The Refutation of Modern Zahirism, and Its Examples: "Video Images, or Photographic Images," and the Operative Cause of Their Prohibition

The Shaykh : In my previous speech, and in answer to that question in which some people assume that I am a Zahirite following the madhhab of Ibn Hazm, I began by mentioning some examples of Ibn Hazm’s Zahirism that we do not see as correct in any way. After those examples I quoted from Ibn Hazm’s book, al-Muhalla, I proceeded to modern Zahirism, which is stranger than that Zahirism; because it comes from people who claim that they use their minds. And so their affair has reached the point where they fall into strange contradictions; for, while using their unbridled minds, they denied authentic hadiths, and on the other hand they became as rigid as the Zahirites. This is what I intended to explain earlier.
We said: Images include three-dimensional images, which have a shadow; that is, idols; they are forbidden by the consensus of Muslims. As for the other images, which are not three-dimensional and are embroidered on curtains or clothes, or painted on walls with paint or pencil, or by similar means on paper; these images are called non-three-dimensional, and they may be described as having no shadow, whereas idols have a shadow. In this second category of images, there were those in the past who said there is no harm in them; because they interpreted the hadiths that curse image-makers and the hadiths that say: as applying to three-dimensional images that have a shadow. I reached the mention of the hadith of Aisha regarding the curtain she had made on the occasion of the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him) arrival, and that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) disapproved of it for her, and said: , so he pointed to the image-makers who had drawn images on the curtains, and they were images that were not three-dimensional, but rather images on the cloth on the curtain. So this was evidence for the invalidity of those who restrict forbidden images to those that are three-dimensional or have a shadow; for the images on this curtain have no shadow and are not three-dimensional. Therefore, many Muslim scholars, foremost among them Imam al-Nawawi in his commentary on Sahih Muslim, stated with certainty: The correct view is that the hadiths include in the prohibition all images; whether they are three-dimensional or not. We have reached today, in our present era, a third type of images, which are photographic images. Many writers—indeed, even those who are said to be Islamic preachers!—have said that these photographic images are permissible; why? Because they were not drawn with a pen or a brush or by any old means!!
This resembles the rigidity of the Zahirite in his interpretation of the two previous hadiths: the hadith: , and the hadith: "He prohibited urinating in stagnant water." We have no need to repeat the discussion of them. Now, this modern Zahirite rigidity that distinguishes between an image drawn by hand with a pen, and an image taken by a photographic machine, this image and that image, if you place one next to the other you will not find a difference worth mentioning between them, but the difference is purely formal; that is, to say this was drawn by hand so it is forbidden, and the other was taken by the machine so it is lawful. This is Ibn Hazm’s Zahirism in the present era.
And I once said to some of them: They claimed that a Shaykh visited a student of his, and when he sat in his place he found a picture of himself facing him, so he admonished his student and said to him: O so-and-so, I know you as a righteous, pious student; why did you put my picture in this place? Do you not know that angels do not enter a house in which there is a picture or a dog? He said to him: O my master, I did that so your remembrance would be in my mind. He said: This is not permissible, so you must remove it and... The student hastened and took it down, then days passed and he returnedThe Shaykh : and the student visited again, and there he saw the picture in its place, so he reminded the student of what had happened previously, and how he hadThe Shaykh : admonished him and reminded him, and he said that the student had responded to him at that time, so why did you return and put the picture in its place? The student said: O my master, we understood from you that the hand-drawn image is the forbidden one, whereas the photographic image is permissible, and this is a photographic image. He saidThe Shaykh: May Allah bless you, you are a jurist student or you have attained jurisprudence.
So who says this? The image is the same, it represents a specific person; whether it was drawn by hand or taken by the machine. Knowing that who made this machine? The hand made it, indeed the hands that passed over this machine until it reached today that the image does not need developing, and to a special treatment until the image appears, but rather immediately with a press of the button the image comes out. Who says that this image which this person took, who exerted himself until he brought it to this state; such that he presses the button and the image comes out? This is rigidity, and in my belief, and I state it clearly, I do not care, it resembles the tricks of the Jews. You all know the story of the Jews on the day of the Sabbath mentioned in the Qur'an; so there is no need except to remind you of it, but the necessity obliges me to remind you of an authentic hadith that many people may not know; which is the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): , what does this authentic hadith mean?
