Full Lecture Transcript (Cleaned)
Dogs: need, purchase, and najasah — 0:00
uh we have um sister uh anum or annam asking that uh she would like to purchase a dog to protect their house because she said she lives in a large house somewhat isolated from other houses and at times her husband travels for work so she would feel safer having a dog on the property so firstly is this allowed and secondly she read a fatwa that even if she were to get a dog she cannot purchase the dog with money because of a hadith that you cannot purchase the dog with money so how can she get this dog and i'm going to add another question here as well sister rina says that she has a special needs child and the doctors have said that a trained dog would help this child what is the ruling on that woman so the answer is that we are all familiar that our prophet sallallahu alaihi salaam strongly discouraged owning a dog it is strongly discouraged uh and uh the hadith is bukhari and muslim that our prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said that whoever acquires a dog or whoever owns a dog that he doesn't need for his cultivation or you know for his uh uh um sheep basically shepherding right so basically the dog is protecting uh the the the sheep or the dog is is protecting the land or something that whoever does not have a dog of that nature sorry whoever acquires a dog not for those reasons then every single day uh the amount of good deeds like the level of a qirat or the amount of some have said that is like the mountain of sometimes it's smaller or larger but basically every single day a large amount of good deeds will be diminished from the good deeds that he is doing so basically we are strongly discouraged and this is the position of basically the vast majority now uh now a lot of people obviously this is not the remember this is the rapid q a today so i'm not going to go into a lot of detail but a lot of people are confused dogs are so cute i want to have dogs etc etc look sometimes we do not understand the wisdom of a shady ruling and sometimes we do and in this particular case the max that can be said is that maybe because the saliva of the dog is considered nudists by the way it's only the saliva of the dog that is nudjas this is the strongest position as for the body of the dog the hair of the dog this is not nudges but the saliva of the dog whatever the dog licks you cannot prey on that or wearing that if the dog licks anything you have to take that garment off and wash it uh or wear another garment or whatever and if the dog licks you you have to wash yourself at that place before you pray obviously otherwise before that time it's not you don't have to immediately go and do that so the point being that some people say that um why can't we have a dog and the response is allah knows best really we do not have a specific reason maybe it's because of the nijasa of the saliva allah knows best whatever it might be whatever the reason might be the quran has clearly allowed one category of dogs and that is the dogs of hult hunting it is explicit in surat al-maidah that allah azzawajal says in the quran that the dogs that you have that you have trained to hunt you may hunt with them as long as they you mention the name of allah and then you may eat from what they have caught for you so the quran is explicit that hunting dogs are allowed when you have hunting dogs you will be around them you will be training them they will be jumping all over you they will love you as dogs do and this is the quran allows this okay so we have to be careful here that you know we have to be careful about not going to extremes when it comes to the issues of dogs dogs by their nature are loyal and they're loving and the fact that you're going to be training a hunting dog means it's more loyal to you than to anybody else and this is explicitly allowed in the quran so a righteous man can have multiple dogs for hunting it's not a matter of life and death it's a matter of just pleasure hunting you don't have to have hunting dog isn't just a matter of life and death so the quran allows a dog for a reason and the sunnah allows it for other reasons and that is for example uh agricultural uh you know protecting the the agriculture uh you know so making sure that it's it's uh any predators that are gonna harm the the the prey uh so harm the the crops you know any animals that come and also uh the shepherd dog right so the person who has a lot of sheep so the dogs basically help in gathering the sheep or whatnot and once again these dogs will be like all the dogs that we know in our time is like the the loyalty of dogs the love that the dogs have they're going to be jumping up and down they're going to be licking the master this is the way that it goes that's the way that you know every single dog is and the sharia and the sunnah allows for that to happen and considers it to be permissible now based on this uh a number of ulema have said that this means that any time there is not even a hajja but there is some benefit because see again hunting dog is not something that is a matter of life and death i mean if you really needed to you would go you know shoot it with a bow and arrow if you wanted to and you don't have to be starving to go and get to a hunting dog you can have a hunting dog for sports you can have a daunting dog as just a passion like you just want to it's not something that you have to be dying or a very dire situation so if it is allowed uh for all of this then many uh this is the majority position have allowed uh having dogs for any legitimate need uh the famous the shaffer is he says in that the famous uh commentary he has that our shafri scholars they said that it is allowed to acquire a dog