the position of al-Thawrī, Mālik, Abū Hanīfa, and others. Some of the early scholars said: ‘Only images with a shadow are prohibited; there is nothing wrong with images that have no shadow!’ This is an invalid position. No one doubts that the image on the curtain to which the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, objected was condemned, even though it cast no shadow. This is also shown by the remaining hadiths, whose wording applies without qualification to every image.…”
135—(Muslim narrated from Zayd ibn Khālid al-Juhanī, from Abū Talha al-Ansārī, who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say: “The angels do not enter a house containing a dog or images.” Zayd then went to Aisha and said: “This man tells me that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: ‘The angels do not enter a house containing a dog or images.’ Did you hear the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, mention that?” She replied: “No… But I shall tell you what I saw him do. I saw him depart on one of his campaigns, so I took a patterned cloth and hung it over the doorway. When he returned and saw the cloth, I recognized displeasure on his face. He pulled it—the patterned cloth—until he tore or cut it down, and said: ‘Allah has not commanded us to clothe stones and clay!!’ She said: “So we cut it into two cushions and stuffed them with palm fiber, and he did not fault me for that.”)
p. 107
Authentic, apart from Aisha’s reply, “No,” for it is anomalous or objectionable. Muslim transmitted it (6/157–158), as did Abū Awāna in his Mustakhraj (8/252/2–1/259), al-Rūyānī in his Musnad (q. 1/181), and al-Haytham ibn Kulayb in his Musnad (q. 2/124), by way of Suhayl ibn Abī Sālih, from Saīd ibn Yasār, Abū al-Hubāb, the client of Banū al-Najjār, from Zayd ibn Khālid al-Juhanī, with the same report.
I say: This is a good chain of transmission. However, al-Hāfiz said of Suhayl ibn Abī Sālih in al-Taqrīb: “Truthful, though his memory deteriorated toward the end of his life. Al-Bukhārī narrated from him when paired with another narrator and in suspended form.” Al-Dhahabī also included him in al-Duafā and said: “Trustworthy. Ibn Maīn said: ‘He is not strong.’”
I say: In this hadith of his, I found objectionable the words: “Did you hear the Messenger of Allah