A Muslim is urged to consume only lawful earnings and keenly seek lawful means of earning a living; a body that has been nourished with what is unlawful deserves to be thrown into Hellfire, as the Prophet ﷺ said. In this hadeeth, the Taabi’ee (a Muslim who saw at least one of the Companions)Sa’eed ibn Abee Al-Hassan related that a man went to ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Abbaas (may Allah be pleased with them), asking him about the lawfulness of his profession through which he earned a living, and he used to make statues and images. Ibn ‘Abbaas (may Allah be pleased with them) told him that he would only answer him with what he had heard from the Prophet ﷺ, 'Whoever makes an image will be punished by Allah till he brings it back to life, and he will never be able to do so!’ Allah, Exalted is He, will command the makers of statues and images, to bring back to life the animated beings in their images and statues. These image makers will be punished until they do as commanded, and obviously, they would never be able to bring them back to life! Thus, they would continue to receive such punishment endlessly. Upon hearing that, the man heaved a sigh and his face turned pale, out of fear of such severe punishment. Thereupon, Ibn ‘Abbaas (may Allah be pleased with them) said to him, ‘What a pity!’ The Arabic word used in the hadeeth is ‘Wayhaka,’ which literally means ‘Woe to you’, and may be translated as ‘What a pity’ or ‘May Allah be Merciful to you.’ It was commonly used to remark on a situation of a person who inadvertently incurs a disaster. He (may Allah be pleased with them) added: “If you insist on taking image-making as a profession, I advise you to make images of trees and any other unanimated objects,” for making such images is permissible. It is deduced from the hadeeth that it is prohibited to make images of animated things and take it as a profession to earn a living. .