Discussion on the trial of image-making and standing up for the one who enters.

The Shaykh : I wish to deliver a word reminding people of what they have been afflicted with since ancient times. I say: Praise is to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our own selves and from the bad of our deeds. Whom Allah guides, none can mislead, and whom He leaves to misguide, none can guide. And I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger. As for what follows, the best of speech is the speech of Allah, the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), and the worst of matters are their innovations. Every innovation is a religious innovation, every religious innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire. Among the things that should be pointed out is the reminder that Allah commanded in His saying, the Exalted: This refers only to what is connected to legal violations that people have become accustomed to since long ago, until they became part of their lives and hardly leave them. Thus, the Sunnah turned into a religious innovation, and the religious innovation turned into a Sunnah, and the prohibited command turned into a permissible command that the masses of people hardly notice, and hardly anyone but a few of the special people points it out. It is these matters that scholars and students of knowledge should focus on reminding the general public about. It is not the reminder—though this is beneficial—that zina is forbidden, that theft is forbidden, that backbiting is forbidden, and that talebearing is forbidden, because these matters have become known to all people. Rather, the reminder should be about what may be hidden from most people regarding its matter and its ruling.

The questioner : Peace be upon you and Allah's mercy

The Shaykh : And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.

The questioner : How are you, my master?The Shaykh : ؟

The Shaykh : May Allah bless you. How are you?

The questioner : Praise be to Allah. I want to say... Anwar.

The Shaykh : May Allah light our hearts.

The questioner : ... May Allah reward you with good. Welcome.

