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Summary of answer If you touch a dog when it is not wet, then your hand does not become impure. If you touch a dog when it is wet, this means that the hand becomes impure and must be washed seven times, one of which should be with earth.
It is haram to keep a dog unless it is for the purposes for which Islam permits keeping dogs. Whoever keeps a dog – except a dog for hunting or farming – his reward will decrease each day by one or two qirats.
Ibn ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) say: ‘Whoever keeps a dog, except a dog that is trained for hunting or a dog for herding livestock, his reward will decrease each day by two qirats.’” (Narrated by al-Bukhari, 5059; Muslim, 2941; according to another version narrated by them both, “one qeirat”).
The word qirat refers to a large amount of reward; if a person’s reward decreases by one qirat, that means that he is sinning, for losing reward is like earning sin, both indicate that something is haram because of the consequences it leads to.
The impurity of dogs is the greatest of animal impurities. The impurity of a dog can only be removed by washing seven times, one of which should be with earth. Even pigs, which the Quran states are haram and describes as an abomination (rijs) are not najis (impure) to such an extent.
Dogs are impure and filthy, but unfortunately we find that some people are attracted to the ways of the disbelievers and their filthy habits, so they have started to keep dogs unnecessarily for no reason, keeping them, training them and cleaning them even though they can never be clean, even if they were washed with the waters of the ocean, because they are essentially impure.
Our advice to them is to repent to Allah and to get the dogs out of their homes.
But in the case of dogs which are needed for hunting, farming and herding livestock, there is nothing wrong with that because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) gave permission for that.
‘I want to touch a dog’
Syed Azmi Alhabshi, a Muslim-Malaysian pharmacist, is among the people encouraging more compassion towards dogs.
In 2014, he decided to organise an event called “I Want to Touch a Dog”.
Held at a large shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur, it attracted more than 800 people, 200 volunteers and dogs of different breed including poodles, golden retrievers and German shepherds.
It was designed to demystify dogs, but the event also exposed its organiser to criticism from doctrinaire Shafiis and Malaysias state-backed religious authorities, and even death threats.
Mr Alhabshi eventually spoke at a press conference apologising if he had offended Muslim sensibilities.
“With a sincere heart, my intention to organise this program was because of Allah and not to distort the faith, change religious laws, make fun of ulama (learned men) or encourage liberalism,” he said.
The matter did not end there.
In 2017, the Department of Islamic Development of Malaysia (JAKIM) issued a religious ruling reprimanding a Muslim woman for uploading a Facebook post showing pictures of her pet dog Bubu.
JAKIM argued that keeping a pet dog violates the norms of the Shafii school and undermines Islam in Malaysia.
But a number of Muslim scholars and lay intellectuals, including in Malaysia, have questioned the Shafii jurisprudence.
They argue that the schools rigidity concerning the status of dogs does not reflect the position of the two other Sunni schools, especially the Maliki school.
One common story appeals to Malaysian history.
In the 1930s, the Crown Prince of the State of Kelantan, then part of British Malaya, wanted to keep a dog but was opposed by his sister.
The local religious authorities, incapable of resolving the family dispute, solicited advice from Al-Azhar University in Cairo, long considered an international authority on Islamic theology.
The clerics there denied any prohibition against dogs, leaving the Sultan to enjoy his companion.
Others rely on more recent rulings from al-Azhar, where the prominent scholar of the Shafii school, Ali Gomaa, has also ruled to allow Muslims to keep dogs as pets at home.
According to Sheikh Gomaa, as long as one dedicates a room for prayers that the dog cannot access, the dogs presence in the home is permitted.
The Maliki school, meanwhile, does not treat the animal as impure, and does not impose the purification requirements that the Shafii school does upon contact with a dog.
As the debate in Malaysia intensified, Malaysian Muslims actively discussed the subject, including on social media.
The traditionalist camp, led by Malaysias religious bureaucracy, stated the importance of adhering to only one school of thought.
It emphasised the dangers of legal eclecticism in which Muslims pick and choose from each of the three Sunni schools of jurisprudence at random.
This position was taken in direct opposition to those who pointed to Maliki scholars to justify a more liberal approach to dogs.
The dog debate then in turn generated a broader doctrinal dispute about the extent to which Muslims were required to adhere to one school of thought exclusively.
Touching the Dog is Prohibited Due to Rabies & Hydrophobia but now…
First of all, to keep a dog at home for a purpose other than hunting or guarding the house (watchdogs) is strictly not allowed in Islam. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is reported to have said: “Whoever keeps a dog save for hunting or for guarding crops or cattle will lose one large measure (qirat) of his reward each day” (Al-Bukhari and Muslim).
In his response to your question, Sheikh `Abdul-Bari Az-Zamzami, a member of the Moroccan Scholars’ Association, states:
“Touching a dog does not nullify ablution because acts that nullify ablution are well known and touching a dog is not one of them. It should be noted that living animals such as dogs are not impure. Therefore, there is nothing wrong with offering Prayer in a place where dogs are roaming or passing, as Al-Bukhari reported in his Sahih that dogs used to enter the Mosque of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and then come out.”