Hadith Five
On the authority of Abū Masʿūd al-Anṣārī (may Allah be pleased with him): the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade taking the price of a dog, the hire of a prostitute, and the soothsayer’s fee.

Unfamiliar terms
• mahr al-baghī: The word baghī—spelled with an open bāʾ, a kasrah on the ghayn, and a doubled yāʾ—is an adjectival form meaning “a fornicating woman.” The root baghāʾ originally means “seeking,” but through frequent usage it came to denote sexual corruption. Her mahr, therefore, is whatever she is paid for adultery, termed a “dower” only figuratively.
• ḥulwān al-kāhin: ḥulwān (with a ḍammah on the ḥāʾ) is the verbal noun of ḥalawtuhu, “I gave him a gift.” Ibn Ḥajar remarks in Fatḥ al-Bārī that its root is ḥalāwah (“sweetness”), the payment being likened to something sweet because it is taken effortlessly. The kāhin is one who claims knowledge of future unseen matters; akin to him are the ʿarrāf, the astrologer, and other charlatans and impostors.

Overall meaning
Allah has opened for His servants honorable and wholesome avenues of livelihood, making them a substitute for base and filthy means of earning. Since the first category more than suffices, and the harms of the second far outweigh whatever fleeting benefit it may carry, the Sacred Law has declared those vile paths unlawful—including the three transactions mentioned here:

1. The sale of a dog: the animal itself is impure, and its price is impure; consuming or deeming it lawful is impermissible.
2. Likewise, whatever a prostitute receives in payment for her immorality—an act that corrupts both religion and society.
3. And similarly, whatever is taken by tricksters who claim to know the unseen or to control events, deluding people with their falsehood so as to strip them of their wealth and consume it unlawfully.
   All of these are forbidden, loathsome avenues; engaging in them or handing over payment for them is impermissible. Allah has replaced them with lawful, dignified means of earning.

Benefits derived from the ḥadith

1. The prohibition of selling a dog and of taking its price. No distinction is made between a trained dog and an untrained one, or between a dog kept for crops and one kept for livestock. Keeping a dog is permissible only for the three purposes mentioned above.