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Is it permissible to draw imaginary beings such as ghosts and multi-eyed creatures, or beings with features different from humans?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The jurists have unanimously agreed that the prohibition of depicting animate beings includes all images, even if they are imaginary and have no real-life counterpart, such as depicting a human with wings or a cow with a beak. They based their ruling on the hadith of Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her. Al-Mawardi held that there are two views regarding the prohibition of depicting an animal that has no seen counterpart: one is prohibition, which is the stricter view because it involves innovation in Allah's creation, and the other is non-prohibition. The relied-upon view is prohibition. Al-Ramli mentioned the prohibition of depicting an animal, even if no such creature has been seen, such as a human with a wing.

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

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