Picture this:
You’ve moved to a new place. A nice, cosy house which you can hardly wait to call it a home. Previously it was occupied by a lovely old couple, and they owned a cute little dog.
Being a muslim, you can’t help but to be quite suspicious with the cleanliness status of your new house. Hence, you washed the whole house, including the walls with mud water and 6 times clean water (This is what we call ‘samak’).
How many of us do actually samak their house? Or perhaps, samak their second-hand cars?
I just thought about this issue when a couple of friends posted the related news on their FBs – there’s a company in Malaysia providing building- ‘samak’ing service. And I find this as disturbing.
Let’s look at the syar’ie point of view.
The four Imams have different opinions on the status of a dog as a ‘najasa’ (najis).
- Imam Syafie & Hanbali – all parts of a dog is najis, including its fur
- Imam Hanafi – all parts are not najis except its saliva
- Imam Malik – All parts of a dog is not najis
Syeikhul Islam Ibn Taimiyyah chose the second opinion as the strongest according to available dalil, and the nature of it that doesn’t give a burden to a muslim. Further elaboration can be read here and here.
As the news is old, I can’t be certain whether the company is still operating. While it is up to an individu to follow whichever opinion they want so long as the reasons valid, I don’t think making profit out of it is appropriate.
Furthermore, to samak a building is energy & water consuming. And to waste resources is not encourage in Islam. Islam doesn’t burden its ummah (ad deen yusr).
Another article I’d like readers to refer to is by Dr MAZA here.
Corat|Coret 