Is drawing people and animals haram?

Why the scholars prohibit it

The prohibition rests on a set of authentic narrations that the scholars read together. The Prophet ﷺ warned of a severe punishment for those who make images of living things, and the reason given is that they are attempting to imitate Allah's act of creation.

"The people who make these images will be punished on the Day of Resurrection. It will be said to them: 'Give life to what you have created.'"— Sahih Muslim 2107

Shaykh Ibn Baz, in his fatwa on drawing and photography, cites this along with the narration that the most severely punished people on the Day of Resurrection are the image-makers who imitate Allah's creation, and the narration that every image-maker is in the Fire. He explains that the scholars have interpreted these texts as referring specifically to images of living beings — livestock, humans and birds.

Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen adds a point that closes an easy loophole. Some people assume the prohibition applies only to three-dimensional statues, not to flat drawings. He rejects that: creation is of two kinds, bodily and descriptive, and a drawn image is a descriptive creation. The Prophet's ﷺ curse of the image-makers is general, and it covers both the sculpted and the merely coloured image.

What makes a drawing fall under the ruling

The ruling attaches to a complete, connected living form. Everything else follows from that.

• It must be a full body: a complete human or animal figure is what the texts address.
• The face must be recognisable: if the head is unclear, or the drawing has no eyes, nose or mouth, it does not enter the prohibited category.
• The deficiency must be one life cannot survive: a figure missing its head, its chest or its belly is not considered an image at all. A figure missing only a mouth is not in this category — the mouth is like an eye or a hand, and the scholars explicitly prohibited drawing an animal lacking those.
• It makes no difference what it is drawn on: the Permanent Committee was asked whether drawing living beings on a bedsheet, a plate or a carpet is permitted, and answered that it is prohibited on all of them.
• It makes no difference why: IslamWeb notes there is no distinction between drawing for affection, for veneration or for profit.
• Imaginary creatures are included: a horse with wings, or a cow with a beak, still falls under the prohibition, because it is a living form even if nothing like it exists.

The exception for children's drawings

A widely reported concession exists for drawings made for children. IslamWeb states that many scholars exclude from the prohibition what is drawn for children to entertain and teach them, drawing on the licence established in the Sunnah for girls' dolls. On this basis, drawing such pictures for children is permitted, and hanging them up for their education is permitted too.

The same source recommends a practical safeguard: if the drawing serves a purpose such as teaching children, replace the eyes with circles and the nose and mouth with lines, so that the image no longer resembles Allah's creation. Another fatwa notes that cartoon images are permitted when they encourage virtue and teach Islamic manners.

When necessity permits it

Shaykh Ibn Baz carves out a further exception: what genuine necessity requires. He gives the example of drawing the images of criminals so they can be identified and caught, or the photograph required for an identity document that a person cannot obtain otherwise — he is excused because he needs it. He grounds this in the Qur'anic principle that Allah has detailed what is forbidden except what you are compelled to.

"While He has explained in detail to you what He has forbidden you, excepting that to which you are compelled."— Qur'an 6:119

What this means for you

If you draw people or animals, the safest course is to draw them incomplete in a way that life could not continue — no head, or no body — or to avoid faces altogether. If your drawing is for children, the concession is available, and making the figures incomplete or stylised keeps you clear of the disagreement. Drawing landscapes, plants, objects and machines raises no issue at all.

Key takeaways

• Drawing a complete human or animal figure is not permitted; this is the majority position and the one the Permanent Committee, Ibn Baz and Ibn Uthaymeen hold.
• Drawing what has no soul — trees, mountains, vehicles — is permitted without restriction.
• A figure missing its head, chest or belly is not covered by the prohibition; a figure missing only a mouth still is.
• Drawings made for children to teach and entertain them are permitted by many scholars, especially if the figures are incomplete or stylised.
• Necessity — such as an identity photograph or images of criminals for identification — lifts the prohibition to the extent required.

Further reading

• Shaykh Ibn Baz, Fatawa Nur 'ala al-Darb
• Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen, Fatawa Nur 'ala al-Darb
• Ibn Qudamah, al-Mughni

And Allah knows best.