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  • Losing Good Deeds Everyday For Keeping A Dog

    Umer updated 2 weeks ago 3 Members · 5 Replies
  • Umer

    Moderator September 29, 2023 at 8:58 am

    According to Ghamidi Sahab, when all the variants and related ahadith on this topic are studied and after reviewing them in the light of Quran, this Hadith is referring to the fact that no dog should be kept captive or deprived of its freedom by putting it in a cage when there is no genuine reason behind it. A dog should be properly trained and given its due freedom instead of keeping it in a cage and violating its other rights.

    Please refer to the video below from 15:48 to 18:51 (Although the whole video is very informative).

    https://youtu.be/2xFsuxd8K54?t=948

    • Rohan Hasan

      Member September 30, 2023 at 6:32 am

      How did Ghamidi sahab come to this conclusion? Is there any narration or historic evidence that shows dogs were kept in cages at that time? Because I didn’t see any hadith like that so far.

      The video you linked probably answers it but as I said before I don’t understand Urdu and because the video doesn’t have any English subtitles I couldn’t understand what he was saying.

    • Umer

      Moderator October 8, 2023 at 8:23 am

      This requires an understanding of how Ghamidi Sahab approaches Hadith Corpus academically. Following response will help you understand his approach in this regard:

      Discussion 66135 • Reply 66162

      As a summary:

      Since narrations lack their context at most of the times and narrators narrate them in terms of their own interpretation and their own wordings without giving due regard to the context of the hadith. This applies to all those narrations equally whose chain of narrators are strong and they have either been categorized as Sahih or Hassan. Therefore, it is the job of an Islamic Scholar to relate those narrations in line with the absolute principles laid out in Quran and Sunnah.

      When it comes to the narrations on dogs specifically, there can be two possible contexts under which such statements may have been said by the Prophet (sws):

      i) As per the viewpoint of Hassan Sahab as stated in the video above, when this narration and all its variants are studied in the light of established principles of Quran and Sunnah, specially the ethical principles (like not to violate rights of others, not to do injustice etc.), it becomes imperative that these ahadith are not talking about keeping dogs as pet in isolation, rather they talk about keeping dogs without any purpose when their rights are being violated and the exceptions mentioned in Ahadith like hunting dogs, watch dogs etc. support this point. We see other ahadith supporitng this point when it came to the rights of cats as well, where people were give warning of Hell when they did not take care and fulfil rights of a cat in one scenario.

      ii) Second context could be a temporary warning: There came a time in Medina when all the dogs of Medina were either killed or removed from the city as a temporary directive because at couple of instances the impurity casued by their excretions became a hindrance in the way of revelation (see: https://sunnah.com/muslim:2105). Therefore, all dogs, except for the dogs who were watch dogs for big orchards were ordered to be killed. This narration could very well be in that context where people were asked to refrain from keeping dogs until the revelation completes itself except for the dogs required as an absolute necessity like hunting dogs or watch dogs etc. to keep the problem causing hindrance in the revelation to its minimal.

      There is also a possibility that some other events might have necessitated such extreme restrictions for the time being, like abundance of rabid dogs in the city etc. which was not mentioned by the narrator.

    • Rayan Sharif

      Member November 6, 2024 at 3:40 pm

      Who’s the earliest scholar who would have taken the same view as Ghamidi Sahab on this issue? If there is then can I get a reference.

    • Umer

      Moderator November 6, 2024 at 10:18 pm

      It is a misunderstanding that all Muslim scholars of the past consider having dog absolutely “Haram” except for three exceptions mentioned in hadith.

      Shafii, Hanafi and Hanbali scholars do not restrict keeping dog to only three exceptions as mentioned in the Hadith, they extend the scope of exceptions to other similar scenarios bringing some utility to the Muslim owner. They only consider those scenarios as Haram which do not bringing any utility.

      Maliki scholars however have a more lenient view and they only consider keeping dog as a pet without any reason as “Maqruh” (disliked) and not Haram.

      Please watch the following video for details:

      https://youtu.be/fSIe4sFDrdc?si=fZ35gyfVpsIeTck7

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