I have to draw a lot for school it has become a requirement, and it requires me to draw people at many points. I read in a website that it is lawful to draw living beings provided that one leaves out a vital part of that creature, for example: drawing a person without their ear, a horse without its head, and etc. Is that halal? Can I draw a living being without its vital organ making it so that it is not living altogether?
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
(Fatwa: 331/312/N=03/1435)
The main part of a picture is head. Shariah does not consider a picture without head so it is not haram as it is narrated by Hadhrat of Abu Hurairah (رضي الله عنه) in شرح معانى الآثار (كتاب الكراهة، باب الصور تكون فى الشباب 2:366 مطبوعه مكتبه رحيميه ديوبند) and in another Hadith narrated by Hadhrat Abdullah ibn Abbas (رضي الله عنه) with the reference of Mojam al-Ismaili in كنز العمال (404:15 ، حديث نمبر: 41574 مطبوعه مؤسسة الرسالة بيروت), hence it is lawful to take the photograph without face and it is not lawful with face. (For details: see Jawahir al-Fiqh, 7:252-256, published Maktaba Darul Uloom Karachi).
Allah knows Best!
Darul Ifta,
Darul Uloom Deoband