Islamic Seminary Calls Photography a Sin

Islamic Seminary Calls Photography a Sin

According to the Hindustan Times the Darul Uloom, India's leading Islamic seminary, has issued a ruling that "photography is unlawful and a sin." The ruling came from an authority at the seminary after an engineering student requested to pursue a career in photography because it was something he was passionate about doing.

"Photography is un-Islamic. Muslims are not allowed to get their photos clicked unless it is for an identity card or for making a passport." - Mufti Abdul Qasim Nomani, Vice Chancellor of Darul Uloom Deoband. India Muslim Law Personal Board member Mufti Abul Irfan Qadri Razzaqi also agreed with Nomani's fatwa when he added, "Islam forbids photographing of humans and animals. Whoever does that will be answerable to God."

When the reporter pressed them about the issue highlighting the fact that those in Saudi Arabia practice photography Razzaqi answered, "Just because they are richer than us doesn't mean they are also correct. If they are allowing photography they will be answerable on the Day of Judgement in the court of God."

Will this change the way Muslim people start to view photography? If you practice Islam, I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

I wonder what the plans are for the photo gallery on the Darul Uloom's seminary website.
Fstoppers---Islamic-Seminary-Rules-Photography-a-Sin-1

Update: This morning the rector of the influential Islamic seminary, Abul Qasim Nomani, has said, “Darul Uloom does not have powers to ban anything. It is the government that has such powers. Our fatwa department simply issues religious advice when its views are voluntarily sought by an individual for his or her own personal use." He however said Islam did not permit idol or image worship, which is why the Prophet did not allow his portrait to be made. This is why images of human beings, whether in the form of a drawing or photograph, are not encouraged. “But there is no ban from our side,” he said. According to Hindustan Times he refused to directly comment one way or the other on whether photography was un-Islamic.

Image credit: Dave Geffin - [Via PetaPixel]

Trevor Dayley's picture

Trevor Dayley (www.trevordayley.com) was named as one of the Top 100 Wedding Photographers in the US in 2014 by Brandsmash. His award-winning wedding photos have been published in numerous places including Grace Ormonde. He and his wife have been married for 15 years and together they have six kids.

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174 Comments
Previous comments

Oklahoma city bombing. White guy. American. Yes we need more reasons to judge a whole society.

can you please stop you american blahblah.
you sound liek a broken record.
get some education... there is a whole world out there.
not everyone here lives in your sick society.

are you saying im ignorant for not judging people based off of race or religion?

I'm a Muslim and i will practice photography as i want to and i don't need anyone to tell me what's wrong and what's right, i have a mind of my own and i can think and decide...With all due respect, those Muftees trying to make religion a lot harder that is really is. They made it hard for themselves and they want everybody else to live like them otherwise, we're going to hell (according to them) ! well i guess the good thing it's not their call, not their decision. It's god's decision.

there is no god.. only LEICA!!

I'm hate religion as a whole...But thank you for using your own views as a way to live life and not live it by something written in a book or dictated to you by some religious extremest

I am a satanist.
I take pictures of muslims whenever i want.
I paint Mohammed caricatures all day. He is such a funny bearded fellow.
It´s my good right to do all that and more.
If someone wants to live under the weight of strict rules it´s ok for me.
But don´t force them on me or you will have to live with the echo.

sad day for humanity, all around.. all this judgement is absolutely disgusting. Fstoppers asked for a discussion, from people who practice Islam, not a bunch of everything hating humans. thanks to the two people who have given their input, as practicers. it's a bummer I had to read through all the terrible and judging comments to get to the two I wanted to read. how devastating is it that there is so much hate on the Fstoppers comment forum, let alone, in the world?! we're not getting anywhere, because of this hate. so much for intelligent conversation..

yeah blame it on the fstoppers not the terrorist.

libertards have forgotten 9.11 years ago.

Nobody has forgotten 9/11. It is a day we will all remember. What we are trying to point out is that every class of people will have extremist. It doesn't matter where you are from or what you believe. But you can't let a small minority of extremists represent the beliefs and morals of the larger whole. If that were the case we would all be called terrorists.

was there something about 9/11 on fstoppers i missed yesterday?
i see people in this thread speak about FUNDAMENTALISTS and FANATIC MUSLIMS.. sounds like they know the difference.

Thank you Drew. I absolutely agree with you.

no point in discusiing here.. the gestapo is deleting comments.....

