Taking Bay‘ah from a Spiritual Guide Who Commits Major Sins

Question

Zayd decorates his houses with photographs and pictorial ornaments and considers this permissible; and in taking disciples he observes no restriction of religion or community — he takes as disciples Muslims, Hindus, Christians, and Parsis without inviting them to Islam and without making them repent, and considers this way of acting permissible; he listens to the singing of courtesans, and also listens to ghazals and songs on the radio; he is not observant of congregational prayer — precisely at the time of…

Answer

Photographing that which has a soul (a living being) and decorating a house with it is haram. It is related from ‘Abdullah ibn Mas‘ud ﵁: “I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: ‘The people most severely punished by Allah will be the image-makers (musawwirun)’” (agreed upon, al-Bukhari and Muslim). However, there is no harm in depicting trees and the like which have no soul.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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