Photographs in text books

Praise be to Allah.

On the subject of photographs, please refer to question # 365. Know, my sister, that we should be careful about pictures of animate beings, lest we do something that has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger. I wonder what urgent need there can be for putting pictures of Muslims in children's books. If we want to make the books attractive to them, there are plenty of colours, advanced methods of printing and pictures of inanimate objects such as trees, flowers, cars, houses etc., which can be used instead of pictures of animate beings. As for useful books which we need to keep at home, like reference books and dictionaries that may contain pictures that are difficult to erase, we can keep them as long as we blot out any pictures on the cover. Whatever does not need to be kept, like newspapers, should be disposed of after reading.

As for the book "Al-Halaal wa'l-Haraam fi'l-Islam," the author was very lenient in a number of issues, may Allah forgive him. Some scholars have written refutations of this book, such as Shaykh Saaleh al-Fawzaan, who wrote Al-I'laam bi naqd kitaab al-halaal wa'l-haraam fi'l-Islaam. We ask Allah to guide us to the truth in those issues concerning which there are differences of opinion, for He guides whom He will to the Straight Path.