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Is it permissible to make animated films with characters of vegetables, fruits, plants, and trees, giving them sensory features close to humans? Is the female voice, the mixing of genders, and the lack of commitment to the Islamic hijab in these films forbidden? Do they mock creation? What is the ruling on sound effects in them? If the maker is not reassured, does it fall into the forbidden? Is the maker sinful because it wastes children's time and teaches them imagination?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

It is permissible to draw animate beings in their complete form for the production of purposeful cartoon films. Placing eyes, noses, and other senses, or adding fictional elements like planets or birds made of vegetables, is not considered forbidden mockery.

As for placing female voices in cartoon films, it is not forbidden, because a woman's voice is not considered 'awrah (intimate part), and the films are directed at children. Likewise, the absence of women wearing the legal hijab, their traveling alone, and their mixing with males in cartoons is not forbidden and does not teach children incorrect concepts, as children do not need women to be veiled from them.

Regarding sound effects, if they are not melodious or do not increase in melodiousness beyond the sound of the tambourine (duff), then there is no harm in using them.

And not being reassured by the fatwa due to obsessive doubts has no effect and should not be paid attention to. If a person wishes to abandon the production of cartoon films out of piety due to doubt regarding their prohibition, then precaution is legitimate and its scope is wide, as Ibn Taymiyyah said: "The legitimate piety is abstaining from what one fears its consequences, which is what is known to be forbidden, and what is doubted to be forbidden, and there is no greater harm in abandoning it than in doing it." And Sufyan al-Thawri said: "I have not seen anything easier than piety; what causes doubt in your soul, abandon it."

Finally, wasting children's time and teaching them imagination does not necessitate sin.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

Read the full answer on Ftawy