i have found out that taking pictures of humans is haram, some of my family members have photographs of me and i plan to tell them to get rid their photographs as they are haram, the people that i am certain have photos of me i shall tell them to get rid of their photos, but i have some other friends and i dont know if they have photos of me or not, what should i do? should i ask them if they have photos of me (if they say yes i will tell them to get rid of photographs that they have) or should i just leave it because i dont know if they have photos of me or not - they might have photographs of me or they moght not i honestly dont know if they do. what should i do in this case? thanks

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

There is a difference of opinion among the contemporary scholars about the ruling of photographic pictures; some permitted it and some prohibited it. However, in order to be on the safe side and avoid the difference of opinion, it is better to avoid photographic pictures; for more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 87765.

Therefore, you should ask whomever you are sure or you predominantly think that he/she has a picture of you to tear it off or give it to you to tear it off. Rather, you should endeavor to do so if your picture was taken while exposing your ‘Awrah (parts of the body that must be covered in Islam) or that you know that it will fall in the hands of a man who is not permitted to look at it because he is a non-Mahram to you.

However, if you are just doubting whether or not someone has a picture of you, then you should not worry about this.

We gave you the above answer on the basis that those friends are female friends, but if you mean male friends, then it is not permissible for a Muslim woman to have a friendly relationship with a non-Mahram man or to give him her picture. For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 81356.

Allaah Knows best.