Making 3D cakes of animated cartoon figures

21-1-2014 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalam o alaikum I am writing this email to have an answer to a question which is very important for me and a quick response would be highly appreciated. Me and my wife, we are running a small business from our home. We make customized designed cakes in various shapes. These are called “fondant cakes” and can be made in any shape and sometimes, parents ask us to make cakes for their children in the shape of “cartoon character” or “doll shaped cakes” for girls. Recently we have been thinking about the fact that in Islam, making pictures is prohibited and this is also like making pictures but it is more like a 3D picture as the cake is in the 3D form and not like a picture drawn on the paper. We just received an order from a mother who wants to make a cake for her little son in the shape of a car. This car is actually a “Disney cartoon character” called “Mc. Queen”, you can see the image on internet. Actually It is a car that has a smiling face and eyes. It is permissible to makes these cakes for children? As we have various ahadith in which we can see that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) allowed Hazrat Aisha (R.A) to play with dolls and among them was a horse with wings that she had made. Therefore, please guide us in the light of Qur’an and Sunnah that making such cakes for children in the shape of cartoon character or dolls is halal or haram? If it is haram, we are willing to quit making cakes in the shape of cartoon character or dolls and we will just limit to those cakes which doesn’t have an image making involved in it. Please keep the above hadith in view when making the answer. May Allah reward you for solving our problem. Thanks & regards.

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His Slave and Messenger.

If this cake is made in the shape of an image of a living being that is especially made for children, then it is permissible to do so, as a group of scholars excluded that which is made for children from the forbidden statue-making. However, there is no doubt that it is better to avoid making anything with a soul as long as possible.

For more benefit, please refer to Fataawa 87266 and 92512.

Allaah Knows best.