Question

Why did Muslim paintings rarely show people or animals?

Answer 1

Because Muslims worship only Allah.

By showing paintings of prophets for an example, there is a chance that people might start to worship the pictures instead of Allah, which is a sin.

Christians show pictures and statues of Jesus and some people bow for these statues and pictures. This can be seen as worshipping an idol or a statue.

This is the reason why the Prophet of Islam told us not to have pictures of human beings. It would be considered an insult to Allah.

In the past Muslim secular art did show people and animals, some of the best Indian Mughal (Muslim) art demonstrate this.