Page 34 - World Religions I - Islam

Depictions of Muhammad
The permissibility of depictions of Muhammad has long been a concern in the history of Islam. Oral and written
descriptions are readily accepted by all traditions of Islam, but there is a disagreement about visual depictions.

• The Qur'an does not explicitly forbid images of Muhammad.
• There are a few Ahadith which have explicitly prohibited Muslims from creating visual depictions of figures.
• Visual depictions that exist generally show Muhammad with his face veiled, or symbolically represent him as a
flame.
• There are several biographical descriptions of Muhammad.
o "The Apostle of Allah, may Allah bless him, is neither too short nor too tall. His hair is neither curly nor
straight, but a mixture of the two. He is a man of black hair and large skull. His complexion has a tinge of
redness. His shoulder bone are broad and his palms and feet are fleshy. He has long al-musrubah, which
means hair growing from neck to navel. He is of long eye-lashes, close eyebrows, smooth and shining
forehead, and long space between two shoulders. When he walks he walks inclining as if coming down
from a height. I never saw a man like him before him or after him."92
o "He was neither too tall nor unduly short but of normal height; his hair was not too curly, nor lank, but
definitely curly; his face was not fat nor rounded; it was which tinged with red; his eyes were black, fringed
with long lashes; he was firmly knit and broad shouldered; the hair on his body was fine, thick on hands
and feet. When he walked he picked up his feet up smartly as though he were going down hill, when he
turned he turned his whole body."93 Both of these descriptions are attributed to Ali bin Abu Talib, the
cousin of Muhammad and the fourth caliph.
• Traditions record that Muhammad had a large mass of raised flesh on his back between his shoulder blades.
o This protuberance was commonly referred to as "the Seal of Prophethood."94
o It is described as being a large cluster of moles or warts, red in color and about the size of a pigeon's
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egg.96
Sunnah

After Muhammad's death, the growing community of followers found that a great many problems of religion, and even
more of community life, were arising for which there were not specific guidance in the Qur'an. Guidance was therefore
found in the traditions of what Muhammad had reported to have said or done, otherwise known as the Sunnah.

• The term Sunnah literally means "trodden path" and is referred to in Islam as the normative example (words
and deeds) of Muhammad's life. Muhammad himself was aware of his acts as establishing custom and
precedent, although he may not have know that such details as the way he tied his sandals would be matter
of record.143
o "Ye have indeed in the Messenger of Allah a beautiful pattern (of conduct) for any one whose hope is in
Allah and the Final Day, and who engages much in the Praise of Allah." - Al-Ahzab (The Confederates) 33:21
(trans. Yusuf Ali)
• The Sunnah of Muhammad is drawn largely from oral traditions known as Hadith (pl. Ahadith).
o The Hadith were compiled between AD 844 and AD 874, more than 200 years after the death of Muhammad
(in AD 632).
• This vast accumulation of genuine, partly genuine, and quite spurious traditions were digested into
six canonical collections.
o Sahih Al-Bukhari (died AD 870/256 AH)
o Sahih of Muslim (died AD 875/261 AH) Out of the six most respected
Hadith collections, Al-Bukhari's nine volume collection is the most respected
of all. Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan, who translated Imam Bukhari's work

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