I read to you that image-making, whether by machine or by hand-drawing, is forbidden.

The questioner: Praise is to Allah, we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness, and we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our own souls and from the evil of our deeds. Whom Allah guides, there is no one who can misguide him, and whom He leaves to misguide, there is no one who can guide him. And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger.
Our Shaykh, some of the brothers or sisters in Dubai... some of our brothers, especially these questions, so that they may be recorded and sent to them. One of these questions was written by a diligent girl there, as some of the brothers mentioned to me. She says: I read to you a book about image-making; that image-making, whether by machine or by hand-drawing, is forbidden, and I heard that you said regarding children's toys that what is made by hand is lawful, and what is made by machine is forbidden; so what is the difference between the two? I hope you will clarify that.

The Shaykh: I do not say this; rather, this is a misunderstanding by some people of what I always and forever say. There is a scientific principle that if there are texts forbidding something, and then a text comes that excludes a type from that thing, we stop at this exception and do not add to it by looking or by analogy. The authentic hadiths are all continuous in forbidding image-making absolutely; whether it is three-dimensional or not. Then some hadiths came permitting children's toys; that is, the toys that were made in the time of the Prophethood and the Message by home-craft to amuse the children and train them, like the toys of Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her). So we say regarding this type of toys: the approval of the Messenger (peace be upon him) of it is proof that it is an exception to the previously mentioned rule, which is prohibition.
And when toys come from European countries, we forbid them, not because they were made by machine or by hand, but because they fall under the general rule of prohibition. These imported toys are not the ones that the Messenger (peace be upon him) approved and permitted, like the toys of Aisha. This is what we say and we testify to Allah with it, and nothing more than that. The questioner did not understand.