#picturemaking

I went to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) in the Ka`bah and he saw suras. He, thus, ordered to bring him a bucket of water and when I did, he began erasing them, saying: May Allah fight those who make Taswir of what they are not able to create.

Al-Hafizh said: Its Sanad (chain of narrators) is good.

..Indeed the asal (origin) of banu Adam (children of Adam) is at-Tawheed, as indeed Allaah Jalla wa 'Alaa states in the Qur`an:  

And I (Allaah) created not the jinns and humans except they should worship Me (Alone). (Adh-Dhariyat 51:56)  

🔹And Shaikhul-Islaam Muhammad ibn 'Abdul-Wahhab (rahimahullaah ta'aala) said regarding this statement of Allaah:  

ya'budoon (Worship Me} that it means:

except that they should single Me out with [all] worship.

🔹So indeed the asal (origin) of the children of Adam is at-Tawheed. As indeed, ibnu 'Abbaas (radiallaahu ta'aala 'anhumma) said:

Between Adam and Noah ('alaihim i salatu wa sallam) were ten kuroon generations, and each one of those generations was upon Tawheed (monotheism).

 🔹And indeed, as is collected by Imam Bukhari (rahimahullaah ta'aala) in his Sahih, that Ibn 'Abbaas (radiallaahu ta'aala 'anhumma) said regarding the statement of Allaah (subhanahu wa ta'aala):  

And they have said: 'You shall not leave your deities, nor shall you leave Wadd, nor Suwa', nor Yaghuth, nor Ya'uq, nor Nasra (names of the idols)/ (Nuh 71:23).

These are the names of the righteous men from the people of Nuh ('alaihi salaam). When these righteous men died, Shaytan suggested to them [what seemed like a good suggestion] even though the intent behind the advice was evil. So shaytan advised them to build tamaatheel (pictures and statues) of them and put them [those pictures and statues] in the places where they used to sit. And to name them with their names. So they did that. But they were not worshipped. 

They made these statues and these pictures of righteous men, and they placed them in their majaalis (sitting places). But they did not worship them. But when those individuals died - those who made these tamaatheel - and knowledge was forgotten, 'ubidaat these idols [statues, pictures] began to be worshipped.

‼️ In this manner did shirk (polytheism) first take place in the children of Adam ('alaihi salaatu wa salaam).

➡️ So after Adam ('alaihi salaam), people remained upon the affair of Tawheed for 10 generations. And after the passing of these 10 generations did shirk take place in the children of Adam. When these people who had some knowledge died, the people began to worship them.  

🔹Shaikh Salih al-Fawzaan (hafidhahullaah) stated that it has been narrated that all these individuals died in the same year. Because of this, those people [who survived them] were greatly affected. Because all of these men were righteous. They were greatly affected, and they used to cry over their loss. So Shaytan (may Allaah curse him) came to them with his advice [whispers], the dhaahir (apparent) of which was that he desired good. But the intent of which was evil. And he advised them to make tamatheel (representations) of these individuals. Make pictures of them - idols - of each one of them and then to name them with the names of those righteous men and to place them in their sitting places. Why? So that it would be a push for them to worship Allaah (subhanahu wa ta'aala). That they may remember the worship of these individuals and because of that worship, they begin to worship Allaah.  

🔹Al Imam al-Qurtoobi (rahimahullaah ta'aala) said,

"Indeed they made these pictures so that they could remember them [the righteous men] and remember their righteous, good deeds, to be forthgoing in their righteous, good deeds as these individuals were forthgoing. And they used to worship Allaah by the graves of these righteous men, but their worship - baarakAllaahu fikum - was always for Allaah subhanahu wa ta'aala. So when these individuals died and, after them, came a people who were ignorant of the intent of those who preceeded them, then ash-shaytan approached them and he suggested to them [meaning he whispered to them] and said those who preceeded them used to worship these idols. They should worship these tamatheel."

So as we said, what was apparent from the advice of shaytan to the people of Nuh was khair (good). But the intent behind it was evil. But we learn a lesson, the shaikh [Fawzaan] said.

‼️ This is proof that bid'ah is not allowed even if what is apparent from that bid'ah is righteousness, is good - even if the intent of those who do it is good. Even then innovations are not allowed. They made these pictures, but it was a bid'ah - it was not something legislated by Allaah. It was not something that Allaah had revealed; rather it was a bid'ah. They made these tamatheel and placed them in their majaalis (sitting places). Those who did this were upon knowledge. They were upon Tawheed. But when this group died off, and knowledge was forgotten - knowledge was taken away with the death of the 'ulemma (scholars) [as comes in the narration] - you found people falling into the worship of these idols.

🔹Ibn 'Abbas said, "When these people died off and knowledge was forgotten - with the death of the 'ulemma - knowledge was forgotten, and shirk took place. These idols were then worshipped."  

Because shaytan lied to them, and said to them

"your forefathers made these tamatheel so that they may be worshipped. They worshipped these things.."

➡️ In this manner, the reason ash-Shirk took place in the children of Adam was because they went to the extremes regarding those who were righteous from amongst them. The reason why shirk took place in the children of Adam was because they worshipped Allaah upon other than the legislation of Allaahu subhanahu wa ta'aala.

Think about it: the first time shirk took place in the children of Adam was because of pictures. The first time shirk took place in the children of Adam was because of pictures! And their intentions with their pictures were not evil intentions. But rather they had good intentions.

 ↘️ So it was not even intention that...were neither evil nor were they good as many of the people say today. [They say:] "We take pictures not because we want to fall into shirk, not because they would aid us upon the worship of Allaah; we just want to remember certain times. This is not haram. This has nothing to do with religion."   But rather the intent of those at first dwelled in these actions were good intentions, and even then it led them to committing shirk with Allaahu subhanahu wa ta'aala. And one does not know what Allaah has written for him.

So you find many who hold onto the pictures of their parents who have deceased. Or they will hold onto pictures of their children who may have passed away. So much so that you see these people looking at these pictures on a daily basis. Sometimes, they may kiss these pictures on a daily basis. Allaahu subhanahu wa ta'aala knows best what type of fitnah they may fall into. 

🛑It may occur that one day they do not look at the picture and do not kiss the picture and something bad happens to them, while the next day when they do look at the picture or kiss the picture or speak to the picture, something good happens to them and instead of attributing it to Allaah, they attribute it to the action that took place between them and this picture.