Hey, Pluto! Can I pat you?

*this entry was supposed to be posted a week ago, but there was some bad internet connection* 

Assalamualaikum, readers.

Today’s entry is quite a sensitive issue. *inhales and exhales* I’ll try and keep my cool on this entry, don’t worry.

Currently in Malaysia, people are battling back and forth about dogs.

Say whaaattttt?

Yeah.

We can't do this? Bummer!

I have no clue what initiated it, but out of nowhere, more and more Muslims were posting pictures and statuses on social networks about dogs.

One girl rescued a dog and snapped a few pictures of the dog sitting on her lap, while another guy snapped a picture of feeding a dog outside his house.

Out of nowhere, came out this campaign, “Touch a dog” and people went haywire!

Lots of Muslims were against this, and they were not shy of sharing their opinions. Hate comments were shared on social networks, people were arguing about this openly, the ustazs gave their piece of minds…and finally, the person who started the campaign apologized publicly.

Even so, there was one video about how DANGEROUS dogs are to humans.

I watched the video and I thought it is only right if I could set things straight.

First of all…

Dogs are not HARAAM!

Well, it depends on how you see it. If you’re talking about eating a dog (or a pig), yeah, that’s haraam. Touching a dog is not haraam. It’s just ‘dirty’.

If you stepped into mud, and your shoes get dirty, what do you do?

You wash your shoes until they are clean, right?

Same goes to the dogs. If you get in contact with them in any way, all you have to do is clean the particular area. But, it’s not just spraying water over the area with lots of soap.

In Islam, we have a specific way to clean ourselves if we get in contact with dogs and pigs. We need six buckets of water and another bucket of water mixed with soil. After that, you’re completely fine!

You can pray, read the Holy Quraan…whatever! You’re good to go!

Second of all…

Dogs are not HARMFUL!

Based on the video I watched (a documentary done in Australia), the host revealed how harmful man’s best friends are. The host was talking about parasites that are found in dogs, Echinococcus granulosus.

The true story about dogs and parasites is, (currently squeezing my brain out for all these facts) the dogs will only get infected IF and ONLY IF the dog consumed some infected meat (infected sheep, lamb or cow). Apparently, this parasite is found on grass and when a healthy ruminant eats the grass that is infected with the parasite, the parasite will colonize the ruminants. The parasite infects the main organs of the ruminants, usually the lungs, muscle and brain.

And, when the infected ruminants are butchered, the parasites live on. 

Problem arises when these meat that has live parasites on them are fed to domestic dogs, then, the parasites will colonize the dogs. The parasite can be transmitted to humans, by contact.

So…as long as you’re feeding your dogs with dog food, or uninfected meat, your dog is clear of any infection. And so are you!

Thirdly…

Muslims CAN rear dogs!

However, this statement is arguable.

People in the past, our great-great-great-great ancestors used to be farmers. They rear lambs and cows, and in this case, they are allowed to rear a dog to look after their cattle.

But, he has to place the dog outside of his house and it should be at the back, not in front of his house.

Why?

The dog should be outside of the house so that his house is ‘clean’ for him. You can’t expect him to ‘wash’ his house every day with six buckets of water and one bucket of water mixed with soil right?

And the dog has to be put at the back of his house because…(honestly, I’m not quite sure about this, but my dad told me this) the angels will enter every house from the front door. And if we put the dogs at the front, the angels will not enter because it’s ‘dirty’. Get it?

I hope I helped a lot of you with this dog issue.

My friend and I were walking down the road when we saw a large dog coming from the other direction. What she said was something I’ll never ever forget.

“It’s better for us to touch a dog than to touch a non-mahram”

Mahram is a group of individuals that is forbidden for us to marry legally in Islam. For example: our biological father/mother, biological siblings, biological grandmother/grandfather.

So, the non-mahrams are everybody else that could get married to us. For example: our 

cousins (even though it’s weird), friends, stranger walking down the road, etc. etc.

Lastly, I would like to stress on the fact that dogs are not haraam. *woof woof*

Wallahua’lam.