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Fatwa CenterIt is impermissible to film or spread videos which include prohibited matters
Question
There is a video on YouTube of a student of knowledge, but is not a scholar. The person who filmed him studied the deen, but is not a scholar as well. The person who filmed this video wants to show to the audience a little bit on who's the student of knowledge and it's for halal entertainment. In the video, there are women who are unveiled. These women are a bit far distance from the student of knowledge and the person who filmed this video. However, a person who is watching this can see that these women are unveiled with their hair, arms, feet/leg/ankle. These women facial are not clear cut, but if one tries to look closely at one of the women, they can make it out on how she looks like. One woman passed by them and the person who filmed this video blurred her face along with hair. Is this permissible?
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
It is originally impermissible to film or spread videos including prohibited matters, such as women displaying their adornment, even if this act is done for a good purpose like introducing seekers of knowledge and spreading their knowledge. In truth, the benefit expected from spreading a video for a seeker of knowledge may be realized without filming such women. However, if the benefit cannot be realized except through prohibited acts, we should weigh the benefit versus the corruption, as follows: -"Which of them is greater than the other?" So, if the corruption is greater, filming such videos and spreading them are thus prohibited; otherwise, they would be lawful, and the lesser corruption would be forgiven due to the greater benefit to be realized. This is one of the cases in which an evil deed would be forgiven in order to get a good deed. Sheikh Al-Islaam Ibn Taymiyah 
said, “An evil deed may be committed in two cases: warding off a deed that is of more evil as long as it would not be prevented except through it or realizing a good deed that is more useful than it, taking into account that this good deed cannot be done except in the presence of this evil deed. As for the good deed, it may also be left in two cases: if it would lead to the missing of a more useful good deed or if doing it would lead to committing an evil deed the harm of it is greater than the benefit of the good deed. This is concerning the religious balances.”
As long as the seeker of knowledge mentioned in the question is not a scholar, the benefit expected from filming his sessions and broadcasting them is little if compared to the presence of these women in these videos.
Allah knows best.
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