Islam developed in this context where pictures were not favored. The Koran, as it was revealed, was God’s representation on earth, and Muslims felt from a very early time that the only just representation of God’s word was the Koran itself, not any picture of God, certainly not, because you couldn't represent God; and certainly not a picture of Muhammad, because he wasn’t divine.

 

In certain times and places, people did make images of the prophet Muhammad, but these are not religious images; these are not images meant to be worshipped; they're not images of a saint or of God. They are images of Muhammad as a historical figure. He’s sort of given honor by having a very bright blue background or white cloud near him. But he’s not otherwise distinguished from the other characters in the story. At other times, people did represent the prophet, but he was always represented with a white cloth over his face to hide his face, so that there were different approaches to doing it. But in all of these, these are not devotional images. You are not supposed to look at them and pray towards them. You are to learn more about the history of your religion with the emphasis on history from them.

 

As Muhammad’s community grew, so did the opposition.

 

People, of course were skeptical and said: “Look! If you are a prophet, where’s your miracle? And the prophets in the Koran, Moses had miracles, Jesus had miracles. Where is your miracle? The Koranic answer to that challenge is—this is the miracle, this Koran.”

 

But that wasn’t miracle enough for the people who defined themselves by the Gods of their ancestors and totems of their tribe. Their doubts increased. The idea of life after death appalled them.

 

So the Koran presents people as really being skeptical. You mean to tell me that after I die and my body has gone back to the elements and I have been putrefied that I’m gonna be put back together again, and brought back to life? That, of any of the messages in the Koran, that struck the people of Arabia as being the most hard to believe.

 

Muhammad also spoke of eternal damnation for the unjust. He used the language of apocalyptic imagery, talking about the signs of the ends of time when the mountains crumble when the skies are rolled up like scrolls. Then you will know what responsibility you bear for your actions.

 

There are references to those who are unjust--going to the fire.