The Ruling on Image-Making and Blackmailing People with Their Pictures
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Also, we are truly pleased with the calls from our brother and sister viewers via the program’s phone number, 8899-9999. One of the sisters also sent a question, saying: Some people take pictures of others, and sometimes they are in compromising positions, and they threaten and blackmail them by publishing them if they do not give them money. What is the ruling on this act of blackmailing others and threatening to expose them and harm their reputation by taking advantage of their private matters or their pictures that are on mobile phones or at weddings or elsewhere?
Answer:
Image-making of living beings is forbidden due to the prohibition of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) of it and his cursing of the image-makers.
And he informed (peace and blessings be upon him) that the most severely punished people on the Day of Resurrection are those who compete with the creation of Allah, and that whoever makes an image in this world will be required on the Day of Resurrection to breathe life into it, and these images will be present on the Day of Resurrection with the one who made them, and he will be commanded to breathe life into them, but he will not be able to do so, and this is only a means of incapacitation and torment, and may Allah protect us from that, and image-making is not permissible except in a case of dire necessity, the scholars have issued a ruling that image-making is permissible in a case of dire necessity, such as security matters, for example, or like the one who wants, for example, to have his picture taken for an ID card or a passport, these are necessary matters, if he does not achieve his purpose except through them, then they are permissible for the sake of dire necessity, His saying, the Exalted:[Al-An'am 6:119] Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh,
Also, we are truly pleased with the calls from our brother and sister viewers via the program’s phone number, 8899-9999. One of the sisters also sent a question, saying: Some people take pictures of others, and sometimes they are in compromising positions, and they threaten and blackmail them by publishing them if they do not give them money. What is the ruling on this act of blackmailing others and threatening to expose them and harm their reputation by taking advantage of their private matters or their pictures that are on mobile phones or at weddings or elsewhere?
Answer:
Image-making of living beings is forbidden due to the prohibition of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) of it and his cursing of the image-makers.
And he informed (peace and blessings be upon him) that the most severely punished people on the Day of Resurrection are those who compete with the creation of Allah, and that whoever makes an image in this world will be required on the Day of Resurrection to breathe life into it, and these images will be present on the Day of Resurrection with the one who made them, and he will be commanded to breathe life into them, but he will not be able to do so, and this is only a means of incapacitation and torment, and may Allah protect us from that, and image-making is not permissible except in a case of dire necessity, the scholars have issued a ruling that image-making is permissible in a case of dire necessity, such as security matters, for example, or like the one who wants, for example, to have his picture taken for an ID card or a passport, these are necessary matters, if he does not achieve his purpose except through them, then they are permissible for the sake of dire necessity, His saying, the Exalted:
while He has explained in detail to you what He has forbidden you, excepting that to which you are compelled
وَقَدْ فَصَّلَ لَكُم مَّا حَرَّمَ عَلَيْكُمْ إِلَّا مَا اضْطُرِرْتُمْ إِلَيْهِThe presenter:
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh,
Source
قناة «مكة و المدينة»، 02 / فتاوى على الهواء - 08 01 1437هـ _ الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com (17:29)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.