The Shaykh’s warning that distinguishing between hand-drawn images and machine-made images is consistent with the methodology of the Ahl al-Zahir, but it is impossible for them to actually hold this view.

The Shaykh : And 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, the distinction between the hand-drawn image and the machine-made image is a distinction that is only fitting for the methodology of the Ahl al-Zahir, who freeze on certain words and do not attach to them other meanings or issues that the words do not explicitly include, but which their meanings do include. The Ahl al-Zahir are known for freezing on the literal wording. I have given you more than one example, but I will limit myself to one now to clarify the methodology of the Ahl al-Zahir for those who have not yet 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 natural state, and to prevent it from being exposed to impurity, whether in small or large quantities, because it may actually become impure. This is how the majority of scholars understood this hadith. As for the Ahl al-Zahir, they said that what is prohibited is urinating directly in stagnant water. So, according to this logic, if a person urinated in a vessel and then poured that urine from the vessel into stagnant water, it would be permissible. Who holds this logic? The Ahl al-Zahir, who stop at the apparent wording. The apparent wording prohibits urinating in stagnant water. If someone urinated in a vessel that does not contain water, can it be said linguistically that he urinated in stagnant water? No, he urinated in the vessel. So he froze on this wording. But if he had considered the objective of the Lawgiver in this prohibition, he would have known that the intent is to preserve the purity of the water. So this preservation, or this objective that the Lawgiver aimed for with this prohibition, must be maintained. And maintaining it obligates us not to look at the means and not to stop at the apparent wording. Whether he urinated in a vessel and then into stagnant water directly, or urinated, for example, into a pipe, long or short, and then that pipe, with the germs in it, connected to the stagnant water, there is no difference between these cases. This is an example, and I do not want to lengthen this now, as the time has run long. Those who say that this image drawn by the artist’s hand is forbidden, but if it is made by a machine it is lawful—this is Ibn Hazm the Zahiri, who would be ashamed to say it. And so I said to some of those who are entangled in such rigidity in the issue of image-making, by way of a joke: They claim that a Shaykh from those who distinguish between hand-drawn images (which are forbidden) and machine-made images (which are lawful) claimed that a Shaykh from among them visited a talented student of his at his home. He saw that the student had placed the Shaykh’s image in a prominent place, so he admonished him and rebuked him. I... repeatedly and repeatedly, that acquiring images is forbidden because they prevent the angels from entering. What do you think when I placed my own image? He said to him, “Your Eminence, this is a photographic image, and this is not a hand-drawn image. And we have understood from you the difference between the hand-drawn image, which is forbidden, and we have avoided it, and the photographic image, which is lawful. This is a photographic image.” So the Shaykh patted the student on the shoulder and said to him, “May Allah bless you. You have understood jurisprudence and comprehended it! This is jurisprudence.” If a person came to the first image, i.e., the hand-drawn image that the Shaykh forbids... a hand-drawn image, and he photographed it with a camera and removed that one and placed in its stead the photographic image, this is also part of the twisting and turning and stratagems. The first image, i.e., the hand-drawn one, is forbidden, so he removed it and placed in its place the photographic image taken from the hand-drawn image. This is the Zahiri position of Ibn Hazm, and it is not befitting for a person to be entangled in saying this. Finally, what is the difference in terms of the result between the photographic image and the hand-drawn image? The objective for which the Lawgiver forbade images absolutely is achieved in the image, whether it is photographic or hand-drawn.