Unavoidable contact with dogs

Question

I am a new Muslim. I am living with my non-Muslim parents in a Western country. A while back, they brought home a dog as a pet. I made them aware that in Islam a dog is not to come in the home or near Muslims. They brought it home anyway. I understand that the saliva of dogs is impure and that it must be washed off whatever it touches seven times, once with dirt. I cannot keep the dog from licking me or my clothes. Am I expected to wash myself with soil from then hands to elbows and from toes to knees for each prayer before making wudû’? Am I required to wear special clothes around the house? I would like to know, please, if there is there any other way I can clean myself from this impurity, since these measures would be very difficult.

Answer

In the Mâlikî school of thought, there is a general legal maxim that all living organisms are pure, including their sweat, tears, saliva, and phlegm. This applies to all animals, including the dog and the pig. [Refer to: al-Kharashî’s commentary on Mukhtasar al-Khalîl]

Also, the Malikî school regards the condition of washing the saliva of the dog with dirt to be weak from a hadîth standpoint. The various hadîth narrations that contain this instruction are inconsistent and contradictory in their wording. The Malikî scholars argue that according to the methodology of hadîth criticism, when various narrations of a hadîth provide inconsistent and contrary wordings, the hadîth cannot be acted upon. Consequently, the Mâlikî school of thought does not require washing off dog saliva with dirt.

On the basis of what we have explained, it is permissible for you to adopt the Malikî ruling on this matter in order to alleviate the hardship that you are facing.

And Allah knows best.

-islamtoday.net