Miscellaneous by Al-Albani-062

The Shaykh : The second hadith is from Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her), who said: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) returned from a journey, and I had covered a niche in my house with a curtain. The niche is a recess in the wall, and the curtain is a drape. It had images in it. Here is a linguistic point regarding our distance today from the Arabic language, or the dominance of certain terms. Today, we understand the word "statue" or "statues" to mean idols, like this Malik statue, for example. We do not say these are pictures; they are certainly pictures, just as the pictures we keep on paper are also "statues" in the language of the Arabs. The proof of this is this hadith. When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) entered upon Lady Aisha in this story and saw that she had hung a curtain with statues on it—statues are placed on walls, not on curtains—but the language is broad. If you say "picture," it can mean an idol or a picture without a shadow. Likewise, if you say "statue," it means a picture, which may be three-dimensional or not. So this usage came in this hadith in a meaning that many people do not notice. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) saw statues on the curtain, meaning pictures, either painted with dye or embroidered. They were not idols. She said: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) returned from a journey, and I had covered a niche in my house with a curtain that had statues in it. When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) saw it, his face changed color", meaning it changed out of anger and turned red. And he said: , meaning those who engage in acts of image-making, whether three-dimensional or not, imitating the creation of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) in His creation. , meaning what Allah creates. Allah creates these bodies, these forms, and they also imitate. Imitation does not necessarily, as is known, have to be complete. Why? Because of the obligation. The one who carves a statue or draws a picture on paper is imitating the Lord of the Worlds in terms of structure and form. But the most important thing in that is breathing the soul. So when he is incapable of that, he will be punished on the Day of Resurrection by being ordered to breathe the soul, but he will not be able to, and he is not a breather of souls. So the imitation intended here, which the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) made the cause for the prohibition of image-making in this hadith, is the apparent formal imitation. So he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . She said: "So we cut it up and made it into a cushion or two cushions". In another narration, she said: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) came into my house, and there was a curtain in the room with pictures on it—the narrator used the word "pictures" here instead of "statues," so the meaning is the same—his face changed color, then he took the curtain and tore it—meaning he ripped it". Then he said: . The proof I referred to in what I noted on the first hadith of 'Umar is here. We said that the demonstrative name for the non-three-dimensional picture, and this is the evidence, because the story of Lady Aisha has this occasion and this reason: the entry of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) upon her while she had hung the curtain with the statues and pictures on it. So he (peace and blessings be upon him) pointed to these pictures on the curtain: . Therefore, if you read or hear that these hadiths with this severe warning about image-making are intended to refer to those who made the idols that were worshipped besides Allah, interpreting the hadith to refer to these statues is false. Because the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was pointing to the pictures that were in Lady Aisha's curtain. And we know necessarily that these pictures were first not three-dimensional idols, and second, Lady Aisha did not bring this curtain with the pictures on it to exalt them or worship them besides Allah (Mighty and Majestic), far be it from them. So interpreting these hadiths and applying them to the idols that were worshipped besides Allah leads to the result that the time for the forbidden image-making has passed. As some people say explicitly, the time has passed, because this prohibition was a result of the elimination of shirk (associating partners with Allah) and paganism, and the matter of shirk and paganism ended. Therefore, dealing with pictures, especially if they are not three-dimensional, is permissible according to those who interpret the hadiths with meanings that the hadiths indicate are contrary to, as you heard in the story of Lady Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) that you just heard, and in another narration from Lady Aisha. It appears to be another story, because this narration says that she bought a "namirqa," which is a cushion. In the first story... it revolves around the curtain. So the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in that story disapproved of the images while they were on the curtain, and to confirm the prohibition of using them, he tore the curtain, as you heard. Now, another story says that Lady Aisha bought a "namirqa," which is a cushion. And you notice something in the following story that allows us to infer a part of the previous story. In this previous story, you heard that after the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) tore the curtain, what did Lady Aisha do with this curtain? She cut it up and made two cushions from it, meaning two "namirqas." So some people say that the pictures were visible on the two cushions that Lady Aisha made from the curtain that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) tore. If we accept this interpretation, meaning the pictures were visible on the cushions, we say this could have been before the following story in which the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) disapproved of Lady Aisha buying the "namirqa" or cushion with pictures on it. How can we reconcile the approval of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) of the two cushions with pictures on them, and this interpretation that some people made, with the disapproval of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) of Lady Aisha when she bought the "namirqa" with pictures on it, as you will see? If we accept that the pictures were visible on the cushions, and this is contrary to what the scholars say because they were cut up, we say this was a stage in the gradual legislation. When he tore the curtain, he disapproved of hanging pictures. So when she made cushions from the curtain with pictures on them, he initially approved of that, and then in another stage, he also disapproved of the pictures on the cushion. And the result of this is that it is not permissible to have a picture in the house, whether it is hung, meaning respected, or stepped on, meaning degraded. There is no difference at that time. Just as the hung one is prohibited, the one stepped on by feet is prohibited.