Posted on by Kit

A victim of Muslims’ misunderstanding: The dog

— Arif Fahmi Md Yusof
The Malay Mail Online
July 31, 2013

KUALA LUMPUR, July 31 — The uploading of a video of a Malay Muslim celebrating Hari Raya in the facebook with his three dogs invites voluminous responses from Malaysians especially Muslims. Most of the Muslims consider the video as insulting Islam. Many regard this video as insulting episode in the Holy month of Ramadhan for Muslims. Regrettably, in this Holy month of Ramadhan, many use a very offensive and indecent language in the social media, commenting this video.

What is insulting here? It is about the dog. Muslims generally are sensitive to dogs. For majority of Muslims particularly in Malaysia, dogs are impure. Many Muslims try to avoid contacts with dogs. The intention of the person who uploaded the video may be good, to appreciate the similarities between the creation of God and to promote kindness towards animals especially the dog. Unfortunately, the cultural perspective in Malaysia is against this idea.

Many people often adhere to an idea they heard without examining whether it is legally correct. Therefore, it is usual to find people who easily believe in erroneous ideas that may have no basis or evidence. In Islam it is pertinent to understand its teachings and observe them. The primary consideration in dealing with other beings, especially animals is promoting kindness and avoiding cruelty.

An act of kindness to the dogs is recorded in one hadith where a man gave a dog water to drink using his shoe as the vessel to contain the water. The hadith praises the man, and Allah forgives his sins as a result of his kind act of providing the dog water.

The Quran in some occasions mentions the dogs. In one of the most popular story of cave sleepers, the Quran also regards a place for a dog as similar to other humans when they were trapped in a cave. The Quran clearly mentions the position of a dog as one of the individuals that comprised in a group, doing what exactly the others are doing.

The verse clearly portrays the dog as important individual in the group and made no negative comment about its presence in the group, who are protected by Allah. The dog did not cause problem or trouble and there was no warning in the verses to keep away from the dog in the verse.

Furthermore, dogs are common in the time of Prophet Muhammad. They were part of daily life of people and shared the same environment.

During the Prophet’s time, the dog would enter mosques and even urinate in them. In one of the hadith, it is reported that the dogs would come and go easily into the mosque, and no one would sprinkle water on those areas of the mosque. It was also reported that a puppy once went under the Prophet’s bed.

The main sensitive issue relating to the dog is the question of purity. The four main school of laws differs on the question of purity of the dog. Some scholars mainly in Shafi’i and Hanbali schools of laws, believe that dogs are impure. Therefore, if a person touches a dog or licked by a dog, he has to wash that portion of the body or clothing before prayer.

The Maliki school of law does not consider dogs impure at all. Hanafi school of law regards the saliva of dogs to be impure. Therefore, only the part of body or clothing that the dog’s saliva touched needs to be washed and purified before prayer.

Majority of Muslims in Malaysia follow Shafi’i school of law. They may regard dog as impure or najis, which is in fact washable. At the same time, they must respect other opinions in other school of laws that consider dogs as pure.

Islam encourages its believers to learn, understand and adhere to its teaching. Differences of opinion do not permit Muslims to hate each other. It is a time for Muslims in Malaysia to appreciate the differences and diversity.

19 Replies to “A victim of Muslims’ misunderstanding: The dog”

  1. Surprised that a few poor dogs could arouse so much hoo-ha in the country, with so many seditious remarks being made in the cyber world. This goes to show that we are after all not a tolerant society as we claim to be. It is sad to see this poor Malay lady being detained over the video clip while a long list of others who have insulted/made threats against the Chinese, Indians and Christians remain scot-free.

  2. So this is a question of interpretation? Datuk Zaid Ibrahim wrote in MalaysiaInsider expressing support for the 4 muslim girls ‘trying to maximise their talents and find a good career, perhaps in modelling or acting’ who wanted to take part in Miss Malaysia World 2013 beauty contest but was stopped by JAWI. Zaid said he was fighting for a principle and “that principle is this: Malaysia is a democracy. It is a country founded on freedom and liberty. If people have forgotten, they should go back to the Proclamation of Independence of our truly great leader Tunku Abdul Rahman.This issue is not about the beauty contest per se, nor is it about morality and religious values.It’s about living in a society that cherishes personal freedom and liberty and that no one else should be allowed to regulate the lives of the people, Muslims included, for to allow this would be to make a mockery of the legislative process and the representatives of the Rakyat.. Freedom has its limits”, of course, but those limits must themselves be limited by laws passed by Parliament…”

  3. Datuk Zaid Ibrahim further said “Today it’s shisha smoking, beauty contests, hair salons. Tomorrow we will have prohibitions on women engaging in sports and body-building contests — or even driving. Or we will have prohibitions against men wearing shorts. Maybe music and movies will be the next casualty after that. And the list will go on”. So is dog trainer Maznah Mohd Yusof the latest added to list?Zaid said, “I am disappointed with the organisers who “chickened out”. I am disappointed with the Bar Council, with Anwar Ibrahim the liberal Islamist, the DAP and those out there who always talk about freedom and living in a free country, but who do nothing and say nothing about defending a very simple principle.” So its more than just chastising the DPM for jumping the gun. Its about the principle that Zaid mentioned. What do you have to say to this?

  4. This incident is a perfect example of how someone like Muhiyiddin and there are many in UMNO simply through his mediocrity and politics just wrecks havocs on innocent bystanders. Its a WASTE OF OUR TIME and PRIORITIES. In particular, its a costly imposition to those he spills his venoms and poison like Maznah who no one, including most Malays, would have bothered if what she did did not catch the attention of the powerful..

    The simple issue is the politics of UMNO/BN is not so innocent and at the very least a burden of us and include those who hardly can even afford it..

  6. It appears that even among the Muslims opinions are divided about the status of the dog. Some say clean and OK whilst others says ‘No’ because they are dirty but does not explain why. So the religion itself is not clear on this point. Why then does some people impose their beliefs and values on the others? Can differences in opinion not survive in religions. Should the ‘wisdom’ of a select and privileged few prevail without comment and debate to be blindly followed by, by …. the sheep?

  10. They should differentiate between wild/homeless animals, which are more likely to contain rabies in them than well-trained pet dogs (which were seen in the video). Also, I do not know why they have to react in such a beastly manner toward the poor girl? All religions/religious teachings are meant to teach human beings to tame and control that part of them which is beastly and instinctual, which hits out at anything or anyone deemed to have offended them, just like how animals react when attacked/offended.

  12. This country is the only one who claims to be moderate and a shining example of a progressive Islamic state yet is entirely paranoid about anything related to the religion. No one outside of Moslems have the right to say anything, talk about being progressive :) Try looking at your neighbors and see if they are as paranoid.

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