Ever since Maznah Mohamad Yusof's video of her celebrating Aidil-Fitri with her three dogs, there has been numerous views about her, about dogs and their standing in Islam.
I would not dare to volunteer my opinion because I am not really knowledgeable on these matter.
However, from a few short researches on YouTube (The one by Ustaz Azhar Idrus is the easiest to understand) and reading a number of materials on the net, I came to these conclusions.
Dogs are not forbidden in Islam. A muslim can touch them without having to cleanse oneself using six parts of water and one part of earth EXCEPT when they are wet or one comes into contact with their saliva.
Muslims are encouraged to keep them for the following functions:
1) Shepherd dogs
2) Guard dogs to farm/orchard
3) Hunting dogs
4) Security dogs to property
Muslims can keep dogs as pet. However, by doing so they will lose their 'pahala' (rewards for carrying out God's command) by one qirath for each day they allow dogs in their home.
Thus it would not take too much intelligence to figure out which action one should take in this matter.
In Malaysia, especially to most Muslims, dogs are a sensitive issue.
Those Muslims who keep dogs as pets should be more sensitive to this and not add fuel to the fire. Keep your dogs and care for them but do not flaunt them in front of others who do not share your idea.
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