What is the ruling on looking at images on television?

The questioner : What is the ruling on looking at images on television?

The Shaykh : If they are intentional, it is like looking at the people themselves if they were not photographed.

The questioner : Like looking at the people, yes, in that regard.

The Shaykh : If they were not photographed.

The questioner : Yes, okay. Does this not include these images that are captured by cameras?

The Shaykh : This is a question that is repeated in the discussion that took place on Friday. What is it?

The questioner : Yes, there is a doubt that has been raised, meaning we want to get to the bottom of it.

The Shaykh : There is no difference between a photographic image, a drawn image, or an iron etched image.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Everything that is called an image.

The questioner : Meaning, does this include them?

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : So some of the brothers said: If we brought a mirror and placed a mummified statue, meaning a mummified image, for example of a specific animal, in front of this mirror, he would say: What is the difference between this image, which is now fixed in front of the mirror, and the image on the television?

The Shaykh : That this one is fixed and that one is not fixed. Is this a good difference?

The questioner : There is no fixed one, meaning.

The Shaykh : The image, the image in the mirror is not fixed, and these images are fixed and travel with their owner and are stored until Allah wills.

The questioner : Yes, may Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : I say, and my heart is filled with regret for the Muslims today, because they compare the hadiths of the Messenger (peace be upon him) to what the disbelievers said: What is the difference between riba (usury or interest) and what, trade and selling? So Allah (Mighty and Majestic) answered them: . And this question stems from a mentality that does not believe in Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and His Messenger. This question and its like stem from those who did not believe in the first condition of the pious. What is this first condition? Belief in the unseen.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh Who? So if we do not comprehend the wisdom and the secret in a ruling, we throw out questions, difficulties, and doubts. Why? And what is the difference?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Is this how the Muslim should stand regarding the hadiths of the Messenger (peace be upon him)? Or is the matter as our Lord (Blessed and Exalted is He) said in the Qur'an: .

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : And finally, we say: The habit of the atheists is to multiply questions to raise problems against the sacred texts. Unfortunately, this infection has spread to those who take doubts, then adopt truths, then raise doubts against the sacred truths. So we confront these people with a question of their type: What is the difference between a hand-drawn image and a photographic image? Meaning, now the question is the reverse of their question. They say: What is the difference between the photographic image, which they consider permissible, and the image a person sees in the mirror in the previous manner or in the natural manner when a Muslim stands to comb his hair? What is the difference? Ah, so we do not say that if the respondent fails to convince them of the difference, as we mentioned earlier, but rather they failed to understand the difference. So now we confront them with the reverse. We say: In your manner, what is their manner? They exploited our agreement with them that this image in the mirror is not forbidden, because no one among the Muslims says: It is not permissible... So they exploited our belief in this permissible matter and raised the previous question: What is the difference between this mirror image, which we now call it so, and the photographic image? So if we fail to clarify the difference—and we have not failed, praise be to Allah—and it is not up to us whether they are convinced or not, this matter is in the hand of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). But we clarify to them how this is a manipulation and exploitation... We tell them: As we agree with you on the permissibility of the image in the mirror, and you exploited this agreement to bring your statement closer to the truth, because photographic images are like the mirror image, we now reverse your method upon you and say: You agree with us, if Allah wills, and I say "if Allah wills" from the standpoint of the truth of doubt, not from the standpoint of certainty, and you agree with us, if Allah wills, that the hand-drawn image is forbidden.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : I say this with much doubt because they have reached the point of considering images permissible for identity cards as well. And we are faced with religious magazines, and I do not say non-religious or scientific magazines that do not care about religion, like for example the Kuwaiti Arab magazine. Take what you want from the religious magazines, like Al-Ummah magazine, like Al-Wa'i al-Islami magazine, all the religious magazines that are published here and there... They are filled with hand-drawn images and imaginary images, until they reached the point of photographing the cave in which the Messenger (peace be upon him) took refuge during his migration. They photographed the dove or the two doves and the spider, and so on. This is a feather image, a hand-drawn image. Therefore, I say: We think you agree with us in the prohibition of hand-drawn images. So what is the difference between the forbidden hand-drawn image and the photographic image? What is the difference?

The questioner: There is no difference.

The Shaykh : There is no difference for them except formally. They say: This is an image by hand and that is an image by machine, even though this is a fallacy, because the machine was first made by hand and finally its button was pressed by hand. So we say: What is the difference then? It is merely a difference in form, that this one took the pen or the paint and the brush, and so on, and sat for as long as Allah wills. So in terms of appearance, it is different from the photographic image. And we also say: There is a very big difference between the image that appears in the mirror merely by a person standing in front of it, and the image that appears in the moment for which a person labored nights and days, and then he must aim it at the target with precision and special care. So the forms differ. So what justified you in distinguishing between the photographic image, which you permit, even though there is no difference between it and the hand-drawn image except in form? And there you tried to convince us of the permissibility of photographic images by saying they are like the mirror, with a difference in what? Form. So sometimes you rely on forms, and sometimes the end result is the end. In the making of the photographic machine, and we call it photographic, but in the foreign language I do not know, it does not matter to me.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : But in the end, I told you, this effect that we call an image, what do they call it?

The questioner : An image, of course.

The Shaykh : Also an image. So the essence of this image is the saying of him (peace be upon him): , to the end of the hadith. So the goal is to get rid of and comply with the hadiths of the Messenger (peace be upon him) which contain severe warnings that everyone who creates an image, regardless of the method of creating the image, perhaps there is clarification in this.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : Meaning, what exists... it is not complete, but it is... as came in the hadith of Jibril (Gabriel) when he refused to enter the house on a promise between him and the Messenger, he said to him (peace be upon him): Look, for there is a puppy in the house, and look, for there is a cloth in the house with images of men on it. So pass by the image and change it until it becomes...

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Yes, except if it is cut off...