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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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Students drawing animals in their studies

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Question:
A science teacher in one of the primary schools asks the students to draw some animals in their science notebooks. Is this contrary to the Islamic religion?

Answer:
This is contrary to the Islamic religion, but it is a sin; it is not disbelief. Drawing images is forbidden and reprehensible: images of animals, images of humans, beasts, and birds are not permissible. However, people have been lenient in this matter, and there is no power or strength except with Allah, until it became as if it were permissible because people expanded in this, and drawing became as if it were permissible. It has lost its value in the eyes of people because they have become accustomed to it, and it has become common among them in societies and elsewhere, so it became as if it were something permissible. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) cursed the one who consumes riba (usury or interest) and the one who gives it, and he cursed the image-maker and said:
the most grievously tormented people on the Day of Resurrection would be the painters of picturesأشد الناس عذابًا يوم القيامة المصورون
Sahih Muslim 2109a
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But some scholars interpreted this to mean that the intended images are three-dimensional ones with shadows, such as making them from iron, wood, or such materials in the form of an animal. However, this is a weak and weaker position. The position held by the majority of scholars, and most of them, is that image-making encompasses both three-dimensional images with shadows and non-three-dimensional images that have no shadow, such as the sun, what is in holes, what is on walls, and so on. This is the relied-upon position among the majority. One should avoid this.
Some people offered another interpretation, saying that what is depicted is merely holding the image, like an image in a mirror; it holds it, so he has not drawn it, but rather he has captured Allah’s creation with this camera. They said he has not drawn it. In my view, this is an interpretation with no basis. Therefore, image-making is forbidden whether by camera or without a camera, so it is never appropriate to do that.

Question: I am a science teacher, and then the curriculum is printed like this. For example, I draw the fish so that I draw the thing inside the fish, the digestive system, the circulatory system, the respiratory system, so that we show the student the location of each organ. What is the method?

Answer: One can resort to using cut parts, such as the hand, meaning he teaches him, like a doctor teaches him each organ.

Question: Like frogs?

Answer: It is not permissible to kill frogs, but a carrion, or something whose killing is permissible, such as a fish, he takes it from the water so it dies, like a sheep or a camel, he slaughters it, then he teaches on its parts without drawing, he teaches on its parts, and he draws the parts in pieces so that it does not become a complete image.
Source binbaz.org.sa

The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.

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