What is the ruling on photography for the sake of remembrance?

Question : The questioner asks: What is the ruling on taking photographs without any need to keep them for remembrance?

Answer : Taking photographs to keep them for remembrance is forbidden, because the purpose and goal of doing so is something forbidden. It is not permissible for a person to possess pictures in order to remember them, for this causes a person to become attached to the picture constantly. This is especially so if it happens that the person in the picture dies before the photographer, causing his heart to become completely attached to him. Perhaps this person in the picture is a leader in religion, and this man becomes distracted by him, or perhaps he worships him and magnifies him, or one of those who come after him does so. The first fitnah of shirk (associating partners with Allah) in the time of Noah was the magnification of images. In any case, possessing pictures for remembrance is forbidden. It is obligatory for anyone who has pictures he possessed for this purpose to drown them in gasoline and burn them, so that nothing remains in his heart and no trace of them remains with him at all.