Hanging pictures to make a shop appear to be a non-Muslim’s

Question

Question: In a press all kinds of work are done — calligraphy and printing in Urdu, Hindi and English. The shops stand side by side: in one shop the Qur’an is pasted on the wall, and in the other shop pictures are hung. They were hung for the reason that Hindu, non-Muslim customers do not come: taking it for a Muslim shop, they turn back. In this sense, if the pictures remain hanging on the wall, is there any harm in it according to the Shariʿa?

Answer

Drawing (literally, “writing”) a picture of an animate being and hanging it is forbidden; and hanging it with the intention that onlookers should not think that it is a Muslim’s shop is very dangerous — it is as though one were making one’s own shop appear to be the shop of a non-Muslim.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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