As for it's benefit, it is my understanding that the prohibition is one of many prohibitions aimed at closing all doors to Shirk and idolatry. However, I am not aware of any verse from the Qur'an or hadith which explicitly mentions the wisdom behind it, so I conclude by saying that Allah knows best.
"I spent thirty years learning manners, and I spent twenty years learning knowledge."
I totally forgot about that. How long have I been here?!
They are asking slightly different questions, to be fair...
As for it's benefit, it is my understanding that the prohibition is one of many prohibitions aimed at closing all doors to Shirk and idolatry. However, I am not aware of any verse from the Qur'an or hadith which explicitly mentions the wisdom behind it, so I conclude by saying that Allah knows best.
It seems a shame to lose all the potentially great Islamically harmless works of art that could exist, just for the sake of avoiding harmful ones.
In any case, once again I'm stumped by Islam. I can't see how anyone could subscribe to this.
It seems a shame to lose all the potentially great Islamically harmless works of art that could exist, just for the sake of avoiding harmful ones.
Surely you ought to consider that, had it not been for the prohibition on depicting living beings, the Muslim world would not have placed so much emphasis on the many beautiful works of calligraphy to decorate their mosques including those works of art whose geometric patterns used principles established centuries later by mathematicians. Perhaps, far from there being anything to lose, there has been something to gain!
format_quote Originally Posted by czgibson
In any case, once again I'm stumped by Islam. I can't see how anyone could subscribe to this.
Submit is the word you're looking for! We find much greater satisfaction in submitting ourselves to the laws of Allah than in submitting to our desires. We do not always understand the reason behind his laws, but we hear and we obey.
Idolatry is indeed not only a very bad thing - it is the worst of things! The very reason that we have been created is to worship Allah alone. To commit shirk is to do the exact opposite of the reason that we have been created and shirk is the only sin that Allah will never forgive (unless we turn to him in sincere repentance).
I hope this helps you to understand better, although I'm not saying that I expect you to agree with it.
Regards
"I spent thirty years learning manners, and I spent twenty years learning knowledge."
I don't know if I can still call you that, but you'll always be Osman to me...
Thanks for your thought-provoking reply. I know we're unlikely to agree on any of this, but my hope is that by discussing it we may arrive at a glimpse of the truth of things.
format_quote Originally Posted by Uthmān
Greetings czgibson Surely you ought to consider that, had it not been for the prohibition on depicting living beings, the Muslim world would not have placed so much emphasis on the many beautiful works of calligraphy to decorate their mosques including those works of art whose geometric patterns used principles established centuries later by mathematicians. Perhaps, far from there being anything to lose, there has been something to gain!
There is a lot of evidence that artists who place deliberate restrictions on themselves are capable of producing extraordinary things. M. C. Escher, Georges Perec, Wassily Kandinsky and Brian Eno are the first few examples that spring to mind of artists in different fields who have limited their work as an exercise to produce works of staggering originality. As a total aesthetic policy, though, such an idea is essentially an amputation or a handicapping of human creativity.
And that could be justifiable, if everybody agreed that setting overarching restrictions like this brought benefits that outweighed that handicap. Clearly, the Muslim community seem to think so, but elsewhere people disagree.
Submit is the word you're looking for! We find much greater satisfaction in submitting ourselves to the laws of Allah than in submitting to our desires. We do not always understand the reason behind his laws, but we hear and we obey.
Surely you can see how someone like me would view that as a voluntary abdication of your intelligence? I don't understand how thinking things through equates to "submitting to our desires".
Idolatry is indeed not only a very bad thing - it is the worst of things! The very reason that we have been created is to worship Allah alone. To commit shirk is to do the exact opposite of the reason that we have been created and shirk is the only sin that Allah will never forgive (unless we turn to him in sincere repentance).
Well, clearly that's your belief, and there is very little anyone could do to change it.
I hope this helps you to understand better, although I'm not saying that I expect you to agree with it.
It's full of interesting images, and I'm sure the thread starter didn't mean any harm in posting them, but don't the ones that contain images of living beings go against the teachings of Islam?
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