Ruling on Depicting Animate Beings — The Disagreement and Evidence of Those Who Prohibit

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:

• "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)

Scholarly opinions:

1. Majority: three-dimensional statues are prohibited by consensus — drawn/painted images also prohibited.
2. Ibn Abbas: permitted flat (non-three-dimensional) images if not worshipped.
3. Photography: a contemporary disagreement — most contemporary scholars distinguish between hand-drawing (prohibited) and photographic images (disputed).