and the soothsayer’s fee. As for the dog, that is well known: keeping a dog is unlawful. A person may not acquire a dog and keep it in his home—whether the house is built of clay, reinforced concrete, or even of hair—except in three cases:
- A dog kept for tillage, meaning to guard crops;
- A dog kept for livestock—that is, someone who owns sheep, camels, or cattle and keeps a dog to guard them;
- A hunting dog with which one hunts. When a dog has been trained and it catches something, that game is lawful. So if someone owns a trained dog, releases it after, say, a hare, and it seizes and kills it, the hare is lawful because Allah, exalted is He, says: “Whatever game they (your trained hounds) catch for you—teaching them out of what Allah has taught you—eat of what they hold for you, and mention the name of Allah over it, and fear Allah. Surely Allah is swift in reckoning” (Q 5:4).
These three— the dog for tillage, the dog for livestock, and the hunting dog—may be kept; anything beyond that is forbidden. The dog is the filthiest of animals in terms of impurity, for its impurity is severe: if it drinks from a vessel, the vessel must be washed seven times, one of which with earth, and it is best that the earth be used in the first washing—this is preferable and sounder.
If someone possesses a dog—even a hunting, livestock, or farming dog—it is prohibited for him to sell it, and its price is unlawful. When he no longer needs it, he may give it to someone who does, but selling it is impermissible, because the Prophet ﷺ forbade the price of a dog.
The second matter is the soothsayer’s fee. A soothsayer is the one who claims to inform about unseen matters