Title: "In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful" Asalamo Alykum, Please give a complete legal verdict with complete references with respect to photography, film-making and television. Is it okay to photoshoot and videoshoot for magazines and documentaries which does not include people or animals? Also, what about news journalism, where one may shoot a rally crowd or a mass of dead people in a blast and blurr their faces in order to avoid the sin of shooting images? Wsalam.

Question: "In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful" Asalamo Alykum, Please give a complete legal verdict with complete references with respect to photography, film-making and television. Is it okay to photoshoot and videoshoot for magazines and documentaries which does not include people or animals? Also, what about news journalism, where one may shoot a rally crowd or a mass of dead people in a blast and blurr their faces in order to avoid the sin of shooting images? Wsalam.

Answer ID: 12384Posted on: Sep 1, 2020

Bismillah hir-Rahman nir-Rahim !

(Fatwa: 746/746=M/1430)

It is not prohibited to take photographs of non-living being for magazine and documentary. Having photographed a living being, if the face is blurred to an extent that the lines and parts of face disappear, or the head was removed, it will not be regarded an unlawful picture, but it will be sinful to take photograph if it is taken without a valid reason.