As salam `alaykum wa rahmatu Allah, I`ve a specific question regarding children`s clothing. Is it permissible for the parents to buy clothes for a newborn baby that has images on it? These images are usually cartoon characters, characters from different movies or popular animal characters such as Donald Duck etc. It is very hard to find clothes with just cars or other non-living things in the market. We would appreciate a detailed answer with ample references. May Allah swt reward you for your continued efforts. Also, if it is permissible for us to buy such clothes for children, when should we stop i.e. when should they stop wearing normal clothes without such images? Jazakum Allahu Khairan for your help! Was salam `alaikum

Assalamu ‘alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh

Yes, it is allowable to have images on children’s clothes, as well as toys. Yet, I would advise against those with popular cartoon characters, since they may get the children – not newborns – attached to them, which may later have undesirable ramifications.
In general pictures are of the following types:

1- Pictorial imaging of creatures that have souls: and this is absolutely prohibited by the consensus of the Shari`ah scholars of Fiqh:
- Abdullah Ben Mas`oud, may Allah be content with him, narrated that the prophet, prayers and peace of Allah be upon him, said that: “The extremely tortured people on the Day of Judgment are the image makers”.
- Ibn Abbas, may Allah be content with both of them, narrated that the prophet, prayers and peace of Allah be upon him, said that: “Whoever makes an image, Allah will torture him until he blows into it, i.e. the soul, and he is never blowing into it”. (Reported by Al-Termizi).
2- Drawing the creatures that have souls by hand on paper or cloth or on any other material: and the majority of the shari`ah scholars of Fiqh make it, which is correct, prohibited, because it is considered as imaging that is meant for imitating what Allah has created. And some Shari`ah scholars allow it.
3- Photographic pictures: which are mostly permissible, unless they are hanged on walls or taken for boasting or show obscenity or anything that is considered as prohibited, because they do not imitate what Allah has created, but they are just capturing the shadow, and hence we do not call them as images.

Toys and images for kids are exempt because of various reports indicating that the companions used to make toys (dolls) out of wool for their children. Reported by al-Bukhari from ‘Aisha and al-Rubaei’ bint Mu’awedh.

Once the child is about 7-10 (based on the child’s development and also gender, for girls may continue to be attached to their dolls longer), you may start to wean them off all of this, and once they reach puberty, they are not children anymore, and the exceptions wouldn’t apply to them.

Allah knows best.