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before it, lost in admiration of its fine lines and features until, overwhelmed with pride and exhilaration, he 8
said to it, “Speak! Speak!” This is why the Noble Messenger (s.a.w.s.) said, Those who make figures will be
chastised on the Day of Resurrection. They will be e told, ‘Put life into what you have creased.’ (Compiled by
al-Bukhâri and Muslim.) And in a hadith quasi, Allâh Ta‘ala says: Who does greater wrong than he who
desires to create the like of what I create? Let them create an atom! Let them create a grain of barley!
(Compiled by al-Bukhâri and Muslim.)
c.
Those who engage in this art stop at nothing, producing statues of nude or erotic figures and the deities
and saints of other religions. A Muslim is not permitted to acquiesce in regards to such practices.
d.
Finally, statues have been, and still are, symbols of aristocratic and luxurious living“. People in high
places fill their palaces, halls, and chambers with statues fabricated of many materials. It is not surprising
that a religion which declares war on luxury in all its manifestations, should prohibit the Muslim from having
statues in his home.
The Islâmic Manner of Commemorating the Great
Now someone may ask, “Is it t not an expression of a people’s loyalty to the memory of its heroes, whose
great deeds are recorded in the annals of history, to erect statues in their honor as a reminder to future
generations of their achievements and greatness? People’smemories are short, and the passage of time will
make them forget the past.”
The answer is that Islâm abhors excessive glorification of people, no matter how “great” they may be,
whether they are living or dead. The Prophet (s.a.w.s.) said, Do not glorify me in the same manner as the
Christians glorify Jesus, son of Mary, but say, ‘He is a slave of Allâh and His Messenger.’ (Compiled by al-
Bukhâri and others.)
When his Companions wanted to stand up to greet him out of respect, he forbade them, saying, “Do not
stand up as the Persians do, some people honoring the others.” (Reported by Abû Daoud and Ibn Mâjah.)
And he warned his followers against praising him excessively after his death, saying, “Do not make of my
grave a site for festivals,” (Reported by Abû Daoud.) and he prayed to his Lord, “O my Lord, do not let my
grave be made into an idol to be worshipped.” (Reported by Malik in Al-Muwatta.)
Once some people came to the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) and addressed him in the following words: “O Messenger
of Allâh, the best of us and the son of the best of us, our leader and the son of our leader.” He said, O
people, say what you said previously or a part of it, and do not let Satan mislead you. I am Muhammad, a
slave of Allâh and His Messenger. I do not like your raising my status above the status which Allâh, the
Mighty and Glorious, has given me. (Reported by al-Nisai on good authority.)
A religion whose teachings concerning even Allâh’s Messenger (s.a.w.s.) is one of such moderation can
never tolerate the erecting of idol-like statues for some individuals, involving expenditures running into
thousands of dollars so that people may point to them with admiration and esteem. Many pretenders to
greatness and self-proclaimed makers of history have slipped into the hall of fame through this open door,
since anyone who is able to do SQ erects statues or monuments to himself, or lets his admirers do it for him,
so that people are misled from appreciating those who are truly great.
The Believers aspire only to that true immortality which can be bestowed by Allâh alone, Who knows the
secret and the hidden, Who neither misleads nor forgets. In His register of immortality there is the name of
many a person whose greatness has remained unrecognized by the people. Indeed, the Most High loves
those Godfearing and religious souls who remember Him in the secrecy of their hearts, who do great service
without fanfare, whose presence is not felt in a gathering of people and whose absence is not missed
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When the greatness of some of these noble souls is recognized by the people, its perpetuation for coming
generations is not to be achieved by erecting statues of them. The correct Islâmic method of
commemoration is to keep their memory alive in the hearts and minds by speaking about their good deeds,
ideas, and achievements.
Allâh’s Messenger (s.a.w.s.), the caliphs, the leaders, and the imams of Islâm were never immortalized in
figures or statues. In this faith the fathers tell their children, and they in turn pass on to their own children, the
stories of such people’sachievements and ideas. At meetings and gatherings these stories are like breaths
of fresh air, filling the hearts and minds of Muslims without any need for pictures or statues.
I quote here part of a lecture entitled “Toward a New Understanding of Islâm,” by Professor Muhammad al-
Mubarak, Dean of the College of the Shari‘ah, University of Damascus, delivered at al-Azhar University. The
section quoted here contains an incisive analysis of the whole question of how to perpetuate the memory of
the great.
We are faced with the situation that many new modes, systems, and habits which are inconsistent with our
correct beliefs and established moral principles have found their way into our social life. Among these is the
manner in which Europeans and Americans commemorate the* heroes by erecting statues of them. If we
examine this matter with an open mind, free of subservience to whatever comes from the West, and reflect
on ways of commemorating the lofty achievements of the great, we find the Arabs, in particular,
memorializnothing of their great personages except their noble deeds and good qualities such as fidelity,
generosity, and courage. Their manner of perpetuating their memories was to recount tales of their heroes,
passing them down form one generation to another, and to compose and recite eulogies in the form of
poetry. In this manner the generosity of Hatim and the bravery of ‘Antarah became proverbial in the days
before Islâm.
When Islâm came, it emphasized the meaning underlying this method. It declared that the best of Allâh’s
creation and the last of His Messengers (s.a.w.s.) was but a mortal man: ‘Say: Indeed, I am a mortal like
you; my Rabb inspires me.’ (18:111) It emphasized that the worth of human beings lies in their deeds and
not in their physical form; it made the Messenger (s.a.w.s.) an example for all mankind to follow; and it
forbade such sanctification and exaggerated respect for men which resembles adoration and which, by
implication, signifies the denigration of the rest of mankind.
When Allâh’s Messenger (s.a.w.s.) passed away to meet his Lord, the first caliph drew people’sattention to
this fact, saying, ‘If anyone worshipped Muhammad, then (know that) Muhammad is dead, but if anyone
worshipped Allâh, then Allâh is living and does not die.’ He then recited the words of Allâh Ta‘ala:
‘Muhammad is but a messenger, messengers (the like of whom) have passed away before him. If, then, he
dies or is killed, will you turn back on your heels?‘ (3:144)
Islâm immortalizes the memories of people because of their good and beneficent deeds; the remembrance
of them remains in the hearts of Muslims. Thus, the literate and illiterate, the young and the old, know about
the justice of ‘Umar, the firmness and wisdom of Abû Bakr, and the piety and courage of ‘Ali. No statue
made of stone was needed to commemorate any of them because their deeds and qualities are inscribed in
people’shearts.
Commemoration by means of erecting statues is in reality a regression to the remote past, a descent from a
higher plane; it was the method of the Greeks and Romans which was adopted by Europeans....
In respect to the concept of the nature of man and his true worth, they are far inferior to the Muslims, even to
the pre-Islâmic Arabs, since because of their inability to grasp the true stature of man and his potentialities,
they are able only to conceive of great men as gods, and of their gods as men incarnate.
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