The Intended Meaning of the One Who Makes Images in the Hadiths of Warning
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
The Honorable Shaykh says: I seek Allah’s forgiveness from you. We see that all the hadiths forbidding image-making and containing warnings are specific to the one who makes images. Does that include the one who is photographed, or how is that?
The Shaykh:
How is the one who is photographed? The one who is photographed is nothing, meaning the image is nothing. Or is the one who is photographed intended to be included in what? The one who is photographed, if he permits it, yes. If the one who is photographed permits it, then he is the one who made the image of himself. If he went to the studio and said, “Take my picture,” then he is the one who made the image of himself. Then, he is the one who made the image. Because this was by his command and his consent. Yes.
The Honorable Shaykh says: I seek Allah’s forgiveness from you. We see that all the hadiths forbidding image-making and containing warnings are specific to the one who makes images. Does that include the one who is photographed, or how is that?
The Shaykh:
How is the one who is photographed? The one who is photographed is nothing, meaning the image is nothing. Or is the one who is photographed intended to be included in what? The one who is photographed, if he permits it, yes. If the one who is photographed permits it, then he is the one who made the image of himself. If he went to the studio and said, “Take my picture,” then he is the one who made the image of himself. Then, he is the one who made the image. Because this was by his command and his consent. Yes.
Source
شرح قرة عيون الموحدين في تحقيق دعوة الأنبياء والمرسلين، باب ما جاء في المصورين — islamhouse.com (57:30)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.