Q: What is the ruling on hanging pictures in homes or elsewhere?
A: Praise be to Allah alone. To proceed:
The ruling is that it is prohibited if the pictures depict beings with souls, whether human or otherwise. This is based on the statement of the Prophet to ‘Ali : “Do not leave any image without defacing it, nor any elevated grave without leveling it,” as narrated by Muslim in his Sahih. It is also based on what is authentically reported from ‘A’isha – may Allah be pleased with her – that she had hung a curtain with images on a cupboard. When the Prophet saw it, he tore it down, his face changed, and he said: “O ‘A’isha, the people who make these images will be punished on the Day of Judgment. It will be said to them: Give life to what you have created.” This hadith is reported by Muslim and others.
However, if the image is on an item that is regularly stepped on or used, like a rug or a pillow that is leaned on, then there is no harm in that. This is based on the narration that the Prophet had an appointment with Jibreel (Gabriel), and when Jibreel arrived, he refrained from entering the house. The Prophet asked him why, and he replied: “There is a statue in the house, a curtain with images, and a dog.”
The Prophet was instructed to remove the head of the statue, make the curtain into two cushions placed on the ground to be used, and to remove the dog. The Prophet did so, and then Jibreel entered.
This hadith was reported by al-Nasa’i and others with a good chain of narration. It was mentioned that the dog was a puppy belonging to al-Hasan or al-Husayn and was under a piece of furniture in the house. It is also authentically reported that the Prophet said: “Angels do not enter a house in which there is a picture or a dog,” agreed upon by al-Bukhari and Muslim.
The story of Jibreel indicates that images on rugs and similar items do not prevent the angels from entering. Likewise, it is authentically reported in Sahih that ‘A’isha – may Allah be pleased with her – turned that curtain into a cushion that the Prophet would use to lean on.
