By: Dr. Yusuf Al Qardawi

The Islamic Manner of Commemorating the Great
Now someone may ask, “Is it 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? Peoples’ memories are short, and the passage of time will make them forget the past.”

The answer is that Islam abhors excessive glorification of people, no matter how “great” they may be, whether they are living or dead. The Prophet (peace be on him) said, “Do not glorify me in the same manner as the Christians glorify Jesus, son of Mary, but say, ‘He is a slave of Allah and His Messenger.” 1

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.” 2

And he warned his followers against praising him excessively after his death, saying, “Do not make of my grave a site for festivals,”3 and he prayed to his Lord, “O my Lord, do not let my grave be made into an idol to be worshipped.”4

Once some people came to the Prophet (peace be on him) and addressed him in the following words: “O Messenger of Allah, 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 Allah and His Messenger. I do not like your raising my status above the status which Allah, the Mighty and Glorious, has given me.” 5

A religion whose teachings concerning even the Messenger of Allah (peace be on him) 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 Allah 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

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 Islamic method of commemoration is to keep their memory alive in the hearts and minds by speaking about their good deeds, ideas, and achievements.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be on him), the caliphs, the leaders, and the imams of Islam 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 peoples’ achievements 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 Islam,” 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, memorialize nothing 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 from 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 Islam.

When Islam came, it emphasized the meaning underlying this method. It declared that the best of Allah’s creation and the last of His Messengers (peace be on him) was but a mortal man: ‘Say: Indeed, I am a mortal like you; my Lord 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 (peace be on him) 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 the Messenger of Allah (peace be on him) passed away to meet his Lord, the first caliph drew peoples’ attention to this fact, saying, ‘If anyone worshipped Muhammad, then (know that) Muhammad is dead, but if anyone worshipped Allah, then Allah is living and does not die.’ He then recited the words of Allah 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)

Islam 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 Abu 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 peoples’ hearts.

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-Islamic 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.

What we are pointing out is that it does not befit us to imitate this alien practice which is inferior to our own, and we must not deviate from the ruling of the Shari’ah that making statues is haram and is harmful to human psychology and morals.

The Exemption of Children’s Toys
If there are some kinds of three-dimensional figures which are not intended to be accorded respect or to be displayed as an expression of high living, then the above cautionary statements do not apply. Islam does not close its mind to them, nor does it see any harm in their use.

Children’s playthings such as dolls, in the form of humans, animals, and the like fall into this category. Said the Prophet’s wife ‘Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her): “I used to play with dolls in the house of the Messenger of Allah (peace be on him) and my friends would come over to play with me. They would hide when they saw the Messenger of Allah (peace be on him) approaching, but he was in fact very happy to see them with me, and so we played together.” 6

‘Aisha also reported, One day the Messenger of Allah (peace be on him) asked me, ‘What are these?’ ‘My dolls,’ I replied. ‘What is this in the middle?’ he asked. ‘A horse,’ I replied. ‘And what are these things on it?’ he asked. ‘Wings,’ I said. ‘A horse with wings?’ he asked. ‘Have not you heard that Solomon, the son of David, had horses with wings?’ I said. Thereupon the Messenger of Allah (peace be on him) laughed so heartily that I could see his molars.7

The dolls mentioned in the above hadith are the dolls with which children play, as ‘Aisha was quite young when she married the Prophet (peace be on him). Al-Shawkani says that these ahadith are sufficient proof of the permissibility of children’s playing with statue-like three-dimensional figures (i.e., dolls of human or animal shape). It is reported that once Imam Malik saw a man buying dolls for his daughter and he disliked it, but Qadi ‘Ayyad says that it is permissible for girls to play with dolls.

This permission also applies to figures made of sweets for festive occasions since they are used only as food.

Incomplete or Defaced Statues
It is reported in the books of Hadith that the angel Gabriel (Jibril) once refused to enter the house of Allah’s Messenger (peace be on him) because there was a statue by its door. He did not enter it again the following day but said to the Prophet (peace be on him), “Order that the head of the statue be broken off so that it resembles the trunk of a tree.” 8

On the basis of this hadith some scholars have argued that what is haram
are complete figures, but if some part of them is missing without which a human being cannot survive, they are allowed However, the true and correct interpretation of Jibril’s asking that the head be broken off in order to make it look like a tree trunk is not that without the head life is impossible, but that the statue was then defaced and consequently viewing it would not generate feelings of respect toward it.

If we ponder over the matter objectively, we will undoubtedly conclude that it is more haram to set up busts in public places in order to perpetuate the memory of kings and great men than to have full figured statues in the home for the purpose of decoration.
(to be cont.)

References:
1- Reported by al-Bukhari and others.
2- Reported by Abu Daoud and Ibn Majah.
3- Reported by Abu Daoud.
4- Reported by Malik in Al-Muwatta.
5- Reported by al-Nisai on good authority.
6- Reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim.
7- Reported by Abu Daoud.
8- Reported by Abu Daoud, al-Nisai, al-Tirmidhi, and Ibn Hibban.