Continuing the discussion on image-making and the modern image-making devices with which this community has been afflicted, and how they fall under the meaning of image-making, along with a discussion of

The Shaykh : In this era, and since approximately more than half a century ago, when modern devices known as cameras began to spread among Muslims, a device emerged in the Islamic world that produces an image with its clearest features by pressing and pushing a button, and the image is printed on paper. There is no doubt that Islam addresses every matter that occurs and gives it a ruling. But who is able to issue a Sharia ruling on everything that happens, where it can be said to be permissible or not permissible? Here, attention must be drawn to a fact: no one can issue a Sharia ruling on everything that occurs over the years and centuries except one who is a jurist, not in the technical sense of being a jurist in the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, or Hanbali schools, let alone the other schools of the Shi'ah, Zaydis, Ibadi, and so on. No, this is not the jurist who is able to give a ruling on any matter that occurs, because he would issue a ruling based on the rules of a school of jurisprudence, not on the rules of the Quran or the Sunnah. The jurist is the one the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) intended in his famous hadith in al-Bukhari and Muslim: Now, if we stop at this word "religion," what is it? The religion is what Allah said and what the Messenger of Allah said: Therefore, the jurisprudence mentioned by the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in this hadith is jurisprudence in the religion, which is nothing more than the words of Allah and the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). Thus, whoever is not a jurist in the Book and the Sunnah cannot give a correct Sharia ruling. The question regarding photographic images by camera was first directed to the Mufti of Egypt at that time, because the scientific authority and power at that time belonged to Egypt, as it is deeply rooted in al-Azhar in the study of Islamic sacred law more than any other Islamic country. Therefore, the Egyptians, especially in their al-Azhar, inherited this status, and the question was directed to the Mufti of Egypt at that time, known asThe Shaykh : Bakhit. He responded that these photographic images are permissible, with very strange justifications. He did not at all study the hadiths that came regarding image-making or consider the wisdom or the purpose indicated by these hadiths of the prohibition of the Wise Lawgiver for these images. Instead, he philosophized the matter with a rigid, material scientific philosophy. He said that this is not image-making; it is merely trapping the shadow on this paper. He went into some detail, of course. I am not a photographer and cannot provide the details, and that is not important. But the important point is that he permitted this image-making on the claim that it does not go beyond trapping the shadow, and that this trapping is one of the laws of the Divine in this universe, and humans have no role in it. Here, stubbornness appears, and it becomes clear that the intention is, in their claim, to make things easy for people and not to impose restrictions or difficulties on them. He says that this is not the work of a human, so he ignores facts that no human can be ignorant of. The first fact: Who made this device? The Lord of the worlds, just as He created the sun and the moon and created the shadow through the sun, did the Lord of the worlds create this device? The answer is no. Rather, it was the result of continuous and successive efforts by these disbelievers until they produced this device. And finally, when the photographer wants to take a picture with this device, does the device just sit there and take the picture, or are two things, indeed known things, required? First, the device must be directed at what he wants to photograph. Second, there must be a press and a push of a button. He ignored these facts, unfortunately, and most people, as the Lord of the worlds rightly said, This fatwa became widespread, and it was adopted by the students, professors, and doctors of al-Azhar. Many coincidences and circumstances brought me together with some of them, and they argued with the fatwa of the Mufti of Egypt of that time,The Shaykh : Bakhit. I clearly remember that a discussion took place between me and one of the senior Egyptian Muslim Brothers in the past regarding this issue. He argued as I mentioned to you, citing Bakhit. I said to him, "Do you see today that there are large workshops and factories where, with the press of a button, idols are produced in one minute, by the dozens, even by the hundreds? You know these idols, for example, like the dolls for small children, or even idols made of marble or metal representing a dancing woman, for example, with a dog next to her, and so on. All of these are cast using these devices. Do you see that this involves nothing but a press? Is the press the same? Do you think these idols are permissible?" The man was at a loss and could only say, "No, this is not permissible." I asked, "Why?" He said, "Because this is a three-dimensional figure." But I brought him from the same door he had brought me from. I said to him, "Yes, this is a three-dimensional figure, but this is by machine, not by carving... and a hammer and so on." The man fell silent, and that was the least of what silenced him.
And most of the Islamic world continued to adopt this fatwa, which permits what falls under the general text. Now, I return to jurisprudence from the hadiths. This one who takes a picture with this device is called, linguistically, a "mussawwir" (image-maker). So the Messenger of Allah says: Why do we contradict this general principle with such rational, logical justifications... which... the proponent himself contradicts regarding photographic images that have no shadow: This is a general principle: this is an image-maker who made an image. This image cannot be called anything but an image. If the implications of these general texts are nullified, and the scholars of usul al-fiqh agree that the general text must be applied unless a specific restrictor enters it, and there is no specific restrictor, of course, then this image-making falls under the generality of those texts. Whether the image is made with a pen, a brush, paint, or this device that saved photographers much effort and time,