In Photos: HT Kenya Khilafah Conference

Kenya: 28th Rajab 1429 - Hizb ut-Tahrir held two large conferences to commemorate the destruction of the Khilafah.

Photographs of the event

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RE: UBS

The following ijtihad adopted by Hizb ut-Tahrir on photography is taken from the book Shakhsiya Islamiyyah volume 2, 4th Edition by Sheikh Taqiudeen an-Nabahani the founder of Hizb ut-Tahrir. We follow the opinion that photography is a different reality to that of painting, and is therefore not haram to take photos or use them.

DRAWING/PAINTING (AT-TASWEER)
Drawing is to draw the picture of something. One form of drawing is making of statues which includes carving/sculpting (naht). The graph/draft itself or the statue is the (sura) picture and (suwar) is its plural. It is also called in the language (tasaweer) which includes (tamatheel); and it is said linguistically the (tasaweer)/ (tamathil). The Shar’a forbade the drawing of anything with a soul (ruh) in it whether humans, animals and birds and whether it is drawn upon paper, skin, clothes, vessels, jewellery or money etc, so all of this is forbidden, since the mere drawing of something in which there is a soul is forbidden whatever the thing being drawn. Drawing that which has not soul in it is permitted without any sin therein.

The Shar’a allowed the drawing of trees, mountains, flowers etc which do not have a soul. As for forbidding that which has a soul, this is established by the Shari’ah texts. Al-Bukhari extracted from the hadith of ibn Abbas who said: “When the Prophet (SAW) saw the drawings in the House (Ka’aba), he did not enter until he commanded their effacement.” “From Aisha that she raised a curtain which had drawings. The Messenger of Allah (SAW) entered and removed it. She said: ‘So I cut it into two pillows, so he used to lean on them.” Narrated by Muslim. In the words of Ahmed, “I threw them down and cut them into two pillows. I saw him leaning upon one of them and upon it was a drawing.” And Muslim and Al-Bukhari extracted from the hadith of Aisha that she said: “The Messenger of Allah (SAW) entered upon me and I had secluded my bedchamber to me with a curtain in which there were drawings. When he saw it, he tore it. His face changed colour and he said: ‘O Aisha, the people most severely punished on the Day of Judgement are those who imitate the creation of Allah.” The (qiram) is a thin curtain in which there are colours or a curtain in which there are drawings and engravings. In the hadith of Muslim: “From Aisha who said: ‘The Messenger of Allah came from a travel and I had covered my door with a curtain with horses in it with wings. He commanded me and I removed it.’” The (durnuka) is a type of clothing. Al-Bukhari extracted from the hadith of ibn Abbas: The Messenger of Allah (SAW) said: “Whoever draws a drawing, Allah will punish him for it on the Day of Judgement until he breathes a life (ruh) into it whereas he cannot so breathe.” And he extracted via the way of ibn Umar “that the Messenger of Allah (SAW) said: ‘Verily those who make these drawings will be punished on the Day of Judgement. It will be said to them: Give life to that which you created.’” From ibn Abbas to whom came a man and said: I draw these drawings and make these statues, so give me a fatwa about them. He said: Come close to me. So he came closer until he placed his hand upon his head and said: I inform you of what I heard from the Messenger of Allah (SAW), I heard the Messenger of Allah (SAW) say: “Every drawer is in the Fire. For every drawing he drew, there will be created a soul to punish him in the Hellfire. So if you must do so, then make trees and that which has no soul (nafs).” Ahmad narrated from Abu Hurayra who said: “The Messenger of Allah (SAW) said: ‘Jibril (AS) came to me and said: ‘I came to you in the night and nothing prevented me from entering the house you were in except that there was a statue of a man in the house, there was a (qiram) as curtain in the house with statues in it and there was a dog in the house. So give order to lop off the head of the statue so it becomes like the form of a tree, give order to cut the curtain to make of it two pillows to lean on and command with the dog to be removed. The Messenger of Allah (SAW) did so.’” The (qiram) is the thin curtain of wool with colours. And Al-Bukhari narrated via the way of Abu Juhayfah that he bought a youth who was a cupper (hajjam) so he said: “Verily the Prophet (SAW) prohibited the price of blood, the price of the dog, the earnings of the prostitute and he cursed the taker of riba and its giver, the tattooer, the one tattooed and the drawer.”

