Ruling on drawing smiley faces when chatting on the internet

It seems – and Allaah knows
best – that this face, whether it is smiling or sad, does not come under the
same ruling as images that it is forbidden to make, draw, or use, for two
reasons: 

1 – It contains none of the
features of a real face, such as eyes, mouth and nose, and it has no head or
ears. 

The Prophet (peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “The image is the head; if the head
is cut off, there is no image.” Narrated by al-Ismaa’eeli in his Mu’jam
from the hadeeth of Ibn ‘Abbaas and classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in
al-Silsilah al-Saheehah no. 1921 and in Saheeh al-Jaami’ no.
3864. 

2 – The majority of fuqaha’
are of the view that if something is cut off from an image without which it
could no longer live, then it is not a haraam image. For a detailed
discussion of this issue and the views of other madhhabs, see Ahkaam
al-Tasweer fi’l-Fiqh al-Islami, pp. 224-240. 

But we should point out two
things: 

This usage in chatting on
the internet does not come under the drawing of images, rather it comes
under the use of images. 

Please see the answer to
question no. 78963. 

Secondly: A woman should
not use these images when speaking to a man who is not her mahram, because
these faces are used to express how she is feeling, so it is as if she is
smiling, laughing, acting shy and so on, and a woman should not do that with
a non-mahram man. 

It is only permissible for
a woman to speak to men in cases of necessity, so long as that is in a
public chat room and not in private correspondence. See question no.
34841. 

And Allaah knows best.