for anybody who wishes to hunt or anybody who wishes to guard vegetation basically plantations and cultivation or anybody you know who wishes to use as a shepherd dog so these three then he said our motherhood has differed for any other reason a fourth reason for example to guard the house for example right you know or for you know other types of purposes and some scholars of our med have said it is not allowed because these three are mentioned explicitly however the majority said and this is the correct opinion that you make analogy about these three and any hajj anything that is needed that a dog can help you with you may acquire a dog for that and uh the shafter is called sharbini as well he says that it is allowed to acquire a dog for anybody who will use it to hunt or anybody that will have any type of uh protection that is going to be for the cultivation or a type of the animals and it was then also allowed to train a puppy or a dog so that he can then be of benefit to the uh to the master to the to the owner so all of this is very clear and therefore based on this if you feel that a dog is going to be uh something that will give you because again the dog is in many ways far better than an alarm uh because uh it has a human it has a sense when a human is coming and it's going to bark and scare the person you know and it you know and it has other benefits as well and therefore if you feel that a dog is something that will help you and definitely the other sister asked about a dog for a child of special needs there is no question you know a seeing dog for a person who cannot see or a person might have a type of of you know issue maybe adhd or whatever having an animal will make that person calm or whatever it might be there's no question that this is more important than a hobby of hunting uh through the dog so there's no question that in such a circumstance dogs would be allowed and of course a seeing dog or a dog that is for a special niece child will be inside the house and therefore all that should be done is there should be one area of the house that is dedicated for the salah and the dog should not be going over there and before you pray make sure that you're close in your hands or do not have any of the saliva other than that really you should try your best to not have it inside the house uh for the protection dog but in case you need to and in case there is a hajja for this make sure that there is an area that is definitely pure to prey uh in in that and and you would be allowed to to have that now the other question that she asked is that she said that she she came across a fatwa that even if the dog because apparently she's been reading it's uh the fat was and understandably she came across one that said she cannot purchase the dog she must somehow acquire it or train it and uh you have heard correctly there is such a fatwa in fact this is based on the hadith of the prophet sallallahu alaihi which is he forbade the price of a dog okay what does this mean it means that he considered it to be he considered it to be something that should not happen you should not give money for a dog this is the interpretation of the majority that you should not purchase a dog with money and uh this is the standard position of a number of schools this is the position of the uh the shafiris and the himbales the majority position within the school there are dissenting voices and by the way every time i give you a school realize that you will always find within that school one or two or maybe more scholars that are disagreeing and giving you like the default or the main uh so the shafi's and the hamburies by and large they said that they took this literally and they said even if you need one of these dogs that are allowed you need to either acquire it from a previous owner that no longer needs it and he cannot sell it to you or you need to get an untrained dog as a puppy and train it yourself or have somebody come and pay and train it because you're allowed to pay the trainer but according to these two schools you cannot pay for the price of the dog itself and they again based it on this hadith that he forbade the price of the dog now the other two schools the hanafi school they said that the dog is basically an animal that you it's a it's a beneficial animal in other circumstances like all other animals that can be bought and sold just because you cannot own uh you know dog doesn't mean you cannot buy uh buy and sell for a legitimate reason and the maliki's as well they said that any dog that can be acquired legally can be sold legally a seeing dog or a dog that's a protector dog or any dog that is now trained to do something that the sharia allows right so whatever the shady allows it should be allowed to buy and sell it that's the maliki ruling here and uh this does seem to be the stronger ruling especially in light of the hadith as well there's an authentic hadith that our prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam uh he forbade the purchase of a dog except for a hunting dog so the exception is in the hadith itself that a hunting dog may be purchased and sold no problem and therefore uh to conclude this question you may purchase a dog for any legitimate reason not just those two or three mentioned in the hadith any reason that is a reason that makes sense that is going to make your life easier for you a seeing dog anything of this nature or a protection dog anything that will help you in your life and to make it easier it is permissible to acquire such a dog and it is permissible to purchase such a dog with money as well the only thing that we said you have to be careful about the issue of the najasa of the uh of the saliva of the dog and allah knows best me