Did the Prophet Muhammad have a cat?

Did the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ have a cat? A lovely story says he did: a cat named Muezza fell asleep on the sleeve of his robe, and when the call to prayer came he cut off the sleeve rather than wake her. The story is told in children’s books and shared every day online. No authentic source supports it. The authentic Sunnah, however, has something better to offer: real reports of cats in the house and mosque of the Prophet ﷺ, his ruling that they are pure, and his warning that cruelty to a cat can lead a person to the Fire.

Where does the story of Muezza come from?

Scholars who have searched the hadith collections, the early biographies (sīra), and the books on the character of the Prophet ﷺ (shamāʾil) have found no cat named Muezza and no story of a cut sleeve. The closest early report concerns a different man. Al-Dhahabī (d. 1348), in his biographical dictionary Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ, tells a story of tenderness toward a cat about Aḥmad al-Rifāʿī (d. 1182), the Sufi master of southern Iraq. Over the centuries a saint’s story seems to have drifted onto the Prophet ﷺ himself.

Another popular line, “love of cats is part of faith,” has the same problem. Hadith critics such as al-Ṣaghānī (d. 1252) and Mullā ʿAlī al-Qārī (d. 1606) listed it among fabricated sayings.

Saying so is an act of love for the Prophet ﷺ, since he warned severely against attributing to him what he did not say (Sahih al-Bukhari 110). How Muslim scholars sorted sound reports from weak ones is explained in Are all hadith authentic?

What do authentic hadith say about cats?

Kabsha bint Kaʿb reported that her father-in-law, the Companion Abu Qatāda, sat down to make wudu when a cat came to the water. He tilted the bowl so it could drink. Seeing her surprise, he told her that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had said of cats:

«إِنَّهَا لَيْسَتْ بِنَجَسٍ إِنَّهَا مِنَ الطَّوَّافِينَ عَلَيْكُمْ وَالطَّوَّافَاتِ»

“She is not impure. Cats are among those who go about among you, coming and going.”

Sunan Abi Dawud 75

Al-Albani graded this hadith hasan sahih. The Prophet ﷺ described cats as members of the household who wander in and out, the way servants and children do, and he drew a ruling of purity from their place in daily life.

Aisha confirmed it in practice. When a cat ate from a dish of food set down near her while she prayed, she afterward ate from the very place the cat had eaten, and she said she had seen the Prophet ﷺ make wudu with water a cat had drunk from (Sunan Abi Dawud 76, graded sahih by al-Albani).

Why was Abu Hurayra called “father of the kitten”?

The Companion who narrated more hadith than almost anyone carried a cat in his name. Asked how he came to be called Abu Hurayra, “father of the little cat,” he explained that as a young shepherd he kept a small cat. He set it in a tree at night and played with it during the day, so people named him after it (Jami’ al-Tirmidhi 3840, graded hasan).

The Prophet ﷺ used the nickname with affection, calling him Abā Hirr, “father of the cat.” Once Abu Hurayra slipped away to bathe because he felt unfit to sit with the Prophet ﷺ in a state of ritual impurity. When he returned, the Prophet ﷺ said: “Glory be to Allah, Abā Hirr! The believer never becomes impure” (Sahih al-Bukhari 285).

What happens to someone who mistreats a cat?

The Prophet ﷺ described a woman whose deeds were weighed down by a single cruelty:

«دَخَلَتِ امْرَأَةٌ النَّارَ فِي هِرَّةٍ رَبَطَتْهَا، فَلَمْ تُطْعِمْهَا، وَلَمْ تَدَعْهَا تَأْكُلُ مِنْ خِشَاشِ الأَرْضِ»

“A woman entered the Fire because of a cat. She tied it up, and neither fed it nor let it go to eat the small creatures of the earth.”

Sahih al-Bukhari 3318

Its mirror image is the man forgiven for giving water to a thirsty dog (Can Muslims have dogs?). Together they teach that an animal in your care has a claim on you before Allah. The Quran says every creature on earth and every bird on the wing belongs to a community like ours:

وَمَا مِن دَآبَّةٖ فِي ٱلۡأَرۡضِ وَلَا طَـٰٓئِرٖ يَطِيرُ بِجَنَاحَيۡهِ إِلَّآ أُمَمٌ أَمۡثَالُكُم

“There is no creature that walks the earth and no bird that flies on its two wings but they are communities like you.”

Quran 6:38

Can Muslims keep cats as pets?

Yes, and Muslims have done so with joy for fourteen centuries. Cats sleep in the courtyards of the great mosques of Istanbul and Cairo. The Mamluk sultan al-Ẓāhir Baybars (d. 1277) left a garden in Cairo as an endowment (waqf) to feed and shelter the city’s cats. Feeding strays is a charity, and taking a cat into your home brings a creature of Allah under your protection.

Caring for a cat well means food and clean water, shelter, veterinary care, and neutering where it prevents suffering (Can Muslims spay, neuter, or put down a pet?). A cat may share your prayer room and walk across your mat without harming your ṣalāh. More on the Quran’s view of animals is in What does Islam say about animals?

Mercy to all the worlds

The Muezza story is loved because it fits what Muslims know of the Prophet ﷺ, even if it never happened. Allah describes him in a single line:

وَمَآ أَرۡسَلۡنَٰكَ إِلَّا رَحۡمَةٗ لِّلۡعَٰلَمِينَ

“We sent you only as a mercy to all the worlds.”

Quran 21:107

A mercy to all the worlds includes the small worlds of the creatures who come and go among us. The next time a cat curls up beside you, pour it some water and remember the words of the Prophet ﷺ: “she is not impure.” In that small kindness you are following his Sunnah.