Question:
Assalamualaikum,
I wanted to ask whether it is permissible in Islam to draw realistic sketches of human faces or portraits?If not is it permissible to draw half of the face ?
Jazakallah khair
Answer:
aalaykumussalam warahmatullah,
Two-dimensional portraits are permissible per the hadith of the portraits of Prophets including the Prophet Muḥammad–upon him and them blessings and peace–that were sent to Ādam when he asked to see them, passed down to Mūsā, and ended up with Heraclius was narrated from (i) Jubayr b. Muṭʿim by al-Bukhārī in al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr (Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif ed. 1:179 §545); al-Ṭabarānī, Kabīr (2:128 §1537), Awsaṭ (8:148 §8231); al-Bayhaqī, Dalā’il al-Nubuwwa (1:385); Abū Nuʿaym, Dalā’il (1:49-50 §12); Qiwām al-Sunna al-Taymī, Dalāʾil (3:808-820 §122); Ibn Ẓufar al-Ṣiqillī, Khayr al-Bishar bi-Khayr al-Bashar (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2010) p. 159; (ii) Hishām b. al-ʿĀṣ al-Umawī by al-Bayhaqī, Dalā’il (1:387); Abū Nuʿaym, Dalā’il (1:50-56 §13); al-Taymī, Dalāʾil (3:797-808 §121); Ibn ʿAsākir, Tārīkh Dimashq (40:155, 74:13); (iii) Diḥya b. Khalīfa al-Kalbī by Ibn ʿAsākir (17:210); Ibn Ẓufar, Bishar (p. 157); (iv) Ḥakīm b. Ḥizām al-Asadī by Ibn Ẓufar, Bishar (p. 158-159), all versions cited in whole or part by Ibn Kathīr, (i) Tafsīr, {those who follow the Messenger, the unlettered Prophet whom they found inscribed in what they have, in the Torah and the Gospel} (Aʿrāf 7:157); (ii) Bidāya (Sīra, qiṣṣat ʿAmr b. Murra); (iii) al-Sīra al-Nabawiyya, ed. Muṣṭafā ʿAbd al-Wāḥid, 4 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa) 1:332-333; Muḥ. b. Yūsuf al-Ṣāliḥī, Subul al-Hudā wal-Rashād (1:157-160); and Muḥ. Yūsuf Kāndahlawī in Ḥayāt al-Ṣaḥāba (18: Intifāḍ ghurufāt al-aʿdāʾ bil-tahlīl wal-takbīr; intifāḍ ghurfat Hiraql al-Rūm), cf. Muḥ. Ilyās al-Bārah Bankwī, Sharḥ Ḥayāt al-Ṣaḥāba, 5th ed., 4 vols. (Damascus and Beirut: Dār Ibn Kathīr, 1421/2000) 4:364-370.
Hajj Gibril Haddad
