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Lawful & Unlawful
Surah: Saba (13)
Ruling on Depicting Animate Beings — The Disagreement and Evidence of Those Who Prohibit
يَعۡمَلُونَ لَهُۥ مَا يَشَآءُ مِن مَّحَٰرِيبَ وَتَمَٰثِيلَ وَجِفَانٍ كَٱلۡجَوَابِ
— سبأ الآية 13
Introduction: Photography/depiction is a jurisprudential question without an explicit verse — evidence comes from both Quran and Sunnah together.
Quranic evidence for prohibitionists: "They made for him what he willed of sanctuaries, statues..." (34:13) — Ibn Abbas held the permission was specific to Solomon, or that the statues were not lifelike animate figures.
Sunnah evidence for prohibition:
Quranic evidence for prohibitionists: "They made for him what he willed of sanctuaries, statues..." (34:13) — Ibn Abbas held the permission was specific to Solomon, or that the statues were not lifelike animate figures.
Sunnah evidence for prohibition:
- "The most severely punished people on the Day of Resurrection are the image-makers." (Bukhari 5950)
- "Angels do not enter a house in which there is an image." (Bukhari 3224)
- "Those who make these images will be punished on the Day of Resurrection — it will be said to them: bring to life what you created." (Bukhari 5951)
- Majority: three-dimensional statues are prohibited by consensus — drawn/painted images also prohibited.
- Ibn Abbas: permitted flat (non-three-dimensional) images if not worshipped.
- Photography: a contemporary disagreement — most contemporary scholars distinguish between hand-drawing (prohibited) and photographic images (disputed).
Source: Ibn Hajar, Fath al-Bari (10/385); Al-Qurtubi (14/272); Al-Mughni (13/469); Al-Bukhari (5950)
Test Yourself
What is the Sunnah evidence for prohibiting image-making? What is the difference between statues and flat images according to Ibn Abbas?
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