Pictures Are Evil Hadith

Haters mention a hadith which they claim shows that the Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) said pictures were evil. They try to make it a joke & use it against Muslims, The Hadith they are refering to is from Sahih Bukhari: Volume 4, Book 54, Number 539, also note that This hadith also mentions about Dogs, which i have refuted in a separate article which you can find in the Hadith section of this website. 

Sahih Bukhari: Volume 4, Book 54, Number 539:
Narrated Abu Talha:
The Prophet said, 'Angels do not enter a house which has either a dog or a picture in it'

Response

First of all, back 1500 years ago pictures were simular to statues, they required a lot of work and money to produce. They glorify people and elevate them. This can be bad because it could turn into an idol worship like we seen in Iran with Ayatollahs. This is the reason the prophet Did not let anybody put any kind of images in Mosques, or to even have his picture replicated. Because worship and praise belongs to Allah only.

Also you should know that pictures 1500 years ago were drawn by hand, and it was very difficult to produce painting colors, and it would cost alot of money. This money and effort could be spent on feeding the poor as the Quran states in Surah 5:89

Photographs taken on digital camera's today are not forbidden, because they don't take alot of effort to produce. These pictures are usually just to remember family or loved ones, so this is not forbiden. However statues of a person and spending long months trying to create color paints (which was difficult to produce colors 1500 years ago, especially in the limited natural sources of the desert), and then spend long days or weeks trying to draw a picture and paint it was forbidden back then. If you notice the hadith it only says Angels do not enter a house with a picture in it, there is no explicit ruling, its just reccomended. No statement in the Quran says pictures or drawing is forbidden.

It was a waste of time and money to do this 1500 years ago in Arabia. A person could spend that money and the sources in Praying to Allah, or providing for his family or even feeding the poor.