#318: Ruling on taking Pictures with Phone
QUESTION
“As-Salaamu Alaykum. What is the ruling on taking pictures with one’s phone (but not for necessity) since snapping picture is wrong in Islam …Jazakumullahu khayran”
ANSWER
Wa alaykum Salam Warahmatullaah Wabarakaatuh.
Alhamdulillah.
As for digital pictures like the forms it comes with on Modern Phones, the Ulama have held two different positions.
– That it is permissible without restrictions as long as it does not involve extravagancy, self-conceit, and taking pictures of things which are Harām to see. The rule is that whatever is not allowed to be seen with the naked eye is not allowed to be snapped as a picture.
This is the position of the majority of the Ulama who saw its invention. Of them are Shaykh Muhammad Al-Amīn Ash-Shanqītī, Allāmah Āshūr, Abū Al-Hasan Al-Kattānī Al-Maghribī, Muhammad Al-Hasan Ad-Dadu, and many others.
Of these Ulama are those that permit its printing unrestrictedly and of them are those that permit its printing only for necessity.
– That it is permissible for ONLY the purposes of identification and memory. This is the position of most of the Ulama in the Arabian Peninsula and some of the earlier Students of Knowledge of the Modern Salafi Movement. It is the position of Shaykh Muhammad Nāsiruddīn Al-Albānī – rahimahullah.
Our position, and the position which holds more weight from what has reached us of the evidences is that there is nothing wrong in digital pictures provided they are not extravagant, not leading to self-conceit or arrogance, not containing pictures of what should not be seen with the eyes, and do not lead to any harm in the Dunya or the Ākhirah. We however do not see the permissibility of printing such images unless by way of necessity as is necessary in modern means of identification.
This position we have held is what is held by majority of the Ulama today and is based on the weakness of the premise around which the Scholars that hold its unrestricted impermissibility built their arguments.
We will – Allah willing – present a detailed treatise containing evidences for and against each of these positions in due, and share them on this platform.
Answered by Abu Aasim
13th Dhul Qa’adah 1438 A. H
Bārakallāhu Fīkum
Jazākumullāhu Khayran
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