Advice to those who hang pictures of athletes, claiming that Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen permitted it

Question : Honorable Shaykh, our teacher is a good man who loves what is good, but he hangs pictures of athletes in the classrooms and allows students to bring cameras into school meetings. When we speak to him about it, he says that Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen did not forbid it. I ask you to advise him. May Allah forgive us and you.

Answer : All right, I hope to advise him regarding his argument by saying that I am a human being who makes mistakes and hits the mark, but everyone who wants something and desires something dismisses me. We ask Allah to help us with this. I do not encourage the excuse of pictures of athletes, neither in schools nor elsewhere, nor do I encourage a person to carry them in what is called a wallet, for some people take pictures of these players and keep them in a wallet. So who are the players whose pictures are kept or hung in order to honor them? They may be non-Muslims, and in that case, love and reverence for this disbeliever, this giant, falls into the person's heart. This is dangerous for the person. Whoever loves the enemies of Allah, his love for Allah is deficient. For this reason, Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) said in his al-Nuniyyah: "Do you love the beloved's enemies and claim to love Him? That is not possible." One who loves the enemies of Allah and then says, "I love Allah," cannot do so. Even among children, when one is angry with another, what do they say to each other? They say, "Are you with me or with him?" If they see that he loves this person, they say, "You are suspect. As long as you are a friend of my enemy, you are my enemy." So the result is that I did not say to hang pictures of players; rather, I do not see it. I see that a person should stay away from such things. As for instant photographs, I say they do not fall under what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade regarding image-making, because the person did not do anything in them; he did not design the eye or the nose or the likeness. However, one should look at the purpose for which they were taken. It may be for a false purpose, such as keeping them for a memento, or it may be a picture of a beautiful woman, for example, or something similar, which he keeps and whenever he wants to enjoy it, he goes to look at it. The important thing is that I see keeping pictures to be forbidden except for a need. If there is a need, there is no harm, such as for identification or a permit, and so on. As for creating images, that is something else, different from keeping them. I hope my brothers here and those who have heard, if something is attributed to me that they disapprove of, that they contact me so that it becomes clear whether it is true or not, because some people may understand from my words something other than what I intend, or they may ask me about something and describe the question in a way different from how I answered it, and so on. So the important thing is that if you hear something from someone that you disapprove of, you must contact him before dismissing it to him.