Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

A. G. Maisey · 18th January 2022, 02:14 AM

Jaga, I am not Muslim, you are, and accordingly I bow to your opinions in this matter of bling.

However, my personal experience with friends and acquaintances who are Muslim, some of whom are very committed & observant Muslims, is that there is a rather wide variation in what people of the Muslim faith believe to be correct.

There was the Muslim gentleman who did some engraving for me, in his office he had a number of very good carvings of birds, a couple in particular were really excellent, they were falcons.

I commented on them and asked if it was acceptable for a man of his beliefs to possess such things.

I should have kept my mouth shut.

I got a 20 minute lecture from him about lifelike images, complete with quotes from al Quran. Apparently my understanding of prohibitions on the making of images was totally incorrect, and only those with a deficient understanding of the teachings had this belief in prohibition of living beings in art.

The truly devout Muslims I know in Indonesia go out of their way to appear humble and unostentatious, although they might ride around in Mercedes Benzes, they invariably dress in a very plain style and never wear jewellery.

I rather feel that Islam, as in virtually all religious belief systems is open to interpretations on exactly what is correct and what is not correct, according to the ideas of the interpreter.

18th January 2022, 02:14 AM	#4
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,712	Jaga, I am not Muslim, you are, and accordingly I bow to your opinions in this matter of bling. However, my personal experience with friends and acquaintances who are Muslim, some of whom are very committed & observant Muslims, is that there is a rather wide variation in what people of the Muslim faith believe to be correct. There was the Muslim gentleman who did some engraving for me, in his office he had a number of very good carvings of birds, a couple in particular were really excellent, they were falcons. I commented on them and asked if it was acceptable for a man of his beliefs to possess such things. I should have kept my mouth shut. I got a 20 minute lecture from him about lifelike images, complete with quotes from al Quran. Apparently my understanding of prohibitions on the making of images was totally incorrect, and only those with a deficient understanding of the teachings had this belief in prohibition of living beings in art. The truly devout Muslims I know in Indonesia go out of their way to appear humble and unostentatious, although they might ride around in Mercedes Benzes, they invariably dress in a very plain style and never wear jewellery. I rather feel that Islam, as in virtually all religious belief systems is open to interpretations on exactly what is correct and what is not correct, according to the ideas of the interpreter.