My Opinion (?)

     A few days ago, I saw someone tweeted about the hukm of selling and buying cats and many responded to that tweet about the actual situation around them.

    One of them shared about how he used to work at a pet shop where he became a witness to their ‘dirty’ action. The owner forced the female cat to mate regularly to get many cute kittens for sale. It is sad to see how humans became so cruel towards animals to get extra money. Many ex-pet shop workers agreed with him. Some even said the seller often sells those cats and kittens at a very unreasonable price while doing the accursed deed of forcing female cats to breed frequently.

    A woman also shared about what has happened in Kelantan where foreigners used to catch the cats to eat them while going to the sea to catch fish, they cooked the cat as food on board.

    In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with keeping cats in the house and taking care of them. As one of the Sahabah, Abu Hurairah r.a. used to take care of several cats, to the extent that he was nicknamed for that. However, we should point out here that there is something wrong with what many people do. Their mistake is going to extremes in buying them at extremely high prices, then going to great expense in caring for them, feeding them and seeking medical treatment for them, in a way that takes the matter beyond the limit of moderation and reasonable spending, as they go to extremes in extravagance and spending money in ways that are of no great benefit, wasting money in ways that serve no purpose, showing off, boasting and messing about. For the people who eat the cats, it is truly disgusting and cruel action toward cats.

According to Mufti of Federal Territory, Malaysia, there are two different opinions from ulama’ regarding this matter:

       

           1. Haram - cat is illegal to sell and buy based on a hadith from Abu Zubair RA:

حَدَّثَنِي سَلَمَةُ بْنُ شَبِيبٍ، حَدَّثَنَا الْحَسَنُ بْنُ أَعْيَنَ، حَدَّثَنَا مَعْقِلٌ، عَنْ أَبِي الزُّبَيْرِ، قَالَ سَأَلْتُ جَابِرًا عَنْ ثَمَنِ الْكَلْبِ، وَالسِّنَّوْرِ، قَالَ زَجَرَ النَّبِيُّ صلى الله عليه وسلم عَنْ ذَلِكَ‏.‏

Abu Zubair said: I asked Jabir about the price of a dog and a cat; he said: Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) disapproved of that. (Sahih Muslim 1569)

And in another hadith:

وَعَنْ جَابِرٍ أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ نَهَى عَنْ ثَمَنِ الْكَلْبِ وَالسِّنَّوْرِ. (رَوَاهُ مُسلم)

Jabir said the God’s Messenger forbade payment for dogs and cats. (Sahih Muslim)

        

        2. The opinion of the majority of ulama’ including Mazhab Syafie allows the sale and purchase of cats if the cat has benefits such as catching rats, then the ruling is permissible (halal) for sale and purchase. Likewise, if it is a wild animal, then it is not allowed.

    The most rajih opinion is the cat business considered as makruh based on the prohibition in the nas.

p/s: if you would like to read it in Malay, you can directly go to the website of Mufti of Federal Territory, Malaysia through this link: https://muftiwp.gov.my/en/artikel/al-kafi-li-al-fatawi/1678-hukum-jual-beli-kucing