Today I watched the movie Noah.

It’s a very rare occurrence that I ever get to watch a movie in peace anymore; what, with a 1 year old that doesn’t sleep very well and hasn’t slept very well since he was born. But these are the joys of motherhood: sacrificing your own sleep, your own needs and wants and your own desires of watching anything without being disturbed once, or twice, or numerously in order to cater to the needs of your child.

The movie, directed by Darren Aranofsky, was released in 2014 and tells the story of Noah’s Ark from the Biblical Book of Genesis – of course, in Aranofsky’s own quirky and unique way of story telling. I actually found it a very interesting and enjoyable watch, although I found Noah’s character to be a bit too heavy at times – like, for me, Prophet Noah would be so much more open and loving – after all, how could a prophet of God not be so?

I’m sure many of you are aware of the story of Noah’s Ark; the world is being destroyed by people, so God sends a gigantic flood to destroy the world and everything in it. Noah, previous to the flood, is given signs that he must build an ark to carry two of each animal, bird, insect and sea creature to procreate once the flood is over and has destroyed everything in its wake. So he does.

Anyway, after emerging from the story that I lost myself in while watching, having a little discussion about the film with my husband and gushing over the fact that Emma Watson was in it (as you all must know, I LOVE anything Harry Potter related), I got to thinking.

God sent this flood because His creation, humankind, was completely out of control. They were destroying the earth, the very thing that was giving them sustenance and life, without a care in the world. People were taking it upon themselves to elevate themselves to the status of God, acting as rulers and controllers of the land. People were being killed and animals being slaughtered; forests being demolished and ocean-life being destroyed. It was man-made hell on earth – a world where people had forgotten God and all He had given them.

And it breaks my heart to write this… but isn’t this exactly what we are doing now, right now to the very world we live in today?

Despite all the goodness that I know still exists in dusty corners the world over, somewhere, somehow as a race we have returned to the time just pre-giant flood.

World leaders and politicians are capitalistic atrocities that commit even greater atrocities in the name of money and power, every single day.

We are hunting precious animals that are on the brink of extinction just to sell their furs, or their horns, to make fancy handbags, over-the-top ornaments and opulent coats.

The rich are getting richer through stealing from the poor who are therefore only getting poorer, and the people in power are dividing and conquering the lower classes by making us believe that it is each other that are the problem.

Thousands and thousands of innocent lives have been taken and are still being taken every single day in the name of war: wars that have been created by man in order to steal even more wealth from anothers land.

We in the west are increasingly wasting more and more food, we even have ‘eating competitions’, while there are starving children in the world who can only dream of eating our leftover scraps as if it were a lavish meal.

We don’t care about each other anymore; we hurt each other, lie to each other and stab each other in the back without a seconds thought.

Our children are being brought up conditioned with the very same prejudices that we were brought up with, dividing the world even further, rather than the opposite.

The list goes on and on and on. My heart hurts. Where is our humanity? WHERE IS OUR HUMANITY?

History has repeated itself and we are back in those times of Prophet Noah; times where people were ignorant, depraved and dripping in sin. And things are only getting worse. It actually takes my breath away and makes me choke up when I think deeply about the state of the world today and the enormity of the sin of man. How could we let our world get to this?

So, I leave you with these words, the same words that Prophet Noah repeatedly told his people in those dire times before the Great Flood:

 “O my people, worship Allah; you have no deity other than Him. Indeed, I fear for you the punishment of a tremendous Day!” [Quran, 7:59]

I pray, from the deepest depths of my heart, for positive change to envelope this world but I know first, I must change myself and hope for the ripples to extend far beyond me – in hope, that a flood doesn’t reach us all first.