Assalaam moe alykoem I have read Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradhawi's ruling on photography as totally permissible. Kindly comment on this. Shukran

All praise be to Allah, and may His blessings and peace be on the final messenger, Muhammad,

Firstly, it is important to keep in mind that commenting on a fatwa of a scholar regarding a controversial matter should never be seen as an attack on him or his authority. It is just the nature of controversial issues. Muslims are also not absolutely bound by the statement of anyone short of the Prophet himself (blessings and peace be upon him).

The default is that any pictures of animate objects, whether two dimensional or three dimensional, are haram to make, own or sell. Of the exceptions from this default is photography, however, the exception applies to photographs that are not hung, openly presented or featured, but rather kept for memories or circulated for some benefit. This is because the effective cause behind the prohibition of pictures is two pronged, with the first pertaining to the making and the second to the use. Hand drawing requires human effort and skill, so the attempt at the emulation of Allah’s creation is obvious there. This is not the same, though, with regard to photographs. Therefore, if the use of photographs will be permissible, without the chance of worship, glorification or rumination of negative feelings, etc, then – I believe – they would be permissible. That is still a matter of controversy, but this is what I believe to be stronger.

Allah knows best.