Can Muslims have dogs?

Many Muslims grow up hearing that dogs are dirty, that angels flee from them, and that a good Muslim home has no dog in it. Others have a dog they love, or a child who longs for one, and wonder if they are doing wrong. The Quran and the Sunnah give a warmer picture. Muslims can have dogs. Keeping a dog is halal, a dog’s companionship is a blessing, and the care you give it is rewarded by Allah.

What does the Quran say about dogs?

The Quran mentions a dog in one of its most beloved stories. The young believers who fled persecution and slept for centuries in a cave were not alone. Their dog kept watch at the entrance:

وَكَلۡبُهُم بَٰسِطٞ ذِرَاعَيۡهِ بِٱلۡوَصِيدِ

“And their dog lay stretched out, its forelegs across the threshold.”

Quran 18:18

When people later argued about how many sleepers there were, the Quran counts the dog with them every time: “they will say seven, and the eighth was their dog” (18:22). The dog belongs to the story of the friends of Allah.

The Quran also permits hunting with trained dogs and eating what they catch:

قُلۡ أُحِلَّ لَكُمُ ٱلطَّيِّبَٰتُ وَمَا عَلَّمۡتُم مِّنَ ٱلۡجَوَارِحِ مُكَلِّبِينَ تُعَلِّمُونَهُنَّ مِمَّا عَلَّمَكُمُ ٱللَّهُۖ فَكُلُواْ مِمَّآ أَمۡسَكۡنَ عَلَيۡكُمۡ

“Say: All good things are lawful for you, and so is what is caught by the hunting animals you have trained, teaching them from what Allah has taught you. So eat what they catch for you.”

Quran 5:4

The Maliki jurists noticed that the verse asks nobody to wash the game a dog has carried in its mouth. Allah calls the training of a dog a kind of teaching from His own knowledge.

What did the Prophet ﷺ teach about dogs?

The Prophet ﷺ told his Companions of a traveler who, parched with thirst, climbed down a well to drink. When he came up he saw a dog panting and licking the damp earth. He went back down, filled his leather sock with water, held it in his teeth as he climbed, and gave the dog a drink. “Allah thanked him for it and forgave him.” The Companions asked if there is reward even in animals, and he answered:

«فَسَقَى الْكَلْبَ فَشَكَرَ اللَّهُ لَهُ، فَغَفَرَ لَهُ» … «فِي كُلِّ كَبِدٍ رَطْبَةٍ أَجْرٌ»

“He gave the dog water, and Allah thanked him and forgave him… In every living creature there is a reward.”

Sahih al-Bukhari 2363

In another report he told of a prostitute among the Children of Israel who saw a dog dying of thirst beside a well, drew water for it with her shoe, and was forgiven for it (Sahih al-Bukhari 3467). A dog was the means of her salvation.

Dogs were also part of daily life in Medina. ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that in the time of the Prophet ﷺ dogs used to come and go in the mosque, and the Companions did not wash the floor after them (Sahih al-Bukhari 174).

Are dogs impure (najis) in Islam?

The schools of law differ, and the open view has the oldest roots. Imam Malik (d. 795), the imam of Medina, held that every living animal is pure, the dog included. His school treats the washing of a dish a dog has drunk from, which the Prophet ﷺ commanded seven times (Sahih al-Bukhari 172), as an act of devotion (taʿabbudī) rather than a sign that the dog is filthy. As Khaled Abou El Fadl explains in his study of dogs in the Islamic tradition, Maliki jurists held that everything in nature is presumed pure unless proven otherwise, and they found the reports against dogs too weak to overturn that presumption.

The Hanafi school holds that the dog’s body is not impure in itself, though its saliva is. The Shafiʿi and Hanbali schools, and the Jaʿfari (Shia) school, consider the dog impure and ask for washing where its saliva touches. In 2020 Egypt’s Grand Mufti, Shawki Allam, said that dogs are pure and may be kept at home without affecting prayer.

What about the hadith on angels and the reduced reward?

Two reports are often quoted against keeping dogs. One says angels do not enter a house that has a dog or images in it (Sahih al-Bukhari 3225). The other says that whoever keeps a dog loses a portion (qīrāṭ) of reward each day, “except a dog for farming or herding,” and in other versions “or hunting” (Sahih al-Bukhari 2322).

The second report shows that keeping dogs was never banned outright: the Prophet ﷺ himself named dogs that serve a purpose. Jurists extended his exceptions by analogy to dogs that guard homes, and scholars today extend them to guide dogs for the blind, rescue and police dogs, and therapy dogs. Companionship for a lonely elderly person or a grieving child is a real benefit too. The report about angels is read by many in the light of these permissions, the same way scholars read its mention of images (Is it haram to have pictures in your house?).

Muslim culture also kept a fondness for dogs. In tenth-century Baghdad, Ibn al-Marzubān (d. 921) wrote The Superiority of Dogs over Many of Those Who Wear Clothes, praising their loyalty above that of faithless friends.

How should a Muslim care for a dog?

A dog in the home is an amāna, a trust, and the duties are clear:

• Feed it, give it water, and shelter it. The Prophet ﷺ warned of a woman punished for starving a cat (Did the Prophet ﷺ have a cat?).
• Keep it healthy. Veterinary care, exercise, and a clean space are part of good treatment (Can Muslims spay, neuter, or put down a pet?).
• Keep a clean place for prayer. A prayer mat or a room the dog does not enter makes life easy in every school. Touching a dog does not break wudu (What breaks wudu?).
• Respect guests and neighbors. Some Muslims are anxious around dogs because of how they were raised. Kindness to people comes with kindness to animals.

Allah calls every animal a community like our own (6:38), and a dog who waits at your door each evening is one of His creatures praising Him in its own way (What does Islam say about animals?). May Allah reward you for every bowl of water you set down, as He rewarded the traveler at the well.