In 2008 as he was working on the NBC drama "Kings," Hollywood screenwriter and author Kamran Pasha received a call from his mother telling him that she wanted to do her Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, and as a son it was his duty to accompany her. Reluctant to go, Pasha later wrote on washingtonpost.com that he often had felt "the need to put my career before my faith, missing prayers and even forgoing some of the fasts of Ramadan to focus on my work." But that material success was coming "at the cost of something far more precious—my relationship with God."

With the blessings of his executive producer Michael Green, Pasha went with his mother and discovered that the Prophet Muhammad's life story was "far more remarkable than any of the Hollywood epics I have written." Pasha came back profoundly affected and put his experiences into his work. He spent two seasons as a writer and co-producer on Showtime's drama "Sleeper Cell" and worked on the recently canceled TV series "Kings," a contemporary retelling of the story of the biblical King David. In an interview with Beliefnet, Pasha said, "There aren't many Muslims in Hollywood, but there are stories that need to be heard, and Muslims like me should be the ones telling those stories."