Ka'ba Pictures:-
Sahih Al-Bukhari HadithHadith 2.671 Narrated byIbn Abbas
When Allah's Apostle came to Mecca, he refused to enter the Ka'ba with idols in it. He ordered (idols to be taken out). So they were taken out. The people took out the pictures of Abraham and Ishmael holding Azlams in their hands. Allah's Apostle said, "May Allah curse these people. By Allah, both Abraham and Ishmael never did the game of chance with Azlams." Then he entered the Ka'ba and said Takbir at its corners but did not offer the prayer in it.
Sahih Al-Bukhari HadithHadith 4.570 Narrated byIbn Abbas
The Prophet entered the Ka'ba and found in it the pictures of (Prophet) Abraham and Mary. On that he said' "What is the matter with them ( i.e. Quraish)? They have already heard that angels do not enter a house in which there are pictures; yet this is the picture of Abraham. And why is he depicted as practicing divination by arrows?"
Sahih Al-Bukhari HadithHadith 4.571 Narrated byIbn Abbas
When the Prophet saw pictures in the Ka'ba, he did not enter it till he ordered them to be erased. When he saw (the pictures of Abraham and Ishmael carrying the arrows of divination, he said, "May Allah curse them (i.e. the Quraish)! By Allah, neither Abraham nor Ishmael practiced divination by arrows." *** The above statements of Muhammad could not have possibly been true considering the 'facts' as metioned in the Ahadith that Muhammad had been visiting the Ka'ba since he was a young man and never once in all the stories of the Ahadith -nor anywhere in the Quran, for that matter- did they report upon the above mentioned pictures.
If these pictures did exist during his lifetime, why then did he not refuse to visit the Ka'ba when he was young? Why did he actually meet and pray there regularly without being offended at the sight of the alleged pictures of Abraham, Ishmael and Mary?
How is it conceivable, that while the pictures of Abraham & Ishmael were there for all to see all these decades of the 'Jahiliya' but none the less there was not a single Arab who carried either the name Ibrahim nor Ismail while almost 60% of the male followers of Muhammad are called by his name?
The same Muhammad who riled agaist the rock gods of the Ka'ba would have also mentioned the alleged pictures in the Quran. Bukhari should have known better than to include these stories as verifiable items in his book. They contradict and defy logic and were made up by his followers just like the hundreds of thousands of other alleged sayings and deeds of Muhammad that Bukhari and Muslim hadiths discounted as utter fabrications and nosesense.
In reality, this 'tradition' was invented in similitude to Abraham's destruction of his father's pagan gods***
Sahih Al-Bukhari HadithHadith 7.833 Narrated byAbu Talha
The Prophet said, "Angels do not enter a house in which there is a dog or there are pictures."
*** Muhammad's fear and near loathing of dogs must have roots in a very bad experience that he may have suffered when he was a child or as a shepherd***
Ishaq:552 "The Quraysh had put pictures in the Ka'aba including two of Jesus and one of Mary. Muhammad ordered that the pictures should be erased."
***In the above Hadith reports, Muhammad made prohibitions which were of course copied and plagiarised -like most of the other important ideas in the Quran- from the Bible.
Leviticus 26.1" You shall make no idols nor graven image, nor erect a pillar, nor shall you set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down to it; for I am the Lord your God"***
The Biblical instruction very clearly means not to create anything to which man should pray. It NEVER meant not to paint or to sculpt animated forms for artistic purposes.
For reasons of allegedly protecting the Torah, the rabbis in their wisdom made a sweeping prohibition thus denying the Israelites and their descendants from becoming important and contributing artists except in depecting fruits, flowers and geometric designs. The followers of Muhammad later excelled in such arts. Muhammad added the DOGS to the prohibitions because he had a personal hatred for them.
It is important to note that these prohibitions are not mentioned in any verse of the Quran. In fact the words picture or pictures do not appear anywhere in the Quran describing a painting of any kind. This is one more instance where the Sunna over-rides the Quran.