Is One Allowed to Keep Abused Dogs?
Hanafi Fiqh
Answered by Mawlana Ilyas Patel
Question
I rescue street dogs from abuse and harm. I try to rehome them, but it doesn’t always work, so their options are either the street or a shelter, and shelters don’t accept dogs that aren’t in a severe (life/death) case. So now I have two dogs. I have had them for over five years. My intention in keeping them is to protect them from what they’ve gone through. Of course, they protect me and my husband, but that isn’t the MAIN intention of keeping them.
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate.
I pray you are in good faith and health. Thank you for your question.
Allah Most High reward you for rescuing these types of dogs and finding a suitable home for them. However, it would be best if you kept them outside your house in a comfortable dog kennel and not in the house.
Islamically, it is prohibitively disliked (makruh tahriman) to keep a dog in the house. You could keep it outside right next to your house where you can watch them, and they over you as guard dogs by facilitating them in a comfortable dog kennel.
In the Hanafi school, it is prohibitively disliked to keep a dog as a pet, yet one may keep a hunting dog or a guard dog to protect one’s property, harvest, sheep, or cattle. [‘Ala’ al-Din Ibn ‘Abidin, al-Hadiyya al-‘Ala’iyya; Nahlawi, al-Durar al-Mubaha]
Forgiveness Due to Animal Welfare
The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “Once a man suffered from thirst while he was walking on a journey. When he found a well, he climbed down into it and drank from it. Then he came out and saw a dog lolling its tongue from thirst and licking the ground. The man said, ‘This dog has suffered thirst just as I have suffered from it.’ He climbed down into the well, filled his shoe with water, and caught it in his mouth as he climbed up. Then he gave the dog a drink. Allah appreciated this deed, so He forgave him.” [Bukhari]
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Wassalam,
[Mawlana] Ilyas Patel
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Mawlana Ilyas Patel is a traditionally trained scholar who has studied in the UK, India, Pakistan, Syria, Jordan, and Turkey. He started his early education in the UK. He went on to complete the hifz of the Quran in India, then enrolled in an Islamic seminary in the UK, where he studied the secular and ‘Aalimiyya sciences. He then traveled to Karachi, Pakistan. He has been an Imam in Rep of Ireland for several years. He has taught hifz of the Quran, Tajwid, Fiqh, and many other Islamic sciences to children and adults onsite and online extensively in the UK and Ireland. He taught at a local Islamic seminary for 12 years in the UK, where he was a librarian and a teacher of Islamic sciences. He currently resides in the UK with his wife. His interest is a love of books and gardening.
