Keeping a Dog: Impermissibility Explained

Assalamu alaikum,

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.

The general impermissibility, concurred upon by the majority of Sunni scholarship, is clear from the following hadith:

It has reported in Bukhari and Muslim on the authority of Ibn Umar (Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “Whoever acquires a dog, except a hunting dog or for shepherding, his reward will decrease each day by large measures.”

(Nahlawi, Al-Durar u’l-Mubaha fi’l-Hadhr wa’l-Ibaha, 267)

This is why it is permissible to sell hunting dogs. (Ibid, pg 87)

One cannot keep a dog as a pet in the 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 s dog or pictures.”