Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Are we allowed to take photos or not? I am confused as on the one hand I hear from certain people that if you take photos on the day of judgement you cannot enter jannat until you put soul into that photo and as only Allah swt can do that then you are doomed. On the other hand I see ‘very pious people’ openly taking photos and have seen photos of shuyukhs?
Walaikum assalam,
There is difference of opinion. You can find my position by going to the Hanafi list’s page, http://www.sunnipath.com and searching for “photo”
The religiously more precautionary position is that one should NOT take photos of human or animal forms, and that they are essentially the same, in terms of prohibition, as painted depictions. But, because of the legitimate difference of opinion between scholars of the sunni path, we do not condemn or look down on those we do.
The position of I have learned, including from Sh. Nuh Keller, is that Allah would not punish people for following recognized qualified scholars, even if they turned out to be “wrong.”
Wassalam,
Faraz Rabbani