Explaining the ruling on three-dimensional images and others.

The Shaykh : Here is a legal ruling derived from this story, combined with another consideration: looking at the many hadiths that have come regarding the subject of images, whether in terms of creating them or keeping them. In this hadith, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) affirmed the Lady Aisha’s right to her toy with these small idols, which is a game for girls. So what can be said, given that the hadiths mentioned earlier include, for example, his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): , and his saying (peace be upon him): , and the like, which is a great deal of hadiths that forbid image-making absolutely, whether it is drawing on paper or on clothes, or carving on walls, or sculpting idols. All of this is called "images" and falls under these general texts. So this is an image as well. Therefore, no angels enter a house that has an image in it, whether it is three-dimensional or not, whether it casts a shadow or not. This is contrary to the view of some contemporary writers, whom we suspect have been influenced by the situation and the sweeping current today that has encompassed all Muslim households, where you hardly see a house without an image in it, not even the house of some of our Salafi brothers; you hardly enter a house without finding an image in it. The least of these images is of this type: girls' toys, images, and toys for small children, under the claim that these images and toys that are widespread today in the homes of Muslims are of the type that passed through us in this hadith. Therefore, we must know the ruling of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) in this sensitive issue. First of all, we must be aware that there is no difference between the three-dimensional images and the non-three-dimensional images we mentioned; all of this falls under the texts of prohibition. Likewise, there is no difference between images made directly by hand and images made by machine. I say this to remind you that, by nature, the machine was made by hand, because Satan has inspired to the children of humanity in this age to imagine that this photographic image is not what a human being creates; rather, the machine creates it. They ignore the long, extended preliminaries that the inventor of that machine persisted in for perhaps many years until he was able to produce a specific image simply by pressing a button. In the end, today, without developing and without anything else, the image appears immediately. They overlook and ignore this period that this inventor spent until he was able to produce the image and replace the long, extensive time and effort of any painter with just pressing a button, and the image appears as it is. They ignore this. Then, they also ignore the personal effort of the photographer, who must direct the machine toward the target to be photographed on one hand, and must press the button on the other hand. All of this is overlooked by those people, and they say, "This is a machine that creates images." Well, where are the efforts of that inventor and your personal efforts? All of this is overlooked to justify this calamity and pass it off on people, because they have been afflicted with it and it has become widespread, making it difficult to avoid it except for whom Allah (Mighty and Majestic) wills. Therefore, we must also be mindful that these photographic images are also included in the generality of those Prophetic hadiths.
It is strange and odd that some people, who are Muslims, have claimed or asked, "Well, this image did not exist in the time of the Messenger (peace be upon him); how do you include it in the text of the hadith?" We say, unfortunately, that this statement does not come from a Muslim who knows of his saying (Blessed and Exalted is He): . So it is not only he who said, "Whoever makes an image..."; in fact, Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is the One who said the meaning of this statement. Then the Messenger (peace be upon him) clothed it in a garment from himself and a wording from his own composition and conveyed it to the people, saying: . So why should we be surprised that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) might have informed His Prophet (peace be upon him) of what would be invented of mechanical images, and inspired him to speak with a comprehensive Arabic sentence that includes every image? I once said to some Islamic preachers, when I discussed this issue with them—that photographic image-making falls under the generality of the hadiths—and they raised this objection with me. After I refuted it and responded to them, I said to them, "What do you say about idols? Idols, whether small or large, and whether made of this nylon material or others? These are made by huge machines where, for example, liquid copper is placed in a mold, and then by an automatic method it moves from chamber to chamber and place to place, and there it falls as an idol simply by pressing a button. And these idols that people have been afflicted with, as we said earlier, are they permissible?" He said, "No, these are statues." We said to him, "But these statues were not made as the statues were made in the time of the Messenger (peace be upon him)." The man fell silent and knew that the truth was against him.
So the point is that there is no difference between three-dimensional images and non-three-dimensional images, and no difference between images made by hand or by machine, whether the machine is small and portable or a fixed machine that makes small and large idols. So this is a general rule.