Images
- philhoraia
- Sep 28, 2022
- 5 min read
Updated: Aug 23, 2023
S 2:248 And their prophet said to them: A sign of his kingship is that the Ark will come to you. Therein is a Shekhinah from your lord and a remnant of what Musa’s family and Harun’s family left, the angels carrying it. In that there is a sign for you if you are believers.
The Ark of the Covenant, it will be remembered, had an image of a cherub on either side. The Shekhinah is the term given to the Presence of God in the Temple.
S 34:13 They make him what he wills of niches and statues and bowls and watering-troughs and fixed pots. Work, family of Dawud, in gratitude! But few of my slaves are the grateful.
Jinn are Dawud's family?
It was narrated from Abu Talhah that:
The Prophet [SAW] said: "The angels do not enter a house in which there is a dog or an image."
'Aishah narrated:
"We had a cloth which had some pictures on it as a curtain on my door. The Messenger of Allah(s.a.w) saw it and said: 'Remove it, for it reminds me of the world.'" She said: "We had a piece of velvet that had patches of silk on it which we used to wear."
Narrated AbuHurayrah:
The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: Gabriel (ﷺ) came to me and said: I came to you last night and was prevented from entering simply because there were images at the door, for there was a decorated curtain with images on it in the house, and there was a dog in the house. So order the head of the image which is in the house to be cut off so that it resembles the form of a tree; order the curtain to be cut up and made into two cushions spread out on which people may tread; and order the dog to be turned out. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) then did so. The dog belonged to al-Hasan or al-Husayn and was under their couch. So he ordered it to be turned out. Abu Dawud said: Al-Nadd means a thing on which clothes are placed like a couch.
It was narrated that 'Ali said:
"I made some food and invited the Prophet [SAW] (to come and eat). He came and entered, then he saw a curtain on which there were images, so he went out and said: 'The Angels do not enter a house in which there are images.'"
Did he have images removed because he disliked them or because angels won't enter if there's an image?
It was narrated that 'Aishah said:
"In my house there was a cloth on which were images, which I put in a niche of the house, and the Messenger of Allah [SAW] used to pray facing it. Then he said: 'O 'Aishah, take it away from me.' So I took it down and made it into pillows.'"
It was narrated that Abu Hurairah said:
"The Messenger of Allah [SAW] said: 'Whoever makes an image will be commanded on the Day of Resurrection to breathe the soul into it but he will not be able to do so.'"
It was narrated that 'Abdullah said:
"The Messenger of Allah [SAW] said: 'Among the people who will be most severely punished on the Day of Resurrection will be the image-makers.'"
Narrated Jabir ibn Abdullah:
The Prophet (ﷺ) ordered Umar ibn al-Khattab who was in al-Batha' at the time of the conquest (of Makkah) to visit the Ka'bah and obliterate all images in it. The Prophet (ﷺ) did not enter it until all the images were obliterated.
Regarding images in the Ka'bah, we read:
Finally, after Muhammad had attacked Mecca and won over the Quraysh tribes, he entered the Kaba and destroyed every icon or sculptured idol. According to some reports, Muhammad found Christian icons of Jesus, Mary, and Abraham that he did not destroy but left intact.
[After the conquest of Mecca] Apart from the icon of the Virgin Mary and the child Jesus, and a painting of an old man, said to be Abraham, the walls inside [Kaaba] had been covered with pictures of pagan deities. Placing his hand protectively over the icon, the Prophet told 'Uthman to see that all other paintings, except that of Abraham, were effaced. (Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources [Inner Traditions International, Ltd., One Park Street, Rochester, Vermont 05767; 1983], p. 300; ref.: al-Waqidi, Kitab al-Maghazi 834, and Azraqi, Akhbar Makkah vol. 1, p. 107)
... pictures of the prophets and pictures of trees and of angels. Among them there was a picture of Ibrahim as of an elderly man, drawing lots with arrow lots, and the picture of Jesus, the son of Mary, and of his mother and a picture with angels. (Al-Azraqi according to the Arabic text edited by Ferdinand Wuestenfeld, Chroniken der Stadt Mekka, Band 1, Leipzig 1858, reprint Beyrouth 1964, p. 110)
On the day of the conquest of Mecca the Prophet entered the House (= the Kaaba; my comment) and sent al-Fadl ibn al-Abbas ibn Abdalmuttalib to get water from the well of Zemzem. He ordered to bring pieces of cloth and to imbue them with water and then he commanded to wash off these pictures, as it was done. He stretched his arms, however, over the picture of Jesus, the son of Mary, and of his mother and said: 'Wash off all except what is under my hands!' But eventually he took away his hands away from Jesus, the son of Mary, and his mother. (Source: soc.religion.islam newsgroup posting)
F.E. Peters mentions that during the rebuilding of the Kabah a Greek or Coptic carpenter or artisan named Baqum - Pachomius - was the one who placed the prophets' pictures within the Kabah:
Baqum then built the roof and inside made pictures of the Prophets, including Abraham and the Child Jesus... There was a picture of Abraham as an old man and performing divination by the shaking of arrows, and a picture of Jesus son of Mary and his mother, and a picture of angels. On the day of the conquest of Mecca, the Prophet entered the House and he sent al-Fadl ibn al-Abbas to bring water from Zamzam. Then he asked for a cloth which he soaked in water, and ordered all the pictures to be erased, and this was done.... Then he looked at the picture of Abraham and said, "May God destroy them! They made him cast divining arrows. What does Abraham have to do with divining arrows?" Ata ibn Abi Rabah said that he saw in the House a decorated statue of Mary with a decorated Jesus sitting on her lap. The House contained six pillars... and the representation of Jesus was on the pillar next to the door. This was destroyed in the fire at the time of Ibn al-Jubayr. Ata said he was not sure that it was there in the time of the Prophet but he thought it was. (al-Azraqi 1858, p. 111) (Peters, Muhammad and the Religion of Islam, pp. 140-141)
Not all sources agree with this story. A. Guillaume writes in The Life of Muhammad, p. 552:
"The Apostle ordered that the pictures should be erased except those of Jesus and Mary.3"
In his footnote, he states:
3 Apparently Ibn Hisham has cut out what Ibn Ishaq wrote and adopted the later tradition that all the pictures were obliterated. A more detailed account of these pictures will be found in Azraqi 104-6. Muhammad and Idolatry
Narrated `Aisha:
That the Prophet (ﷺ) said to her, "You have been shown to me twice in my dream. I saw you pictured on a piece of silk and some-one said (to me). 'This is your wife.' When I uncovered the picture, I saw that it was yours. I said, 'If this is from Allah, it will be done."
One might expect a Muslim not to have a computer, photo ID, a passport, a photo album or cash. But life is easier for the Muslim when he ignores Allah's boss.
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