In the mid 1930s when the supreme court building was completed several statues were crafted of different historical personalities, some religious and many political. Their importance behind their construction was that they set the law of their states or their religious edict.

One of these depictions was of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), the founder of Islam who founded the faith 1400 years ago. Since Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was trending due to an ignorant tweet by the reality star Anglea Stanton King, I thought I give the correct Islamic perspective here.

First, Islam does not allow Muslims to commemorate Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in an iconic way, i.e. image or statue. The religious purpose behind is to stay away from idolatry and also discourage Muslims from speculating on his physical appearance and focus more on his teachings.

There are other revered reasons as well, Muslims consider him to be the Seal of the Prophets, encapsulating thousands of years of religious law into a more complete religious doctrine. Muslims do not depict any prophet or God iconically because of extreme reverence for them.

Having said that Muslims are true loyalists for the law of the land, if the highest court of the land, i.e. Supreme Court executed a decision for this statue, we will not respond with violence, or destruction of property. We will legally voice our opinion against it. And we have.

Small Muslim coalitions in the United States like this have done their part to try to legally remove these depictions. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/supcourt/stories/sculpture.htm

Ms. King's assessment was misguided 1) Muslims do not want statues of Prophet Muhammad 2) No violence has occurred due to them.

The second issue that arose from this tweet was that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) owned slaves or that Islam supported the institution of slavery. Both of these assumptions are erroneous.

1) Islam's most holiest of books The Holy or Noble Quran directly states that the highest virtue a person can have is to free a slave Quran 90:14 2.) Prophet Muhammad freed all of his slaves he received from anyone.

https://www.alislam.org/quran/view/?page=3381&region=E55

Prophet Muhammad was given half of the slaves by his first wife Khadija (may Allah pleased with her) and he freed them all, n a total of 63 in his life. In comparison, Thomas Jefferson later in his life abhorred slavery but kept 90 out of 100 slaves he was given by his in-laws.

The pre-Islamic era was the worst in terms of the slave trade. When Islam came, it placed so much burden on the society itself, and individuals to eventually eradicate slavery

1.) Muslims married slaves and this was immediate legal freedom. 2.)Education and useful skills acquired freedom 3) A slave could literally go to the judge and individually vouch for their freedom and be granted it under the Islamic law. (some of many ways that were used).

Conclusion:

1. Islam does not condone depictions of prophets or God via statues or images.
2. In order to solve a societal problem a Muslim is taught to use legal means.
3. Muslims are taught to defend Prophet Muhammad peacefully.
4. Islam condoned the abolition of slavery.