The ruling on scholars attending public gatherings in the presence of photographers
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
Your Eminence the Shaykh, it seems we will object to this by saying that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) entered the clubs of Quraysh and mixed with them, and likewise entered their gatherings.
The Shaykh:
The disbelievers, my brother, are different. Muslims must remove evil from themselves, whereas as for the disbelievers, they must be called to abandon their disbelief. There is no harm.
The questioner:
As for the philosophy. Yes, indeed, the disbelievers, the disbelievers
The Shaykh:
have Allah the Greatest among them, which is disbelief, so they are called to remove the disbelief, called to remove the disbelief. But these are Muslims, why are they called to remove the evil? No, the judge and the scholar may not be pleased with this evil being present, he may warn against it, and he may attend but not respond to the call, so they smoke to his right and left. He may not consider photography permissible and may view it as prohibited in this context, holding that photography is not permissible except for specific restricted needs. He may see that you are filming him while he is delivering the lecture. He may not view it this way, or his independent legal reasoning may hold that this is forbidden, as the texts clearly indicate. He may not have any evidence that would allow him to engage in this activity in the presence of photographers. People are not all the same in their rulings. For example, I and those similar to me may be free from the presence of photographers, and I do not desire their presence except in a few cases where a person may see a benefit for scholars in spreading knowledge through television and the like. A person may encounter some of this in certain public gatherings where one may tolerate attendance for the public benefit. But some shaykhs may not be pleased with this, and may not be able to do so, because they view the texts as general in prohibiting photography, and that photographers are the most severely punished people, so they fear being among them if they approve of this matter and it is reported against them, so they are hesitant to attend. But those who call for this matter should remove what prevents the lecturer and say to him, "This club is in such and such a place, we hope you will attend, and you will see what pleases you." And if he does not see that this lecture should be filmed with the attendees, or does not see that there should be anyone smoking in it, or the like, we will prohibit all of this. Yes.
Your Eminence the Shaykh, it seems we will object to this by saying that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) entered the clubs of Quraysh and mixed with them, and likewise entered their gatherings.
The Shaykh:
The disbelievers, my brother, are different. Muslims must remove evil from themselves, whereas as for the disbelievers, they must be called to abandon their disbelief. There is no harm.
The questioner:
As for the philosophy. Yes, indeed, the disbelievers, the disbelievers
The Shaykh:
have Allah the Greatest among them, which is disbelief, so they are called to remove the disbelief, called to remove the disbelief. But these are Muslims, why are they called to remove the evil? No, the judge and the scholar may not be pleased with this evil being present, he may warn against it, and he may attend but not respond to the call, so they smoke to his right and left. He may not consider photography permissible and may view it as prohibited in this context, holding that photography is not permissible except for specific restricted needs. He may see that you are filming him while he is delivering the lecture. He may not view it this way, or his independent legal reasoning may hold that this is forbidden, as the texts clearly indicate. He may not have any evidence that would allow him to engage in this activity in the presence of photographers. People are not all the same in their rulings. For example, I and those similar to me may be free from the presence of photographers, and I do not desire their presence except in a few cases where a person may see a benefit for scholars in spreading knowledge through television and the like. A person may encounter some of this in certain public gatherings where one may tolerate attendance for the public benefit. But some shaykhs may not be pleased with this, and may not be able to do so, because they view the texts as general in prohibiting photography, and that photographers are the most severely punished people, so they fear being among them if they approve of this matter and it is reported against them, so they are hesitant to attend. But those who call for this matter should remove what prevents the lecturer and say to him, "This club is in such and such a place, we hope you will attend, and you will see what pleases you." And if he does not see that this lecture should be filmed with the attendees, or does not see that there should be anyone smoking in it, or the like, we will prohibit all of this. Yes.
Source
على طريق الدعوة — islamhouse.com (54:01)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.