Photoshopping pictures of animate and inanimate beings
22-6-2017 | IslamWeb
Question:
Assalaamu alaykom wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuhu. I want to make a website where people use pictures and Photoshop them and sell the final image pictures of nature, animals, objects, etc., but not people. Is Photoshop halal or haram? My question is the following: Allah created life and earth and created imaginations in peoples mind, so is it halal to photoshop a picture to meet that imagination, like by making the sky pink? It is an imagination that Allah created in that person mind, so is it halal? And is it halal when it might make someone wish that the sky was pink and the sun was blue? And is it haram for one to wish that? Also, when editing in Photoshop, is it regarded as lying to make some things different from the original? If it is considered lying, would it still be haram if I added the word 'photoshopped' in it to inform the people seeing it that it was photoshopped? Please do not refer me to other fatwas. May Allah reward you.
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
First of all, you should know that contemporary scholars held different views regarding the ruling on taking pictures of animate beings; there is a strong view that it is forbidden. The scholars who allowed it, such as Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen 
justified it by saying that it is mere reflection of the image of a person without the photographer's intervention with adjustments and the like. It is known that Photoshop is a means of intervention by adjusting parts of the picture with additions or deletions. Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen said, "In our present time, the photographer does not make the image with his own hands; rather, he uses an apparatus (camera) that captures the reflection of what is in front of it, whether it is a person, an animal, a tree, or anything else, so the image is imprinted inside it. The photographer has no hand in planning it or designing its eyes, lips, nose, etc..." [Liqaa' Al-Baab Al-Maftooh]
There is no harm in photoshopping images of inanimate things, such as the sky, earth, trees, mountains, and the like. Changing their real color, for instance, as an expression of imagination is not considered lying at all because the person who changed it does not claim that this is their original color.
Also, it is permissible to wish for the impossible, as stated by scholars; they used the following hadeeth as evidence: Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him, narrated that the Prophet, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said, "Were it not for fear of burdening my followers (beyond their capacity), I would have certainly never remained behind any Sariyyah (army-unit) setting out in the cause of Allah, and I would have loved to be killed in the cause of Allah and then live and then be killed and then live and then be killed." [Al-Bukhaari and Muslim]
Allah knows best.