No, There Is No Ban On Pix Of Mohammed In The Quran; However...
However, there is a ban on pictures in general, in the hadiths, the words and deeds of Mohammed (who Muslims are supposed to emulate).
From Answering Islam:
While some Muslims were outraged by a magazine printing cartoon pictures of Muhammad, we have to step back and calmly ask, are pictures of Muhammad really forbidden in Islam? - the answer might surprise you.Numerous passages in the Qur'an prohibit idolatry, and worshipping statues or pictures, but there is not even single verse in the Qur'an that explicitly or implicitly says not to have any pictures of Muhammad. This bears repeating: There is not a single verse in the Qur'an that prohibits making or having pictures of Muhammad or people or animals or trees. In fact, there are some verses in the Qur'an which mention images in a positive context and which therefore presuppose that some statues or images were approved by God, see the article Muhammad and Images.
However, the vast majority of Muslims are Sunni Muslims, who regard six authorized collections of hadiths as the highest written authority in Islam after the Qur'an. The hadiths are records, often very detailed, of what Muhammad taught and did. We give multiple quotations to show that these teachings are not confined to just one writer/collector, but are spread throughout the different hadith collections.
Where multiple trustworthy hadiths agree, Sunni Muslims will take this as binding. In other words, people today are kicked out of Islam, or even killed based on the hadiths.
Pictures of Muhammad are "not exactly" forbidden in the hadiths either. The hadiths do not single out Muhammad's picture. Rather, in the hadith we find the prohibition of all pictures of people or animals, which would include pictures from a camera.
For example, Sahih Muslim vol.3 no.5268 (p.1160) says, "Ibn 'Umar reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) having said: Those who paint pictures would be punished on the Day of Resurrection and it would be said to them: Breathe soul into what you have created.2519"
Notice that the prohibition was not just against idolators who made pictures, or even Muslims who made pictures for other reasons, but for anyone who made pictures.
Sahih Muslim vol.3 no.5271 (p.1161) gives a little more detail: "This hadith has been reported on the authority of Abu Mu'awiya though another chain of transmitters (and the words are): 'Verily the most grievously tormented people amongst the denizens [inhabitants] of Hell on the Day of Resurrection would be the painters of pictures.2520..."
"Narrated 'Aisha: Allah's Apostle said, 'The painter of these pictures will be punished on the Day of Resurrection, and it will be said to them, Make alive what you have created.'" Bukhari vol.9 book 93 no.646 p.487. no.647 p.487 is the same except it is narrated by Ibn 'Umar.
No pictures of people or animals according to Bukhari vol.4 book 54 no.447-450 p.297-299.
Conclusion: It is clear that the hadiths prohibit pictures of animals or people, especially in homes. There is no focus on pictures of Muhammad per se. All pictures of people and animals are forbidden. It is a completely general prohibition.







Eastern Orthodox Christianity frowns on statuary of religions icons. The feeling is that you'll worship the representation, not the god.
There are no crucifixes in Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Crosses, but not crucifixes.
Relief sculptures and tile mosaics, however, are generally acceptable.
Islam probably picked that up from its neighbors (and the lands it conquered) and took it farther to ban all iconography.
Conan the Grammarian at January 11, 2015 10:33 AM
Conan, it goes a little further back than that
There is a prohibition against worshiping "graven imagines" in the Old Testament of the bible. The Old Testament is of course, derived from the Torah, which also contains these prohibitions.
If you want to understand Islam, and Christianity it helps a lot to be an expert on historical middle eastern culture, and religions, including Judism.
I am not.
BUT.... Most of these journalists don't even come close.
The Koran isn't that different from the bible or the Torah. Like all religious creeds, it becomes dangerous through zealotry, and political goals.
Kind of like when you take the writings of Karl Marx, and try and build a society and government based on it......
Or use Shinto to justify racial superiority, and a war for world domination.
Isab at January 11, 2015 11:35 AM
This comment will be preaching to the choir here; but . . .
It doesn't matter what the Kuran says or doesn't say.
Another's belief do NOT trump someone else right to life. That is a most basic of common sense learn-to-live with others that too many Muslims do not get.
Charles at January 11, 2015 1:01 PM
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