What is the ruling on children's dolls made of cloth stuffed with cotton, and is it permissible to draw eyes and a mouth on their heads? Please issue a ruling on this, and may Allah reward you.
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The questioner : A questioner asks: What is the ruling on children's dolls made of cloth stuffed with cotton, and is it permissible to draw eyes and a mouth on their heads? Please issue a ruling on this, and may Allah reward you with good.
The Shaykh : What I see, and Allah knows best, is that making these statues or dolls for young children is a permissible matter in the Sunnah. However, going into detail in depicting them, as mentioned in the question, is not something I see as appropriate. I observe something here, and this is a precise point that students of knowledge should note. Regarding these children's toys and their presence in the house, although they are statues, there are two opinions among the scholars. One is that they are not permissible, applying the general texts that prohibit image-making and keeping images in homes. Others say that these images are exempted from the general texts, both in their making and their possession. This is the position we adopt and consider correct, if Allah wills. But we do not doubt that when the Wise Lawgiver exempts a ruling from a general text, it is for a wisdom that may be apparent to some people and hidden from others. We observe that one of the wisdoms in permitting these toys for young children is to train them in matters related to household affairs, what is called today home management, such as sewing and attaching buttons and the like. As for going into detail in depicting features, eyes, noses, and mouths with lines, this is related to what they call art. The Wise Lawgiver permitted this for an apparent benefit for young girls, such as A'ishah and others. It is not in the interest of a girl to concern herself with this precision in depiction. Therefore, what they used to say, what was contrary to the original principle, "What is contrary to the standard of analogy, it is not to be analogized". So we cannot expand here beyond what the text benefited us with regarding the toys of the Lady A'ishah. It was not reported that they were toys with this precision in depiction. So it is sufficient to make these statues from rags, nothing more. As for the claim that this is abrogated by the generality of those hadiths, this is, in my opinion, an oversight of some conditions that the scholars of usul al-fiqh mention in their books. It is required in knowing the abrogating and the abrogated that first, the earlier and the later be known, and second, and this is more important, that reconciliation between the two texts be impossible in the original. If reconciliation is difficult, then it is referred to as abrogation. As for the claim that this specific ruling is abrogated by the general text, scholars of fiqh, or rather usul al-fiqh, never say this. In reality, some distinguished scholars fall into this, abrogating some specific texts by opposing them to some general texts. The correct position is that the general text is specified by the specific text. Even if the Salaf used to call the specifying text "abrogating" and this general text "abrogated," they meant that a part of it, one of its parts, is the abrogated one. When the difference between the terminology of the Salaf and the terminology of the Khalaf regarding the abrogating and the abrogated is noted, many difficulties disappear before the student of knowledge when he finds, for example, al-Suyuti in his book "Al-Itqan fi 'Ulum al-Qur'an" mentioning that there are approximately three hundred abrogated verses. He means this under the general terminology of the Salaf, which is specification in the specific terminology of the Khalaf, as I said. When that is the case, the difficulty disappears. Three hundred abrogated verses? No, there are no such abrogated verses in the Qur'an at all. But they mean specified. So the hadiths about children's toys that A'ishah used to make herself, and that some of the Ansar used to make for their children to keep them busy from breaking their fast, from the food they would break their fast with in Ramadan, these would be primitive, superficial toys only to achieve this benefit we mentioned earlier. And Allah knows best.
The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.
The Shaykh : And you as well.
The Shaykh : What I see, and Allah knows best, is that making these statues or dolls for young children is a permissible matter in the Sunnah. However, going into detail in depicting them, as mentioned in the question, is not something I see as appropriate. I observe something here, and this is a precise point that students of knowledge should note. Regarding these children's toys and their presence in the house, although they are statues, there are two opinions among the scholars. One is that they are not permissible, applying the general texts that prohibit image-making and keeping images in homes. Others say that these images are exempted from the general texts, both in their making and their possession. This is the position we adopt and consider correct, if Allah wills. But we do not doubt that when the Wise Lawgiver exempts a ruling from a general text, it is for a wisdom that may be apparent to some people and hidden from others. We observe that one of the wisdoms in permitting these toys for young children is to train them in matters related to household affairs, what is called today home management, such as sewing and attaching buttons and the like. As for going into detail in depicting features, eyes, noses, and mouths with lines, this is related to what they call art. The Wise Lawgiver permitted this for an apparent benefit for young girls, such as A'ishah and others. It is not in the interest of a girl to concern herself with this precision in depiction. Therefore, what they used to say, what was contrary to the original principle, "What is contrary to the standard of analogy, it is not to be analogized". So we cannot expand here beyond what the text benefited us with regarding the toys of the Lady A'ishah. It was not reported that they were toys with this precision in depiction. So it is sufficient to make these statues from rags, nothing more. As for the claim that this is abrogated by the generality of those hadiths, this is, in my opinion, an oversight of some conditions that the scholars of usul al-fiqh mention in their books. It is required in knowing the abrogating and the abrogated that first, the earlier and the later be known, and second, and this is more important, that reconciliation between the two texts be impossible in the original. If reconciliation is difficult, then it is referred to as abrogation. As for the claim that this specific ruling is abrogated by the general text, scholars of fiqh, or rather usul al-fiqh, never say this. In reality, some distinguished scholars fall into this, abrogating some specific texts by opposing them to some general texts. The correct position is that the general text is specified by the specific text. Even if the Salaf used to call the specifying text "abrogating" and this general text "abrogated," they meant that a part of it, one of its parts, is the abrogated one. When the difference between the terminology of the Salaf and the terminology of the Khalaf regarding the abrogating and the abrogated is noted, many difficulties disappear before the student of knowledge when he finds, for example, al-Suyuti in his book "Al-Itqan fi 'Ulum al-Qur'an" mentioning that there are approximately three hundred abrogated verses. He means this under the general terminology of the Salaf, which is specification in the specific terminology of the Khalaf, as I said. When that is the case, the difficulty disappears. Three hundred abrogated verses? No, there are no such abrogated verses in the Qur'an at all. But they mean specified. So the hadiths about children's toys that A'ishah used to make herself, and that some of the Ansar used to make for their children to keep them busy from breaking their fast, from the food they would break their fast with in Ramadan, these would be primitive, superficial toys only to achieve this benefit we mentioned earlier. And Allah knows best.
The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.
The Shaykh : And you as well.