What is the ruling on portraying disbelievers and the Companions in dramatic performances?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : The questioner asks: Is it permissible for a Muslim to portray disbelievers, such as Abu Lahab and Abu Jahl, at one time, and a Companion at another?
The Shaykh : This issue requires research, because some people hold that there is nothing wrong with this acting, as it is a realistic depiction of what happened, just as a mistake is a verbal depiction of what happened. It does not appear to us that people are not conveying this, because if one portrays a disbeliever, he has imitated him, and if he portrays a Companion, he may not be in a position where he can be a representative of a Companion. Safety from this is safer, and as for the opinion of prohibition, it does not appear to me that it is forbidden.
The Shaykh : This issue requires research, because some people hold that there is nothing wrong with this acting, as it is a realistic depiction of what happened, just as a mistake is a verbal depiction of what happened. It does not appear to us that people are not conveying this, because if one portrays a disbeliever, he has imitated him, and if he portrays a Companion, he may not be in a position where he can be a representative of a Companion. Safety from this is safer, and as for the opinion of prohibition, it does not appear to me that it is forbidden.
Source
دروس وفتاوى المسجد الحرام لعام 1402هـ - 12 — binothaimeen.net (1:06:37)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.