The Ruling on Depicting Things That Have No Life
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
The Shaykh mentioned that some students of knowledge stated that image-making is certainly forbidden. He cited the recitation of the revelation, which Ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) saw, and said that he did not know it. Then he said, “You must do it; I will fast on the tree and the room, whatever I find in it.” He said, “There is nothing except what I have mentioned, so I made it whatever I find in it, because he said, ‘You must do it,’ and I admonished him among the people.”
Answer:
Yes, this is the opinion of some of the early scholars that image-making is forbidden in every case, even the image-making of trees and seas. However, this is an anomalous opinion; this is an anomalous opinion. The position held by the majority of the scholars is that what has no soul is not forbidden to be depicted, and there is no objection to it. What is prohibited is the depiction of beings that possess souls, because it is they about whom the text was revealed: “Whoever makes an image will be commanded to breathe life into it on the Day of Resurrection.” This indicates that it is the souls of beings that possess souls.
The Shaykh mentioned that some students of knowledge stated that image-making is certainly forbidden. He cited the recitation of the revelation, which Ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) saw, and said that he did not know it. Then he said, “You must do it; I will fast on the tree and the room, whatever I find in it.” He said, “There is nothing except what I have mentioned, so I made it whatever I find in it, because he said, ‘You must do it,’ and I admonished him among the people.”
Answer:
Yes, this is the opinion of some of the early scholars that image-making is forbidden in every case, even the image-making of trees and seas. However, this is an anomalous opinion; this is an anomalous opinion. The position held by the majority of the scholars is that what has no soul is not forbidden to be depicted, and there is no objection to it. What is prohibited is the depiction of beings that possess souls, because it is they about whom the text was revealed: “Whoever makes an image will be commanded to breathe life into it on the Day of Resurrection.” This indicates that it is the souls of beings that possess souls.
Source
شرح بلوغ المرام من أدلة الأحكام [ صالح الفوزان ]، تابع باب الوضوء - 3 — islamhouse.com (46:10)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.