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Does hanging pictures of people on walls affect the validity of prayer and the recitation of the Qur'an?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

If necessity dictates hanging illustrative pictures, they must be headless or have their features blurred. If they are not, officials should be advised to remove them or blur the faces, especially if they are in the direction of the mihrab, because it is disliked to pray facing pictures or anything that distracts. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, had a "qiram" (a patterned curtain) belonging to Aisha, with which she had covered a side of her house. He said, "Remove this qiram of yours from us, for its images keep appearing to me in my prayer." It is disliked to pray towards a garment with pictures or anything distracting, but the prayer remains valid despite the dislike.

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

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