and the one who pays it; the two witnesses who attest to it; and the scribe who records it between the usurers. All of these are cursed on the tongue of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.

That said, if you see someone dealing in usury, you must not say to him in particular, “May Allah curse you.” Rather, you may state it in general terms: “May Allah curse the consumer of ribā, its payer, its two witnesses, and its scribe,” for there is a difference between cursing in the abstract and cursing a specific individual. General condemnation is permissible, while singling out a person is not.

It is likewise authentically established that he ﷺ cursed the image-makers—but not every type of image-maker. What is intended is the one who depicts a being that possesses a soul. If someone produces an image of anything endowed with life—a human being, a monkey, a lion, a wolf, an insect, and the like—this is forbidden to him; indeed, such a person is cursed according to the Prophet’s words. You may therefore say, “O Allah, curse the image-makers,” but you must not say, “Curse So-and-so,” even if he is engaged in making images, because that would be naming a particular person, and individual cursing is impermissible.

The images that are prohibited are those resembling statues: a person shapes dough, plaster, gypsum, or any other material into the likeness of a human or an animal—this is unlawful. Depicting trees and similar inanimate objects, however, is unobjectionable according to the preponderant view held by the majority of scholars. Moreover, portraying man-made objects is unquestionably permissible, such as drawing a car, a train, and the like.

The scholars—may Allah have mercy on them—differed regarding pictorial representation by coloring, that is, drawing or painting on paper, cloth, and similar media. Some maintained that it is allowable, citing the ḥadīth of Zayd ibn Khālid al-Juhanī, in which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “The angels do not enter a house that contains an image except…"