With regard to taking payment for a dog, it is disallowed. Some have argued that a hunting dog or a herding dog may be sold, and this view is also reported from Mālik. Yet the earlier opinion—that such sales are impermissible—is the established position of his school, and it is the sounder view, if Allah wills.

There is no objection to selling a cat, because people benefit from it. Any animal from which no benefit is obtained may not be sold under any circumstances, such as a monkey, a falcon, and the like. Selling a pig is forbidden, and its price is likewise forbidden.

Mālik regarded the sale of eunuchs as reprehensible, saying that buying them amounts to approving the mutilation inflicted upon them. He also disliked selling a singing slave-girl, holding that singing constitutes a defect that must be disclosed; he later declared, “I disapprove of selling female singers.”

We have already explained in the Book of Judicial Matters the ruling on separating a mother from her child in a sale, and Mālik’s reasoning on the issue. Praise belongs to Allah alone.