If you find my portrait of Muhammad strange in its colors and lines, or if you notice that it doesn't quite resemble the portraits drawn by others and find it unfamiliar, you are free to declare me, or those who created that popular image, a bad painter. But in any case, contrary to popular belief, I didn't choose the famous "shamayil" they draw of the Prophet of Islam as a model; I simply tried to forget it. Just as a painter firsthand draws a portrait of a person based on the information and data they acquire about his qualities and circumstances, and on what those who have seen and known him well have told about him, I will depict his face directly by studying Muhammad's biography. This face will never resemble the portrait someone else has drawn of him, which everyone else has completely imitated. I wanted the pen to be in the hands of a historian, especially one who understands the human being, not a Muslim who knows the Prophet. What is valuable is the beauty of a face in the eyes of a scholar, not a lover.
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