Everything is the devil to you, Mama! Well, I like school, and I like football! And I'm gonna keep doin' them both because they make me feel good! And by the way, Mama. Alligators are ornery 'cause of their "medulla oblongata"! And I like Vicki, and she like me back! And she showed me her boobies and I like them too! And Photography too!

LMAOL!!!

You sir deserve some quality H2O

When will the "west" learn there is no getting along with these people?

At the end of the day, you can still choose to do photography or not. This decision of forbidding photography is minuscule to all the other things wrong in the Muslim world. As a Muslim, I am embarrassed that this is a highlight of our announcements to the world.

My only message to the general public is do not take the Muslims you see on tv as an example for the Muslims as a whole. its like seeing the westboro baptist church and thinking all Christians are like that. This is not a fair judgement.

My intention is to look at everyone as human beings before defining them by race, religion, social status but rather as individuals.

If you want to speak more or if I can help shed more light on this issue please email me at:
E5CQrK5EZNP2@meltmail.com.

Thanks Guys!

People get heated when you talk about religion so I'm not going to talk about it... So how about that new iPhone.

It's evil! LOL

Welcome to the 9th century. Continue to stay an inferior people and the west will remain superior.

Thanks for posting Trevor. I'd like to share my thoughts on the issue since you asked for it. The debate about photography being a sin is not a new thing. I have family members in Saudi Arabia who many years ago when I was a kid used to criticize me for drawing, painting, watching TV, taking photos. They used to cover their faces and dodge my camera pointing at them like Neo of the Matrix. But those were the very conservative ones sort to speak and I'm sure they exist in cultures and backgrounds including Christians and Jews . You should checkout this entry from Strobist about what happened to NYC's Philip-Lorca diCorcia when he photographed an Orthodox Jew).

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2011/05/sidewalk-art.html

http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2006/03/19/street-photography-and-the-...

I also have relatives there that were conservative but used to encourage me about my hobbies including figure drawing.

Back to the main issue of being it a sin or not. Well, in the Quran itself nothing states explicitly that painting or whatever you do to imitate human form is forbidden (you can grab a translated copy and check for yourself). However, worshiping idols is forbidden, be it a statue, icon, person, priest, singer). The whole idea is that only God should be worshiped, not Mary, Mohammad, Jesus, Moses. So you shouldn't bow to an artwork or statue of someone done by a person and pray to it thinking it will heal you. In Islamic culture and art, if you studied it, you will notice there aren't much paintings with humans or statues. Mostly it was architecture, patterns, calligraphy. That's because before Islam, the pagans were worshiping everything icons, statues, etc. So to prevent people from doing the same, those things were later avoided even if people weren't worshiping them anymore in fear that the later generations might think they were holy and start the idol worshiping again.

So to make a long story short, I'm a Muslim and photography is not a sin. And the sheikhs, muftis or whoever can say whatever they wan't. No one has authority or powers over anyone to decide what's right or wrong. And if someone says something..always ask them to give you their reasons and evidence (that's what I learned in school). Just like guns, you can kill a criminal with it or you can kill an innocent person with it. It is you doing the good or bad thing, not your gun. It is just a tool. So it all depends on your intention. Photography or videography are no different. A camera is a camera. You can use them for art or documentation or you can use them for smutty stuff ;-). Being a sin or not it's really up to you to decide, you are all grown ups now. Hope that helps and as the great Carlin said "Thou shall keep thy religion to thy self"

Thanks again Trevor. Love those posts that turn into a nikonrumors comment section a month before a major nikon release of a camera that has 0.0003769 faster fps than canon :D

Okay... and cutting heads off Christians and Jews is not a sin. Talk about confused people.

Oh great! It's against the religion to click the shutter on a camera but it's okay to click the button on your suicide vest. You can't photograph humans or animals but you can blow up thousands. What a bunch of crap! But we should be tolerant and smile and say "welcome it's okay that you want to kill all of us who don't think the way you do." Sorry, I don't think so! I wonder why this was posted today and not yesterday? Oh yeah yesterday was 9/11.

Muslims are not monolithic in thought or any other sense. I've heard this rationale from other muslims before. The Prophet Muhammad did not allow depictions of himself because he didn't want anyone to idolize or worship him, only God. It's a human tendency to deify those who are held in high religious esteem.

There's a strong aversion to any type of idol worship in Islam or anything that may lead to idol worship. Some have come to the conclusion that any images of humans and animals can lead to or is a form of idol worship. I happen to not agree with that nor do many other Muslims.

It's disturbing, though not surprising, to hear some of the comments here referring to "they" and "them" as to make blanket judgements about over one billion people. Some Muslims think photography is a sin, most do not. So what!

