Islamic Press

One should realize that the prohibition of picture making is EXTREMELY SEVERE, that it is counted among the enormities, and the threats against doing it are very emphatic. Imam Bukhari and Imam Muslim relate that a man came to Ibn Abbas (Allah be well pleased with him and his father) and said, “My livelihood comes solely from my hands, and I make these pictures. Can you give me a legal opinion about them” Ibn Abbas told him, “Come closer,’ and the man did. “Closer,” he said, and the man did, until he put his hand on the man’s head and said: “Shall I tell you what I heard from the Messenger of Allah, Prophet Muhammed (Allah bless him and give him peace) I heard the Messenger of Allah say, “Every maker of pictures will go to the fire, where a being will be set upon him to torment him in hell for each picture he made. So if you must, draw tress and things without animate life in them.”

And Imam Tirmidhi relates that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “On the Day of Judgment, part of the hell fire will come forth with two eyes with which to see, two ears with which to hear, and a tongue with which to speak, saying, ‘I have been ordered to deal with three: he who holds there is another god besides Allah, with every arrogant tyrant, and with makers of pictures.”

And Bukhari, Tirmidhi, and Imam Nasa’i relate the prophetic hadith form Ibn Abbas, “Whoever makes a picture, Allah shall torture him with it on the Day of Judgment until he can breathe life into it, and he will never be able to.”

The reason for the unlawfulness of pictorial representation is that it imitates the creative act of Allah Most High, as is indicated by the hadith related by Imam Bukhari and Imam Muslim that A’isha (Allah be well pleased with her) said, “The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) returned from a trip, and I had draped a cloth with picture on it over a small closet. When he saw it, he ripped it down, his face colored, and he said, “A’isha, the people most severely tortured by Allah on the Day of Judgment will be those who try to imitate what Allah has created,”

The foregoing hadiths show that producing representation is unlawful under any circumstances, and just as making a picture is unlawful, so too is procuring one, because the threat that pertains to the users, for pictures are only made to be used.