These ahadith in their totality include the command of leaving the drawing decisively, and this is the evidence that drawing is forbidden. They are general including every picture (sura) whether it has a shadow or not, whether it is complete or incomplete. So there is no difference in forbidding drawings between what does or does not have a shadow, and between the complete picture which is possible to live and the incomplete picture which is not possible to live. All are forbidden due to the generality of the ahadith. It is also due to the hadith of ibn Abbas about the House (Ka’aba) that the pictures that were in the Ka’aba were drawn in traces without any shadow but the Messenger did not enter until they were effaced. And the hadith of Aisha indicated that the curtain had drawings traced upon it without any shadow. It is narrated that the Prophet (SAW) sent ‘Ali in an expedition and said to him: “Do not leave a statue except that you destroy it, nor a drawing except that you efface it nor an elevated grave except that you level it.” He mentioned both types, the one which has a shadow which is the statue and the one without a shadow which is the drawing that has to be effaced. The distinction between that which has a shadow and that which has no shadow is not correct nor does it have a basis; and that it lives or does not live is not a reason for its forbiddance nor does there exist an evidence excluding it from the forbiddance. As for permitting the drawing of that which has no soul like trees, mountains etc this is because the ahadith which came forbidding drawing restricted the forbidding in the picture which has a soul. This restriction is recognised and has a (mahfum) meaning that is acted upon. Its meaning is that the picture which has no soul inside is not forbidden. Yes, some ahadith came unrestricted but some of them came restricted, and the usuli principle is carrying the unrestricted upon the restricted. Thus the forbidding is only upon the picture which has a soul in it, which is the human being, animal and bird. As for other than these, it is not forbidden to draw them; rather it is permitted. Also the allowance of drawing that which has no soul of trees etc, this came explicitly in the ahadith. In the hadith of Abu Hurayra: “He commanded to lop off the head of the statue so that it becomes like the form of a tree” which means that there is nothing wrong with the statue of a tree. And in the hadith of ibn Abbas: “If you must do so, then make a tree and that which has no soul (nafs).”

The ahadith which came forbidding drawing are not reasoned nor did there come the reasoning of drawing by any reason, hence no reason is sought. As for what ibn Umar narrated of the statement of the Messenger: “It will be said to them: ‘Give life to that which you created’” and what came in the hadith of Aisha about drawing: “The people most severely punished on the Day of Judgement are those who imitate the creation of Allah”, all this did not come in the form of reasoning. No reason is understood from the words and sentences in these ahadith. All that is in the subject is that the Messenger likens drawing with creation and the drawers with the Creator. Holding resemblance/comparing does not mean reasoning nor does it become a reason since comparing something with something does not make that which is compared to a reason for that which is compared; rather it is possible to be a description for it, and the description of the thing is not a reason for it. Accordingly it is not true to say that drawing is forbidden because there is an imitation of the creation of Allah therein. Allah ta’ala created mankind, animals and birds and He created trees, mountains and flowers. So if drawing human beings, animals and birds is forbidden for the reason of imitating the creation of Allah then this reason exists in trees, mountains, flowers etc, for they are also created by Allah so, in that case, drawing them is forbidden due to the existence of the reason in their drawing. The reason revolves around that which is reasoned in presence and absence, though the texts came permitting the drawing of trees and everything that has no soul. Accordingly drawing human beings, animals and birds is forbidden due to the text which came forbidding them and not for any reason. Drawing trees, mountains and everything without a soul is permitted without any sin therein due to the texts which came to allow it.

