According to the Hindustan Times the Darul Uloom, India's leading Islamic seminary, has issued a ruling that "photography is unlawful and a sin." The ruling came from an authority at the seminary after an engineering student requested to pursue a career in photography because it was something he was passionate about doing.
"Photography is un-Islamic. Muslims are not allowed to get their photos clicked unless it is for an identity card or for making a passport." - Mufti Abdul Qasim Nomani, Vice Chancellor of Darul Uloom Deoband. India Muslim Law Personal Board member Mufti Abul Irfan Qadri Razzaqi also agreed with Nomani's fatwa when he added, "Islam forbids photographing of humans and animals. Whoever does that will be answerable to God."
When the reporter pressed them about the issue highlighting the fact that those in Saudi Arabia practice photography Razzaqi answered, "Just because they are richer than us doesn't mean they are also correct. If they are allowing photography they will be answerable on the Day of Judgement in the court of God."
Will this change the way Muslim people start to view photography? If you practice Islam, I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
I wonder what the plans are for the photo gallery on the Darul Uloom's seminary website.
Update: This morning the rector of the influential Islamic seminary, Abul Qasim Nomani, has said, “Darul Uloom does not have powers to ban anything. It is the government that has such powers. Our fatwa department simply issues religious advice when its views are voluntarily sought by an individual for his or her own personal use." He however said Islam did not permit idol or image worship, which is why the Prophet did not allow his portrait to be made. This is why images of human beings, whether in the form of a drawing or photograph, are not encouraged. “But there is no ban from our side,” he said. According to Hindustan Times he refused to directly comment one way or the other on whether photography was un-Islamic.
Image credit: Dave Geffin - [Via PetaPixel]
As a muslim photographer from the U.A.E. I must say that this piece of information is FALSE. However, I do understand how such misconception could happen. In Islam, it is prohibited to make someone, mighty. because we are all human, no one is mighty but god. So, a simple portrait of beloved one could be interpreted it as an act of making some one holy or mighty. hence, we consider putting photographs on our walls something rather 'bad' but never un-islamic. We choose to avoid putting photographs on walls just so that we maintain our 'face' as worshippers of god and no one else.
We muslims, practice photography till now, personally and professionally. In fact, it was Ibn-Al-Haytham who was born in iraq who invented the camera obscura. Anyone with proper background about photography knows that piece of information. His discovery was one of the greatest islamic contributions to science.
As muslims, we were asked to seek knowledge and wisdom. Learning is considered to be a form of worship. We consider photography to be a science discovery for humans to live on. It's part of evolution. We embrace it. We approve of it.
Never-the-less, everything can be use for evil. but that does matter. what matter is what you use it for.
you people always say the islam says that.. then some other guy comes and say no that´s wrong.
even in this thread there i no straight line you islamist walk on.
some say taking photos it forbidden ...the others say it´s not.
what is this.... religion or advanced thermodynamics?
it can´t be that difficult?
the suicide bombers think they will get 77 virgins.. the next islamic guy says.. that´s nowhere written in the koran.
are there two of your holy books or what?
As long as your intent of making or looking at a photograph is not to worship or to consider someone as being mighty then its okay. <== rich sheikhs photographs is simply a way to declare that he is the ruler i guess.
Not at all. Quraan is just one. you will never find a quraan different from the other. not even by a comma.
you need to keep in mind that we as humans tend to make mistakes. and we all have different opinions. things could lead us to interpret it one thing as many different things. there is always the extremist and the non-extremist.
Since we are talking about muslims, isn't it just right to go to the right source of information ? why would I go an indian islamic institute to learn about islam ? why not go to a country where they actually speak the language of the quraan ? wouldn't these sources be more accurate ?
We should all be cynical when reading anything in this WORLD-WIDE-WEB.
another gang rape in india.... what´s up with this country???
All religions are hate groups, in my view. If you do not subscribe to 'their' version of the world, you are an infidel, sinner, blasphemer etc. Sad as the premise of the lessons is a good one. Leave it to man to screw that up.
Yeah, so is medicine, when they tell you that you are sick and you will die.
Suicide is clearly forbidden in Islam, but the permissibility of martyrdom operations (Istishhad) is an altogether different topic, with scholars being split on the issue.
