Fatwa ID: 02424

Answered by: Ustaadha Bint Salih.

Question:

AsslamAlaykum,
I have gone through some hadith about pictures and statues/dolls etc.
Broadly they are forbidden as it comes under imitating the creativity of the Lord.
I’d like to ask two main things here:-
1.)Picture of living things is haram, can a picture of dead body be halaal or not?
2.)In case of need to teach someone it is better to show them pictures of how it is done. Example if someone has to teach where to inject IV solution in the body it can be best demonstrated by using picture followed by real practical.
I hope you have understood my point, based on this is picture making permissible.
Best Regards
MK

Answer

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

To keep pictures of the deceased is not permissible. Although the deceased will not be sinful.

With regards to your second question, there are two scenarios to the situation. The first is drawing animated pictures.
Saaiduna Ibn Umar  has reported that the Prophet of Allah  has said, "Those who draw pictures will be punished on the Day of Resurrection; and it will be said to them: “Breathe soul into what you have created.”
(Sahih Bukhari p.880 v.2)

The second scenario is to draw non-living pictures.
Saaiduna Ibn Abbas has said, I heard the Prophet of Allah saying, “Every painter will go to Hell, and for every portrait he has made, there will be appointed one who will chastise him in Hell.” Saaiduna Ibn Abbas said: If you have to do it, draw pictures of trees and other inanimate things.
(Sahih Bukhari p.296 v.1)

Imam Haskafi in his Durrul Mukhtar has said: “ If an animal is so small that the details of their limbs are not apparent to someone who looks down at them standing while they are on the ground, as Halabi has mentioned, (or with their head or face cut off) or with an organ effaced out that the body cannot live without.”
(Raddul Muhtar p.418 v.2)

To conclude, drawing an outline of the human body, without detailed features or drawing a particular part of a human body is permissible as long as one is doing it for a valid purpose ie education. But without reason, one should not even do this.

Only Allah knows best.

Ustaadha Bint Salih.          

Checked and approved by Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah

Darul Ifta Birmingham