What the Shaykh Excludes from the Forbidden Images

The Shaykh : However, just as we exclude from some of the images known in the past what the Wise Lawgiver has excluded, this brings us back to the principle that the specific takes precedence over the general, and that the specific does not negate the general text. That is, we do not apply the general to the specific. No, rather, the approval of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) of Aisha’s playing with her toys is proof that it is permissible for a girl like her to engage in some of these images because of the benefit in them or the practice they provide for what is called today household management. Accordingly, we say that it is permissible. As I have heard from some extremists on this issue, it is obligatory for him to perform Hajj, but he does not want to take a photograph because the image is forbidden, so he clings to the original ruling. But we say: if the Wise Lawgiver, through the approval of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) of Aisha regarding those images, allows one to perform Hajj to the Sacred House of Allah, or even to perform 'Umrah and take a photograph, and you must take this photograph for other transactions to reach some of your rights that you cannot reach except through such an image, then we say that such images are excluded from the general rule. For example, doctors taking images of some bodies and limbs to discover what can be found regarding some internal diseases and the like. And on this basis, one can expand on this subject within the limits of the principle that dire necessity permits the prohibited, or within the scope of pressing needs that are almost like dire necessities. As for this expansion on the grounds that this is not an image, and that this is not likening to the creation of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), this is one of the most invalid things we hear in this age in which they claim that culture and awareness have spread.