Why is depicting Allah taboo in Islam? The historical background of the prohibition of idolatry is too embarrassing to ask about.
Christianity, which also prohibits idolatry, has statues of Christ...
//Summary - Level-B2//
In Islam, depicting Allah or the Prophet Muhammad is avoided because idolatry is strictly forbidden. Early Muslims believed that creating images of humans or animals could lead people to worship them instead of God. Some hadith warn that artists will be punished for trying to imitate God’s power of creation. Unlike Christianity, which later accepted religious images for teaching, Islam made little distinction between sacred and secular art. Although secular painting developed over time, especially in private settings, religious images are still generally avoided today.
1)
Why is idolatry prohibited in Islam? Hiroyuki Ogasawara, associate professor at Kyushu University Graduate School, explains, "Drawing images of people or animals, believed to have souls, was once considered a challenge to God.
However, paintings were not historically absent in the Islamic world, and in modern times, there is little aversion to secular painting."
2)
There are no portraits of Muhammad in mosques:
Islam is a monotheistic religion, descended from Judaism and Christianity. The Prophet Muhammad strictly prohibited idolatry and forbade the creation of images of God and their worship.
When he conquered Mecca, he smashed with a rod all the polytheistic statues that had been kept in the Kaaba (although some legends say he only allowed the Virgin Mary and Child statue).
3)
As a result, there are no paintings or statues of God, Prophet Muhammad, saints, or any other human figures in mosques. Instead, the interior of churches is typically decorated with geometric patterns, especially vegetal designs known as arabesques.
4)
Of course, the prohibition of idolatry is not limited to Islam; similar laws exist in Judaism and Christianity. Synagogues, Jewish places of worship, are decorated with geometric patterns, just like mosques, utterly devoid of representational elements (though until around the 7th century, biblical scenes were sometimes painted on the walls and floors).
5)
Christianity also prohibits idolatry:
Christianity also initially prohibited idolatry. However, because the benefits of using the image of Christ in evangelism were recognised, the production and use of holy photos were permitted in the Christian world. As a result, numerous sacred images of Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and saints were created and used to decorate churches in Europe.
6)
Theological justifications were also offered, such as that although Jesus Christ was God, he was incarnate, and therefore it was permissible to depict him in human form, or that it was not a problem because people were worshipping God through icons, not through physical objects.
However, not everything was tolerated; carved statues were sometimes avoided, as they were considered prone to idolatry.
7)
Christianity tolerated secular painting:
The acceptance of icons is undoubtedly a factor that promoted the development of the visual arts in Europe. However, from the perspective of pure monotheism, the Christian world's way of life was unconventional, and an aversion to idolatry was often expressed.
8)
For example, in the Byzantine Empire in the 8th century, the emperor ordered the destruction of iconoclasm, a movement that rejected holy images. As a result, many of the sacred images that had likely filled the country were destroyed.
9)
The wave of iconoclasm subsided after about 100 years, but its impact was so significant that few works from before the 7th century remain. While current research is reexamining the scope of the iconoclasm movement, there is no doubt that there was a certain tension between the rejection of idolatry and the protection of sacred images.
10)
Furthermore, during the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, Protestant Calvinists did not hesitate to destroy icons, resulting in the loss of many valuable religious paintings in the Netherlands. Today, Protestant churches generally do not display religious artwork.
11)
However, the debate in the Christian world focused entirely on religious images. The fact that secular paintings were tolerated without question is a significant difference from the Islamic world.
12)
Painting a human likeness is a challenge to God:
The most important book in Islam is the Quran, the holy book that contains the revelations delivered to the Prophet Muhammad. Of course, the Quran includes passages that sternly warn against idolatry. However, there are no critical passages about paintings themselves.
13)
Criticism of paintings is found not in the Quran but in hadith. Hadith are records of the Prophet Muhammad's sayings and deeds, recorded by his companions, and are second only in importance to the Quran in Islam.
However, some hadith are of low reliability, and books have been compiled that compile only the most reliable hadith by carefully examining the transmission routes (who passed the hadith on to whom).
14)
For example, the Al-Hassan Ali, compiled by the renowned ulama (Islamic intellectual) Bukhari (810-870), is one of the most authoritative collections of hadith.
It contains several hadith that suggest the Prophet Muhammad had an aversion to paintings and artists. Here are two examples (translated by Shinya Makino, with some changes):
15)
One day, Muslim was staying with Masruq at Yasr ibn Numayr's house. Masruq saw a painting on the sofa and exclaimed, "Abd Allah told me that the Prophet said, 'On the Day of Resurrection, the most severe punishment will be for those who painted these pictures.'"
16)
Abd Allah ibn Umar said that the Messenger of God said, "Those who painted these pictures will be punished on the Day of Resurrection, and they will be commanded to give life to what you have painted."
