Short answer
No, drawing in general is not haram. Drawing landscapes, buildings, plants, patterns and calligraphy is permitted. In the Hanafi school, drawing a complete person or animal with its face is not allowed. Drawing them without a head or with the face left blank, or only a part such as a hand, is permitted.
Drawing or painting a complete living being with its face is haram. Things without a soul, and living beings drawn without a head or face so that they could not live, are permitted.
Other madhhabs
- Maliki
- A well-known Maliki view holds flat drawings of living beings to be makruh (disliked) rather than haram, and limits the clear prohibition to statues with a shadow.
Explanation
A painter once came to Ibn Abbas and said he earned his living by making pictures. Ibn Abbas told him what he had heard from the Prophet ﷺ: whoever makes an image will be punished until he breathes a soul into it, and he never will. Then Ibn Abbas advised him to draw trees and anything without a soul. This is the basis of the Hanafi ruling.
In another hadith, Jibril told the Prophet ﷺ to have the head of a statue cut off so that it would become like a tree. From this the Hanafi scholars took the rule that an image without a head, or with the face blanked out, is no longer a forbidden image. So a faceless figure, a silhouette from behind, or a hand or eye on its own is allowed.
Common questions:
- Digital art and drawing tablets: drawing with a stylus is still drawing, so the same rules apply.
- Cartoons and comics of people or animals: fall under the prohibition when they show complete faces.
- School art tasks: ask for a landscape, still life or pattern option. Many teachers accept it.
- Young children: they carry no sin. Parents can gently steer them towards nature, patterns and faceless figures as they grow.
Muslim artists have a rich heritage to draw on: calligraphy, geometric design, illumination (the gold borders of old Qurans), architecture and landscapes. None of it needs a single face.
The evidence
Sahih al-Bukhari 2225
Sahih... من صور صورة فإن الله معذبه حتى ينفخ فيها الروح ...
"Whoever makes an image, Allah will punish him until he breathes a soul into it."
Making images of beings with a soul is forbidden, and Ibn Abbas applied it to painting.
Sunan Abi Dawud 4158
Graded sahih... فمر برأس التمثال الذي في البيت يقطع فيصير كهيئة الشجرة ...
"Order the head of the statue in the house to be cut off, so that it becomes like the shape of a tree."
An image without a head is no longer a forbidden image.
Where the ruling is recorded
- Radd al-Muhtar (Ibn Abidin), Kitab al-Salah, chapter on what is disliked in prayer. An image whose head is removed or erased is not a forbidden image.
- Fath al-Bari (Ibn Hajar), Kitab al-Libas, chapters on images. Explains the hadiths on image-making and the differences among the schools.
This answer is pending review by the scholars on our team. Quran translation by Sahih International. Hadith Arabic from the standard editions of the six books and the Muwatta, with gradings as recorded there; the English is our own rendering. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.