Chapter Four
Clarifying the Ruling on Exalting Statues and Memorial Monuments

To explain the Islamic ruling on venerating statues and memorial monuments:

Statues (tamāthīl) are three-dimensional figures modeled after a human, an animal, or any other creature endowed with a soul. A monument (naṣb), in its original sense, is a landmark—stones at which the polytheists would slaughter animals in order to commemorate a revered leader, depicting him in their likenesses.

The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, sternly warned against producing images of living beings, and all the more so against portraying those who enjoy special status among people—scholars, kings, ascetics, commanders, and heads of state. This prohibition applies whether the image is rendered by drawing on a canvas, paper, wall, or cloth; captured with the photographic device familiar in our day; or sculpted and fashioned into a statue. He, peace be upon him, also forbade hanging such images on walls and the like, and he prohibited erecting statues—including so-called “memorial monuments”—because these practices serve as a pathway to polytheism. Indeed, the very first instance of idolatry to appear on earth arose through image-making and the setting up of figures. Among the people of Noah there had been righteous men; when they died, their people grieved for them, so Satan suggested that they erect markers at the places where those men used to sit and name them after them. They did so, but the images were not yet worshipped. When that generation passed away and knowledge was forgotten, the images were worshipped (1). Thus, when Allah sent His Prophet Noah, peace be upon him, to forbid the polytheism that had grown out of those statues, his people refused