The Sin in Image-Making and the Ruling on Images of Scholars in Newspapers

The questioner:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, regarding image-making, is the sin upon the photographer or the one being photographed? And what is your view regarding the images of the honorable scholars, including your own, which appear in some newspapers and magazines? Does that indicate permissibility?

The Shaykh:
This is what they consulted us about. They take the picture, and we did not authorize them to do so. They say to them, "You are this and you are that." It becomes obligatory upon them. But I did not order them, nor did I approve of this. We are the scholars who know; they took their pictures without knowing about them, and we did not authorize them in that. It does not become obligatory upon them. As for the one who agreed with them and ordered that he be photographed and was pleased with it, in the newspapers, it is obligatory upon everyone, upon the photographer and the one being photographed. The photographer may be more sinful, for he could have prevented them and did not.

The questioner:
I say.

The Shaykh:
He creates his image and does not know; he is not responsible for this. Yes, they took the Shaykh's picture, and he was one of the most severe people in prohibiting that. They took his picture and started writing about him, and in his lifetime, may Allah have mercy on him, he wrote to them and prohibited them from doing so and made them feel the gravity of it. I testify that he made them feel the gravity of it, and despite this, they were not able to stop. Yes.