in Hell. Ibn ʿAbbās added, “If you must do something, then fashion trees and whatever has no soul.” Agreed upon.

[Commentary]
The author—may Allah have mercy on him—states in Riyāḍ al-Ṣāliḥīn, under the chapter “What has been reported about image-makers,” that severe warnings have come regarding this matter. He cites the ḥadiths of Ibn ʿUmar, ʿĀʾishah, and Ibn ʿAbbās (Allah be pleased with them). Image-making falls into two categories:

1. A unanimously prohibited form: creating a three-dimensional statue of any being that possesses a soul, whether from wood, stone, clay, plaster, or the like. If it is shaped as an animal or a human—such as a lion, a rabbit, a monkey, or anything similar—it is categorically forbidden. Its maker is cursed by the tongue of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and will be punished on the Day of Resurrection, when it will be said to him, “Give life to what you have created.” In the ḥadith of Ibn ʿAbbās it is also said, “Every image-maker is in the Fire … If you must do it, then make images of trees and of things that have no soul.”

2. The second category is depicting what has no soul, such as trees, the sun, the moon, the stars, rivers, mountains, and the like. This is permissible. Yet regarding what grows, like plants, some scholars—among them Mujāhid, one of the renowned Successors—did not allow it, saying, “Whatever grows is not lawful to depict, even though it has no soul,” because, as the ḥadith states