The Shaykh’s remarks on the prohibition of hanging pictures in homes and his advice to act upon knowledge.

The Shaykh : We must offer advice... I entered this place and was greatly pleased because I saw it was free of images except for one, which disturbed me. I saw it was covered, so I said, "May Allah guide you, O Shaykh."

The questioner : There is another one, O Shaykh.

The Shaykh : The owner of the house knows best what is in it. What is our intention? We remind you, for the reminder benefits the believers. May Allah bless you all, as long as you are eager, if Allah wills, to hold fast to the religion. And not the religion inherited by fathers and sons from their ancestors, but the religion purified from everything that has crept into it over these long centuries and years. You know from his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) in the long hadith; there is no need for me to recite it in full now, but the point of it is: . They said: "Who is that, O Messenger of Allah?" He said: "". And let the Muslim be upon what the Messenger (peace be upon him) and his Companions were upon. This requires two things: the first is knowledge, and the second is acting upon this knowledge. Otherwise, knowledge becomes a burden upon its owner, as you know from the texts of the Book and the Sunnah. Among them is His saying (Glorified and Exalted is He): . Therefore, action must be coupled with knowledge. But knowledge today is confused; there is much deception in it, and there is what is not knowledge at all. Therefore, the student of knowledge today, in addition to being required to couple action with knowledge as I mentioned earlier, is required before that to purify the information he inherited from his fathers and ancestors and read in the books of the later generations. This will not happen except by returning to the legacy of the Salaf, as one of them said:
"And all good is in following those who came before, and all evil is in innovating what those who came after have introduced."
And if Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), by His grace and mercy, has singled us out, we the people of the Sunnah and followers of the righteous Salaf, with some purified knowledge, then our gratitude to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) for that is not except by increasing our action upon what we have learned. It was reported in a hadith whose chain is not authentic but whose meaning is authentic: . And I think all those present know the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): . The house of Prophethood and Messengership is the house of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), in which revelation used to descend morning and evening. He was on an appointment with Jibril (peace be upon him). He was seen agitated by some of his family. When he was asked, he said: ; meaning: he was referring to the fact that he was delayed. And Jibril was outside the house. So the Messenger hastened to him, and Jibril (peace be upon him) said: "We, O angels, do not enter a house in which there is an image or a dog." As if he was offering him an excuse for why he did not enter. Small children had brought the puppy from the alley. So he ordered it to be taken out, and sprinkled its place with water, and Jibril (peace be upon him) entered. This is the house of Prophethood and Messengership, and Jibril was not pleased to enter it; so what about our houses today, which rarely are free of what is wrong?
Therefore, I remind you (and the reminder benefits the believers): It is not permissible for there to be any visible image at all. And my saying "visible" is not a restriction, but a clarification of the reality. This is because I mean that it is not sufficient, for example, to have an image hanging on the wall and then turn it over so that its face is toward the wall and you do not see it, while others do not see it either, because the angels see what we do not see. If Lady Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) was one day beside her Prophet and husband Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), when the Messenger said to her: , and she did not see Jibril, she said: . If the Messenger sees what humans do not see, then the angels see what humans do not see, a fortiori. Therefore, turning the image over is not sufficient. Consequently, it is not sufficient to have an image that is a memory, that reminds of emotions or pleasant events, and we put it in the room or the closet and hide it, and whenever we miss it we look at it. No, the Muslim house does not contain any image of this kind at all, except what you are compelled to have. And perhaps this extent is sufficient, and if Allah wills, this reminder will benefit all those present. Now, get up to your food.