A View Point on The Prohet's PBUH Visualisation

This is the thing I could refer to the bedlam I've been following for days. This opinion is considered to be in the hard line but telling the truth that I myself can't hold this truth. Wallahu'alam.


At the moment my answer to your query will be from my memory only and what I can recollect of my thoughts in a brief moment now. This is ofcourse because I have three exams in the next three days and one more next friday so I'm caught up with those and as is my mind!!

The issue would be better phrased as 'why we are not allowed to make any type of images of the Prophet (s)'

As for visualising him in our mind, we are allowed to do it as much as we can in a limited way in our imaginations by the various attributes and descriptions of him in hadith such as his smile, his teeth, his height, his physique, his hair colour, his beard etc etc.

As for portraying the Prophet in a picture, whether it is his real image or our guess from his few attributes we know then this is not allowed by consensus of Muslim scholars over the last fourteen centuries.

This is for various reasons. Some of these reasons that I can recollect in a rush now are as follows.

1. The Prophet (s) forbade us from drawing or making any sort of images of any living being - animal or human even as we see it. He said, "May Allah curse the image makers" This is an authentic hadith.

2. Sahabah understood from this banning that no animals nor human should be made an image of neither a statue nor a drawing etc. So Ibn Abbas after the death of the Prophet (s) encountered a person drawing images of animals as a habitual thing. Ibn Abbas forbade him and directed him instead to draw images of trees and sceneries if he really wanted to draw. This shows that even after the death of the Prophet this is how the companions understood and implemented the prohibition of pictures.

3. Therefore no 'photo' or portrait of the Prophet (s) was preserved neither by his companions in his lifetime nor any one after him. At that time, the Christians used to have statues or images of their important religious personlities such as Jesus as did other religious communities. The companions would have loved to do so too of the most important personality to them, especially to remember him after his death or to show others of later generations how great he looked as a Messenger of Allah. But they did not do it as it was clearly forbidden in Islam and well known.

4. Since no portrait of the Prophet exists, any image of him now would be a lie against the Prophet (s). We may try to draw as accurate as we can from his description in the hadith, but they are few and despite that no one can capture his smile or his mood etc in any drawing now as it will only be a guess work and therefore such a thing would be a lie about the Prophet and misleading people - Muslims and nonMuslims.

5. Instead if someone said, I'm merely drawing a cartoon not claiming it to be real but only to make a political or moral or any other point. Although there is no claim by such a person to real image of the Prophet (s), but again such an image leaves an impression of the character etc of the Prophet in the minds of the viewers. This impression is a gross misrepresentation and a big lie. A well intentioned person would try to do justice and a nice impression whereas a cartoonist related to terrorism is far far away from his real picture.

6. Also, given that the Prophet forbade a real true image, then a false incorrect image is further from permissibility due to falisfication of the true image which has far reaching consequences on a person's mind and religon etc.

7. Besides all this it is an insult to draw a cartoon of a respected person. In Kafir society here, they mock their own presidents etc but in Islam we are ordered to respect and honour the elders and any other muslim, therefore cartoons themselves are not allowed in Islam if they are of a real person - whether the Prophet or anyone else. This is completely against Islamic character.

8. Another reason the images were forbidden in Islam is due to a hadith (the words of it are long and I do not remember right now). In that hadith, it is mentioned that the way shirk first entered in human thought and practice was when a righteous person died, others took his picture/image and kept it. They would remind themselves of the person's image to rejuvinate their iman and strengthen their drive to piety be reminding themselves of that pious man via his picture. They did so in next generation but as time passed they started to glorify the iman of that pious man, this with time worsened to excessive admiration to the point of deification - i.e. shirk with Allah. This is according to hadith and it occured. This hadith was mentioned to teach us a lesson of not taking images of any rightoues persons, especially the Prophet, due to the same fear. Christians fell again into the same trap. Infact their picture is not true image of Jesus nor of Mary and many know it (only from descriptions of Jesus and guess work) but they take it to remind of them and over time it led to shirk and standing before it etc. Imagine an image of the Prophet Muhammed to weak Muslims seeking strength.

9. Therefore, Muslims kept no images of no Prophets from before. It would have been easy for us to keep an image of Jesus as a Prophet but we did not over the centuries. We also never kept images of any famous personalities nor anyone else until this time when we lost ourself in an inferiority complex justifying and doing most of what some kafirs do who we regard as our superiors in arts, science and technolgy. Our arts are different to theirs and its good for us to realise it.

This is some of what I could think of for now brother, I hope that helps.

Wassalamualaikum
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