Professional photography

13-6-2005 | IslamWeb

Question:

A friend of mine is now a Muslim and is a professional photographer? Can you tell something about it?

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Answer:

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.

One has to know about a few things first:
1) If the pictures are of living beings such as humans and beasts. (Having bodily form) they are prohibited, according to all the scholars of Islam.
2) If they are the pictures of non-living beings such as oceans, trees, mountains, they are permissible, regardless, embodied, photographed or not. There is a consensus on that.
3) Permissibility of photographing living beings such as humans or animals is a point of disagreement among contemporary scholars. Some say it is prohibited, owing to generalization of the evidence that prevents picture-making. As the Prophet says: 'The angels do not enter the house in which there is dog or a picture'. [Reported by Imams Bukhari and Muslim]. He also says: 'Verily, the picture-makers will be punished on Resurrection Day, and they will be asked to bring the thing they made to life.' [Reported by Imams Bukhari and Muslim].
His word 'The people of pictures' also means 'the photographers'. And he also says: 'The photographer is one who will be the most severely punished'. [Reported by Imam Muslim]
A few other scholars bent to the permissibility of the photography. They argue that the reason in the prohibition is resemblance to the creation of Allah. And the picture taken/photographed by the machine is the same thing created by Allah and not its resemblance.
It is, however, known that a Muslim ought to avoid photography as a profession. At the same time we warn you that all the scholars agree that the photography of naked women, or private parts of man and woman, that need to be covered at any case, or the sensitive/provocative organs of the women etc., is not permissible. We also bring to your notice that those who rule its prohibition, however, allow taking photographs when one is forced to do so, like the photos for ID cards, travel permits, etc., which are required.

Allah Knows best.