On 2003-04-18 23:30:24 PST The Cynic (kosongman@n...) wrote: >[...] >Both Rafidah and Abu Abbas are Muslims. One loves and plays with dogs, >whereas the other has stated Muslims and dogs do not mix. Who is the liar? >Are there different sets of rules for different Muslims? Or is Abu Abbas a >less Muslim than Rafidah? BTW, during the Iraq war, the TV news carried >scenes where dogs seen running and some barking were heard in the >background. Apparently, the Iraqis kept dogs. How did they manage to >reconcile this with their religion, I wonder. The quick and simple answer is that there are differences among the scholars. The rulings--those which are agreed upon and differed about--are best understood by starting with a quick peak at history. HISTORICAL STAGES During the pre-Islamic age of ignorance, Arabs used dogs in general. The matter remained this way in the beginning of Islam, so Muslim used dogs just as they were accustomed to using them before Islam. They continued doing so after the Hijra to Medina, and until the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) prohibited it. The reason for this prohibition is mentioned in the Sahih of Imam Muslim bin Al-Hajjaj Al-Naysaburi, on the authority of Mother Of the Faithful Maymunah (Allah be well pleased with her), that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) woke up with morning when he was with her and he (Allah bless him and give him peace) was despondent: <<I said to him, I disapprove of your manner today. He said, Jibreal (peace be upon him) promised me that he would come to me today, and he did not. By Allah, he would never break [his word] with me! So he (Allah bless him and give him peace) spent the rest of the day this way, and then it occurred to him that there was a puppy underneath a fustat we had, so he ordered that it be taken out. Then he took water in his hand and sprinkled the water where the puppy had been. That night he (Allah bless him and give him peace) met Jibreal (peace be upon him) and he said to the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace), I made a promise to visit you yesterday? He replied, Yes. [Jibreal said,] But we [angels] do not enter a house containing a dog or an image. In the morning he (Allah bless him and give him peace) ordered for dogs to be killed immediately. He even ordered that small dogs of small orchards be killed and that large dogs of large orchards be left alone.>> Abu Dawud mentioned that the dog belonged to Hasan or Al-Hussein, and that it was underneath a small dresser that they had. The order to kill dogs did not continue, rather it was abrogated just as Imam Muslim reports on the authority of Abd Allah bin Mughaffal (Allah be pleased with him): <<The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) ordered that dogs be killed. Then he (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, ma baluhum wa bal al-kilab?Then he made a leniency for dogs used for hunting and herding sheep and said, If a dog laps in a bowl, wash it seven times and in the eighth time sprinkle it with dirt.>> And Imam Muslim narrated on the authority of Jabir bin Abd Allah (Allah be pleased with them both) that he said: <<The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) ordered that dogs be killed. Even if a woman would come from the desert with a dog, we would kill it. Then he (Allah bless him and give him peace) prohibited killing them, and said, Be wary of a completely black [dog], since it is Shaytan.>> So, the order to kill dogs was general and the leniency was for some dogs, and there was an order for what to do with what a dog lapped out of. REASONS PERMITTING DOGS TO BE USED The four Imams agree that it is permissible [mubah] to acquire dogs for hunting, herding, and guarding agriculture. Their evidence for this is what the two Sheikhs Imam Abu Abd Allah Al-Bukhari and Imam Muslim narrated on the authority of Abd Allah bin Omar (Allah be pleased with them both) that he said: <<I heard the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) say: Whoever acquires a dog--except a dog for agriculture or herding--each day qiratan will be removed from his reward.>> And Imam Muslim said: <<Abu Hurayra (Allah be pleased with him) said, &or a dog for agriculture while he is a farmer.>> This hadith is universal, encompassing all dogs except for the mentioned purposes, since the word whoever[man] indicates universality. Rewards being removed indicates prohibition, and the root meaning of prohibition is it being unlawful [tahrim]. However, some of the scholars said that the prohibition here indicates offensiveness [karahah] since the reward reduces a bit at a time, and if it was unlawful it would go all at once. So the meaning is that it is not permissible to acquire a dog except for someone who acquired it to guard his agriculture, herd or to hunt with it. The Hanafis, Malikis and Shafis add acquiring a dog to guard alleys and houses, while the Hanbalis prohibited it. The evidence for the ones who allow it is that it is analogous to the types that were removed in the previous hadith, since guarding houses has the same meaning. The evidence for the ones who prohibit is that making it analogous to those types permits what the textual evidence includes as being unlawful, and that guarding houses does not have the same meaning since a thief could spoof the dog by getting him to leave the house and then steal the goods, and because acquiring it for houses harms passers-by in contrast to the desert. As for acquiring dogs for a reason not mentioned above, the Malikis said that it is offensive when the dog is not aggressive, and that aggressive dogs are unlawful. Imam Al-Nawawi mentions that one of the reasons for which it is not permissible to take a dog is being awed by its appearance. Ibn Muflih mentions that it is offensive to acquire a dog for the sake of entertainment or play. The Malikis consider it unlawful to acquire dogs inside the house without there being a permissible reason, whether in cities or the desert. The majority of Shafiis and Hanbalis said that it is permissible to raise puppies for one of the reasons for which it is permissible to acquire them. Their evidence for this is that it is not permissible to acquire a dog unless it is trained, and it cannot become trained except by training it and acquiring it during the time it is trained, and something that is a condition for something else takes its ruling. And Allah Most High has said, (Al-Maidah 4), and there is no such thing as a trained dog without training. The evidence of those who prohibit it is that the leniency is only mentioned concerning three. -- Musa Furber