Here's Mandy's update:
As you know, Faris wanted to visit Lucky on Saturday (9/3/2010) and so arrangements were made and on Saturday, Faris and another friend (Both of them rescued Lucky off the streets @ Section 7, Shah Alam on 21st Dec 2009 midnight and sent her to my house in Klang) came to my old house in Klang around 4.30pm where i'm fostering Lucky and another rescued Klang pound pup who is a distemper survivor.
They were delighted to see Lucky after such a long time and without wasting any time showered Lucky and the pup with lots of pats and comforting words. Ah well, it always melts your heart to meet such compassionate human beings and they are also selfless and actually took time to look for potential adopters too coz Faris told me that one of his friend intends to adopt Lucky!
I was glad to hear that but I told Faris that he should explain to his friend Lucky's condition in full so he'll be prepared to take in Lucky as she is (not just Lucky but any other dogs/cats for that matter). It is because, many times people expectations are ridiculously high and in some cases, absurd, because when they adopt a puppy/dog, kitten/cat they expect it to be well behaved, does not bark, look cute all the time for them, and does not chew on stuffs but that is not usually in the case for puppies where they might whine, occasionally bark and turn your garden topsy turvy or chew on a few of your Adidas and so on but that's part of their growing process and it's up to the owner to train them. I believe it when people say your pet is a reflection of who you are.
Putting that aside, Faris and his friend spent close to an hour with Lucky and the pup and told us that it is often a misunderstanding that Muslims can't touch dogs, it is ALRIGHT for them to touch dogs especially when they are dry. But a few rules has to be adhered only when the dogs they touch licked them or are wet, and that is, to perform 'samak' through rinsing their hands with rainwater or 1 part of red soil and 7 parts of water (I hope i got that right) and apart from that it's not a DEATH SENTENCE if they touch dogs. Faris even said that such mentality has to be banished coz it's not true and we are living in the 21st CENTURY now. Faris is also disappointed at how the Selayang pound and Klang pound councils treat dogs...like pests!
He also said that, if he's not living in a apartment he would've adopted Lucky. That is what i mean by 'Working together for the animals', we really do need more people like Faris and people like him sometimes put others to shame on their love and passion for animals, one example, some of my neighbours did not allow us to place any kibbles in containers because they say birds would feed on the kibbles and have dropping all over their clothes. There you have it, some people just never fail to surprise you (in a bad way i mean)!
Besides that, Faris would also like to help us promote our AnimalCare t-shirt too and these are some of the photos i snapped when he visited Lucky on Saturday. I guess the pictures will speak for themselves!
The world would definitely be a much better place with more people
like Faris and his friend.
4 comments:
Faris and his friend - they are true examples of humanity and kindness. I hope their mothers are proud of bringing up two good hearted, intelligent and caring boys.
(If their mothers aren't then obviously those traits didn't come from their mothers!!!)
Faris and friend...i am so proud of you guys and we hope there will be more Malays like you guys,,im sure your parents will be pround of you two. god bless you two..
Actually, his name is Firdaush. He's my classmate.. we're both in law school together. :)
My father is a staunch Muslim, but he teaches my family and I that it is a huge misunderstanding among the Malay community (not Muslim community) that dogs cannot be touched. He knows what he is talking about, as he has studied and talked to many islamic scholars about this issue, as my dad is also an avid dog lover.
There is nowhere in the Quran or hadith (sayings and doings of the Prophet Muhammad p.b.u.h.) that Muslims are prohibited to touch dogs.
What was said in the hadith is that if a dog licks utensils which humans eat from (ie. plates, etc) that utensil must be washed with a combination of water and soil (this is what more commonly known as samak in bahasa).
Probably, some islamic scholars interpret strictly that a human hand is also an eating utenstil, therefore, to avoid having to samak our hands, they purport that Muslims must not touch dogs. I guess it is much easier that way, to teach people to avoid touching dogs altogether than let them be unsure whether their hands must be samak-ed or not.
Hence, after hundreds of years of those teachings being passed down, the Malays have been made to understood that it is haram (prohibited) to touch dogs, and somehow and very frustratingly might I add, developed a disgust for dogs.
I have been trying to teach my fellow Malay Muslims that its ok to touch dogs. But how do you undo a belief which has been deeply rooted into the community?
A few months ago I posted on my blog some pictures of myself hugging my neighbour's dog, and I got badly flamed for it. But its ok, I firmly believe that what I do is not wrong, but on the contrary I'm portraying an example of what Islam truly is - compassionate and unprejudiced towards all beings.
Well. That was my two cents, and hopefully it clears up some doubts that anyone might have.
Dogs are considered unclean according to some scholars of Islamic law, but Salukis are cherished companions for some Muslims.
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