The Shaykh’s mention of the reason for the prohibition of image-making.

The Shaykh : And what has become clear to us is that the Lawgiver prohibited image-making for two reasons. The first reason was explicitly stated, and it is that they rival the creation of Allah, meaning they resemble Allah (Mighty and Majestic) in creation. The one who created the image has resembled Allah (Mighty and Majestic) in His creation of His creatures. This is a cause for the prohibition. Another cause was derived by the scholars through deduction, taking into account the distant history. This is mentioned in the Qur'an in the story of Noah (peace be upon him) with his people. When he forbade them from associating partners with Allah and called them to worship Allah alone and abandon the worship of idols, they did not obey him and did not listen to him. Rather, some of them said to others, as Allah the Exalted said: Ibn Abbas said: These five were righteous servants of Allah. When they died and they wanted to bury them in the place where people are all buried in the cemeteries, Satan came to them in the form of an advisor. He said: These are the ones you know for their righteousness and their kindness to their community. So I advise you to distinguish them from the rest of the people by placing their graves in the courtyards of your houses. They heeded him and buried them outside the cemeteries and close to their houses. So whenever they went out of their houses and came in, they passed by them. At first, they would remember their righteous deeds and perhaps follow their example. But over time, they began to slip from the oneness of Allah into some degree of associating partners with Allah. However, Satan was not satisfied with this. He came to the second generation and said to them: As you have learned from your fathers, these are who they are. Therefore, I advise you to make for them five idols, because these graves will disappear due to natural factors. So they made for them five idols and placed them in a location. Later, it was made attractive to them to place them in high places befitting their greatness and their status in their eyes. Thus, the idols were placed in high places, and they began to prostrate to them and exalt them other than Allah, and they made vows and slaughtered animals. So they fell into major shirk. Then Allah sent to them Noah (peace be upon him) to warn them of what they were in. So they called out to one another: Do not listen to him and do not obey him. And they said: and so on.
So the second reason that the scholars understood regarding the reason for the prohibition is that images were once a cause for people to gradually move from minor shirk to major shirk. And Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is Jealous, so He is jealous of His believing servants that they should deviate, even if it is just one person, and even if it is after thousands of years, due to something that leads them to deviate from the oneness of Allah to shirk. And therefore, He blocked this door by prohibiting images, absolutely, whether they are three-dimensional or not, and both types are known from ancient times. And whether the image-making is manual, as was the case in the past, or mechanical, as is the case in modern times. Mechanical image-making of three-dimensional images, which are the idols, and mechanical image-making on paper, which are the photographic images known today. All of this and that is forbidden for the reasons we mentioned from the hadiths and from the understanding of them.