What is the ruling on the pictures in schoolbooks?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The Shaykh : I mean, for example, these schoolbooks where they claim, in the European style, that they teach children the alphabet through pictures of animals. In my opinion, this is an undesirable practice. However, if they drew a picture of an animal not known in this country and represented it with the separate letters, alif, ba, and so on, we might tolerate it and say that this picture is permissible. But as for a donkey with a big head and so on, the whole country is full of them, hehe. What is the point of this picture? You see the beast, especially since the villages have nothing but these pictures.
The questioner : Shaykh, donkeys are far from you today in schools and villages.
The Shaykh : Indeed, by Allah, we seek help from Allah.
The questioner : The people of acting may argue, the practitioners of acting and theatrical performances may argue with this statement.
Another questioner : Theatrical performances.
The questioner : Because it clarifies the attribute of a thing, the nature of a thing, or something like that.
The Shaykh : We reject these theatrical performances in their entirety and in detail, because they are not Islamic in the first place. They are foreign goods and a pure imitation of the Europeans. And we find an excuse for these disbelievers in their engagement in these theatrical performances because they are poor in sermons, moving stories, and encouragement and warning, in which Allah the Mighty and Majestic has made us rich through His Book and the hadiths of His Prophet. So we are not in need of such things as they are in need of them. And therefore, unfortunately, we imitate them in that we are not in need of imitating them in the first place, and secondly, we have what suffices us from imitating them to achieve the goal they seek in some of the theatrical performances. Some of them are expressions of open sinfulness, lewdness, and the like. But some of them, for example, encourage people to do good deeds, charity, truthfulness, and leaving off lying, and the like. We do not approve of these theatrical performances, and some Islamic parties adopt them, so we reject them completely. And if we say that a type of image-making is permissible, no one can say to us what we did not say, and they will say,The Shaykh : You have permitted image-making. And we say, no, the original ruling regarding image-making is prohibition, whether in making, possessing, selling, buying, and so on. This is the original ruling. But at the same time, we say that girls' play is permissible. But at the same time, we say that the girls' play that is imported from the lands of disbelief, open sinfulness, and lewdness, and with which houses are filled with these idols and statues, is not the girls' play that the wise Lawgiver permitted, as seen by the noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) regarding Aisha and her play, and so on. That play was homemade, made in the home of a Muslim. But these toys that come from Europe are the product of the lands of disbelief. Therefore, they come with pictures of naked girls and toilets... meaning, and the like. So these are girls' toys, but they are not the ones we say are permissible. So we say that the original ruling regarding image-making is prohibition, except for what is necessary and from which no harm results. As we say, for example, if there were a state that cares about teaching Muslims in the Islamic world, let them film for us the tawaf from a sincere scholar, the rituals of Hajj, and broadcast them to the people and show them on television. It is better than showing these wretches and the theatrical performances and what revolves around them. We do not see any objection to this from the perspective of the girls' play that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) permitted, in which young girls are trained in what is called today household management. So if we teach the rituals of Hajj, most pilgrims in the Islamic world perform Hajj, and unfortunately, the verse of the Bedouin poet applies to them: "And I did not perform Hajj, but the camels performed Hajj." Yes, why? Because their minds are empty and vacant; they do not understand, they do not see, and they do not hear. Meanwhile, this television has entered every Muslim home, with its back and front, with its good and its evil. Leave this good alone and let us show them how the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) prayed, yes, and the rituals of Hajj that many people do not know, yes.
The questioner : We are pleased to inform you that this month we placed a tape.
The Shaykh : May Allah reward you with good.
The questioner : A complete one on teaching pilgrims, from the beginning of ihram until their descent to Mina.
The Shaykh : And where is this?
The questioner : In the Kingdom.
The Shaykh : Like this.
The questioner : Yes, with distributed instructional papers. It is a good effort, there is nothing wrong with it.
The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah.
The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.
The Shaykh : May Allah increase them in success.
The questioner : May Allah bless you
The questioner : Shaykh, donkeys are far from you today in schools and villages.
The Shaykh : Indeed, by Allah, we seek help from Allah.
The questioner : The people of acting may argue, the practitioners of acting and theatrical performances may argue with this statement.
Another questioner : Theatrical performances.
The questioner : Because it clarifies the attribute of a thing, the nature of a thing, or something like that.
The Shaykh : We reject these theatrical performances in their entirety and in detail, because they are not Islamic in the first place. They are foreign goods and a pure imitation of the Europeans. And we find an excuse for these disbelievers in their engagement in these theatrical performances because they are poor in sermons, moving stories, and encouragement and warning, in which Allah the Mighty and Majestic has made us rich through His Book and the hadiths of His Prophet. So we are not in need of such things as they are in need of them. And therefore, unfortunately, we imitate them in that we are not in need of imitating them in the first place, and secondly, we have what suffices us from imitating them to achieve the goal they seek in some of the theatrical performances. Some of them are expressions of open sinfulness, lewdness, and the like. But some of them, for example, encourage people to do good deeds, charity, truthfulness, and leaving off lying, and the like. We do not approve of these theatrical performances, and some Islamic parties adopt them, so we reject them completely. And if we say that a type of image-making is permissible, no one can say to us what we did not say, and they will say,The Shaykh : You have permitted image-making. And we say, no, the original ruling regarding image-making is prohibition, whether in making, possessing, selling, buying, and so on. This is the original ruling. But at the same time, we say that girls' play is permissible. But at the same time, we say that the girls' play that is imported from the lands of disbelief, open sinfulness, and lewdness, and with which houses are filled with these idols and statues, is not the girls' play that the wise Lawgiver permitted, as seen by the noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) regarding Aisha and her play, and so on. That play was homemade, made in the home of a Muslim. But these toys that come from Europe are the product of the lands of disbelief. Therefore, they come with pictures of naked girls and toilets... meaning, and the like. So these are girls' toys, but they are not the ones we say are permissible. So we say that the original ruling regarding image-making is prohibition, except for what is necessary and from which no harm results. As we say, for example, if there were a state that cares about teaching Muslims in the Islamic world, let them film for us the tawaf from a sincere scholar, the rituals of Hajj, and broadcast them to the people and show them on television. It is better than showing these wretches and the theatrical performances and what revolves around them. We do not see any objection to this from the perspective of the girls' play that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) permitted, in which young girls are trained in what is called today household management. So if we teach the rituals of Hajj, most pilgrims in the Islamic world perform Hajj, and unfortunately, the verse of the Bedouin poet applies to them: "And I did not perform Hajj, but the camels performed Hajj." Yes, why? Because their minds are empty and vacant; they do not understand, they do not see, and they do not hear. Meanwhile, this television has entered every Muslim home, with its back and front, with its good and its evil. Leave this good alone and let us show them how the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) prayed, yes, and the rituals of Hajj that many people do not know, yes.
The questioner : We are pleased to inform you that this month we placed a tape.
The Shaykh : May Allah reward you with good.
The questioner : A complete one on teaching pilgrims, from the beginning of ihram until their descent to Mina.
The Shaykh : And where is this?
The questioner : In the Kingdom.
The Shaykh : Like this.
The questioner : Yes, with distributed instructional papers. It is a good effort, there is nothing wrong with it.
The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah.
The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.
The Shaykh : May Allah increase them in success.
The questioner : May Allah bless you
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.