Notable scholars and apologists such as Shaykh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, the world's most quoted independent Islamic jurist Dr. Zakir Naik, known for his advocacy of "Qur'anic science", and Tahir Ashrafi, the Chairman of the All Pakistan Ulema Council, have justified the use of suicide bombing in Islam. Opinion polls have further shown that an extremely large number of Muslims from around the world support the practice
The Qur'an states that all Muslim males, not only martyrs, will be rewarded with virgins. However, the Qur'an does also mention that those who fight in the way of Allah (jihad) and get killed will be given a "great reward", and there are also hasan (good) hadith which refer to 72 virgins as one of the "seven blessings from Allah" to the martyr. This has lead to the 72 virgins concept being widely used as a way to entice other Muslims into carrying out "martyrdom operations" for Islam.
Soooo how hard is it to catch a flight for you?
I am muslim and I am very passionate about photography, I come from a very religious family.
its personnel preference, some people like it, and those who don't like it don't have to embark religion into it.
I hope someone realizes that the statue in the photo headlining this article is Buddha and has nothing to do with Islam? I'm just sayin'
Explains why their hostage decapitation videos are always so badly lit.
woah dude.
I know, I shouldn't be so hard on their decapitation videos. I'm sure they're trying.
Does Islam really forbid images? I know most of their classic art is abstract, but I'd love to know the real facts here. I do not accept the statements of this Indian Muslin at face value.
*sorry for my english is messed up , because I only use translators :)
sin or not, go back to human again for what he captured the photo. if he capture nude photo everyone knows that is sin if not sin may he religion not allow his people if human dressed and capture photos animal or photo statues etc for worshiped than God, religious people would know it was wrong.
"He however said Islam did not permit idol or image worship, which is why the Prophet did not allow his portrait to be made." I just wanted to explain why he said this. because the prophet did not want his portrait at worshiped than God. because prophets are human beings who receive guidance and duties of God to teach the good life and the right to religious life and socialize. God was never be a human and a human is not a God, it was all there in the story of the movie is not in real life.
so in my opinion, photography is not a sin when it is not out of religious teachings.
Another reason that following tales in some book is really great and helpful in people's lives.
Being in a town saturated with the Muslim population, I want to head down and just do 3 hours of heavy street shooting... Why? Because I can. SO tired of stories like this coming out of fat heads.
if u wanna see what Islam really is, dont study Muslims. Study the Quran. There is no such thing that prohibits photography. And let me ring a bell, the first (pinhole) camera was made by a Muslim (Ibn ul Haitham). And please dont even to listen to Muftis and mullas, they do nothing but disgrace this simple religion.
Its disappointing to read such racist comments that are nothing but fully stereotyped judgements, you can't judge over third of the world's population, there are numerous Muslims who enriched art, science, Culture....etc...
and just so you know the camera was first invented by a Muslim "Alhazem Ibn Al Haytham" a man who gave the world a true understanding of optics and lenses, and named it "Qumra, meaning chamber" which later on spelled as "Camera" by the western world,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhazen
do your home work before your hands writes the BS that runs in your head..... i think no matter how the world evolves there are still some people that crave Lynching "Yes google the word"
Its disappointing to read such racist comments that are
nothing but fully stereotyped judgements, you can't judge over third of
the world's population, there are numerous Muslims who enriched art,
science, Culture....etc...
and just so you know the camera was first invented by a Muslim
"Alhazem Ibn Al Haytham" a man who gave the world a true understanding
of optics and lenses, and named it "Qumra, meaning chamber" which later
on spelled as "Camera" by the western world,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A...
do your home work before your hands writes the BS that runs in your
head..... i think no matter how the world evolves there are still some
people that crave "Lynching" Muslims because there just Muslims "Yes
google the word"
Great, no more videos of beheadings in the name of Allah.. Perhaps the most fundamental followers might take the advice of the fatwa department
Well congratulation FSTOPPERS for this informative post and for pulling some idiot readers commenting on a religion they don't know anything about except from their local misleading news channels.
You can ask Iraqi Christians, Muslims and Jews how we lived peacefully through history. and if some group of Muslims decided to spread their corrupted ideology of Islam by bombing and exploding other countries, then all Muslims are terrorist. although we will never say that Christianity and Jesus (may Allah bless him) are terrorists when some idiots like Bush and his gang decided to ruin a whole country for wrong information they got from their ignorant CIA or whoever idiots that provided them with the MDW that they never found.
Religion is a bit like small children fighting in a schoolyard "well my gods better than your no", "no he's not, my god is far better than your god"........and continues for the rest of time until one day an alien species lands with far more intelligence and tells everyone its all utter cr@p.
This worries me for the sake of honest photojournalists and multi-media journalists at large. Not liking your picture taken and politely refraining from agreeing to it or shying away from cameras is one thing, but writing it into religious law is another. Writing it into any religious doctrine seems like a license of justification to cause harm, and that's not ok.
The I guess I have been a naughty boy