Wages for framing pictures of animate beings

Question

Question: Zayd wants to open a shop for making frames; the frames will be of glass. Many people will have diplomas, certificates, pictures of buildings, floral patterns, gardens, rivers and the like framed in them. But what needs to be asked is this: when Zayd starts this work, many Muslims and non-Muslims will bring pictures of animate beings and ask him to frame them. The question now is: may Zayd frame them or not?

Answer

Making a picture of an animate being is haram and a major sin; framing it for a wage does not fall under this ruling — rather, there is a lightening in it. Yet in it there is, to some extent (fi al-jumla), a reinforcement and honouring of a haram thing as well, therefore it is makruh, and there is dislike (karaha) in the wage for it.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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