Is It Permissible to Keep a Cat with Partial Wild Ancestry, and Is There a Limit to How Wild It Can Be?

Answered by Mawlana Ilyas Patel

Question

Is it permissible to keep a cat with partial wild ancestry, and is there a limit to how wild it can be?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

I pray you are in good faith and health. Thank you for your question.

Shari‘a permits keeping animals that provide some benefit, such as birds for comfort or dogs for protection. However, keeping dangerous animals like lions or harmful reptiles such as snakes and scorpions, or in your case that has a wild ancestry, is discouraged due to their potential risks and people’s general disinclination towards them.

If a cat is kept for a general purpose, not leisure, made tame, safe, and not harmful, then it is permissible to keep it. However, if the cat is dangerous, excessively aggressive, or cannot be properly cared for, keeping it may be discouraged (makruh) or even deemed impermissible (haram) if it poses a risk of harm.

[al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya; Rada al-Haq, Fatawa Darul Uloom Zakariyya]

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I pray this helps with your question.
Wassalam,
[Mawlana] Ilyas Patel
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

عن سالم عن أبيه قال قال النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم “من اقتنى كلبا إلا كلب صيد أو ماشية نقص من أجره كل يوم قيراط” رواه ابن أبي شيبة بسند صحيح وقال: ذكر أن أبا حنيفة قال لا بأس بإتخاذه-
قلت هو خطأ فإن مذهب أبي حنيفة هو الكراهية للتلهي والجواز لحفظ المال أو النفس أو العرض أو الصيد كما هو مقتضى الحديث قال في “الخلاصة”: لا ينبغي أن يتخذ في داره كلبا إلا كلبا يحرس ماله وفي الأجناس لا ينبغي أن يتخذ كلبا إلا أن يخاف من اللصوص وغيرهم

إعلاء السنن (461/17) إدارة القرآن

وَفِي الْأَجْنَاسِ لَا يَنْبَغِي أَنْ يَتَّخِذَ كَلْبًا إلَّا أَنْ يَخَافَ مِنْ اللُّصُوصِ أَوْ غَيْرِهِمْ وَكَذَا الْأَسَدُ وَالْفَهْدُ وَالضَّبُعُ وَجَمِيعُ السِّبَاعِ وَهَذَا قِيَاسُ قَوْلِ أَبِي يُوسُفَ – رَحِمَهُ اللَّهُ تَعَالَى – كَذَا فِي الْخُلَاصَةِ.

الكتاب: الفتاوى العالمكيرية المعروفة بالفتاوى الهندية
المؤلف: جماعة من العلماء
برئاسة الشيخ: نظام الدين البرنهابوري البلخي
بأمر السلطان: محمد أورنك زيب عالمكير
الطبعة: الثانية، ١٣١٠ هـ

Mawlana Ilyas Patel has received a traditional education in various countries. He started his schooling in the UK and completed his hifz of the Quran in India. After that, he joined an Islamic seminary in the UK, where he studied secular and Aalimiyya sciences. Later, he traveled to Karachi, Pakistan, and other Middle Eastern countries to further his education. Mawlana has served as an Imam in the Republic of Ireland for several years and taught the Quran and other Islamic sciences to both children and adults. He also worked as a teacher and librarian at a local Islamic seminary in the UK for 12 years. Presently, he lives in the UK with his wife and is interested in books and gardening.