Why did Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab include a chapter on image-making in [Kitab al-Tawhid]?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (may Allah have mercy on him) included a chapter on image-making in Kitab al-Tawhid. What is the reason for that?
The Shaykh:
Because this is one of the causes of shirk (associating partners with Allah). Image-making is one of the causes of shirk, just as it happened to the people of Noah when they made images of the righteous. Yes.
The questioner:
He says: Honorable Shaykh.
The Shaykh:
If you hang up images, especially if the images are of those who are exalted, if the images are of those who are exalted, such as rulers, scholars, worshippers, and the righteous, this becomes a cause for exaggeration regarding them. Yes.
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (may Allah have mercy on him) included a chapter on image-making in Kitab al-Tawhid. What is the reason for that?
The Shaykh:
Because this is one of the causes of shirk (associating partners with Allah). Image-making is one of the causes of shirk, just as it happened to the people of Noah when they made images of the righteous. Yes.
The questioner:
He says: Honorable Shaykh.
The Shaykh:
If you hang up images, especially if the images are of those who are exalted, if the images are of those who are exalted, such as rulers, scholars, worshippers, and the righteous, this becomes a cause for exaggeration regarding them. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [996 /1350] لماذا أورد الشيخ محمد بن عبد الوهاب في [كتاب التوحيد] باب التصوير؟ الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.