Is Drawing Allowed in Islam?

First of all, we have to distinguish between the two types of “Drawing”. One is drawing pictures of animated beings, which are strictly prohibited in Islam. Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) said: The most severely punished of people on the day of Resurrection will be the image-makers, those who tried to imitate creation of ALLAH.

Inanimate pictures is the second type of drawing. For example: making trees, mountains, etc. There is no sin in making these drawings.

Drawing pictures of people, animals are prohibited in Islam. It is just like you are duplicating those great creations of ALLAH. There are many reasons why sketching/drawing is not allowed in Islam? First of all, One of the name of ALLAH is Al-Musawwir which means the giver of form, shape and color. It means that only ALLAH has the power of creating human-beings. Another reason is that Angels of ALLAH hate pictures and dogs. They hate it only because ALLAH hates them, too. Pictures are unnecessary embellishments of this world. Thousands of crimes are done including those that range in between immodesty and pornography.

This is a controversial topic. Some people say that if drawing pictures is haram then the following things should be also haram (prohibited).

• Every single book, newspaper as it has drawings of animated objects.
• Embroidery and sewing of birds, dolls and butterflies.
• Making toys.
• Computer and Video games with people or even with cartoons.
• Photography

So here are the answers for everyone:

Said the Prophet’s wife `A’ishah (may Allah be pleased with her): I used to play with dolls in the house of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be on him) and my friends would come over to play with me. They would hide when they saw the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) approaching, but he was in fact very happy to see them with me, and so we played together. (by al-Bukhari and Muslim).

So it is clear that making toys and playing with dolls especially for children is not prohibited. It is acceptable. If pictures are drawn on textbooks just to explain things to the students, then it is fine. Similarly, Human and animal models can be made for scientific research, as well. Pictures taken for ID card or passport are also acceptable.

Some people have drawing skills and they put all their efforts in sketching and drawing. I would recommend them to use their creativity in calligraphy as it is also a very beautiful form of art. Conclusively, drawing images of Human beings and animals are strictly prohibited and Haraam. It is a very complex topic, but people should study Quran and Hadith to clear their doubts about Drawing images.

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