The Shaykh’s explanation of the nature of the images referred to in the hadith mentioned therein, and this is through the remaining hadiths.

The Shaykh : So, what are the images that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) referred to with this demonstrative name? Stopping at this name and attempting to understand it correctly removes much confusion and disturbance from some people who desire to know the jurisprudential realities when they hear some of the authors and writers today interpreting all the hadiths that prohibit image-making as referring to three-dimensional images, that is, carving idols. This is how they interpret the hadiths that prohibit image-making. So here, when the Messenger (peace be upon him) said, what are these images? Are they, as these people say, idols? I say that this is the furthest thing from the intention of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) in this hadith, specifically regarding this demonstrative name. Why? Because the Messenger (peace be upon him) said these hadiths in Madinah, where no trace of statues or idols remained at all, after Allah (Mighty and Majestic) granted victory to His Prophet with the conquest of Makkah and smashed the idols that were placed on the back of the Ka'bah. Thus, shirk and its effects were completely extinguished. However, remnants of images remained, which could one day be a cause for shirk to return to the strength it had before the sending of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). So, I strongly doubt that the Messenger (peace be upon him) meant by this demonstrative name the idols that He had abolished and smashed. The most likely meaning is that He meant images that were still scattered about and that Muslims were still keeping in their houses, their palaces, their tents, and so on. So, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), when He said, is referring to images that are standing and scattered among the people. This meaning is confirmed by the hadith of Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) that follows, in some of its narrations and wordings, where the Messenger (peace be upon him) entered upon her and saw the curtains with images on them and said, So, He is referring to those who draw images on the curtains, not idols, because there were no idols in the house of the Lady Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her). Therefore, His saying, does not directly mean three-dimensional images, but rather means non-three-dimensional images, which the jurists call those that have no shadow. If the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) prohibited these non-three-dimensional images, or those that have no shadow, then it is even more so that idols and statues are prohibited. So, as a warning against dealing with these images in their making and keeping, the Messenger (peace be upon him) says in this hadith and explains what is the punishment for those who make these images, saying, This is an allusion to their continuing in punishment for as long as Allah wills. And their continuing 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 tortured in the Fire. And whoever dies while considering permissible what Allah has prohibited, 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, as narrated by al-Bukhari and Muslim.