The Ruling on Keeping Dogs and Claiming Their Purity Through Washing

The question: A message was received for the program from the Yemen Arab Republic, Ibb Governorate, sent by our brother Muhammad 'Abd al-Hamid Muhammad Hatim al-Hadithi. Our brother says: I found some of our Muslim brothers using hostile, untrained dogs in their food and drink, and also a man would ride in a car and place the dog in front of him and pet it with his hands. So I stood before them and said to them: It is not permissible to use this dog because of its severe impurity. They answered by saying: When this dog was born, they took it and washed it with soap and water after it was impure, and it has become pure today. [al-Kahf:18]. What is the ruling regarding these people? And does the dog become pure after its impurity? Please inform us, may Allah reward you.
The answer: It is established from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said: meaning: from his reward. This indicates that it is not befitting to keep a dog, and it is not prescribed to keep one. Rather, the apparent meaning of the hadith is to prohibit it. As long as the reward is diminished, two qirats are diminished from his reward. This is a serious matter, and it indicates the dislike or prohibition of it. It is known that it is befitting for the believer to stay away from everything that diminishes his reward. So a dog is not kept except for these three: either for hunting, or for livestock, or for crops. Either he keeps it for hunting, or to guard the livestock, being with the livestock to drive away the wolves when the people of the livestock hear it, they rise and drive away the wolves as well. The wolves fear its voice when they hear it; because they know that it alerts the people of the livestock. Likewise, crops are in the farms to alert about what may come to them of thieves or animals that trample in them or the like. And what exceeds that, the dog is not kept for it. This one who kept it and started carrying it with him in the car, he has erred, and he is in danger from its impurity, and in danger from the diminishment of his reward which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) specified: So it is never befitting to keep it for other than these three; for the benefits which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) specified.
And washing it does not purify it. Washing the dog, even if he washes it every day, does not purify it. It is impure, impure in its essence, like: if he washes the pig, it does not purify. The pig does not purify, and the dog does not purify by washing. It is impure even if washed, even if washed with soap every day, it is impure. So the point is that the dog is impure. For this reason, he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: So he made it a means of purification, which indicates that it is impure, and that this water, if washed seven times, purifies the vessel.
And likewise, what is related to the dog of the People of the Cave. This does not indicate the permissibility of keeping dogs. Perhaps they kept it for hunting or for livestock they had. And the most likely is that they kept it for hunting, hunting with it what they subsist on. So there is no harm in that if they confined the dog with them and raised it and taught it so that they hunt with it, or so that it protects the farm or the livestock. There is nothing wrong with this as mentioned before. It is not permissible to interpret it as them keeping it for play or for other needs. No, it is to be interpreted in a good way; because they are people of good, people of uprightness, and people of obedience.
Then this was a legislation for those before us, not a legislation for us. These are before us, before the sending of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). So if it were the case that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) prohibited the dog, the existence of their dog with them would not be a legislation for us. But as long as our legislation permitted the dog for livestock, hunting, and agriculture, we interpret their dog as being with them for one of these types. And Allah is the possessor of success. Yes.
The presenter: May Allah reward you with good.