Answered by Shaykh Yūsuf Badāt
Question:
People say that dogs are honest, loyal and kind to others. Why in Islam is prohibited to touch it or keep them as pets?
Answer:
Jazāk Allāh Khayr/ Thank you for your question.
May Allāh bless you for your interest in Islamic injunctions.
You are spot on regarding some of the great qualities of a dog. Some are listed below:
- Easily trained
- Reliability and submission
- Trustworthiness and asceticism
- Survival on very little food
- Can live with very little sleep and rest anywhere with complete satisfaction
- Loyalty to their owners and protecting their masters’ possessions
- Good hunting skills
In Islam, a dog can be kept with the intent of security, assistance, hunting, grazing animals, sniffing for criminals, drugs and explosives, or guiding people with disabilities.
The Islamic prohibition relates to some of its vile characteristics such as the following:
- Intense greed
- Consumption of impurities
- Tend to like and play around dirt and impurities
- Detested by angels
- Known to associate with devils
- Parts of certain dogs are used by magicians to carry out wicked rituals
- Saliva of dogs is islamicaly impure which contain poisonous elements
If a dog licks a person, then one must wash that part of the body or clothes very well. However, if the dog’s body just touched a person, this will not render that portion of the body or clothes impure (najis) unless there appears a sign of visible impurity.
And Allāh Knows Best