Depictions of Muhammad

The Quran does not explicitly forbid images of Muhammad, but there are a few hadith that have explicitly prohibited Muslims from creating visual depictions of human figures. Many visual depictions only show Muhammad with his face veiled, or symbolically represent him as a flame. The key concern is that the use of images can encourage idolatry.

About Depictions of Muhammad in brief

The Quran does not explicitly forbid images of Muhammad, but there are a few hadith that have explicitly prohibited Muslims from creating visual depictions of human figures. The question of whether images in Islamic art, including those depicting Muhammad, can be considered as religious art remains a matter of contention among scholars. Many visual depictions only show Muhammad with his face veiled, or symbolically represent him as a flame; other images, notably from before about 1500, show his face. In the age of the Internet, a handful of caricature depictions printed in the European press have caused global protests and controversy and been associated with violence. In Islam, although nothing in the Quran explicitly bans images, some supplemental hadith explicitly ban the drawing of images of any living creature; other hadith tolerate images, but never encourage them. Most Sunni Muslims believe that visual. depictions of all the prophets of Islam should be prohibited and are particularly averse to visual representations of Muhammad. The key concern is that the use of images can encourage idolatry. In Shia Islam, however, images of. Muhammad are quite common nowadays, even though Shia scholars historically were against such depictions. Still, many Muslims who take a stricter view of the supplemental traditions will sometimes challenge any depiction of Muhammad,. including those created and published by non-Muslims. The visual representation of Jesus and other religious figures remains a concern in parts of stricter Protestant Christianity.

In Judaism, one of the Ten Commandments states \”Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image\”, while in the Christian New Testament all covetousness is defined as idolatries. In Byzantine Christianity during the periods of Iconoclasm in the 8th century and again during the 9th century, visual. representations of sacred figures were forbidden, and only the Cross could be depicted in churches. A number of hadith and other writings of the early Islamic period include stories in which portraits of Muhammad appear. In Ottoman Turkey the hilya developed as a decorated visual arrangement of texts about Muhammad that was displayed as a portrait might be. In an 11th-century story, Muhammad is said to have sat for a portrait by an artist by Sassidan king Kavadhan II, as yet unidentified by the Christians. There are early legends of portraits of him, and written physical descriptions whose authenticity is often accepted. They include a story in which a Meccan merchant visiting Syria is invited to a monastery where a number of sculptures and paintings depict prophets and saints. They are astonished to see Muhammad in a drawer, each of which contains a portrait of God for God to draw. In a similar story, the Meccans are visiting the king of China’i Kisa’i in which the king tells that God did indeed give the portraits of the prophets to him. In each of these stories, each drawers contains a drawing of Muhammad by Sadin Sadin al-D-Kazaruni, each by a different artist, each one of whom is astonished by the likeness of the prophet.

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