Why do Islam forbid any depiction/illustration of the Prophet in any form?

Question

My poor understanding is that you were not supposed to depict Allah in anyway, meaning do you take the prophet ot be a god too?

Answer 1

Islam forbids visual depictions of the prophet, and regards violations by Muslims as highly sinful and by non-Muslims as the ultimate sort of insult.

The prohibition is in part an application of the Quran's strict opposition to idolatry, the worship of a physical object as a god, including any hint of such devotion toward the faith's revered human prophet.

In the Quran, "shirk" (Arabic for "partnering" or "associating" anything with God) is the one unforgivable sin: "God does not forgive the joining of partners with him: anything less than that he forgives to whoever he will, but anyone who joins partners with God is lying and committing a tremendous sin" (4:48).

The Quran does not specifically address artwork of Muhammad, and through history a few Muslims have painted him. But the ban has been virtually universal in all branches of the faith from its earliest days.

The rule extends to artwork showing others regarded as prophets by Islam, including Jesus, even though Christians have often visualized their divine savior in paintings, statutes and films.

Muslims disagree among themselves on whether it's proper to portray the prophet's early followers, known as the Companions. Unlike Sunnis, Shia Muslims allow images of their greatest saint, Ali, Muhammad's son-in-law.

Answer 2

Islam always promotes Truth, Honesty & Facts, and Never allows propagation of Lies & Fiction. If u draw an illustration or depiction of a Prophet, it can Never be the representation of the Fact, infact it would always be just a Fiction, as u have Never seen any of the Prophet, & Lying on part of the Prophet Is a Huge Sin. The other reason is, depiction/illustration has Always been the beginning of idol-worshipping, Strongly Prohibitted in Islam.
Prophets (May Blessing and Peace of ALLAH be Upon Them All) only used to be amongst us Humans and were just like us, the difference is that They were the 'Chosen Ones' as well as the Most Righteous of All People. They were merely Servants of
ALLAH (GOD), and Their Job was to Deliver GOD's Message to people.

Answer 3

Muslims are forbidden from depicting their Prophet, to prevent anyone from worshiping his image. In their belief, the only person who is to be worship is Allah, although, they also are prohibited from depicting Allah's image as well. That would be considered worshiping an idol.

But, there are many images of the Prophet. The difference now, it is not what was depicted/illustrated! it is who did it. In the most recent event of their objection over the illustration were the cartoons, it fails others to see that 3 out of the 15 cartoons printed in the middle east were done by Muslims, the same individuals who spread those pictures, yet those people were not punished not answered for any of them. Yet, if you view them, you will find out that those cartoons were much more offensive than the original 12.

You hit it on the nose. They wouldn't say it, but they do consider him as a god. They live by his words, they want to dress like him, eat like him, be him, and do whatever he preached to them. Even their flags has Muhammad favorite coat color, Green. You can swear at Allah, but don't you dare swear at their Prophet. as they say it in Arabic, "Illa El-Rasul!" meaning ' except the Prophet', meaning you can attack anyone but their Prophet.

here are some, to show you that it is not the illustration itself, but who are the one doing it!

http://www.zombietime.com/mohammed_image_archive/islamic_mo_full/

Answer 4

The Prophet(PBUH) isnt God,he is God's messenger on Earth. Before the advent of Islam(and even today) people were in the habit of making pictures in their very images(mostly humans) and worshipping them. Later that was taken further with the creation od idols.This worshipping of idols is completely against the prnciples of Islam(and most of the religions of the world) ,since all of us are equal,none among us can be God. But people can be easily mislead when it comes to religious practices. Most of the practicing Muslims are ignorant and if they were shown a picture or any kind of depiction of the Prophet(PBUH) or Allah the Almighty,they would revive the age old practice of picture or idol worshipping which destroys the very essence of Islam. It starts with preserving a picture,carrying it around,paying obeisance and finally turns into a fully fledged ritual which everybody starts following. Therefore depiction of the Prophet(PBUH) and Allah the Almighty in any form is strictly prohibited.

Answer 5

In the past, when other prophets were here and died, people used to make statues, and pictures etc. As time passed, these people forgot that the statues were prophets and gradually began thinking the prophets were God.

As such, God forbade people to draw Muhammad (sws) because then they could forget he was a prophet and start worshipping HIM instead of God.

The Prophet is described as having brown eyes, red colored skin (like after taking a hot bath type of color) and was normal sized. He had big hands and usually walked with his head low. This made him seem humble as he was.

Answer 6

The Muslims believe that Muhommed was the last great prophet. Just as Christians are supposedly not allowed to any images of God or Jesus depicted anywhere--the same applies with Islam

Answer 7

A prophet isn't a prophet on what he sounds like, yet labelled a prophet because the man has rapidly encountered the numinous or the divine, and serves as an middleman with humanity and a messenger of author x

Answer 8

No, Muslims do not regard prophet mohammad as a God, however since he is the messanger of God ( God has chosen him specifically to deliver his message and his word to the whole world), he is highy respected and is regraded as the most holy man thus any sort of representation will not rise to his level and shows disrespect to a figure that changed the world (i,e how can any human being or any human thought represent the messanger that God has chosen).
Personaly I think this is rubbish but here it is anyway

Answer 9

Because pictures, photographs, drawings can lie and they do that effectively. If you asked me for a photograph to fix a date for me, and I am an old man who sends you an old picture of me without telling you when that picture was taken. Notice it that I am not lying to you when I say this is my picture. Except I send a picture that is twenty years old. Unless I write the date or tell you in words that it is not a recent picture I am lying.

Similarly if I made a statue of air or an image of gravity I am associating something silly with air or gravity. Thus if I make an idol of the Lord Almighty who can not be put in a physical mold I am associating lies with him.

It is unimportant what the Propeht looked like. What is important is what he taught. Taking the focus from his teachings to his looks is an act of subversion, albeit without necessarily meaning to do wrong. People also have at times began to worship things that are physical. Human beings like to copy what their beloved do, and ultimately like to worship their "idol".

Thus it is forbidden to make an image or model of beings whose physical model becomes the LIE that leads you away from the truth. I hope this makes sense.

Answer 10

I believe they are not supposed to depict Allah or Muhammed his prophet.

I, however, see no problem drawing depictions of mythical characters or their prophets!