#497: Ruling on using Dogs as Security Pets

QUESTION

” As salam alaykm yah sheikh. What about keeping dogs to protect the house? Since the hadith only mentioned farms and hunting”

ANSWER

Wa alaykum Salām Warahmatullāh Wabarakātuh.

Alhamdulillāh.

With regards to this, the Ulamā differed slightly.

Of them are those that insisted that the permisibility to rare dogs is restricted to the three mentioned in the Hadīth we quoted in our answer to the original question, which are dogs of hunting, those used to keep the security of farms, and those used to secure cattle in the wild.

Other Ulamā considered that the causative factor ‘Al-Illa’ is necessary security

And therefore held that if one were to be living in isolation and there is legitimate fear for security that cannot be secured by other means aside the use of dogs, then it were permissible.

Imām Al-Irāqī – rahimahullāh – said in ‘Tarhu Ath-Tathrīb:

وقال أصحابنا وغيرهم : يجوز اقتناء الكلب لهذه المنافع الثلاثة وهي الاصطياد به، وحفظ الماشية، والزرع . واختلفوا في اقتنائه لخصلة رابعة، وهي اقتناؤه لحفظ الدور والدروب ونحوها فقال بعض أصحابنا: لا يجوز لهذا الحديث وغيره فإنه مصرح بالنهي إلا لأحد هذه الأمور الثلاثة, وقال أكثرهم، وهو الأصح : يجوز قياسا على الثلاثة عملا بالعلة المفهومة من الحديث وهي الحاجة
“And our fellows and other than them maintained that it were permissible to rare dogs for these three benefits. And they are for the purposes of hunting, safeguarding cattle and farms. And they differed concerning raring them for a fourth purpose. And that is raring it for the purpose of protecting homes, streets, and their likes. In that regard, some of our fellows said it is not permissible due to the reason of this Hadīth and its like for it is clearly mentioned that it were forbidden except in one of the three mentioned. And the majority of them said, and it is the more correct, that it is permissible by way of Qiyās on the three by way of using the Causative Factor that can be deduced from the Hadīth, and that is necessity of need.”

Thus Al-Irāqī considered it permissible, this position was also held by Shaykh Ibn Sālih Al-Uthaymīn and other than him of the Ulamā of the time.

That said, it should be known that the condition stated here is that there isn’t another way to ward of the insecurity aside the taking of dogs.
And Allah knows best.

Bārakallāhu fīkum
Jazākumullāhu Khayran.

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