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Is hanging a bell around a sheep's neck for adornment and playing with it forbidden?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

It is disliked to hang a bell around the neck of an animal, due to the prohibition reported from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. Indeed, Muslim narrated in his Sahih, on the authority of Abu Hurairah, may Allah be pleased with him, who reported it marfu‘an: "The bell is the Devil's wind instrument." The majority of scholars hold that the prohibition denotes dislikeness (karahah), while some say it denotes prohibition (tahrim). It is better to remove the bell from the sheep's neck and teach children that this is disliked.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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