Question Re: Commandments

mehfesto

Hi all,

I'm a student and have been asked to write the following as an essay:

Freedom of speech and/or discrimination? Discuss the Mohammed Cartoons controversy in the wider context of media representations of
ethnic minorities.

I went looking for info and eventually found the Draw Mohammed online thing.
However I cannot find why it is forbidden to depict Mohammed.

This says that it is not strictly forbidden, but I was told by a colleague that it is a commandment that reads:

Thou shalt not make to thyself an idol, nor likeness of anything, whatever things are in the heaven above, and whatever are in the earth beneath

Is this right?
And as ive asked in the other thread, does this mean that a Muslim cannot own a photograph of a deceased relative? - they would own a likeness of something from the heavens above, then.

Thank you

Sean

wes

Some Muslims take that passage to mean, no pictures of living things should ever be taken. Others, take it that Muslims should not worship stone statutes of people.

**EDIT**
Also, concerning images of the Prophet Muhammaed pbuh, the rule of no pictures of him being allowed is not universal amonsgst all Muslims. Historically, some images were allowed, as the passage you mentioned was interpreted that images should not be made for the purpose of worship.

Anyway, I hope that answers your question.
**END EDIT**

blackthorn

OP wrote:

Thou shalt not make to thyself an idol, nor likeness of anything, whatever things are in the heaven above, and whatever are in the earth beneath

Here Sean, your friend there quoted you the second of the ten commandments from the Bible. Not really relevant for Islamic rulings regarding images etc.

mehfesto

So where does it come from then - that you cannot draw Mohammed?
Is it written in the Qua'rn anywhere? Or is it just a ruling from those in charge now?

Thanks again,
Sean

(Im getting there with the essay! - honest!)

af_thefragile

I think its there somewhere in Quran which says you shouldn't make an image of something that's alive or was living. Not sure if its in the Quran or its a Hadith. But there definitely is something there as such.

As wes pointed out there are two opinions on the images.
One says you cannot make an image for worship.
While the other says you cannot make an image period.

The majority believes in the first opinion.
As sort of historically speaking, images were mostly made for worship.
And thus it became prohibited to portray the prophet in an image or painting because people might start worshipping the portrait instead of worshipping God.
And as no one knows what God looks like, no one can portray an image of God so trying to portray an image of God in some worldly form would be sorta blasphemous...

Historically muslims did make images, paintings and such but when it came to religious matters, they stayed away from images all together and thus ended up developing calligraphy as an art form. Which is why if you enter any muslim mosque or religious architecture, you'll find it's decorated with calligraphic writings instead of pictures of people or animals or things.

Also one thing to notice is that whenever the prophet muhammad was depicted in an image in a book (which are very few instances in a few non-religious books) or something as such, he wasn't truly depicted, instead he was depicted as a outline in a light or halo and even if his body was drawn normally, his face was left blank.
There are very few instances where he was drawn as a person but they were never taken nicely.

Its like the muslims regard Muhammad very highly and consider he cannot be depicted in an image as it wouldn't be respectable towards him and also because people might end up worshipping the image rather than the God. Which is why it has been outlawed. If you read this book titled "And Muhammad is His Messenger" by Annmarie Schimmell, it goes into great details about how the muslims around the world regard the prophet and so how they're very critical of anything concerning the prophet that goes against the norms.