General Questions on Dogs

Question

Q. Does touching a dog make you unclean to the point that you cannot read salaah?

Can you read salaah in a house with a dog? The family keeps the house very clean, however, the dog is allowed to walk everywhere.

Mufti Moosa Salie · Accepted Answer

Touching a dog does not make a person impure. If there was a transferral of wetness (mucus or saliva) from the dog onto a person or their clothing, that area would be impure and require washing.

Salaah is permitted in a house in which there is a dog. However, the presence of a dog in the home deprives the home of Divine mercy and continuously diminishes one’s Thawaab (reward in the hereafter).

Rasulullah Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam has stated, “The angels (of mercy) do not enter a house in which there is a dog or a picture of a living creature.” (Bukhari 3225)

Rasulullah Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam has also stated, “Whoever keeps a dog, except a guard dog or a shepherd dog, will lose one Qeerat* of reward daily.” (Bukhari 2322)

*A Qeerat is the equivalent of a huge mountain. (Bukhari 1325)

Dogs cannot be kept as pets in the home. A guard dog can be kept in the yard outside the home.

And Allah Ta’ala Knows Best

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