The Shaykh’s explanation that imitating creation occurs in photographic and video images, and that denying this is a rigid, superficial stance.

The Shaykh : So, the denial of imitating creation here, I mean, I say: it is a modern superficiality. I once gave an example of this regarding some young men when I was traveling from Aleppo to Damascus in my car. During an evening gathering where I was delivering a lecture, after they learned that I was traveling the next day, one of them said: "Can I accompany you?" I said to him: "There is no objection." And as they say: Even though it is narrated as a hadith, but by the way, it is not a sound hadith. But as you know, from the authentic hadith: . Anyway, we set off, and of course the road was long, and we had to talk, and there is nothing better than talking about matters of the Shari'ah. So the discussion turned to this issue. Glory be to Allah, as we were driving in the car, the following image came to my mind, and I raised it with him by saying: "They claim that a diligent and hardworking student visited his Shaykh one day at his home. When he sat down, he saw his own picture hanging on the wall in front of him. So the Shaykh admonished his student and said to him: 'O so-and-so, I know you are a righteous, pious, and diligent student, and so on. And how many times have I recited to you hadiths warning against pictures and keeping them, and that angels do not enter a house that contains a picture or a dog? How is it that you placed this picture?' He said: 'By Allah, O my master, this is out of love and as a memento, as you know, the philosophy of today is from this door.' And soon he took the picture down. And as they say in Damascus, 'days passed and days came,' and he forgot this matter. The Shaykh visited his student again, and he saw the picture in its place. He said to him: 'O so-and-so, what is the matter? Do you not remember that I visited you the first time?' He said to him: 'O my master, I understood from you that hand-drawn pictures are forbidden, but photographic pictures are permissible. So this is a photographic picture.' So he patted him on the shoulder and said to him: 'May Allah bless you, you are a jurist student.' Glory be to Allah! What a more rigid superficiality than this? The picture is the sister of that picture, except that the means, what is it? It differs. That one is by hand, and this one is by machine. And I say: by hand and by machine together. This is similar to some of what is reported from some of the Zahiris in their interpretation of some hadiths in a way that, as they say, 'makes the widows laugh.' The hadith of Abu Hurayrah in the "Sahihayn": "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade urinating in stagnant water." He said: "If one urinates in a vessel and then pours this urine into stagnant water, it is permissible; why? Because it is not true that he urinated in stagnant water, because he urinated in the empty vessel, he did not urinate in stagnant water." But all the scholars of knowledge rejected this interpretation or this extremely narrow meaning, because it is self-evident that the prohibition of the Messenger (peace be upon him) of urinating in stagnant water means one of two things: the least of which is preserving the purity of the water and not polluting it, and the other, which is more important, is preserving its ritual purity, as it may become ritually impure if the impurity overpowers it. So, whether the urine is directly or indirectly, and on this basis we say: we have in Damascus a very dirty river called "Nahr Qalait," because all the sewage pipes discharge into it. So this river has no problem because one did not defecate in it directly, one did not urinate in it directly. No one says this except to be a very despicable superficialist. Similarly, regarding the virgin, his saying (peace be upon him): . That superficialist said: "If her guardian comes and says to her: 'So-and-so is asking for your hand?' and she says: 'I consent,' it is not valid. She must remain silent. If she speaks and does not remain silent, she has contradicted the hadith." And it is clear from this hadith that the Wise Lawgiver considered the nature of virgin girls. But as we say in the Levant: "May Allah water it," meaning that time has passed when the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) compared, in the hadith of Abu Hurayrah as well: "He (peace be upon him) was more shy" or perhaps it is from the hadith of Abu Sa'id al-Khudri: "He was more shy than a virgin in her chamber." This shy, bashful virgin girl, if she remains silent, this is an excuse from the Lawgiver. But if she has some boldness and says: "I consent," why is it not accepted from her except that she remains silent?! So this is a superficiality similar to the superficiality of this time. Imitation in the camera is much more precise and stronger than imitation by brush or pen or anything else. Now comes the strongest imitation, which is video. In video, you see him moving his head, moving his lip, and it is as if it is a real person in front of you. Is this not imitation?! This is imitation. All that remains is for them to breathe life into it. And if the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said in some hadiths about those pictures that were painted with paint or pen or something like that, or carved from solid stone, it is said to them: , and they did nothing except that they likened this visible image to the creation of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), then what can be said about video today? There is no doubt that this is an imitation stronger and more dangerous than any picture mentioned today in this field. Therefore, we say: there is no difference between hand-drawn pictures, photographic pictures, and video pictures; there is no difference between them all, and the most forbidden of them is the last one; because the imitation in it is manifested in its most apparent meanings.