What is the ruling on image-making and children's toys?

The questioner : ... it is permissible in the case of no free mixing or ... the closed-circuit television ... so we would have entered into the prohibition of image-making ...

The Shaykh : This is a good question. We have said repeatedly, a thousand times, that image-making is forbidden, but an exception is made for what is indicated by the hadith of 'A'ishah and the toys of her daughters. We stated in my book, *Etiquette of the Wedding in the Pure Sunnah*, that when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) permitted girls to play with toys that were images, there was a clear wisdom behind this permission, namely that the girl would practice, in her father's house, some of what is called today household management. So we derived from this hadith the permissibility of some images that result in benefits for the community without any harm resulting from them. We said that this hadith points to another hadith, which is the hadith of al-Rabi' ibn 'Uwayd, a noble woman from the Companions of the Messenger (peace be upon him), who was from the Ansar. She said: "We used to fast our children and young ones on the Day of 'Ashura, and we used to make toys for the small children from wool to keep them occupied from food and drink until the time of breaking the fast." This connects and links closely to the hadith of 'A'ishah's toys. So we take from these two hadiths that images, even if they are idols, meaning three-dimensional images, are permissible to use in some cases where there is a benefit and no harm behind them. Accordingly, we have said repeatedly and continue to say that if this television, or the television, were utilized by an administration that cares about the rulings of the Shari'ah, many and numerous benefits would result from this utilization. I give an important example related to the reality of thousands of Muslims. We know that this great multitude of them perform Hajj to the Sacred House of Allah, then they return and the saying of that Bedouin applies to them, who said to his companion after returning from Hajj, "I did not perform Hajj, but the camels performed Hajj." And they say in Syria, a colloquial phrase, "Titi titi, just as you went, you came," meaning he spent money and effort but did not perform Hajj. Why? Because, first, they do not prepare as required for this obligation, which is a pillar of Islam as is well known. If an Islamic state adopted television to teach Muslims some of the obligations that not all Muslims can learn except through what they are afflicted with, namely television, then I imagine that if they chose a knowledgeable man, he would describe, for example, entering the Sacred Mosque, whether for Hajj or 'Umrah, and what one does. He starts with the Black Stone, alone, not in the mixed manner where the legal ruling is not distinguished. Here, the viewers and spectators on television learn rulings that if we, who study fiqh, sat for long months to teach them, it would not be as effective as this scene they see on television. And so, consider all the rituals of Hajj. We often see them in Hajj; most of the pilgrims, unfortunately, have their ihram distorted, where they expose their right shoulder. And as scholars and students of knowledge know, this is prescribed only during what? The tawaf and the tawaf of arrival only. They do this throughout the Hajj, and some pilgrims, especially of our kind, the fair-skinned whites, their shoulder burns, and they do not feel that they have not obeyed their Lord or ...