A note that distinguishing between manual image-making and mechanical image-making is consistent with the methodology of the people of the Zahir, but it is impossible for them to hold this view.

The Shaykh : Here is something that must be pointed out; despite the existence of these general texts that do not distinguish between one image-maker and another, or between one image and another, this distinction between the manual image-maker and the mechanical image-maker is only fitting for the methodology of the people of the Zahir, who freeze on certain words and do not attach to them other meanings or issues that the words do not cover but their meanings do. The people of the Zahir are known for freezing on the words, and I have often given you more than one example, so I will now limit myself to one example to clarify the methodology of the people of the Zahir for those who have not understood it. There is a hadith in "the two Sahihs": . It is clear that the intended meaning of this prohibition is to preserve the purity of the water and its nature and essence, and that it not be exposed to contamination by impurity, whether little or much; because it may actually become impure. This is how the majority of scholars understood this hadith. As for the people of the Zahir, they said: what is prohibited is urinating directly in stagnant water. So the meaning of this statement, as he says, is that if a person urinated in a vessel, then poured this urine from the vessel into the stagnant water, it is permissible. Who says with this logic? The people of the Zahir, who stop at the apparent meaning of the word. The apparent meaning of the word is: "He prohibited urinating in stagnant water." So the one who urinated in a vessel that does not contain water—is it said linguistically that he urinated in stagnant water? No, he urinated in the vessel. So he froze on this word!
But if one reflects on the objective of the Lawgiver in this prohibition, one would know that the intended meaning is preserving the purity of the water. So this preservation, or this goal that the Lawgiver aimed at with this prohibition, must be preserved. And preserving it obligates us not to look at the means and not to stop at the apparent word; so whether one urinated directly in the stagnant water, or urinated—for example—in a pipe, long or short, and then this pipe, with what it contains of impurity, reached the stagnant water, there is no difference between this and that. This is an example, and I do not want to lengthen this now, as the time has grown long.
Those who say: this image that the image-maker made with his hand is forbidden, but if he made it with a machine it is lawful—this is Ibn Hazm the Zahirite, who would be ashamed to say it. And so I said to some of those who are entangled in such freezing in the issue of image-making, by way of a joke: It is claimed that a Shaykh from those who distinguish between manual image-making, which is forbidden, and mechanical image-making, which is lawful; it is claimed that a Shaykh from these visited a brilliant student of his at his home, and saw that this student had placed the Shaykh's image in the prominent place. So he admonished him and rebuked him, and said: I have... repeatedly and again and again that keeping images is forbidden and that they prevent the entry of the angels. So what about me placing my image? He said to him: O honorable Shaykh, this is a photographic image, and this is not a manual image. And we understood from you the difference between the manual image, which is forbidden, and we avoided it, and the photographic image, which is lawful. This image is photographic. So the Shaykh patted the student on the shoulder and said to him: May Allah bless you, you have understood jurisprudence and comprehended!
This is jurisprudence!!
So if a person came to the first image—that is, the manual image that the Shaykh forbids, where he thought it was a manual image—and photographed it with the photographic machine, and removed that one and placed in its place the photographic image, this is also part of what? The twisting and turning and the ruses. The first image—that is, the manual image—is forbidden, so he removed it and placed in its place the photographic image taken from the manual image. This is the Zahirism of Ibn Hazm, and it is not befitting for a person to be entangled in saying this.
And finally: what is the difference in terms of the result between the photographic image and the manual image? The goal for which the Lawgiver forbade images absolutely, all of that is realized in the image, whether it is photographic or manual.