#125: Ruling on the Hadith Concerning the Impurity of Dogs
” Salaam alaykum warahmotullahi wabarakatuhu . I will like you to clarify me on this Hadith, how authentic it is and the solution to the case. It goes thus” if a dog rub it’s body or tongue on one’s cloth or plate or kettle, those things can’t be use for solat or eating until it’s washed seven times and the eighth time with sand” Please if so, how should it be correctly done and if not, what’s the authentic standing on how to treat the cloth or shoe, if a dog by mistake touches one during a visit to a family/friend that has dogs. Jazakumullahu khairan……”_
*ANSWER*
Wa alaykum Salām Warahmatullāh Wabarakātuh.
Alhamdulillāh.
There is no such Hadīth on the surface of the earth from the tongue of the Honored Rasūl – salallāhu alayhi wasallam – and whosoever quotes him – salallāhu alayhi wasallam – to have said that have lied on him. We seek refuge from that, āmīn.
Rather, what has been authentically reported and recorded from the Rasūl – salallāhu alayhi wasallam – is the Hadīth in which He – salallāhu alayhi wasallam – said:
: ((طهور إناء أحدكم إذا ولغ فيه الكلب: أن يغسله سبع مرات، أولاهن بالتراب))
_”The purification of the container of any of you, if a dog licks in it is that he washes it seven times, the first of them with sand.”_
This is recorded by Imām Muslim from Hishām Hishām Ibn Hassān from Muhammad Ibn Sīrīn from Abū Hurayrah – radiyallāhu anhu.
And in his recording from Hammām Ibn Munabbah from Abu Hurayrah, there isn’t a mention of _”the first of them with sand”_
Some other phrasings of the Hadīth came with a mention of _”the last of them with sand”_
For this reason and for the reason of other similar phrasings of the Hadīth, the Ulamā have differed with regards the order with which the purification is to be made.
The Muhaddith Imam Ibn Hajar Al-Asqalāni – rahimahullāh – maintained in the Fat’h that proponderence goes to the first phrasing for the reason that its narrators are more in number and stronger of memory than the narrators of the other phrasings.
The inference from that is that whenever a dog has placed its mouth or nose on a container, it should be washed seven times as a purification, the first of the seven with sand.
That is for containers.
As for the generality of the impurity of dogs, the Ulamā have differed on this.
The Kufan School hold that the excretion from a dog was Najis (impure) but its body is pure.
The Mālikī Madh’hab consider both the excretion and the body as pure, using as evidence some Hadīth where it is mentioned that there were dogs in Madīnah. They considered the above Hadīth restricted to the impurity known only to Allāh.
The majority position, which is shared by both the Shāfi’īs and the Hanbalīs is that the dog is impure, both excretion and body. *This is the most correct position* and it is supported by the Precepts and Principles of Fiqh upon which the Fuqahā are agreed.
Note that by excretion here, we mean all that comes from its body: waste, saliva, sweat.
Imām An-Nawawī – rahimahullāh – said in Tue Majmū’:
_”The position of our School is that all of dog is impure; the hunting and non-hunting dog, the small and elder dog. This was also the position of Al-Awzā’ī, Ahmad, Ishāq, Abū Thawr and Abū ‘Ubayd…”_
Therefore, if your cloth or shoe is touched, licked or sniffed by a dog, you should wash only the spot of the dog’s contamination. If however, you doubt the exact spot, even by approximation, you should wash the entire cloth/shoe.
But, do not be excessive in that for the Command to wash seven times was only made as regards a container used for either drinking, eating or water- touching.
As for your clothes, it suffices as we have explained above.
Allāhu A’alam
Bārakallāhu Fīkum
Jazākumullāhu Khayran.
29th Safar 1438.
📚 *IslamNode*