17)
Islam also forbids secular painting:
In other words, painting a human likeness is an act of defiance against the God of imagination and is a grave sin that cannot be forgiven. There is no distinction between religious and secular painting.
Given such a statement in an authoritative collection of hadith, second only to the Quran as a bastion of faith, it is not surprising that ordinary Muslims would feel aversion to painting.
18)
However, some hadith also allege limited tolerance of painting. According to these accounts, Muhammad deemed paintings on rugs and blankets acceptable.
Or, when destroying the polytheistic idols enshrined in the Kaaba, he only approved paintings of the Virgin Mary and Child.
Such hadith are thought to have originated from older sources. However, they have gradually been replaced by hadith that strictly prohibit painting, such as those found in the Al-Hassan mentioned above.
19)
There is also a teaching that "paintings of trees and other lifeless creatures are permissible."
There are also hadith that prohibit paintings of beings believed to have souls, such as humans and animals, but that paintings of trees and other inanimate objects are permissible.
It is well known that mosaics depicting paradise are found in the Umayyad Mosque, one of the oldest mosques in the Islamic world.
20)
Similarly, paradise is depicted on the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, Islam's third-holiest site. These depictions consist of gardens, plants, and buildings, with no people or animals. The depiction style is thought to have been influenced by ancient Roman mosaic decorations.
21)
Although there is a precedent for this in the oldest mosques, painting landscapes in mosques was not widely accepted. As mentioned above, geometric and vegetal motifs are more common in mosque decorations.
Furthermore, while painting landscapes in mosques became popular in the 18th-century Ottoman Empire, this is thought to be in a different context from the paintings in mosques of the early Islamic period.
22)
An excuse from artists who "desire to paint":
There's no doubt that traditional Muslim society abhorred portraits of people, even when the subject matter was secular.
23)
However, even in the Islamic world, paintings of people and animals were certainly produced, and they flourished. This is likely because the desire to visually appreciate and paint the exploits of characters from stories and history, or beautiful people and animals, is natural and cannot be suppressed.
24)
In response to criticism of artists and paintings, such as those found in the hadith mentioned above, Muslim artists have attempted to defend themselves by emphasising the importance of painting.
One explanation is that artists only paint figures, not souls. This is likely an application of the idea, discussed earlier, that it's okay to paint plants, trees, and buildings because they lack souls.
25)
In addition, the painter Sadiqi (1533–1610) argued in his art theory that the animals in his paintings were stylised and far removed from real animals, so there was no problem. From a modern realist perspective, the figures and animals depicted in Islamic miniature paintings appear flat and lacking shading. However, this was a deliberate choice by the artists.
26)
The idea that "paintings are useful for deepening faith":
Akbar (reigned 1556–1605), the Mughal monarch who was one of the dynasties in which miniature painting was most developed, is said to have stated that paintings helped deepen faith. This idea may be similar to the European view that favoured the use of holy icons for evangelising.
27)
There was also discourse that used legends from the Islamic world to legitimise painting. Daniel, a character in the Old Testament, is also revered as a prophet in Islam. He was considered a preeminent painter in the Islamic world.
The Safavid painter Dost Muhammad (died after 1564) cited the story of Daniel to defend portraits and the artists who painted them.
28)
Resistance to "Public Figure Painting":
The social aversion to painting in the Islamic world gradually faded thanks to the justifications of these artists and the continued production of paintings. Still, there remained considerable resistance to displaying portraits in public spaces rather than in private settings.
29)
In the 19th century, traditional miniature paintings ceased to function, and Western-style paintings using Western painting techniques began to take over.
Even during this period, aversion to painting remained among the general public. Ahmet Midhat (1844-1912), a writer who devoted himself to public education in the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th century, defended painting by stating the following:
30)
In Islam, worshipping paintings and statues is strictly prohibited. However, worshipping them does not harm true faith, provided one does not worship anything other than God, the proper object of worship in Islam. Therefore, there is no need to fear this fact when it comes to paintings in one's home.
31)
Modernisation is fading the aversion to paintings:
The argument goes that worshipping paintings and statues is sinful, but otherwise, there is no problem. However, this resistance to paintings, which persisted even in the late 19th century, rapidly faded with the accelerating modernisation and Westernisation of the 20th century. Perhaps advances in technology, including video, have rendered this aversion anachronistic.
32)
In modern times, the general aversion to paintings is virtually nonexistent. However, even today, depictions of Allah are not permitted, and portraits of the Prophet Muhammad are generally avoided.
Why is depicting Allah taboo in Islam? The historical background of the prohibition of idolatry is too embarrassing to ask about.
Christianity, which also prohibits idolatry, has statues of Christ...
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