Assallamo Alikum Warahmatullahi Wabarkatahu, I wanted an explanation of the Ayah 13 of Surah Saba[34:13]. A person I know seems to mistranslate it and use it as an excuse for image making and claims The Quran says it ok. My conscience strongly disagrees but I wanted a scholars explanation for it. JazakAllah kher.

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

Allaah Says (what means): {They made for him what he willed of elevated chambers, statues, bowls like reservoirs, and stationary kettles. [We said], “Work, O family of David, in gratitude.” And few of My servants are grateful.}[Quran 34:13]

The statues that are mentioned in this verse were possessed by the Prophet Sulaymaan (Solomon) Ibn Daawood (David), may Allaah exalt them mention, to whom Allaah subjected the wind and jinn, so they (the jinn) used to do for him elevated chambers, statues and big bowls, and these statues – as stated by the interpreters of the Quran – were images made of silver and glass. For instance, Al-Baghawi said in his Tafseer (interpretation of the Quran): “They used to do for him statues, i.e. images made of copper, brass, glass and marble. It is said: They used to make images of lions and birds. It is also said that they used to put images of angels, Prophets and pious people in temples so that people would see them, and so, they would increase their acts of worship. It might be that this was lawful in their law, in the same way ‘Eesa (Jesus) used to design from clay images and then he breathes into them and they become birds by the permission of Allaah.”

However, Al-Qurtubi said: “This was abrogated with the Sharee’ah (law) of the Prophet Muhammad .”

Thus, the statement of Al-Qurtubi includes a response to your friend who gives that verse as evidence that taking images [or statues] is permissible; as this was abrogated in the Islamic Sharee’ah.

Moreover, it is confirmed in the texts of the Sunnah that it is forbidden to take images and we clarified this in Fataawa 84617 and 87462.

To conclude, the verse is clear that the jinn used to make for Sulaymaan statues, but giving this verse as evidence that statues are lawful for us is not correct because it is confirmed in the authentic and explicit Sunnah that this is forbidden.

Allaah Knows best.