Can you please provide a kid-friendly explanation for why we can’t draw human figures, especially eyes? And why we can’t wear clothes or have toys with eyes around us, especially while offering Salah?
Bismillahi Ta’ala
Walaikum Assalam Warahmatullah
It is a great blessing that Allah SWT has placed the desire to address such a matter to your child in order to instill a pious upbringing.
Allah is our creator. Who gave us life, and has been giving us food and other bounties we use to stay alive. So Allah deserves our full love and worship. Our parents take care of us, and we love them for this. Even when we are upset, our parents give us love. So we love them back.
Just like how our parents love us and we obey and treat them well, Allah SWT loves us even more so we need to obey Him in all aspects of our life, including how we pass our time in entertainment and fun. Although it is permissible to draw things of nature such as trees, mountains, etc., we need to stay away from drawing a face of anything living as this falls under Tasweer (picture), which is prohibited.
Drawing a face of a living thing (animate) has a sense of creating something, which is like competing with Allah who is our Real Creator. It is for this reason on the day of judgement, Allah will ask anyone who draws faces to bring those faces and animate beings to life. And we would not be able to do that, because only Allah has that power. We will feel embarrassed then. But most of all we will feel bad for upsetting Allah by doing something that seems like a competition. By keeping this in mind we are able to obey Allah SWT and His commands even while enjoying our time drawing.
We pray to worship Allah SWT, and just like having Wudu and wearing clean clothes are a condition of Salah, so is being careful of what type of clothing we wear. We should wear clothing that pleases Allah SWT and do so in a room which is not surrounded by pictures with facial features like eyes, mouth, nose, etc. This will give us the opportunity to get the most reward out of our Salah. Imagine that you believe in Allah SWT and then you make sajda (prostrate) towards a picture of someone who resembles creation of Allah. This will seem like rejecting the gifts and bounties of Allah and showing high respect of sajda to other than Allah. So, we should always make effort to keep the place of our prayer clean and free from such pictures or statues.
May Allah SWT bless you for you efforts and sincerity in raising your children to please Him, and May Allah SWT make your children strong believers and reward them in this life and the hereafter, Ameen.
Wallahu A’lam
And Allah Ta’āla Knows Best
Maulana Zahaib Sayeed
Checked and Concurred
Mufti Faisal al-Mahmudi