He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Why? He said: , the hadith points to some Qur'anic verses such as His saying, the Exalted: , from these good things that were made lawful for them before their transgression, and their killing of the prophets without right, and their transgression of the rulings of Allah, and their trickery with the Shari'ah of Allah; Allah forbade them good things that had been made lawful for them before. From these good things are the fats that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) mentioned in this hadith: So what did they do? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: meaning: they melted them and changed their shape, , he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: , the fat remained fat, but its shape changed. It was in its natural shape on the animal, then they made it in a shape where they melted it over a fire they lit underneath it, and they put it in large vessels, so it flowed and took a flat surface. This fat did not cease to be fat, all that happened is that its shape changed. So the Jews tricked their way to making this fat, which Allah had forbidden them, lawful by melting it and changing its shape, and they made its buying, selling, and eating lawful. So they also deserved the curse because of this trick, besides their trick of catching fish on the Sabbath... Now, Muslims no longer need to use paper, pen, brush, paint, and dyes and the like, for the image now appears in a single moment.
Some of the contemporary Zahiris say: This image is lawful; because it was not made by hand, but by machine. The reality is that it was made by both hand and machine, and this machine is merely a product of human making. So the image is one and the same. We can now recall the wisdom for which the Wise Lawgiver forbade image-making and images. That came in the hadith of A'ishah as one of the wisdoms that is a rival to the creation of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). So consider the old image-maker who would spend long days before an idol carving it; he would see a defect here and fix it, and then, when he finally imagined that this idol was complete—as they say from an artistic standpoint—its making was finished. They tell of some Italians, whom they call artists, that he remained days before an idol carving it, and from how much he admired it, he said to it: "Speak!" When it did not speak, he smashed it to pieces; he was proud of his art! Then he was unable to complete the rivalry with Allah; for Allah (Mighty and Majestic) created man in the best of stature and made the method of speaking easy for him. That one was not able to do anything but depict this static image; he spent days doing so.
Now there are machines, as you know, where there is no carving, but rather the preparation of machines that may have taken long years; so that the specialized employee there presses the button and the idols come out there complete, and in a more beautiful form than that idol which that so-called artist would spend days trying to bring out in the closest acceptable form. Now, also, with the press of a button, idols come out in the great sense there by the hundreds, if not thousands. The means has changed, but are these not idols? Yes, as it was said: "The causes are many, but death is one." So the cause in the past was carving for long days until the idol came out as they wished, and now they stayed working on the machines until they were able, with the press of a button, to pour out the paste they wanted, and there comes out an idol that shines, or idols of these toys with which Muslims have been afflicted by having them put into their homes. All of these are idols, even if the machine differs. Likewise, images that have no shadow are images, and they prevent the entry of the angels; whether they are made by hand or by machine. Then, finally, what you know by the foreign name, video, occurred. Video is a greater rival than pen-drawn images and photographic images; why? Because these two types of images are static and do not move. Nevertheless, our Lord (Blessed and Exalted is He) inspired His Prophet to forbid these images because of the external, formal rivalry in them. Otherwise, this idol has no brain, no veins, no heart, no lungs, or the like; it is a mute stone that they called a rival to the creation of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). So photographic images, and indeed moving images now—which is video—have a greater and greater rivalry with the creation of Allah; because those old images do not move, so they are static in their place. But as for video images now, you see them as if they are real people. So this is the cause for which the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade images, and it has become clear and expanded to become video. So it is more forbidden than the idols themselves; because the idol, as you heard the story of that Italian, when he ordered it to move with its tongue, it did not move; because it is a mute stone. But now you see the people before you as if they were people like you. That is not the case; so this is a rivalry with the creation of Allah. It is true, as some claim, that these images depict people who actually exist. This does not prevent there being a rivalry with the creation of Allah; because this image is moving and has no spirit. And so it came in some hadiths: .
