Explanation of the hadith of Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her): "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) arrived from a journey, and I had covered a niche of mine with a curtain"

The Shaykh : The second hadith: From Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her), who said: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) arrived from a journey, and I had covered a niche of mine with a curtain." The niche is a recess in the wall; the curtain is a drape. It contained images; that is, it contained pictures. Here is a linguistic point regarding our current distance from the Arabic language or the dominance of certain terms. Today, we understand the word "statue" or "statues" to mean idols. For example, this is a statue of al-Maliki; we do not say: this is a picture. It is certainly a picture, just as the pictures we keep on paper are also, in the language of the Arabs, statues.
The evidence for this is this hadith. When the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) entered upon Lady Aisha in this story and saw that she had hung a curtain with statues on it—statues are placed on walls, not on curtains—but the language is broad. If you say "picture," it may mean an idol, or a picture that has no shadow. Likewise, if you say "statue," it means a picture; it may be three-dimensional or not. So this usage appeared in this hadith in a meaning that many people do not notice. Thus, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) saw statues on the curtain; that is, pictures. Pictures means either colored with paint or embroidered with embroidery. So they were not idols.
She said: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) arrived from a journey, and I had covered a niche of mine with a curtain containing images." When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) saw it, his face changed color. That is, it changed out of anger and turned red. He said: . That is, those who engage in the acts of image-making, whether three-dimensional or not, imitate the creation of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) in His creation. They compete with the creation of Allah; that is, with what Allah creates. Allah creates these bodies and these animals, and they also compete. Competition does not necessarily have to be in all aspects, as is known, in what? In the aspects. The one who carves a statue or draws a picture on paper competes with the Lord of the worlds in terms of craftsmanship and form. But the most important thing in that is the breathing of the soul. Therefore, when he is unable to do it, he will be tormented on the Day of Resurrection by being commanded to breathe the soul, but he will not be able to, and he is not one who breathes.
So the competition intended here, which the Messenger (peace be upon him) made in this hadith the operative cause of the prohibition of image-making, is the apparent formal competition. He said (peace and blessings be upon him): He said: . She said: "So we cut it up and made from it a cushion or two cushions." In a narration, she said: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) entered upon me, and in the house was a curtain containing pictures." Here the narrator used the word "pictures" in place of "statues"; so the meaning is the same. His face changed color, then he took the curtain and tore it up—that is, he ripped it—and said: .
The evidence I referred to in what I noted on the first hadith of 'Umar: ; we said: the demonstrative name refers to non-three-dimensional pictures, and this is the proof. Because the story of Lady Aisha has this occasion and this cause, which is the entry of the Messenger upon her while she had hung the curtain with statues and pictures on it. He said (peace and blessings be upon him), pointing to these pictures on the curtain: .