Q105 :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? People’s
memories are short, and the passage of time will make them forget the
past.
A105 : Islam abhors excessive glorification of
people, no matter how “great” they may be, whether they are living or
dead. The Prophet (peace be upon 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.” When his netpanions 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 Abu Dawood and Ibn Majah). The Prophet warned his
followers against praising him excessively after his death, saying: “Do
not make of my grave a site for festivals,” (Related by Abu Dawood) and
he prayed to his Lord “O my Lord, do not let my grave be made into an
idol to be worshipped.” 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
God-fearing and religious souls who remember Him in the secrecy of
their hearts and minds by speaking about their good deeds, ideas and
achievements. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), the caliphs,
the leaders, and imams of Islam were never immortalized in figure 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 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. Quote
: “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 netmemorate their heroes
by erecting statues for them. If we examine this matter with an open
mind, free of subservience to whatever netes from the West, and reflect
our ways of netmemorating the lofty achievements of the great, we find
the Arabs, in particular, memorialized 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 netpose 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 upon 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 forms; it
made the Messenger (peace be upon him) an example for all mankind to
follow; and it forbade such sanctions 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 upon him) passed away to meet his Lord, the first caliph drew
people’s 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 heel?” (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 the 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 netmemorate 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…
With respect to their 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 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 from the Shari’ah
that making statues is haram and is harmful to human psychology and
morals.” In Islam, when the greatness of some noble soul is recognized
by people, its perpetuation for neting generations is not achieved by
erecting statues for them. The correct Islamic method of netmemoration
is to keep their memory alive in the hearts and minds by speaking about
their good deeds, ideas and achievements.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )