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His 7 year-old son urinated in the mosque during Friday prayer

Question

Assalamualaikum brother, I have 2 queries: 1. It is about my next neighbour, my good brother German muslim. He is rearing one German Shephard dog only kept outside the house. His purpose of keeping it is for the safety of his warehouse within the premise and also to guard from intruders entering the premise. He and his family are all in contact with the dog. Occasionally look like the dog are playing with them. I approached them and advise not to rear dogs as they are haram to muslim and malaikat would not enter the house. Please advise on how to approach and advise in a best way. There are good to me. 2. Recently I brought my 7 year old boy for a Jumaat prayer in a masjid. I don't know why he just cannot control and urinate during the first part of the prayer. I immediately stopped my pray and brought him away out from the masjid. I also inform the cleaner there and said to me not to worry as he will mop the carpet. How is the best practice to clean the area as the area is carpeted. I felt guilty and how does Allah sees this? I also continue masbuq to second rakaat. Does this ok and completed my Jumaat prayer? Best regards, Brother Rosli Hamdani From Brunei Darussalam South East Asia

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.

If the person whom you mentioned in the question kept the dog for the purpose of guarding and out of fear that the warehouse would be stolen, then it is permissible for him to do so, and we have already issued Fatwa 86508 clarifying that it is permissible to keep a guard dog.

However, if this man kept this dog for the purpose of playing with it and having it as a pet, and not for the purpose of guarding, then he is obliged to get rid of it because it is forbidden to keep a dog for this purpose as the Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) said: "Whoever keeps a dog as a pet, except for the purpose of guarding or hunting, will loose daily a Qiraat (a mountain size of reward) from his good deeds."[Al-Bukhari & Muslim]. In this case the best way of advising him is to clarify to him the religious ruling about keeping a dog, and you should do this in a nice and soft manner. It is good to remind him of Allaah and show him some Fataawa on our site about this subject, like Fataawa 92109, 91855 and 91174.

In both cases, whether he kept the dog for guarding or for other purposes, he should know that the saliva of a dog is impure, and if it eats or drinks from a container, it should be washed 7 times, the first of which should be done with soil, as clarified in Fatwa 81569.

As regards the method of purifying the carpet from urine, it should be done by splashing water on the urine until the effect of impurity is removed, as clarified in Fatwa 85710.

On the other hand, we hope that you are not sinful for taking your son who is seven years old to the mosque in order to teach him. Indeed, it is permissible for a boy at his age to be brought to the mosque in order to learn, as the Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) said: "Order your children to perform the prayer when they are seven years of age and beat them if they neglect to do so when they are ten years of age, and separate between them in beds (when they reach ten)." [Abu Daawood].

Furthermore, since you reached the second Rak'a, then you reached the prayer and your Friday prayer is complete; for more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 83591. However, you should not have interrupted your prayer if it was possible to control your child in your place so that the impurity would not spread over the mosque, as it is not permissible to interrupt an obligatory act of worship without a sound reason.

Allaah Knows best.

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