Praise be to Allaah.
Firstly:
Taking pictures of animate
beings such as humans, birds and animals, and putting them in forums or
keeping them for memory’s sake, is not permissible, because of the general
meaning of the evidence that image-making is haraam, and the fact that the
one who does that is cursed. See the answer to question no.
22660 and
8954.
No exception is made from
that except cases of necessity or urgent needs, such as ID pictures and the
like.
Secondly:
The prohibition on picture
making also applies to drawing cartoons or distorted images of animate
beings, because of the report narrated by Muslim (2107) from ‘Aa’ishah (may
Allaah be pleased with her) who said: The Messenger of Allaah (peace
and blessings of Allaah be upon him) came from a journey, and I had hung
over my door a curtain on which there were images of winged horses, and he
told me to take it down.
This hadeeth indicates that
making images of animate beings is haraam, even if they are imaginary and do
not actually exist, because there are no real horses with wings.
It says in Fataawa
al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah (1/479): What makes images forbidden is the fact
that they are images of animate beings, whether they are sculptures, or
drawings on walls or fabric or paper, or they are woven, and whether they
are done with a quill, a pen, or a machine, and whether they represent
something real or something imaginary, whether they are small or large,
beautified or distorted, or drawn in the form of lines representing a
skeleton. What makes them forbidden is that fact that they depict animate
beings, even if they are imaginary like pictures of ancient people,
Pharaohs, or leaders and soldiers of the Crusades, or like the pictures of
‘Eesa (Jesus) and Maryam (Mary) that are kept in churches, etc., because of
the general meaning of the texts, and because that is competing with the
creation of Allaah, and because it is a means that leads to shirk. End
quote.
Thirdly:
Putting pictures of women
in forums is a reprehensible action, because it is using haraam images and
because it may cause temptation and provoke desires. You have done well to
erase all the images, because denouncing and removing evil is a duty upon
everyone who is able to do that.
Every Muslim has to fear
Allaah and realize that he will be asked on the Day of Resurrection about
everything that he writes and publishes. He should not take any haraam
matter lightly; a huge fire can start from a little spark.
We ask Allaah to help us
all to do that which He loves and which pleases Him.
And Allaah knows best.