The Ghanaian Minaret

Accra – A figure captioned “Prophet Mohamed” in one of the new textbooks for basic schools in the country is gradually becoming a centre of controversy as more Muslims have flagged the content of the book.

A photo circulating on social media has shown page 51 of the supposed Divine Series textbook for Basic 5 depicting a bearded man with a pointed nose, and big eyeballs, wearing a turban and holding a book that had a covering similar to the Quran.

Underneath the picture is the caption ‘prophet Mohamed’.

The image which accompanies the topic, ‘the Holy prophet Muhammed’ suggests that the image is that of the prophet.

It however remains unclear as to how wide the use of such contentious images have been in other series of approved textbooks for the “Our World Our People” subject which is to be taught across all basic school level in the new curriculum.

Islam has a long tradition of disallowing any image that is ascribed to known prophets in the religion for fear of promoting image worshipping or idolatry as is the case with some religions in the world.

Prohibition of the prophet’s photography is also premised on the fact that no image-capturing gadget existed during his lifetime and therefore any attempt to portray him, his companions or other prophets could be misleading or blasphemous.

The religion however makes room for oral description of prophets as highlighted in Hadith (narrations) and Seerah (biography) of the prophet.