663 – It is narrated from Abū Masʿūd al-Anṣārī (may Allah be pleased with him): “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade the price of a dog, the earnings of a prostitute, and the fee of a soothsayer.” Agreed upon. (1)

Glossary of the ḥadīth:
– al-kalb (dog): spelled with a fatḥah followed by sukūn. A well-known animal; the female is kallbah and the plural kilāb. The dog is famous for its remarkable trainability and loyalty. Biologists classify it as a domesticated member of the Canidae family within the order Carnivora, comprising numerous breeds.

– mahr al-baghī (the prostitute’s wage): mahr is the consideration given in a marriage contract. By extension, whatever is paid to a fornicatress is called mahr only because it resembles the real mahr in outward form.

– al-baghī: with a fatḥah on the bāʾ, a kasrah on the ghayn, and a doubled yāʾ, meaning “the fornicatress.” Its original form is baghawiyy on the pattern faʿīl (denoting the doer). When the wāw and yāʾ came together and one of them was silent, the wāw was changed into a yāʾ and the two yāʾs were merged, producing baghī with a ḍammah on the ghayn; that ḍammah was then shifted to a kasrah because of the following yāʾ. The plural is baghāyā.
Al-bighāʾ: with a kasrah on the bāʾ and a lengthened ending, literally means “seeking,” but it is commonly used for illicit sexual intercourse. One says, “baghat al-marʾah tabghī bighāʾan” when a woman commits fornication; she is then called a baghī, a faʿūl-pattern active participle. We ask Allah for safety.

– ḥulwān al-kāhin (the soothsayer’s fee): ḥulwān, with a ḍammah on the ḥāʾ, is the verbal noun of ḥalawtuhu ḥulwānan, “I gave him a gift.” It is likened to something sweet, in that it is taken easily and without effort; hence it refers to whatever the soothsayer receives for