Heard this story from a friend, and would like an honest opinion on this. If you don’t want your opinion/thought to be publicised, feel free to drop me a LJ note/DM on Twitter/Facebook message.
The question is simple:
Assuming the price is right, would you buy a house which had had a dog in it? If you would, would you also buy a house where there had been religious symbols not of your religion abound? I.e. Statues of Kuan Yin, Christian pictures or Quran pictures on the walls, etc?* Why yes, why not?
Thanks!
*Note that the family is moving out and taking all the religious iconography with them, so the house will be empty when you receive it.
I’m not allergic to dogs, but if I was, I’d assume I could fumigate the house (not so bad in Malaysia tho). Also, if the family was taking the iconography with them, I don’t see why not.
The only problem I can think of is if the leaving family had had an altar. The spirits might not want to move with the family.
Ah… You’ve given me a story idea.
Sure, I don’t see the problem. Who knows what sort of religious practices happened in these units anyway!
Someone in Cyberjaya’s going to inherit a really witchy bedroom. ahahaha
XDD I wonder if their grades are doing fine? 😛
Sure, and sure if the house is structurally alright and stuff. Religious symbols of other religions do not bother me and I love dogs.
*ruff!*
Honestly? I don’t want to know. Don’t tell me who lived in the house unless it’s important because they did X or Y or Z to the house. Though to be fair, I’d prefer pet-free. I have a problem with allergies. Or, I’d buy the house as long as the seller agreed to pay for a cleaner of my choice to come in.
And I just wanted to say, damn, I’ve never thought about this before. We’ve never lived in a house someone else lived in (at least, that I know of). Both times we moved, we’ve moved into a newly-constructed home. And when moving into Doug’s house, because Doug, Dusty, and Dave had been living there, I knew them and that they weren’t religious.
See, now things like health make sense. It’s when religion comes into it that I go “bwuh?” as a friend would put it. But yes, interesting perspective on the cleaner bit.
I don’t see the problem. The house I’ll be renting with my classmates still has one of those Indian religious idols stuck to the wall and you don’t see us have any intention of taking it off 😛
Well to me what’s important is “temperature on a sunny day” and “not infront main road”
Why not in front of main road?
Fundamentally I believe religion is about God, and God truly does not judge in such a way that you couldn’t do those things. As a muslim, I touch dogs, and in all due respect, believe that there is nothing wrong to even execute a prayer in a foreign religious house; ie: a church.
At least the ‘God’ that I believe it ain’t all that unreasonable and punishing.
This brought to mind a random thought: if all things created by God is good, then why do we insist on labelling some of His creations “unclean”? Hmm… Thanks for replying! You gave me even more food for thought.
Yes. I don’t see why not.
Yes. I also don’t see why not. In any case a house blessing should work well to ease most uneasiness.
Exactly. Thank you. 🙂
Even if the place had been consecrated to another religion, it’s still easier to cope with than living in a spot where the last people had been chainsmokers. Contacting the appropriate religion for some form of deconsecration ritual is easy, neh? At least, compared to nicotine trails seeping out of the walls through your new coat of paint.
Somehow, I find that ‘meh, could’ve been THIS’ comparisons to really be a benefit to my mood when dealing with this kind of thing, you know?
Haha, yes, that’s quite true. And I completely agree. Dealing with the spiritual is usually far easier than dealing with the smoke. Urgh, that would be something to consider, but as a general rule, thankfully, the weather in Malaysia means that once the house is aired, there’s usually not much smoke left. XD
Whew, good thing. Glad you folks are more sensible about airable houses than we are!
I can answer that question with two examples, actually:
My father’s house in Petaling Jaya was previously inhabited by an owner who let dogs run around the house. After the usual pre-requisite (religious) cleansing and renovation, however, we moved in. We’ve been (except me, I moved out several years ago) living in it ever since.
But my father’s relatively irreligious. My wife’s cousin, however, is fairly religious, and inherits a caniphobia that comes to certain Muslims who aren’t used to being around dogs. She moved into a house that had not only dogs living in it, but also religious iconography of a different religion. After the religious cleansing (which isn’t that difficult — a clod of earth, a bucket, and a mop will do), she moved in and has been living in it ever since.
I figure the reasons why most Muslims should be fairly pragmatic on this matter is that if they’re not, they’re idiots who’ll find out that they’ll eventually got no place where they can live.
The interesting point about this wasn’t so much about the dogs. It was the religious icongraphy. My friend was telling me that it was a father and son pair that came to inspect his house; his mother had been a devout Christian and thus had statues and altars about the place. Interestingly enough, the father had no qualms walking through the entire house to judge it based on its merits. It was the son who frowned and seemed unable to accept the idea of living in a house previously occupied by a “heathen”. I could be reading a bit too much into it, but hearing answers like yours gives me a bit more faith in humanity.
The son’s an idiot. An uneducated, religiously-shallow idiot who’d make a great follower for the taqlid oh-everything-must-also-consult-the-right-kind-of-imam-and-ulema Muslim crowd.
I have a little sympathy if he had precious little exposure to other religions other than his own — the society he’s grown up in has been incredibly polarized, and he’s got a lot of growing up to do. But he’s still an idiot.
My EB+SIL & I have lived in several apartments where the owners/previous tenants weren’t Muslims. The issue of dogs (or pork consumption) was not a big one, since we would do the religious & normal cleaning anyway before moving in. (That the information is provided beforehand is always appreciated.)
Re: the religious icons; if I were to look-see a place with all the stuff intact (knowing they’ll all be gone if I do move in), it wouldn’t bother me. Most Muslims do a small kenduri when moving into a new place (kind of like a housewarming), with special but simple prayers for blessings. In fact, all the places we’ve been to look-see over the years had been relatively free of in-your-face mania, so maybe we were lucky like that. 😛
Personally for me though, I’d be more concerned with: price, location, amenities, neighours/hood, & comfortability. Also, that nobody died violently in that unit/floor/block/estate. 😛
Late reply is late, and I don’t really have much to add apart from the fact that I’m a little surprised regarding the religious cleansing – I’ve never actually heard of it being done where I’m from, apart from cases where there was a concern that the house was haunted or had bad juju.
But to answer the questions: previous owners having a dog or the house having previously had religious iconography would not affect my decision to buy the house. The iconography bit might bug my parents as they adhere more strictly to our religious teachings, but I don’t think the dog would affect their decision to buy the place.