The drawing which Allah forbade is only the tracing (rasm) or engraving etc which a human performs directly by himself thrugh drawing. As for drawing (tasweer) via the way of photographic equipment, it is not included nor is it of the forbidden drawing but rather it is allowed. This is because its reality is that it is not drawing, but only the transporting (nuql) the shadow (dhill) from the reality to the film, nor is it drawing a person by the photagrapher. The drawer by photographic equipment does not draw the person, but only the shadow of the person was imprinted upon the film by means of the equipment, so it is conveying of the shadow not drawing and by the means of equipment not by the photographer. So it does not enter into the prohibition which came in the ahadith. The ahadith say: “Those who make these drawings”, “Verily I drew these drawings”, “Every drawer”, “the drawers.” The one who takes the picture of the person or animal with photographic equipment does not make these pictures nor does he perform this drawing nor is he a drawer. Rather it is the photographic equipment which conveyed the shadow to the film. He did not do anything other than moving the equipment. Therefore he is not a drawer nor is it possible for him to be a drawer by any means whatsoever; thus the prohibition does not include him at all. Furthermore, the drawing whose forbidding came in the ahadith has been described and its type determined, that which resembles the creation and the drawer resembles the Creator in the sense that it is imitating a thing. So it is creating a picture, either by tracing/drawing it from his mind or drawing it from its origin present in front of him; in both these cases it is initiating a picture because it is the action in which there is creativity. As for the photographic picture, it is not of this type since it is not creating the picture nor does creativity exist therein; it is merely printing the shadow of an existing thing upon film. Hence it is not considered of the type of drawing whose forbiddance came in the ahadith, and the ahadith do not apply to it nor is it included under them in forbidding. The technical reality of the picture by hand and that of the photographic picture perfectly confirms that; they are two types who differ completely. The technical picture is the one drawn by hand and it is other than the photographic picture, (whether) technically or in creativity. From here, additionally, the photographic picture is allowed without blame in it.
This is in relation to drawing as it is. As for possessing the picture which is drawn, if it was in a place prepared for worship like a mosque, prayer place and their like, this is definitely forbidden due to what came in the hadith of ibn Abbas that the Messenger (SAW) refused to enter the Ka’aba until the pictures were effaced. This is a decisive demand to leave so it becomes an evidence of forbidding. As for possessing it in a place not prepared for worship like houses, offices, schools etc there is detail and explanation therein. If the picture were possessed in a place where it is treated with glorification, it is disliked (makruh) not forbidden. If it is a place where it is not treated with glorification, it is permitted without blame therein. As for its being disliked in the place where the picture is treated with glorification, it is due to the hadith of Aisha that the Messenger removed the curtain which had a picture and the hadith of Abu Hurayra that Jibril refused to enter the house because there was a statue, picture and a dog therein. As for this dislike being specific to the picture placed in a place where it is treated with glorification and there being no blame if it exists in a place where it is not treated with glorification, this is because of the hadith of Aisha that the Messenger removed the curtain in which there was a picture when it was elevated, and he leaned upon the elbow while there was a picture therein. And due to the hadith of Abu Hurayra in which Jibril said to the Messenger: “And command the curtain to be cut off and to be made of it two pillows to be leaned on” which indicates that the prohibition is confined upon placing the picture in a place when there is glorification for it, nor is it focussed upon possessing it.

As for placing the picture in a place wherein it is treated with glorification being disliked not forbidden, this is because the prohibition which came in the ahadith was not linked to any connotation indicating decisiveness like a threat against the possessor of the picture or censuring him or the like, as it came in drawing; rather it came merely demanding to leave (it). There came other hadith prohibiting possessing statues and permitting possessing the embroidered picture i.e. the traced one, which is considered a connotation that the prohibition is not decisive. In the hadith of Abu Talha in Muslim with the words: “I heard the Messenger of Allah (SAW) saying: ‘The angels do not enter a house in which there is a dog or picture” and in the narration via a way narrated by Muslim that he said: “…except (raqm) drawing upon a garment (thawb).” This indicates the exclusion of the embroidered picture in the garment and its meaning is that the angels enter the house in which there is a carving image embroidered upon a garment i.e. a picture traced/drawn in sketching. If this hadith is linked to the other prohibiting ahadith, it would be a connotation that the demand to leave is not decisive, so possessing the picture in a place where it is treated with glorification is disliked not forbidden.

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September 24, 2008
Votes: +1

ubs said:

	assalam o alaikum i hv seen the photographs of meeting at kenya.my objection is that if have introduced ur self as an islamic party,then u should first prove how u have supposed such unnecesary photography is halal.....
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September 23, 2008
Votes: +0

Sayeed said:

	Assalamualikum, It made us really happy here in India to see Brother Andullah, Taji Mustafa and other speakers at the Kenya Conf. Mash'Allah the audience appears all ears to the talks being delivered. Allah help our brother in Kenya and other parts of the World as well to generate awareness of the Just Political System "Khilafah" which Allah (swt) has set for us-Ameen! ...Sayeed
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September 22, 2008
Votes: +1

Ahmed AL-habshye said:

“Absolutely fantastic, this event to occurred in the region, [mash-Allah] Indeed to all (H-T) organizers in Kenya*****, I was fascinated to capture those image and people gathering to commemorate the destruction of Islamic khulafat, Wabillahi taoufiq inshallah. Hope the message will spread and reaching to all Muslim in east Africa and it will reunite them and Islamic scholars from different races to join the framework and to establish khilafah” Amen inshaalah…

To representors of this event next conference include{ Article at site for you're riders)

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August 28, 2008
Votes: +8

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