Aisha's Dolls and Swings

Some people try to argue that Aisha was pre-pubescent and immature at the age of marital consummation with the Prophet, because "she used to play with dolls and swings" according to many Hadiths:

First of all, a small note regarding the "swings" mentioned in Muslim 1422a and Abu Dawud 4935 is that it actually means a seesaw:

Second of all, I don't know how that's even an argument, to begin with; to argue that Aisha must have not hit puberty because she played on a seesaw or was in possession of dolls is neither a strong nor a convincing argument (at best, it's an emotional argument). Means of entertainment change throughout history; people back then used to play and have fun with simple stuff like swings and dolls, and we now have millions of aged adults (including me) who take gaming as a hobby, or even play puzzles, quizzes, and word games. I'm a mature man yet I still find enjoyment by playing games or even by playing on the swings, that certainly doesn't make me a child.

Even in our modern era, there's nothing inherently immature about playing with dolls; the toy dolls that existed before the 1700s served chiefly as "playthings for adults" (), as well as for children secondarily. At that time, adults and children were more alike in their attitudes and interests than they are today, and the concept of "adolescence" as we know it today didn't really exist back then, as youngsters were regarded as "young adults" and were expected to act like them (and they even shared the work of supporting the family with their parents). People of nearly all ages enjoyed the same simple toys, including jack-in-the-boxes and dolls shaped and dressed exactly like adults. Adults first came to regard childhood as a special time during the 1700s, and especially the 1800s. The first dolls specifically for children probably were made in the 1700s and the dolls themselves looked the same but could be dressed as babies, children, women, or men. The first doll to be designed as a baby appeared at the London Exhibition of 1851, which came from Japan (of course, it's Japan).

Even now, many aged adults still possess teddy bears, dolls, figurines, fumos, dakimakura, etc., and they're still buying more toys for emotional support (which is a global phenomenon accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic); a United Press International survey says that 35% of British adults admitted they sleep with a teddy bear to remove anxiety before bedtime.

Back to the issue at hand, in the Hadiths cited, there seem to be some anomalies. Bukhari 6130 along with Muslim 2440a are absolutely irrelevant to prove that Aisha was a pre-pubescent child at the time of consummation, because these events happened way before the consummation when Aisha was still a child and was still at her dwelling place. We can refer to the scholarly explanation of Bukhari 6130:

As for Abu Dawud 4932, the narration that stated that when Aisha was fourteen the Prophet found her dolls; the narration doesn't imply that she was playing with them, it only says that they were in her possession. The only way the Prophet found out was because they were uncovered by the curtain covering her storage room. This narration only shows that she was still in possession of them, but not necessarily playing with them. If she was in a habit of playing with them, she wouldn't cover them up with a curtain in her storage room, and the Prophet wouldn't just find out about them after five whole years.

Same scenario applies for Muslim 1422c; she only stated that she was in possession of the dolls at the age of consummation, and Nasa'i 3378 is a whole other story since she was only talking about her younger self in general and hasn't made a link between playing with the dolls and the time of the consummation of marriage.

One may state: "The reason why Aisha was permitted to possess dolls in the Prophet's house is because she hadn't attained puberty yet, because children below the age of puberty may possess dolls that are Haram for adults."

Scholars have sure said that children below the age of puberty may possess and play with dolls that are Haram for adults, but that doesn't mean that adults are forbidden to play with dolls that are not Haram; the dolls that are Haram to play with for adults are those that have clear facial features, because the picture of the face imitates the creation of Allah and is therefore Haram. The burden of proof is on the people who claim that Aisha played with "Haram dolls" during the time she consummated the marriage with the Prophet in order to successfully prove that she didn't hit puberty, yet no such proof was or will ever be given.

Now, did Aisha, when she still was a child, actually play and own dolls that are Haram for adults (i.e., which have facial features in them)? Ibn al-Uthaymin answers:

As ibn al-Uthaymin argues in his Fatwa, Aisha's dolls were shaped in a way that it wasn't Haram for an adult to entertain oneself with, and the doll possibly had no eyes or facial components, thus making it Halal for both children and adults. Therefore, if Aisha's dolls had no faces at all or weren't partly structured in a way that it would make them Haram then we don't even have to argue that it was permissible for her to have them or play with them because she still didn't hit puberty, and she still was a child.

In fact, further historical proof from the Prophet's era shows us that the dolls of children were nothing like what we know as dolls nowadays, since they are nothing but stick wrapped with wool that take no shape, and if someone looked at it, he won't be able to recognize what they symbolize. Knowing that, we can explain how the Prophet couldn't recognize the toy of Aisha in Abu Dawud 4932, and therefore inquired about it to the extent that he could not tell the wings as it was just extra piece of wool or sheet added to the toy:

Therefore, we have proved a multitude of things regarding the Hadiths narrating the events related to Aisha's dolls:

1. Aisha used to play with dolls when she was a child, before the marriage, in her dwelling place, and the Prophet used to visit her and her girl friends.
2. Aisha's dolls were shaped in a way that it wasn't Haram for an adult to entertain oneself with, most likely just a piece of wool with no facial features.
3. When Aisha was entrusted to the Prophet, she was still in possession of her dolls and did not play with them after marriage, rather only possessed them in a storage room.