What Is the Ruling on Emojis and Photographs?
Hanafi Fiqh
Answered by Shaykh Abdul-Rahim Reasat
Question
How do rulings on images of animate beings apply to AI-generated images, photographs, emojis, and everyday items like keychains, stickers, and clothing? Is there a distinction between items where images are primary versus items where images are incidental, such as textbooks or packaging?
Answer
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful and Compassionate.
The impermissibility of images centers on drawing or making them, especially by hand. The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said: “Every image maker will be in the Hellfire.” [Bukhari; Muslim]
This refers to detailed images of living beings. It also applies to images intended to honor and revere someone, such as portraits. However, drawing other living things—such as plant life—is permissible. Drawing things without detailed features, such as silhouettes or stick figures, is also permissible. [Ibn ‘Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar]
Drawing images to facilitate education and learning is permissible when necessary. Such images in children’s educational materials are an effective teaching tool. Moreover, there is no honor involved in images given to children who may bite, tear, or throw them on the ground.
Using images such as emojis or a cat image is permissible. However, if images show a person’s body parts that must remain covered, displaying such images is sinful.
Praying with a detailed image in one’s presence is disliked to varying degrees depending on its positioning. An exception applies if the image is not in an honored position—for example, a tiger on a rug where you stand while praying. There is no honor in this situation. [Shurunbulali, Maraqi al-Falah]
May Allah grant you the best of both worlds.
And Allah knows best.
[Shaykh] Abdul-Rahim Reasat
Related Answers
- What Is the Ruling on Taking Pictures and Drawing Animate Objects? — The Hanafi baseline on photographs and drawings of living beings.
- Is It Halal to Earn From AI Generated Female Images and Horror Videos? — Guidance on AI-generated images and their ruling based on what they depict.
- Are Illustrations of Animate Objects with Incomplete Limbs Permissible? — Clarification on the incomplete-features allowance and how it applies to emojis and stylized images.
- What Is the Ruling on Praying in Clothes with Images? — The ruling when wearing or praying near everyday items that bear images.
Shaykh Abdul-Rahim Reasat began studying Arabic Grammar and Morphology whilst studying for a degree in English and History. After graduating, He traveled to Damascus and studied Arabic, Hanafi Fiqh, Usul al-Fiqh, Theology, and Logic with Shaykh Adnan Darwish, Shaykh ‘Abd al-Rahman Arjan al-Binsawi, Shaykh Husayn Darwish, Shaykh Muhammad Darwish, the late Shaykh Rashad Shams, and others. He then moved to Amman to continue his studies in those fields, as well as in Tafsir, Quranic Sciences, Hadith Methodology and Commentary, Prophetic Biography, Prophetic Perfections and Traits, Rhetoric, Arabic Literature, and Tajwid. His teachers include Shaykh Ali Hani, Dr. Hamza al-Bakri, Dr Salah Abu al-Hajj, Dr Mansur Abu Zina, Shaykh Ahmad Hasanat, Shaykh Ahmad Jammal, and others.
