Muslim Brotherhood’s Antagonism to Art (3)

• Brotherhood on Photography

The Muslim Brotherhood moves on to pay attention to the art of photography, after they are done with prohibiting singing and music!

In issue No. 14, May 1980, in the “Special Responses” Section of the Fatwa page, Shaykh Muhammad Abdullah Al-Khatib said to reader Mohammed Salem from Al-Gharbia Province:

“The photography (tasweer) means capturing a shade or a reflection into still pictures by special technique. Photography is allowed by some scholars, while others ruled that it is detestable anyway. Some jurists said it is not permissible unless there is a necessity or a valid reason to take pictures; provided that it does not help in sin or be a source of temptation, such as pictures of adorned women. If this is the case, then there is nothing wrong with it, and it does not come under the prohibition.” [1]

Let us give this man a standing ovation for the insight he bestow on us! The Mufti kindly grants Muslims ‘the permissibility’ to take photographs even though some scholars have maintained its detestability. The Mufti does not forget, as usual, to put this permissibility under strict conditions, on top of which is that picture should never contain or feature properly uncovered or immodest women and suchlike. To the Brotherhood’s Mufti, this is his main and only problem or taboo with photographs; and there is no room for to explain further what he meant by the word ‘and suchlike’.  What is understood is that taboos are many other than women, but he does not give other examples!

All kidding aside, we can see that the aforementioned answer is short and unsatisfying.  For the detailed version of this Fatwa, see Issue No. 28, September 1978, titled: “The position of Islam on Photography”. It is remarkable that the text of the same Fatwa was re-published in issue No. 57, January 1981 without changing one single letter or soft-pedaling its tone. In fact, I could not find any convincing explanation for this repetition.

The Fatwa commences with this statement: We have received several messages on this subject. We would like to applaud our readership’s eagerness and concerns to know the rule of Islam on photography. [And] We say—with the help of God:

It is known that a Muslim ought to avoid photography as a profession. At the same time we warn you that all the scholars agree that the photography of naked women, or private parts of man and woman, that need to be covered at any case, or the sensitive/provocative organs of the women etc., is not permissible. We also bring to your notice that those who rule its prohibition, however, allow taking photographs when one is forced to do so, like the photos for ID cards, travel permits, etc., which are required.

• However, one has to know about a few things first:

1. Sculpture as an art of making figures or designs of living beings by carving wood, molding plaster, …etc. is forbidden. So, it is forbidden to learn it or perform it. The Prophet said: The most severe punishment on the Day of the Judgement is inflicted on sculptors. The wisdom behind its prohibition is its attempt to create something similar to the Creation of God.
2. If the pictures are of living beings such as humans and beasts. (Having bodily form) they are prohibited, according to all the scholars of Islam.
3. If they are the pictures of non-living beings such as oceans, trees, mountains, they are permissible, regardless, embodied, photographed or not. There is a consensus on that.
4. Permissibility of photographing living beings such as humans or animals is a point of disagreement among contemporary scholars. Some say it is prohibited, owing to generalization of the evidence that prevents picture-making. As the Prophet says: ‘The angels do not enter the house in which there is dog or a picture’. He also says: ‘Verily, the picture-makers will be punished on Resurrection Day, and they will be asked to bring the thing they made to life.’
5. His word ‘The people of pictures’ also means ‘the photographers’. And he also says: ‘The photographer is one who will be the most severely punished’.
6. A few other scholars bent to the permissibility of the photography. They argue that the reason in the prohibition is resemblance to the creation of God. And the picture taken/photographed by the machine is the same thing created by God and not its resemblance.

Critique:

From the above Fatwa, there is a pressing question that I am curious to ask: How photography and its likes would negatively affect Islam?

• Firstly, The Fallacy Of Logic:

The Brotherhood’s argument is based on fallacious juristic reasoning. The prohibition of sculpture is actually based on a few Prophetic Traditions (ahadith) that are taken or truncated out of its historical, cultural or textual contexts. These ahadith can never be understood in the way as leading to the prohibition. Let us touch upon the historical circumstances in which the Prophet made these announcements or pronouncements. Anyone with the least knowledge of history would know that these ahadith were pronounced in the immediate aftermath of Pre-Islamic period, or Jahilyya (i.e. ignorance, paganism and corruption) when and idol-worship was prevalent and rampant. Then, the doctrine of monotheism had not had been settled yet in souls and hearts of the new Muslims. Thus, it is logical that the warning against idolatry would come out as strong as possible. Anything that would spoil or threaten the purity of monotheism, the settlement of faith, the stability of the nascent Muslim community and the elevation of human consciousness, had to be abolished.

