Fordthought
  • Blog
  • Word of the Week
  • Dig Deeper

Word of the Week: w/C 12/1/15 - Aniconic

11/1/2015

 


The practice of or belief in the avoiding or shunning of images of divine beings, prophets or other respected religious figures, or in different manifestations, any human beings or living creatures.
Picture
Picture
This week’s shocking events in Paris (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30708237) have brought back into public consciousness debates about free-speech and the right to freedom of expression. Many have naturally rallied to uphold the right of satirical magazines such as Charlie Hebdo to express their opinions and publish cartoons containing images of The Prophet that many Muslims find offensive - this has been seen most clearly with the twitter hashtag #iamcharlie (http://republicanherald.com/news/i-am-charlie-goes-viral-after-paris-news-attack-1.1814311).

I think at times such as these it is worth looking back at why many Muslims find images of the Prophet Muhammad offensive. The Aniconism of Islam began with the prohibition of images of God; Islam is concerned that God is limited and diminished when he is reified by human beings. This is really crucial to understand; Allah is at the heart of every Muslim life and yet he is a transcendent being who is not to be limited or captured in human terms. This is why he has 99 names - he is beyond full definition.
Picture


Part of the work of The Prophet in Mecca was clearing of the Kaaba of figural images worshiped by the people of his time. Very soon after The Prophet’s death the Quran was written down and so Muslims became a people of the book - Just like Jews and Christians. The difference being the stress in the inerrancy of the Quran; it is perfect and cannot be altered or interpreted as it was a near-direct revelation from Allah.  That said, there is no actual prohibition of figural images in the Quran (http://www.newsweek.com/koran-does-not-forbid-images-prophet-298298), there is however to be found in Hadith (the sayings of the prophet) some directives aginast the production of images.

Either-way over time an aniconic attitude developed in Islam to not only include images of God but also images of The Prophet, other prophets and The Prophet’s family. This lead to wondrous range of non-figural artistic styles in Islam including geometric patterns and calligraphic art. Artists have also found ways of circumventing the prohibition by depicting Muhammad with a veiled face or a halo of fire which obscures his image. Thus artists were able to express themselves without breaking the religious taboo.

Picture
Picture
I hope that this will help us to remember that Muslims are offended by images of the Prophet because it strikes at a central tenet of their faith, theology and culture. Just as Americans would be offended by the burning of the star-spangled banner, Jews if you defamed a Torah Scroll or Roman Catholics if you did not consume consecrated bread and wine, so Muslims feel very strongly about this boundary and taboo. Just because in secularised Britain and France where many have lost a sense of the sacred and see everything as fair game for comment, criticism and satire does not mean that Muslims must necessarily adopt the same attitude.


What do you think about this difficult issue?


Comments are closed.

    Archives

    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014

    Categories

    All
    Abortion
    Absolutism
    Agnostic
    Analogy
    Animal
    Apophatic
    A Priori
    Aquinas
    Article
    Assisted Dying
    Banking
    Bertrand Russell
    Book Review
    Buddhism
    Christianity
    Cosmological
    Covenant
    Dawkins
    Debate
    Design
    Diaspora
    Dig Deeper
    Dukkha
    Epiphany
    Equality
    Euthanasia
    Existentialism
    Fallacies
    False Dichotomy
    Family
    Fertility
    Genesis
    Hajj
    Higher Education
    Hindu
    Hinduism
    Holocaust
    Hospice
    Human Rights
    Human-rights
    Hume
    Islam
    ISRSA
    Judaism
    Justice
    JWT
    Lent
    Life After Death
    Love
    Martyr
    Messiah
    MOOC
    Narnia
    NDE
    News
    Nirvana
    Ontological
    Plato
    PPE
    Pro Choice
    Pro-Choice
    Pro Life
    Pro-Life
    Prophet
    Reformation
    Relativism
    Religion
    Rights
    Sabbath
    Science Vs Religion
    Secularisation
    Soul
    Sport
    Stewardship
    Surrogacy
    Teleological
    Temple
    Ten Commandments
    Theology
    Viability
    Via Negativa
    Vision
    Warfare
    Wittgenstein
    Word
    Word Of The Week
    Word-of-the-week

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos from sneakerdog, Steve Slater (Wildlife Encounters), Art4TheGlryOfGod, johndillon77, dustinj, Charlie Davidson, ineffable_pulchritude, LisaW123, jamee.khairul, Abode of Chaos, Dunleavy Family