Keeping a Dog in the House…
Salam,
Arf Arf! Maybe one day when you have a big house, with a white fence, green sparkling grass and are eating sunny side up eggs, it might cross your mind to have a dog in your house. You know the American dream. Hopefully the devil won’t whisper in your ears like he did with mike vick and make you enjoy dog fights. 
As Muslim’s we follow what Islam tells us to follow and we try our best to understand the wisdom in all that it teaches us. Meaning rulings which lay out what is permissible for us in our life’s and what is impermissible.
Even if we don’t understand why something is haram or halal completely, if God Almighty tells us its not allowed, we have an obligation to follow it. Remember divine rights?
So if you love God and you love all of his Blessed Prophets ( Peace be upon them all), you will make constant effort to follow what they tell us. We seek knowledge and we don’t transgress the parameters which Allah has laid out for us.
So going back to the “dog topic”, I’m not here to follow DMX’s phatwa… I am here to give you the reasons why we can’t have a dog in the house from authentic narration’s.
From the Hanafi Position as Said on Sunnipath, Shaykh Faraz Rabbani states ” In the Hanafi school of Sacred law owing a dog is allowed when the dog is needed for a task dogs are suited fro, such as hunting, shepherding, or protecting cattle or domestic property.”
That’s the first part, now let’s get to the main issue. Can I keep a dog in my house?
It has been reported in Bukhari and Muslim on the authority of Abu Talha that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, Angels do not enter a house in which there is a dog or pictures.
No Angels means more devils. Now obviously that is pretty straight forward and should be sufficient for you as Muslim to understand the reason why we can’t have a dog in the house. Some people tell me but dog’s tongues are real clean, they are house pets, so on and so fourth. The bottom line is no, and I hope inshallah you believe it and recognize that there is benefit in keeping it outside the house.
Meow, go buy a cat. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said ” They (cats) are not najis, rather they are of those who go around amongst you”
Every dog has it’s day, I don’t hate any animal. As Muslim’s we have to recognize animal rights. I wrote an article on it here.
Also to specify another issue, WE AS MUSLIM’S CANNOT ABUSE ANIMALS. Our Prophet Muhammad said “Do not abuse the creation of Allah.” [ Narrated by Abu Dawud and others]. We all know the story of the prostitute who gave the thirsty dog water and God gave her heaven.
On the flip side, there is also an hadith Abd-Allah ibn ‘umar (May Allah be pleased with them both), according to which the messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings be upon him) said : ” A woman was punished because of a cat which she kept locked up until it died, and she entered hell because of it, because she did not feed it or give it water when she kept it locked up, neither did she let it eat from the vermin of the earth.
So May Allah increase us in knowledge and help us understand the wisdom in the Quran and Sunnah…Ameen!