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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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From the explanation of the book "Al-Targhib wa al-Tarhib," Chapter: Warning against drawing animals and birds in houses and elsewhere, the hadith of Ibn 'Umar

Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The Shaykh : [Warning against] drawing animals and birds in houses and elsewhere.
First: From 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him and his father) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
Those who make these pictures will be punished on the Day of Resurrection, and it will be said to them. 'Make alive what you have created.' إن الذين يصنعون هذه الصور يُعذَّبون يوم القيامة ؛ يُقال لهم : أحيوا ما خلقتم
Sahih al-Bukhari 5951
. It was narrated by al-Bukhari and Muslim.
This hadith forbids image-making and clarifies that it is among the major sins; because the Messenger (peace be upon him) explicitly states that these people who make and draw these images will be punished on the Day of Resurrection with a punishment, I say for the sake of clarification, that is almost eternal, because they will be punished when it is said to them:
Bring to life what you have created. أحيوا ما خلقتم
, if they are able to give life to what they created, the punishment will end, but they will not be able to find a way to do so, as will come in some of the following hadiths.
And we must note here that in the hadith there is a demonstrative name:
Those who make these pictures إن الذين يصنعون هذه الصور
Sahih al-Bukhari 5951
So what is the image that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) indicated with this demonstrative name?
Those who make these pictures إن الذين يصنعون هذه الصور
Sahih al-Bukhari 5951
Stopping at this name and trying to understand it correctly removes much confusion and disturbance from some people who are eager to know the jurisprudential truths when they hear some of today's authors and writers attributing all the hadiths that forbid image-making to three-dimensional images; that is: to carving idols, this is how they interpret the hadiths that forbid image-making. So here when the Messenger (peace be upon him) said:
Those who make these pictures إن الذين يصنعون هذه الصور
Sahih al-Bukhari 5951
; what are these images? Are they, as these people say, idols?
I say: This is the furthest thing from the intention of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) in this hadith, and regarding this demonstrative name; why? Because the Messenger (peace be upon him) said: These hadiths were in Madinah where there remained no trace of statues or idols whatsoever after Allah (Mighty and Majestic) granted victory to His Prophet in the conquest of Makkah and smashed the idols that were placed on the back of the Ka'bah, so shirk and its traces were completely extinguished, but remnants of images remained which might one day be a cause for shirk to return to the paths it was on before the mission of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him); so I strongly doubt that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) meant by this demonstrative name the idols that He had abolished and smashed, and the most likely is that He meant images that were still widespread and that Muslims were still keeping in their houses, in their palaces, in their tents, in their... and so on; so He (peace and blessings be upon him) when He said:
Those who make these pictures الذين يصنعون هذه الصور
Sahih al-Bukhari 5951
is referring to images that are standing and widespread among people.
And this meaning is confirmed by the hadith of 'A'ishah (may Allah be pleased with her) that follows in some of its narrations and wordings that the Messenger (peace be upon him) when he entered upon her and saw the curtains with images on them said:
The people who will receive the severest punishment from Allah will be the picture makers. إنَّ أشدَّ الناس عذابًا هؤلاء المصوِّرون
Sahih al-Bukhari 5950
; so he is referring to those who draw images on the curtains, and does not mean idols... there were not in the house of Lady 'A'ishah (may Allah be pleased with her); so His saying: Those who make these images does not directly mean three-dimensional images, but rather means non-three-dimensional images, and the jurists call them those that have no shadow, so if the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade these non-three-dimensional images or those that have no shadow, then it is all the more so that He forbids idols and statues, so from the warning against dealing with these images in making and keeping, the Messenger (peace be upon him) says in this hadith and clarifies what is the punishment of those who draw these images and says:
will be punished on the Day of Resurrection and will be told: 'Give life to that which you have created.' يُعذَّبون يوم القيامة ؛ يقال لهم : أحيوا ما خلقتم
Sunan Ibn Majah 2151Sahih (Darussalam)
, and they cannot give them life, so it is an allusion to their continuation in punishment for as long as Allah wills, and their continuation in punishment varies according to the reality of faith in their hearts, so whoever dies among them as a believer, his faith will save him one day from continuing to be punished in the Fire, and whoever dies considering permissible what Allah has forbidden, you have known from the previous explanation that he is a disbeliever and that he will abide in the Fire forever.
This is the first hadith, and it is from the hadith of 'Umar which al-Bukhari and Muslim narrated.
Source www.al-albany.com

The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.

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