Then these video images did not stop at depicting real people who were there and then filmed. Rather, their art in filming advanced, so they made them move and speak by means of a loudspeaker and the like. Indeed, that went beyond that to adopting images with strange and very disgusting shapes. This is a person who is covered with an image of bear skin, for example, so he appears speaking with a big mouth and so on. So this, also, is not a rivalry with the creation of Allah; this is all worse than those images that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) forbade. So the claim that the hand-made image is forbidden, and photographic or video images are permissible; this is the madhhab of Ibn Hazm the Zahiri. If he were in this era, he would be ashamed to say what those who claim today that they have some jurisprudence and understanding of Islam say. And whoever understood Islam and understood the cause of the prohibition does not distinguish between those old images and the modern images. Rather, these modern ones are more deserving of prohibition for what we mentioned earlier.
We said that one of the rulings of the prohibition is the rivalry that the Messenger (peace be upon him) specified in that authentic hadith. But there is another wisdom; and that is that images were in some earlier eras a cause for people to fall into associating partners with Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and disbelief in His oneness; as that came in the Surah of Nuh (peace be upon him), and that the stance of his people was that they rejected what he ordered them to do, which was to worship Allah alone, having no partner with Him; because they had made idols of five of their righteous people, and they are those whom Allah (Mighty and Majestic) mentioned in His statement, narrating from them: . Ibn Abbas said, as al-Bukhari and Ibn Jarir al-Tabari and others from the people of hadith narrated, that these five were righteous worshippers of Allah. Look at how Iblis, the enemy of man, gradually beautifies their deeds for them to mislead them from the straight path? These five were righteous worshippers of Allah, so when they died and they wanted to bury them with the graves of all the people, Satan beautified for them and said: "These are the choice of people in righteousness and reform, and so on." For that reason, I advise you to make their graves in the courtyards of your houses; that is: in front of the houses, so that whenever you go out you remember their deeds, their morals, and their reform. So they responded to Satan and buried their graves not in the cemeteries, but in front of their houses. And Iblis left them for a generation of time; until the second generation came, and found the first generation bowing over these graves. So he beautified for them that they make idols for them; because perhaps—so he depicted for them—floods, rains, and winds would come and take away these graves, and take away their memory from your minds. So they responded to him and carved five idols for these righteous worshippers and placed them in a place. Then he came to them later and said: "These—as you know—are righteous people who deserve honor. It is not fitting that you place them in a place not befitting them. So you must place them in a special house." So they put them in shrines and high places. And the last generation came and began to shout to them other than Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). So Allah sent to them Nuh (peace be upon him), as He related their story in the Surah of Nuh. And their stance was that they rejected the call to tawhid . Allah (the Exalted) said: .
The point is: The prohibition of images, we can say, is for perhaps two causes:
The first cause: . Therefore, whatever the tool is that the forbidden image was created with, it is an image, and it prevents the angels from entering; whether it is an idol carved over many days, or an idol produced with the press of a button, or an image drawn by hand, or an image taken with a photographic camera, or an image captured on video; all these things are called images in language and in the Shari'ah. The Messenger said: . So it is obligatory for Muslims to clean their homes of every image if they want the angels of Allah to visit and enter their homes; otherwise, if the homes are devoid of angels, the devils will occupy them. This is a common saying: "When the angels are present, the devils flee." So if a Muslim adopts lawful means to bring in the devils by driving away the angels, that means mercy does not settle in that home or tranquility does not descend upon it. So images are forbidden because they prevent the angels from entering; this is one reason.
A second reason: because they were a means for worshipping other than Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). So, to block the means to harm, the Wise Lawgiver forbade images in all their forms and types. And because the angels do not dwell in a home that contains an image or a dog, I advise every Muslim to stand by the limits of Allah and not be deceived by some modern interpretations; because the intent behind them is to smooth over this reality that contradicts the explicit Shari'ah in its rulings, and this is part of that.
And we ask Allah for success for us and for you, and for correctness in speech and action.
Please proceed.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.