a decorative motif on a piece of cloth.” They thus explained the exception as referring to a design sketched by hand on paper, on fabric, or the like. The correct view, however, is that this too is impermissible: whether the motif is on cloth or on paper, it is not lawful for you to draw a living image with your own hand.

As for an instantaneous photograph produced by a camera, this is not considered image–making in any respect and therefore does not fall under the Prophet’s statement, “Every image-maker is in the Fire,” for in reality you have drawn nothing—you have not outlined the face, the eyes, the nose, or the mouth. You have merely directed a certain light; when that light meets a body it is imprinted on the paper without your having traced the eyes, the nose, the lips, and the like. This, then, is not taswīr (image-making), nor is it a special concession granted to the person who uses a camera.

Clear evidence for this is readily seen: if you were to write a letter to someone with your own pen and then place it in a photocopier, when copies emerge, are they attributed to the one who pressed the button or to the original writer? Without doubt, to the second. Indeed, anyone can operate the copier—a blind man could set it in motion—so the action is not truly his. What is said, therefore, about the person who takes a photograph is this: if the picture is taken for a forbidden purpose, it becomes forbidden because the means that lead to sin share its ruling; but if it is taken for a lawful purpose, it is permissible, and one may not say that “the photographer is in the Fire.”

A person must therefore distinguish between the act of image-making and the use of an image, just as the scholars have done. In the wording of Zād al-Mustaqniʿ, the well-known fiqh manual, it is stated: “Image-making and its use are both unlawful,” clearly differentiating between producing an image and employing it. Accordingly, we say that a photographic picture does not come under the wording of the ḥadīth on image-making, yet if someone takes a photo with the aim of using it for something forbidden, it becomes unlawful because the means to evil are themselves evil.

There are three groups whom the Messenger of Allah ﷺ cursed:

[Commentary]

1. The woman who adds false hair and the one who requests it.
2. The consumer of ribā, the one who pays it, its two witnesses, and its scribe.
3. The image-makers.

If Allah wills, the remainder of what the author mentions will follow. It is authentically reported that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Allah has cursed the one who alters the boundary markers of the land,” meaning its limits; that he said, “Allah has cursed the thief who steals an egg”; and that he said, “Allah has cursed the one who curses his parents.”

[Commentary]
This chapter, which al-Nawawī—may Allah have mercy on him—placed in Riyāḍ al-Ṣāliḥīn, demonstrates that a curse not directed at a specific individual is permissible. He cited examples of this; three have already passed, and today we take three more. Among them is that the Prophet ﷺ cursed the one who changes the boundary markers of the land—that is, its limits. For instance, a man has a neighbor, yet he encroaches on his neighbor’s property, enlarging his own plot and constricting that of his neighbor. Such a person is accursed; the Prophet ﷺ cursed him. It is also authentically reported from him ﷺ that “whoever unlawfully appropriates a handspan of land, Allah will hang it around his neck on the Day of Resurrection from seven—”