The Ruling on Statues Placed in the House for Decoration
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Q: What is the ruling on statues placed in homes solely for decoration and not for worship?
A: It is not permissible to hang images or display taxidermied animals in homes, offices, or gathering places; due to the generality of the authentic hadiths from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) indicating the prohibition of hanging pictures and erecting statues in houses and elsewhere; because that is a means to shirk (associating partners with Allah), and because it involves imitating the creation of Allah and resembling the enemies of Allah, and because displaying taxidermied animals involves wasting money, resembling the enemies of Allah, and opening the door to hanging depicted statues.
The complete Islamic Shari'ah has come with blocking the means (sadd al-dhara'i') that lead to shirk (associating partners with Allah) or sins. Shirk occurred among the people of Noah due to the depiction of five righteous men of their time and the erection of their images in their gathering places, as Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) clarified in His clear Book, where He said: [Surah Nuh: 23-24]. Therefore, it is obligatory to be cautious of imitating these people in their reprehensible deed, which led to shirk.
It is authentic from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said to 'Ali ibn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) :Riyad as-Salihin 1687 Muslim narrated it in his Sahih. And he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Sahih Muslim 2109a It is agreed upon that it is authentic. The hadiths on this matter are numerous, and success is from Allah.
A: It is not permissible to hang images or display taxidermied animals in homes, offices, or gathering places; due to the generality of the authentic hadiths from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) indicating the prohibition of hanging pictures and erecting statues in houses and elsewhere; because that is a means to shirk (associating partners with Allah), and because it involves imitating the creation of Allah and resembling the enemies of Allah, and because displaying taxidermied animals involves wasting money, resembling the enemies of Allah, and opening the door to hanging depicted statues.
The complete Islamic Shari'ah has come with blocking the means (sadd al-dhara'i') that lead to shirk (associating partners with Allah) or sins. Shirk occurred among the people of Noah due to the depiction of five righteous men of their time and the erection of their images in their gathering places, as Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) clarified in His clear Book, where He said:
(23) And said, 'Never leave your gods and never leave Wadd or Suwa' or Yaghuth and Ya'uq and Nasr. (24) And already they have misled many.
وَقَالُوا لا تَذَرُنَّ آلِهَتَكُمْ وَلا تَذَرُنَّ وَدًّا وَلا سُوَاعًا وَلا يَغُوثَ وَيَعُوقَ وَنَسْرًا وَقَدْ أَضَلُّوا كثيراIt is authentic from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said to 'Ali ibn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) :
Spare no portrait unwiped out, and leave not a high grave unlevelled.
ألا تدع صورة إلا طمستها، ولا قبرًا مشرفًا إلا سويتهthe most grievously tormented people on the Day of Resurrection would be the painters of pictures
أشد الناس عذابا يوم القيامة المصورون
Source
binbaz.org.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.