Evilness of the Dog

 

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

والصلاة والسلام عليك يا رسول الله

In the Name of Allah, the Rahman, the Merciful

One of the major cultural barriers between Muslims and non-Muslims—especially Whites/Europeans or “Western” people—is the issue of the dog. According to the Islamic Shari’ah, dogs are unclean (najis) and are to be avoided. Keeping a pet dog is therefore strictly forbidden in Islam. Some Muslims have attempted to challenge the common perception of dogs in Islam by mentioning the story of the dog of Ashab-al-Kahf as mentioned in the Holy Quran. However, I pointed out that some of the early Mufassirin (commentators on the Quran) explained that it was not a literal dog. On the other hand, Allah presents the following parable about the unbelievers in the Quran:

فَمَثَلُہٗ کَمَثَلِ الۡکَلۡبِ ۚ اِنۡ تَحۡمِلۡ عَلَیۡہِ یَلۡہَثۡ اَوۡ تَتۡرُکۡہُ یَلۡہَثۡ ؕ ذٰلِکَ مَثَلُ الۡقَوۡمِ الَّذِیۡنَ کَذَّبُوۡا بِاٰیٰتِنَا ۚ فَاقۡصُصِ الۡقَصَصَ لَعَلَّہُمۡ یَتَفَکَّرُوۡنَ

His parable is the parable of the dog. If you attack him he pants with his tongue out and if you leave him he (still) pants with his tongue out. That is a parable for the people who belie Our Signs. So relate the stories that perhaps they may reflect

(7:176)

The Holy Prophet Muhammad, sall Allahu alaihi wasallam, said

لاَ تَدْخُلُ الْمَلاَئِكَةُ بَيْتًا فِيهِ كَلْبٌ وَلاَ تَصَاوِيرُ

The Angels do not enter a house in which there is a dog or an image

(Sahih al-Bukhari)

He, sall Allahu alaihi wasallam, also said,

إِذَا شَرِبَ الْكَلْبُ فِي إِنَاءِ أَحَدِكُمْ فَلْيَغْسِلْهُ سَبْعًا

If a dog drinks from a vessel of any of you then wash it seven times

(ibid)

The saliva of a dog is extremely unclean. It is worse than even the pig. Yet I have witnessed disturbing and disgusting scenes of unbelievers, especially Whites/Europeans or “Western” people, having their faces licked by their pet dogs, and often not even washing their face thereafter! Allah is my witness, I have seen some of them that their faces become hideous and repulsive to behold as a consequence of such a nasty habit.

The strict Islamic teaching against dogs is indeed a barrier to many Whites/Europeans and other unbelievers converting to Islam. So extreme is their love for the dog that it is not uncommon for these people to even sexually abuse their pet dogs. Such shocking instances are frequently reported in the news and media these days, especially cases involving a woman having sex with her own pet dog! In fact, the most common type of zoophilia or beastiality in the world is sexual abuse of dogs. Now it becomes clear why there is much resistance from a certain demographic to Islam.

Many Christians and Jews criticize Islam for its attitude toward dogs, conveniently ignoring what their own Bible has to say on the subject. Virtually every reference to dogs in the Bible is quite negative:

Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the Lord thy God for any vow: for even both these are abomination unto the Lord thy God (Deuteronomy 23:18)

The Holy Prophet Muhammad, sall Allahu alaihi wasallam, decreed the same while also adding to this prohibition the earning of a soothsayer:

أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم نَهَى عَنْ ثَمَنِ الْكَلْبِ وَمَهْرِ الْبَغِيِّ وَحُلْوَانِ الْكَاهِنِ

The Apostle of Allah, sall Allahu alaihi wasallam, prohibited the price of a dog, the hire of a prostitute and the earnings of a soothsayer (Sahih al-Bukhari)

For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet...Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog. (Psalm 22:16,20)

As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly (Proverbs 26:11)

Like Solomon, the Holy Prophet Muhammad, sall Allahu alaihi wasallam, gave a similar parable concerning one who repossesses a gift he gave to someone:

لَيْسَ لَنَا مَثَلُ السَّوْءِ الَّذِي يَعُودُ فِي هِبَتِهِ كَالْكَلْبِ يَرْجِعُ فِي قَيْئِهِ

For us is not this evil parable: The one who has his gift returned is like a dog that goes back to its vomit (Sahih al-Bukhari)

Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough (Isaiah 56:11)

Now read what Jesus Christ himself said about dogs:

Give not that which is holy unto the dogs (Matthew 7:6)

It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs (Matthew 15:26; Mark 7:27)

And read what else is said about dogs in the rest of the New Testament:

Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision (Philippians 3:2)

But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again (2 Peter 2:22)

For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie (Revelation 22:15)

Those who single out Islam for criticism on the issue of the dog should also consider the attitude of Judaism: The negative attitude toward dogs persists in the Talmud, which frequently regards dogs as dangerous animals. Though the Talmud in Baba Kama states that it is permissible to keep certain kinds of dogs that are useful for preventing infestations of vermin, it also states that dogs must be kept chained and that those who “raise” (the Hebrew word used here is the same as the one used for rearing children) dogs are cursed. Elsewhere, the tractate records a case in which a woman miscarried because a dog barked at her. One talmudic sage states that the owner of a dog whose bark is capable of triggering a miscarriage causes the presence of God to depart from the Jewish people. In the Jewish mystical tradition, dogs are symbols of the demonic. The Zohar, the core text of Jewish mysticism, says that evil in the world is like a vicious dog on a long leash. Among modern religious authorities, Rabbi Jacob Emden, an 18th-century German authority, permitted dogs for economic or security reasons. However, to keep a dog merely for pleasure is “precisely the behavior of the uncircumcised,” he said.