Presenter:
Additionally, there is a set of questions that we received via the internet or through… that is to say, many internet users employ what are called expressive faces. Of course, they refer to them… yes, they refer to them as “faces” (al-feesaat) or what is termed “faces.” Thus, is the use of such expressions permissible or not?
Shaykh Dr. Khalid Al-Muslih:
That is, they are closely analogous to circles—yes, akin to the sun or similar shapes—wherein a smile is placed, or teeth are drawn, and eyes are rendered… This is not a prohibited image (surah muharramah). It is not a prohibited image, so there is no harm in using it. I do not know of this belonging to prohibited images—neither in drawing nor in usage. This is because that which is prohibited is the drawing of that which possesses life, whereas these possess no life.
Furthermore, these are closely analogous to imaginary forms (as-suwar al-takhayyuliyyah), and imaginary forms do not belong to the prohibited category.
I previously asked our teacher, Muhammad ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may Allah have mercy upon him), regarding imaginary forms that have no real-world reality—for example, if I were to draw eyes on this cup or the like—and he (may Allah have mercy upon him) used to state that this does not fall under prohibited image-making (at-tasweer al-muharram).
End of the answer.
Shaykh Dr. Khalid ibn ʿAbdullāh al-Muṣliḥ (b. 1385 AH / 1965 CE, Makkah) is a Professor of Fiqh at the College of Sharīʿah, Qassim University, and a member of the Saudi Iftāʾ establishment. He is one of the most prominent senior students of Shaykh Ibn ʿUthaymeen (raḥimahullāh) — studying under him for many years and serving as one of the very few scholars personally appointed by the Shaykh to deliver fatwa and teach in his stead. His connection is deeper still: he is Ibn ʿUthaymeen’s son-in-law, having married the Shaykh’s eldest daughter in 1987. He sits at the head of major fatwa programs (such as Yastaftūnak on Al-Resalah TV), supervises numerous Islamic knowledge institutions, and is widely regarded as one of the leading transmitters of Ibn ʿUthaymeen’s scholarly legacy today.