Buying and selling dogs kept for lawful purposes

16/12/2018| IslamWeb

Question:

I have one question and I hope I could be as clear as possible. I have heard that selling or buying dogs is Haraam, in the sense of being in the business itself; or for example since we have a dog in our garden and now we are leaving the villa so we have to give the dog away or sell him. So if we sell it is it Haraam? I do know that dogs are dirty thus they are Haraam but if we do not touch them, and just leave them as guards, is it still Haraam?

  

Fatwa:

 

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His Slave and Messenger.

 

As regards selling dogs, in principle it is forbidden to sell, buy or keep dogs and their price is forbidden. The Prophet said: "Whoever keeps a dog, two Qirats (a huge portion) of the reward of his good deeds is deducted daily unless the dog is used for guarding a cattle or for hunting." [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]; in a different narration reported by Abu Hurayrah the following expression is added: "…or a farm dog." Imam Al-Bukhari and Muslim also reported that the Prophet forbade the price of a dog, and informed us that its price is evil.

 

However, some scholars permitted buying and selling dogs, and permitted their price in cases when it is lawful to keep a dog; their evidence is the narration reported by An-Nasa'ee which reads: "The Prophet forbade the price of a dog with the exception of the price of a hunting dog." Ibn Hajar said: 'The narrators of this narration are trustworthy; and since it is permissible to keep a dog for the above purposes, then it is permissible to sell and buy it for the purposes for which it is permissible to keep dogs, and this view is closer to the truth.'

 

The ruling of trading in dogs is the same with regard to buying and selling them.

 

Therefore, keeping dogs, selling them and buying them, and trading with them, [all of these] are forbidden in principle, unless they are only used for the purposes which are permissible to keep them for, i.e. for guarding a farm, a cattle or for hunting, and there is no harm in all this.

 

With regard to the ruling of touching a dog, we have already clarified in many previous Fatawas that its saliva and flesh are impure, but its skin and hair are pure.  

 

Allah Knows best.

 

Fatwa answered by: The Fatwa Center at Islamweb