Question:

What is the ruling on speaking on the internet through video where each person sees the picture of the other? Does this fall into picture making?

Answer:

“If the picture appears inside the device and produces a result similar to a picture, then yes. In most cases it is. Otherwise, what is it that transmits your picture to him and his picture to you? You rely on a camera which takes your picture to him and his picture to you. And this is not a type of mirror, for example, from here to a country 1000 kilometers away. It is not a mirror. It is relying on a camera taking a picture. Therefore it is picture-making if it uses a camera”

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Translator’s Note:

Shaikh Muqbil bin Haadi al-Wadi’ee (may Allah have mercy upon him) wrote: “So like this, know that pictures which spread in the newspapers, magazines, telephones, videos, and other than that from the modern devices (1) are prohibited…

(1): Whether it is a telephone or video or cinema or video phone or devices which provide live feed in arenas or university lecture halls or video surveillance devices ”

[Hukum Tasweer Dhawaat ul-Arwaah (pg. 26)]

Translated by

Faisal bin Abdul Qaadir bin Hassan
Abu Sulaymaan