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How can one respond to a husband who cites the story of the People of the Cave as proof of the purity of a dog, knowing that a dog is considered impure in Islamic Sharia?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Scholars differ on the impurity of the dog, with the majority holding that all parts of it are impure. Thus, the dog and the pig, and whatever is born from them, are inherently impure in their essence, their saliva, and everything that comes out of them. The mention of the dog in the story of the People of the Cave does not indicate its purity, as it did not mix with them but rather guarded them outside the cave, because angels do not enter a place where there is a dog, and the dog mentioned was a real dog. Even if we assume that the dog mixed with the People of the Cave and was considered pure by them, the law of those before us is not a law for us regarding matters for which a ruling has been revealed in our law, and the impurity of the dog is well-known in our law.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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