Can I Create Cartoon Characters from Objects and Imaginary Forms for an Educational Game?

Answered by Shaykh Irshaad Sedick

Question

I want to develop an engaging educational online game and create characters that capture the audience’s attention. I know drawing animated life is a serious matter, so I am weighing three approaches: characters built from everyday objects with dots for eyes that act and speak with human personalities; entirely imaginary creatures that do not exist in reality, like Pikachu; or a human figure with no head, replaced by a television, that still has a personality.

Are any of these permissible to draw, and is there a safer way to give characters emotion and personality? Please provide evidence.

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate.

Yes. All three approaches you describe are permissible to draw. They are two-dimensional images, and the forms you propose either depict objects rather than complete living beings or leave the living form incomplete, so they fall outside the warning that concerns competing with the creation of Allah (Most High).

The Ruling on Depicting Animate Life

Depicting animate life in various ways is an issue about which scholars have differed. Making pictures of complete animate life is counted among the major sins (kaba’ir) [Dhahabi, Kitab al-Kaba’ir]

The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) said: “Every maker of pictures will go to the Fire, where a being will be set upon him for each picture he made, to torment him in Hell.” [Bukhari]

He (Allah bless him and give him peace) also said: “Whoever makes an image shall be required on the Last Day to breathe a spirit into it, but will never be able to do so.” [ibid.]

And he (Allah bless him and give him peace) said: “Those who make images will be punished on the Day of Resurrection, and it will be said to them: ‘Bring to life that which you have created.’” [Bukhari; Muslim]

The thread running through these reports is plain. The sin attaches to imitating and competing with the creation of Allah (Most High) by producing the complete form of a living being.

Two-Dimensional and Three-Dimensional Images

The scholars agreed that three-dimensional images are impermissible. They differed over two-dimensional images. Some Shafi‘i scholars, such as Khattabi, and the Maliki scholars regarded two-dimensional images as permissible [al-Mawsu‘a al-Fiqhiyya]. If one follows the view that two-dimensional images are permissible, one must not show reverence to the image. When our mother, Aisha (Allah be pleased with her), showed reverence to a curtain bearing images of horses, the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) removed it and used it as a doormat. [Muslim]

Even on the stricter view that two-dimensional images are impermissible, outlining a body without detailed features is permitted, and drawing a face without its details, such as the eyes, is also permitted. Many scholars regard the depiction of images with incomplete features, having no nose, eyes, or neck, as lawful, so their makers are not included in the warning, because these pictures are not competing with the creation of Allah (Most High) [al-Mawsu‘a al-Fiqhiyya; Ibn Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar]. Such pictures are permissible to draw, and this applies to all non-detailed images, even of living beings.

Applying This to Your Characters

Your game characters are drawn, two-dimensional images, not three-dimensional models, so the agreed prohibition on three-dimensional figures does not touch them.

The first approach, characters built from everyday objects with dots for eyes, is permissible. An object is not a living being to begin with, and giving it two dots for eyes does not turn it into the complete form of a creature. This is among the safest options.

The third approach, a human figure with a television in place of the head, is likewise permissible. It is an incomplete human form with no face or head, which the scholars expressly allow, since it does not compete with the creation of Allah (Most High).

The second approach, an imaginary creature that exists nowhere in reality, is permissible as a two-dimensional drawing on the relied-upon lenient view, and a creature with no counterpart among Allah’s creation is not an imitation of His creation. If you wish to stand on the firmest ground, keep its features incomplete or simplified, and it is then lawful even by the stricter view.

As for the personalities and emotions, these are carried by how the character speaks, moves, and behaves, not by the drawing itself, and so they raise no issue at all.

Keep your characters two-dimensional and avoid producing them as three-dimensional models, toys, or statues. Favor forms that are objects, incomplete, or stylized over the complete, detailed face and body of a human or animal.

Do not treat the characters with any reverence. Direct the whole project to its beneficial, educational purpose, and there is no harm in it, in sha Allah.

And Allah knows best.
[Shaykh] Irshaad Sedick
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

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2. Are Illustrations of Animate Objects with Incomplete Limbs Permissible? — A ruling confirming that images of living beings with incomplete features are permissible to draw, since they do not compete with the creation of Allah Most High.
3. What Is the Ruling on Graphic Designing and Posting Digital Drawings of People? — Guidance on when digital drawings of animate beings are impermissible and how keeping features incomplete or non-detailed brings them within the bounds of what is allowed.
4. Is Creating Stop-Motion Animations with Toys Permissible in Islam? — A ruling on object-based animation confirming that using toys or objects without detailed facial features for creative and educational content is permissible within Islamic boundaries.

Shaykh Irshaad Sedick was raised in South Africa in a traditional Muslim family. He graduated from Dar al-Ulum al-Arabiyyah al-Islamiyyah in Strand, Western Cape, under the guidance of the late world-renowned scholar Shaykh Taha Karaan (Allah have mercy on him), who taught there.

Shaykh Irshaad received Ijaza from many luminaries of the Islamic world, including Shaykh Taha Karaan, Shaykh Muhammad Awama, Shaykh Muhammad Hasan Hitu, and Mawlana Abdul Hafeez Makki, among others.

He is the author of the text “The Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal: A Hujjah or not?” He has been the Director of the Discover Islam Center and, for 6 years, the Khatib of Masjid Ar-Rashideen in Mowbray, Cape Town.

Shaykh Irshaad has 15 years of teaching experience at some of Cape Town’s leading Islamic institutes. He is currently building an Islamic podcast, education, and media platform called ‘Isnad Academy’ and has completed his Master’s degree in the study of Islam at the University of Johannesburg. He has a keen interest in healthy Prophetic living and fitness.