How Should Muslims View Dogs? | Wrong Ideas About the relation between Muslims and Dogs

 

What was the prophet's

attitude towards dogs? 

 What are the limits around dealing with dogs and how should a Muslim woman respond?

 If they're always around dogs how

should they deal with the situation. 

 Most people who get the impression

that Muslims somehow have something

against dogs. So, we need to go back and

see where this comes from.

There are some traditions that mentioned

that the Prophet peace be upon him

ordered dogs to be killed and then, he

made an exception only  for the

sheepdog with a guard dog or the hunting

dog. But if one were to start with things

in order like first we look at the Quran

to see if the Quran says anything about

dogs and then we go to the traditions

and we put everything together

well the Quran actually doesn't say

anything negative about dogs. In fact,

there is something positive because in

the story of the youth who hid in the

cave in the 18th chapter of the Quran.

 We have it that they

had a companion a dog and many

commentators say that this dog will also

be in paradise. Now, we know that nothing

impure or unclean will be in paradise

 but this dog will  be there. So

some will say ok but God will make this

dog pure shall be in paradise but

nevertheless the Quran does not show

anything negative about the dog and

doesn't show that the dog is impure. 

On the other hand, there is actually 

mentioned in the Quran that the food

that is procured for Muslims through by

means of their hunting animals is

permissible to eat. This is specifically

mentioned in the fourth verse of the

fifth chapter of the Quran and among the

hunting animals there were dogs at the

time. 

So, it is well known that the dog

would go, hunt the animal, bring it back

to the or at least retrieve the animal

that may have been killed by a spear or

arrow, the dog would go retrieve it and

bring it. So, the dog comes with the

animal in its mouth something the saliva

of the dog is impure. But this seems to

speak against that because

obviously the saliva of the dog gets

mingled with the meat which it brings to

its master. 

So from the Quranic

perspective that doesn't seem to be

anything wrong with dogs and dogs may be

good hunting animals in the meat that

they bring in their mouths are good for

Muslims  to eat  after

Washing.

 

So where this idea comes from that dogs

somehow impure well it could be as

Imperial.

Yes, it could be that at the

time there were some dogs which were

rabid and the best way of dealing with

that situation to protect the population

was to euthanize some dogs. And as people not

remember the tradition they just

remembered that dogs were euthanized

without remembering the reason behind it.

So it's not mentioned that the dogs were

rated but that would be a good reason

why dogs were euthanized otherwise

there'd be no good reason. It doesn't

seem to be anything fundamentally wrong

 with dogs. 

That's why exception was made for the

hunting dogs and the guard dogs and so on, because they perform some

useful purposes.

 Nowadays we know that

dogs perform many more valuable services.

You could have a dot guide dog. For

example, a person with no eyes skin can  have a dog as his eyes and

such a person should be allowed to

attend the mosque or to attend any

Islamic service.

 So Muslims should not have to react with this kind of negative reactions 

every time when they see a dog.