Q: The ijma of scholars have permitted painting of tress, flowers etc which are considered as living and have also permitted painting of nature like mountains, rivers, sun, moon etc. Why do these things, not fall into the category of challenging Allah or painting like of his creation?
Is there any hadith to support the view that painting living things like trees, flowers, mountains, rivers etc permitted in Islam?
The reason why I am asking this is because I had a conversation with a non-muslim friend and provided an argument that painting living is like challenging the God, but I wasn’t able to answer, even trees, mountains, rivers, sun, moon are creation of God, then why the same logic isn’t applicable here.