To demystify the concept better, let us ask ourselves a few simple questions, for example, do modern sculptors aim to match the creation of God? Do they sculpt their statues in order to worship them with or without God? The logical answer will be “NO”. Yet, the Brotherhood scholars have plunged into such an intellectual myopia and vanity which best manifested in their inherited books. They do not activate or reason what they are spewing without understanding. They are heedless of the contemporary needs and the radical changes that have taken the world by storm.

• Secondly, A History Of Annihilation:

Let me tell you what the Taliban movement did in Afghanistan before its fall. Taliban has adopted and carried out what the Brotherhood’s scholars and intellectuals have always been calling for. They are the same Brotherhood which touts themselves as bulwarks of moderation, enlightenment and modern thinking.  They are the same Brotherhood that tends to distance itself from extremism and terrorism. However, facts belie them and prove the opposite. The Taliban movement went on pulling down monuments that represent the collective human history. They once destroyed an ancient statue on the grounds that it is an idol that is worshiped besides God.  Those ignorant zealots forgot that hundreds of years have passed without a single case of apostasy or disbelief because of this alleged idol.

Similarly, photography has its fair share of the prohibition spearheaded by the Brotherhood.  They made the absolute necessity is sole arbiter of its permissibility or impermissibility. Why not? We have already seen and heard of groups that appeared to claim to be “Islamic,” and prohibited photography and all its practices, such as identity cards and travel documents.  We have not, thus far, read a single word of criticism from the Brotherhood’s interlocutors about these fatwas promulgated by such random groups.

The author of this odd fatwa is deliberately hell-bent on causing confusion, citing the “nude and erotic images,” which are part of art in any sense. To him, it is enough material substance for his self-styled prohibition under the pretext that it arouses sexual instincts and desires!

If you once passed by any public Square or space in downtown Cairo, you will see many statues of heroes and figures of the Egyptian nation such as Ahmed Orabi, Mustafa Kamel Pasha, Mohamed Farid, Saad Zaghloul, Talat Harb, Ahmed Shawqi, Taha Hussein and Abdel Moneim Riad and Naguib Mahfouz, and many others.  Have anyone heard that these statues have been worshiped with or without God? It never happened and it will not.

It is the intellectual naivety alone that leads the Muslim Brotherhood to prohibit sculpture, ban statutes and condemn sculptors.  It is the catalytic agent that propels them to protest against artistic imagery, paintings and inscriptions in the lands of Islam. After analyzing the odd fatwa, we can see that its author went as far as deeming the art of sculpture as an alien trend that was introduced by and inherited from the colonial domination. He even saw it as a nostalgic call for pagan and a human setback and aberration that must be objected by all means possible.

• Thirdly, To What Time Do These People, Their Scholars And Jurists Belong?!

These lunatics are such complete embarrassment to us, Muslims.  They are wasting time while others are working hard. They are quibbling over trivialities, while there is other people who making a new discovery, traversing to the outer space or developing a new technology as we speak. Others are making the world a better place to live in; and what they are doing? Talking in drivels!

I wonder how we, Muslims, will be able to address the world with such a frivolous discourse, the top plank of which is prohibiting art?  How we can correct the tarnished image of Islam and Muslims in the West when such archaic ideas are kept eroding our cultural identity and public confidence without doing something about it?

The true catastrophe is that they attribute this nonsense to Islam, presenting it as a religion that mars the life of people and is at odds with the spirit of the time and space.  The underlying cause of their attitude is best described in the words of Dr. Mohammed Salim al-‘Awa who said: “They parrot what they inherited and market it as fixed tenets of their self-styled religion. They cannot realize that these ideas are ‘variable,’ ‘flexible,’ and ‘adjustable’ interpretations.”

Interestingly, the Brotherhood, with all their fanaticism and hard-line thought, would stumble on more rigid and fanatical elements who might have exceeded the limits of extremism. This proves that radicalism is such a bottomless abyss.

Here is an Alexandria university medical student ranting and raving over some pictures published in Issue No. 13 in June, 1977. He wrote like reproaching the Brotherhood, saying:  “How Al-Da’wa Magazine is including some images in its issues? Are not you aware that “photography” is forbidden in Islam?!

[1] In issue No. 48 of the newspaper “Dawa”, issued in July 1980