Aniconism in Islam

Aniconism in Islam is the avoidance of images (aniconism) of sentient beings in some forms of Islamic art. Islamic aniconism stems in part from the prohibition of idolatry and in part from the belief that the creation of living forms is God's prerogative.

Quotes

• It is a curious phenomenon that there never was a religion started in this world with more antagonism…(to the worship of forms) than Mohammedanism…The Mohammedans can have neither painting nor sculpture, nor music…That would lead to formalism. The priest never faces his audience. If he did, they would make a distinction. This way there us none. And yet it was not two centuries after the Prophet’s death before saint worship (developed). Here is the toe of the saint! There is the skin of the saint! So it goes, Formal worship is one of the stages we have to pass through.
  • Swami Vivekananda, Complete works, (VI.60)

• In spite of attempts to link Islamic iconoclasm and iconomachy to a Zoroastrian influence which made itself felt from the ninth century,66 the evidence seems overwhelming that Muhammad's view of idolatry, like the concept of idolatry in its very origin, as well as the later Islamic opposition to images, developed from a judeo-Christian inheritance. Here the monotheistic tradition can be opposed to the Indo-Iranian tradition in its entirety-even though in practice religious labels like Muslim or Hindu have historically not been markers of exclusive groups or understandings of cultural symbols.
  • Wink A Al-Hind, The Making of the Indo-Islamic World. Volume 1 p 313ff

• The repeated condemnation of idol-worship by various Old Testament prophets has been taken, quite plausibly, as evidence of the ongoing popularity of iconolatry. When considering the uncompromising Muslim attitude to images, however, it is important to note that Islam evolved from the judaism of the Christian period, when the earlier permissive attitudes of Hellenistic judaism had been shed in the confrontation with the Christians.
  • Wink A Al-Hind, The Making of the Indo-Islamic World. Volume 1 p 313ff

Hadith

• Narrated 'Aisha: The Messenger of Allah never left in his house anything containing the figure of a cross without destroying it.
  • "Abu Dawud 34:132".

• Abu Wa'il narrated: "Ali said to Abu Al-Hayyaj Al-Asadi: 'I am dispatching you with what the Prophet dispatched me: "That you not leave an elevated grave without leveling it, nor an image without erasing it."
  • "Jami at-Tirmidhi Book 10, Hadith 85".

• Narrated 'Abdullah bin Masud: The Prophet entered Mecca and (at that time) there were three hundred-and-sixty idols around the Ka'ba. He started stabbing the idols with a stick he had in his hand and reciting: "Truth (Islam) has come and Falsehood (disbelief) has vanished."
  • Sahih Bukhari 3:43:658

• Narrated Abu Hurayrah: The Messenger of Allah said: Gabriel came to me and said: I came to you last night and was prevented from entering simply because there were images at the door, for there was a decorated curtain with images on it in the house, and there was a dog in the house. So order the head of the image which is in the house to be cut off so that it resembles the form of a tree; order the curtain to be cut up and made into two cushions spread out on which people may tread; and order the dog to be turned out. The Messenger of Allah then did so. The dog belonged to al-Hasan or al-Husayn and was under their couch. So he ordered it to be turned out. Abu Dawud said: Al-Nadd means a thing on which clothes are placed like a couch.
  • "Abu Dawud 34:139".