The Shaykh : There is no god but Allah. Among the matters that have spread among people, especially in the present age, are images, to the point that hardly a home is free of them, even though the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to prohibit the making, keeping, and trading of images. It is well known from the hadiths of the Messenger (may Allah pray upon him and grant him peace) his saying: Likewise, he said: When the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) returned from a journey, his wife Aisha prepared to receive him by hanging a curtain in her house that had an image on it. When the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) wanted to enter, he stopped. Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) hurried to him and said, "O Messenger of Allah, if I have sinned, then I seek Allah's forgiveness." He said to her: She said, "I bought it for you, O Messenger of Allah." He said (may Allah pray upon him and grant him peace), and here is the point: What I want to remind you of, especially on this topic, is that you should know that the indication in the first and second hadiths is the prohibition of images in general. As for this third hadith of ours, which is the hadith of Aisha, its indication is specific and very important regarding some people who restrict the forbidden images to three-dimensional statues. This is an error, because in the hadith of Aisha, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) only condemned the images that were on the curtain, and these were not three-dimensional. He said that those who made the image on the curtain are the most severely punished people on the Day of Resurrection, and it will be said to them, "Bring to life what you created." Therefore, what we should be aware of is that every image is forbidden, whether it is three-dimensional or not, whether it is depicted on clothes, on paper, on carpets and rugs, or the like. What we see today in mosques, especially on Friday, is that we stand in rows for prayer, and if there are some young men in front of us wearing shirts with an image on the back, which might be an image of a wild animal, a tiger, or something similar, and the most dreadful is when the image depicts a woman with her hair exposed. This young man entered the mosque intending to pray and draw near to Allah (Mighty and Majestic), but he entered the mosque disobeying Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), because first of all, he entered the mosque while carrying an image, and secondly, he distracts those praying behind him who are facing the qiblah, but in reality, they are facing the image, because this image is on the back of that young man, and the person behind him is facing it. It came in the authentic hadith in al-Bukhari that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) Knowing that the hadith does not state that the images were images of animals; they might have been decorations and patterns, and yet they distracted the worshipper from his prayer. What about when these images are originally forbidden? These patterns on these couches, for example, are not forbidden images, but for the worshipper, they distract him from his prayer. It also came in the authentic al-Bukhari that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) once prayed in a khamisah of his. A khamisah is a garment with patterns in blue, white, red, green, and so on. They call it a "sayyah" in the Levant. When he finished praying, he said (may Allah pray upon him and grant him peace): Just because of these different colored patterns. What about when the colors we see today depict an image of an animal or an animal in the form of a human, like that girl with her hair exposed? How did images enter the houses of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) when they are forbidden? Satan has beautified for many people in the last of time that the forbidden images are, as we mentioned first regarding some of them, three-dimensional statues. Satan has beautified for them restricting the forbidden images to three-dimensional statues, whereas the reality is that all images are forbidden, whether three-dimensional or not, as is the case in the hadith of Aisha's curtain. This is a denial of the text of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), who specified after generalizing images that have no shadow, even if they are depicted on a curtain or a drape. From this door, Satan has entered upon people in this age. There is a second door where they distinguished between hand-drawn images and photographic images, so they permitted photographic images and restricted the prohibition to hand-drawn images. This contradicts the first two hadiths, namely his saying (may Allah pray upon him and grant him peace): This is a long discussion, and as I said at the beginning of this speech, I only wanted to remind you of what people have been afflicted with regarding the spread of images in homes under the pretext of one of two pretexts: either that they are not three-dimensional, or that they are photographic. People today, it is almost as if a small child carries a camera beside him and photographs whatever his desire dictates. And how many images are called "memory photos"? They went out for a picnic, for example, or a trip, or something similar, and you find them standing by the side of the road photographing their family or friends or something similar. We have seen this phenomenon on the occasion of the snow that covered this country more than once, and you would find some people, even women, standing by the snow while a man or young man photographs them. All of this is forbidden in Islam. Therefore, we say, as the Lord of all beings said: The second thing I want to mention is that it is necessary for the general Muslims to avoid affectation and pretense in receiving people in a manner contrary to the Sunnah. I mean by this that those sitting stand up for the one entering or the ones entering. This standing up was not prescribed at all in the age of the revelation of His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He): And the one most deserving of standing up for him and honoring him was our Prophet (may the prayers and peace of Allah be upon him), and yet when he entered a gathering like this gathering of his Companions (may Allah pray upon him and grant him peace), no one stood up for him. Was their not standing up a lack of respect for their Prophet? Far be it from that. Respecting the Messenger is an obligatory duty, and if a Muslim intentionally does not respect him (may Allah pray upon him and grant him peace) and does not honor him, he disbelieves in Allah and His Messenger. But respect should be in accordance with the Shari'ah, not contrary to it. It came in the authentic hadith that Mu'adh ibn Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him) traveled to the Levant, and when he returned and his eyes fell upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), he intended to prostrate to him. So he (may Allah pray upon him and grant him peace) said to him: Mu'adh said, "O Messenger of Allah, I came to the Levant and found the Christians standing up for their priests and their great ones, and I saw that you are more deserving of standing up for you and prostrating to you than they are." He (may Allah pray upon him and grant him peace) said: So when Mu'adh wanted to honor the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) by prostrating, he prohibited him from doing so, because prostration is not fitting except for Allah (Mighty and Majestic). Similarly, close to this is this standing up that people have become accustomed to in this age. Standing up, as you know, is a pillar of prayer, just like prostration. So the prayer of one who is able to stand is not valid while he is sitting; rather, he must stand. Therefore, this standing up should also be reserved for Allah (Mighty and Majestic) in our prayers. For that reason, Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) said, "No person was more beloved to the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) than the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and they did not stand up for him because of what they knew of his dislike of it." So the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), who is the most deserving of people of honor and respect, when he entered a gathering in which his Companions were, none of them stood up for him. That was not out of laziness on their part or lack of respect for him (may Allah pray upon him and grant him peace), but rather in response to his (may Allah pray upon him and grant him peace) desire for them not to stand up, because he disliked it (may Allah pray upon him and grant him peace). "No person was more beloved to them than the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and they did not stand up for him because of what they knew of his dislike of it." So it is upon the Muslims, especially those among them who are students of knowledge, and especially if this knowledge is from the Book and the Sunnah, that they always and forever cooperate to leave off this affectation and this social showing off, which is this standing up. And I say this social showing off, and this is manifest, because if a man from the general people, who is a righteous Muslim, enters, no one pays attention to him and no one stands up for him. But if a wicked, sinful man has a social position in the state, for example, all the people would stand up for him. This is hypocrisy. And those who say that standing up is permissible or recommended restrict their statement to standing up for people of knowledge and people of righteousness and virtue. As for standing up for the wicked and the sinners, this is not permissible at all. But when people became accustomed to standing up, they no longer distinguished between the righteous and the wicked, between the knowledgeable and the ignorant, so this standing up became social hypocrisy. How can it be eradicated? That we, who claim that we adhere to the Book and the Sunnah, should first of all become accustomed to leaving off this blameworthy habit, so that it spreads among people, as is the case with some Bedouins when they sit in a place in their tent and a person enters, they do not stand up in this manner that exists today in this age. For this reason, we say that the Sunnah is to leave off this standing up, and the lesson, as some scholars said, is the purity of hearts. "And if our hearts are sound, *** We are content not to tire our bodies."
We are all confident in the affection of our brothers, so why are we agitated and about what? This is what some of the people of knowledge and virtue say. This is what I wanted to remind you of, and praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.