The Shaykh’s remarks on the hadiths that prohibit image-making and that they are general, covering both images that have a shadow and those that do not.

The questioner : Praise be to Allah, who created us from nothing by His power, provided for us by His sustenance, and made us His vicegerents in this existence through His obedience and worship. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger, who conveyed the message, fulfilled the trust, advised the Ummah, and struggled in the cause of Allah with true struggle until certainty from his Lord came to him. May Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him, upon his family, upon his Companions, and upon those who follow them with excellence until the Day of Judgment, and upon us with them by His mercy. He is the best Master and the best Helper. As for what follows: I previously gave you a paper containing seven questions that you were tasked to bring to me from al-Madinah al-Munawwarah to be answered on a tape. Then, three days ago, I contacted you to ask the following question in addition to the ones I gave you. The brother says: “Now, regarding video, tapes, and the filming that takes place inside mosques, they want to know the ruling on this action.” Now, the one who is speaking, may Allah open for you with His grace?

The Shaykh : I have spoken extensively on this specific topic, which is part of the general subject of image-making. The Muslims, praise be to Allah, have all agreed that the origin of image-making is forbidden by explicit evidence from the authentic Sunnah, which we can say has established a consensus on the prohibition of image-making. This prohibition is a matter of certainty due to the abundance of hadiths that address it, making it a fixed matter by certainty. However, these Muslims, from ancient times to the present, as the Lord of the Worlds, Blessed and Exalted is He, said in the Noble Qur'an: There is no doubt that this verse does not mean at all that the Muslim must accept this disagreement as long as it is inevitable, because the intent of such a text is exactly the same as the intent of a previous text when we discussed installment sales and mentioned his saying (peace be upon him): The Messenger (peace be upon him) does not mean by this hadith mere reporting, but rather warning about what will happen. Similarly, His saying (Glorified and Exalted is He): does not mean by this reporting approval of this difference, but rather He informs us that this difference is a reality. So, O Muslim, escape from being one who works to realize and create such a difference. In my opinion, every student of knowledge should connect this verse to understand it correctly with the hadith of the seventy-three sects. We all know the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him): This is the schism and this is the difference mentioned in the verse. Did the Messenger (peace be upon him) stop in this hadith at his saying: only, or did he explain and clarify what the Muslim should be upon in the time of this schism and difference? He said: They said, “Who are they, O Messenger of Allah?” He said: So this verse indicates that disagreement will occur and that the Muslim must escape from this disagreement by following the authentic Sunnah brought by the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). So disagreement occurred in images in the past from many angles. The important thing now is that they differed on two opinions. One of them, which is the truth, is that the hadiths that came regarding the prohibition of images and the cursing of image-makers include whether the image is three-dimensional, in other words, has a shadow, or is not three-dimensional and has no shadow. That is, there is no difference between an idol, a stone or wooden statue, and the like, and an image drawn on a wall, on paper, on a curtain, and the like, whether the image is three-dimensional or not. This is one of the opinions, and it is the correct one due to the generality of the hadiths that came regarding the prohibition of image-making and the cursing of image-makers. The second opinion said that the intent of these hadiths is only three-dimensional images and the image-makers who make these three-dimensional images. As for an image, as we said, on a wall, on a curtain, on paper, these hadiths do not include it. This was at that time for the reason we mentioned earlier, that some hadiths are transmitted by some scholars and not by others. Therefore, the proof of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, is established today for all scholars if they fear their Lord, Mighty and Majestic, because the Sunnah is collected and present; the hadiths are in books, easy to access from these hadiths that invalidate the interpretation of the hadiths and restricting them to three-dimensional images. The hadith of the Lady Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her), which al-Bukhari narrated in his Sahih, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was absent on a journey. When he returned, the Lady Aisha prepared for him. Part of her preparation to welcome her beloved, husband, and Prophet was that she placed a curtain with images on it. When the Messenger wanted to enter, he stopped, and she hastened to him, saying, “O Messenger of Allah, if I have sinned, then I seek forgiveness from Allah.” He said to her: She said, “O Messenger of Allah, it is a curtain I bought for you,” meaning she adorned herself to welcome you. Then he (may the prayers and peace of Allah be upon him) said, and here is the point: These image-makers; this image was not three-dimensional, it was not an idol with a shadow, but rather it was an image, either embroidered or painted with paint, as you see today these types of clothes. They have excelled greatly in drawing and printing images... to the point that they do not come off even with the strongest removers. Allah is the Greatest. So when the Messenger (peace be upon him) said: Then those hadiths we mentioned earlier mean every image, whether it is three-dimensional or not. This is an introduction that is necessary before answering the question raised earlier.