To produce toys in a fashion that emulates the creation of Allaah Q. Is there a difference between a child making these toys and us making them and buying them for them? A. I maintain that to produce them in such a fashion that emulates the creation of Allaah is forbidden, because this is a type of depicting live beings, as to which there is no doubt concerning its prohibition. If they are imported to us from the Christians or other disbelievers, to possess one is as I have mentioned in the beginning forbidden.1 As for concerning the purchase of toys, instead of buying such dolls we should buy things that do not consist of pictures such as bicycles, toy cars, swings and other similar toys. As for the rag doll that does not accurately depict a human being, even though it consists of limbs, a head and a neck, but there are no eyes or nose, there is no harm in it because it does not emulate that created by Allaah. Sheikh Ibn Uthaimeen [Majmu’ Fataawa wa Rasaa’il ashSheikh: 3/156]
1
The Sheikh states that to buy such dolls from the disbelievers is forbidden because most commonly they are of the forbidden type; that is they totally resemble human beings and Allaah knows best.