Being in a group, any group, makes you a target for prejudice and assault. It's just very human to generalise, but it's also the source of much pain.

That's true but we can all be separated into one group or another. We cause trouble when we fail to see the most important group-human beings.

I Hate religion...Plain and simple, Its just ridiculous to believe in such things now a days..

Its called science people, get with the times!
Just because you don't believe in a made up god, does not mean you're not a good person
And just because your religion justifies you, does not mean you're a good person by following the laws of that said religion..

Science is not the opposite of Religion; it does not exist to oppose it.

No, it just disprove the idiotic notion of it..

The idiotic notion of belief? Or of Religion? Or of God? It can't disprove any of these things, it acknowledges the first two,the second is inherent. Also, are you a scientist? Not that you need to be, but what experiment did you carry out to determine that Religion is idiotic, and why does the development of civilization not support your findings? It happened and it's still happening.

Rape and violence are pretty bad things. I think Religion is right back at the queue of what Science needs to rectify through discovery - and way behind intolerance.

None of this changes anything.

Why was my comment deleted?? Am I not aloud to have an opinion??

I didn't say I hate people of a certain creed or religion... I said I hate religion as a whole, and believe that people should expand their damn minds and understanding of the way the universe works through SCIENCE
And that being religious does not make you a good person, just like not being religious does not make you a bad person!!

i am an indian, who cares what is group said. even the leader of this group dont remember tomorrow what he said today. we love photography, its one of the 64 kinds of art ancient india figured.

Excellent news! More clients for us infidels. :D

Bawhahhahah!!

Just another reason Islam is fucking stupid.

99% of news is very much the tail wagging the dog. The same can be said of understanding.

Tolerance starts here.

because muslims are soooo tolerant....
ROTFLMAO

do a REALITY CHECK...!

If you say something, and someone who does not agree with you does not like it, or if someone who does agree with you does like it, in essence isn't it a pointless thing? Pointless like putting a note inside a pack of bread saying 'Do you like bread?'

It seems that talking ABOUT something very much takes a back seat to talking about our prejudices, our self, thus making the internet an arm wrestling match where the winner takes nothing but a sprained wrist. It only serves to inform, and inform falsely. The worst examples of anything are not a very good cross section.

So do you like bread?

the problem with western people nowadays regarding Islam is they don't know the reality of it. their knowledge about Islam is what they get from the biased western medias showing bad, unintelligent, and barbaric image of muslims, and they simply believe those medias. what some muslim muftis in India said is their opinion. in Islam, since long long time ago, there are always many contradictions between the scholars regarding many issues and it's okay. everyone follows what they believe.

for your information, one of the earliest inventors of photography was Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), an Iraqi muslim scientist, more than a thousand years ago. he was also the first to describe the camera obscura. visit http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=forgotten-history-musli...

I have no problem with that statement, as religious leaders they are free to interpret the laws as they see fit. I do not have a problem with the statement "Whoever does that will be answerable to God.” If I were Muslim, I would take the chance that god will not judge me too harshly because I shot some photographs... As long as people still have the freedom to practice photography if that is their wish, i have little issue with this.

There are a lot of things many other religions are restricted from doing, are we going to judge them all for that or just the Muslims? Muslims are prohibited from drinking alcoholic beverages, I don't see anyone complaining about that...

Just wondering whereabouts he found that info in the Koran?

Well, at least we know that if they get their way, they'll make really lousy spies.

Am I the only one who is confused the headline picture is of Buddah?

Assalamoualaikum ( Peace be upon you people of every religion )

Am a Muslim and am a photographer too.
Please check this video to better understand why they say its prohibited or allowed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr1ts15SULI

have a nice day

BIlaal Sadeer

good video, it at least clarifies some the doubts regarding this debatable topic.

Honestly, fanatics in any religion, whether Muslim, Christian, or others should be shunned and ignored. Bigotry is not a one way street. I think if anything, we should be more like this soldier in this movie. THIS is the America I believe in, where we respect each other's right to practice their religion without fear and hatred.

http://www.upworthy.com/a-boy-makes-anti-muslim-comments-in-front-of-an-...

im from switzerland.. i think we all should eat more cheese.

Depicting anything that has soul is prohibited in Islam, be it human or animal. Apart from these anything else is lawful.

With the level of manipulation and retouching that is possible with photos, it is like playing god. Changing the creation of God in Islam is prohibited.

Thanks to whistleblowers and wikileak we are getting a clearer image of who are the bloodthirsty warmongers.

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