in their misguidance: Why do you not show them the path of truth and forbid them from this terrible act of shirk, even though you live among them and mix with them?!
Why have you neglected the duty of calling to Allah and clarifying the truth that He imposed on you when He said, “When Allah took a covenant with those who had been given the Scripture: ‘You shall make it clear to the people and not conceal it’” ⦗1⦘?
Are not the scholars the heirs of the prophets, and did not the prophets come to denounce this shirk and to strive against its people until all religion belongs to Allah alone?!
So fear Allah, for He has shouldered you with this responsibility and will question you about it; in an authentic hadith it is reported that the scholar who does not act upon his knowledge is among the first for whom the Fire will be kindled on the Day of Resurrection.
If you deem this practice to be shirk yet leave the people upon it, the matter is grave; and if you do not deem it to be shirk, the matter is even graver, for you have failed to recognize what is among the clearest of truths.
O Allah, rectify the condition of the Muslims and guide those who are astray; truly, You are capable of all things.
- Image-making as a means to shirk
Image-making is the reproduction of a form and its features by drawing, capturing it with a device, or sculpting, then fixing that form onto a panel, a sheet of paper, or as a statue.
The scholars have addressed image-making in works of creed, for it is one of the avenues that lead to shirk and an implicit claim of sharing with Allah in creation—or at least attempting to do so. The very first act of shirk to appear on earth arose through image-making, when the people of Noah portrayed the righteous and set up their images