Ayat Ayat Cinta

The Islamic romance film “Ayat Ayat Cinta”, political Islam, and pesantren prodigies.

The wildly popular novel by Habiburrahman El-Shirazy , and now film, Ayat Ayat Cinta (Love Verses), tells the story of young handsome Fahri bin Abdullah Shiddiq (played by Fedi Nuril), an Indonesian student attending Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, who attracts beautiful young women left, right, and centre, four of them in fact:

• Nurul (played by Melanie Putria), also an Indonesian in Egypt, the daughter of an important East Java kyai.
• Noura (Zaskia Adya Mecca), an ungrateful Egyptian girl (Fahri saves her life but she betrays him later).
• Maria (Carissa Putri) a Coptic Christian living next door to Fahri, who inexplicably converts to Islam at the end of the film.
• Aisha (Rianti Cartwright), from a wealthy German-Arab family.

In the end Fahri plumps for the rich girl Aisha and they no doubt live happily ever after.

Ayat Ayat Cinta.

The book and film have been taken up by some on the Islamist side of politics, including parliament chairman Hidayat Nur Wahid of the PKS, who on 7th March met with some of the cast and crew of the film. Hidayat said he hadn’t seen the film, and he hoped there was no violence or pornography in it, but he had read the book and liked it.

Ayat Ayat Cinta novel.

Hidayat said the book’s author, Habiburrahman El-Shiraz, was a good example of a new generation of writers who had attended Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) and who could bring Islamic teachings to the masses. [2]

Separately Habiburrahman himself, usually called Kang Abik, 32 years old, says he wants people to know that pesantren schools don’t just teach religion but universal subjects as well.

Habiburrahman El-Shirazy

He has three more Islamic novels due out soon, Langit Mekah Berwarna Merah (Red Sky of Mecca), Bidadari Bermata Bening (Radiant Eyed Angel), and Bulan Madu di Yerussalem (Honeymoon in Jerusalem).

Ayat-Ayat Cinta Trailer 1

Trailer 2