the scholars before him understood, as I explained in The Etiquette of Marriage (p. 119). As for the author—may Allah preserve him—he confused the two matters, treating them as one and interpreting the aforementioned statement of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, as referring to curtains bearing images. On that basis, he cited it as evidence that hanging images is merely disliked, rather than prohibited! He paid no attention either to the significance of tearing down the curtain, which I mentioned above, or to the unrestricted wording of the Prophet’s statement, peace and blessings be upon him: “Allah has not commanded us…” This means that he sees nothing objectionable in covering walls with curtains that bear no images. Consequently, he attributed to one of the leading scholars something he did not say—indeed, something contrary to what he said. Thus, immediately after the hadith, he wrote:

“No more may be inferred from the hadith than that covering walls and the like with curtains bearing images is disliked, but not prohibited. Al-Nawawī said: ‘There is nothing in the hadith that entails prohibition, for the literal meaning of the wording is that Allah has not commanded us to do so. This indicates that it is neither obligatory nor recommended, but does not entail that it is prohibited.’”

I say: Al-Nawawī said this only regarding the other matter—namely, covering walls with curtains—not regarding images. His statement concerning images explicitly declares them prohibited, and I cited his words on this under hadith (134). He reaffirmed this in his commentary on the present hadith, distinguishing between the two matters and explicitly declaring the first prohibited and the second merely disliked. He said:

“Her words, ‘He tore it down,’ mean that he cut it and destroyed the image upon it. The narrations mentioned after this one explicitly state that the curtain bore images of winged horses and that there was an image upon it. This serves as evidence for removing wrongdoing by hand, tearing down prohibited images, and becoming angry upon seeing wrongdoing.

“As for the statement of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, when he pulled down the curtain and removed it—‘Allah has not commanded us to clothe stones and clay’—scholars cited it as evidence that covering walls and decorating houses with fabrics should be avoided. This avoidance denotes dislike, not prohibition. This is the correct view. Shaykh Abū al-Fath Nasr al-Maqdisī, one of our scholars, held that it is prohibited. Yet there is nothing in this hadith that entails its prohibition, for the literal meaning of the wording is that Allah Most High has not commanded us to do so…”