war machine with
only faith and wisdom, the Muslims led by Omar Mukhtar maintained their
resistance and refused to be conquered. Omar Mukhtar was born on 20
August 1858 at Janzour, Cyrenaica, Tripolitania Eyalet in Ottoman Empire.
He is a Muslim as he worked as a teacher of the Quran. Beginning in 1912,
he organized and, for nearly twenty years, led native resistance to Italian
colonization of Libya. Italian armed forces captured and hanged him in
1931 at Suluq, Italian Libya.

From what I have learnt in the subject of Islamic Psychology, I found

that the main character, Omar Mukhtar has a strong aqeedah and
eeman. Aqeedah means the belief system based on a firm conviction in
all the fundamentals of faith and the oneness of Allah; it is what people
believe, affirm in their hearts, and accept as truth. The matters that the
Muslims must believe wholeheartedly, transmitted through revealation,
are mentioned in the following verse:

{The Messenger has believed in what was revealed to him from his Lord,
and (so have) the believers. All of them have believed in Allah and His
angels and His books and His messengers, (saying), We make no
distinction among any of His messengers, our Lor, and to You is the (final)
destination.}

(Quran 2, 28)

In relation, eeman is defined as faith; it is when the aqeedah is firmly

established in the heart, spoken by the tongue, and confirmed by action.
In a simple word, eeman is like energy for the soul, and it provides the
individual with the strength and ability to carry out essential duties in life
and to work for the betterment of the self, the family and the society. As
we can see, aqeedah and eeman are interrelated with each other, so
people with a true practice of Islam will always strengthen their aqeedah
and eeman because they believe in the hereafter and love of Allah.

In this movie, to pacify his resistance army, the Italians offered

Omar Mukhtar high ranking positions and wealth. In return, they
demanded that he surrender and follow their Colonial decree. He
responded in a famous quote saying, "I'm not a sweet bite of a meal
anyone can swallow. No matter how long they try to change my belief and
opinion, Allah is going to let them down." They then offered him to leave
his town to live closer to the ruling party complete with a monthly salary,
but he again refused by saying, "No, I will not leave my country until I
meet my lord. Death is closer to me than anything, I'm waiting for it by
the minute." So, it is proven that Omar Mukhtar has strong aqeedah and
eeman because he does not seduced with the property in this temporary
world. For him, it is rather die than giving up on defending Islam in Libya.
Allahs Messenger said:

<<Whoever possesses (the following) three qualities will relish the

sweetness of faith: the one to whom Allah and HisMessenger become
dearer than anything else; the one loves a person and he loves him only
for the sake of Allah; and the one who hates to revert to disbelief, after
Allah has saved him from it, as much as he hates to be thrown into the
hellfire>>

(recoded by Bukhari and Muslim)

The second aspect which relates to the main character of this movie
is motivation. Motivation is generally defines as a need or desire that
energizes behaviour and directs it towards a particular goal. From the
Islamic perspective, religious motive should also be included as one of the
psychological motives. Obviously, the degree to which religious motive
influences behaviour requires the souls of human to be at a certain level
of eeman (eeman as a continuous variable) or certain level of potentiality
to accept eeman (eeman as a discrete variable).

The spiritual motivation is an innate aspect of our being, and its

fulfilment is our ultimate objective in life (Utz, 2012). Some of us are
naturally inclined to develop our spirituality. Perhaps weve always had
questions about how best to live, about the mystery of birth and death,
about the way to inner peace and wisdom. Our rational mind, good for
many things, is not able to answer these larger questions; and so we
become seekers on a search for answers. For others, a life-changing crisis
motivates one to go on a spiritual search. A loss, transition, or illness
suddenly disrupts our life and compels us to find a meaning for our
suffering and a new purpose in living. But probably for the majority of us,
the motivation to search spiritually sneaks up on us during the course of
living our habitual, day-in, day-out life. This motive, or drive, compels us
to reflect upon God and His creation, our purpose in life, and our final
destiny. It directs us to acknowledge Allah as our creator and Sustained,
and to worship and thank Him for His blessings that He has bestowed
upon us. This is connected to the concepts of fitrah and eeman.

In this movie, Omar Mukhtar and his followers declare a war to

Italian army because they want to uphold Islam in the world of Libya. They
know that, if the Italian government manage to get power in Libya, Islam
will be disappear, many women will be raped and many people will be
killed. It is so gruesome so, thats why Omar Mukhtar and his follower
want to defend their country. They have full of motivation because they
know, if they win, Islam will win and if they die, they will die as syahid in
the eyes of Allah. As Allah is our final destination, they believe that Allah
will always help people at the right path. There are a lot of battles
between Omar Mukhtar and his followers with Italian army day by day, but
they have never give up. Day by day, many people die as syahid, In Sha
Allah, they still fight against the cruel Italian army. What I see in every
battles, they are always be confident even though they have nothing to
use in order fight the army where the Italian army have a lot of war
instruments. Because of the full spiritual motivation in them, they become
strong.

Besides that, the third aspect is the concept of wisdom. Wisdom

can be defined as the ability to make sound choices and appropriate
decisions. It is intelligence shaped by experience, or information softened
by profound understanding and deep insight. In the Islamic view, wisdom
can be known as spiritual intelligence. The Islamic perspective focuses on
the spiritual and religious meaning of wisdom based on upon revelation
from the All-Knowing.

A teacher of the Qur'an by profession, Omar Mukhtar was also

skilled in the strategies and tactics of desert warfare. He knew local
geography well and used that knowledge to advantage in battles against
the Italians, who were unaccustomed to desert warfare. Omar Mukhtar
repeatedly led his small, highly alert groups in successful attacks against
the Italians, after which they would fade back into the desert terrain.
Omar Mukhtars men skillfully attacked outposts, ambushed troops, and
cut lines of supply and communication. The Italian army was left
astonished and embarrassed by his guerrilla tactics.

In conclusion, these three aspects which are spiritual motivation,

eeman and qidah, and the concept of wisdom relate with the
characteristic of Omar Mukhtar, also known as lion of the desert because
he has shown a good example of a true muslim. With the understanding in
Islam itself, we will able to become like him as long as we try and discover
the beauty of Islam. Islam is a very beautiful religion somehow the
follower of Islam do not show the true teaching in Islam. So, stop
speculating and guessing, trust what your heart is sensing because every
new breath is a blessing which is sent by Allah.