Caution: Translations of Quran and Ḥadīth may lead to possible misapplications and misinterpretations. This site is intended for students of sacred knowledge that are proficient in comprehending classical Arabic and have a strong foundation in Islamic sciences. Also note that religious injunctions rely on several aspects beyond what one may glean through reading individual aḥādīth.
Qurʾān Bukhārī Muslim Nasāʾī Abū Dāwūd Tirmidhī Ibn Mājah Mālik Aḥmad Dārimī Ḥākim Ibn Ḥibbān Ṭabarānī Nasāʾī's Kubrá Bayhaqī al-Luʾluʾ wa-al-Marjān Ibn Rajab's Fifty Riyāḍ al-Ṣāliḥīn Aḥmad's Zuhd Suyūṭī
quran:7:176 –

And if We had willed, we could have elevated him thereby, but he adhered ˹instead˺ to the earth and followed his own desire. So his example is like that of the dog: if you chase him, he pants, or if you leave him, he ˹still˺ pants. That is the example of the people who denied Our signs. So relate the stories that perhaps they will give thought.  

And had We willed, We would have raised him up, to the ranks of the scholars, thereby, by facilitating his way to ˹good˺ deeds; but he was disposed to, at peace ˹in˺, the earth — that is, this world — and inclined to it, and followed his whims, by calling ˹others˺ to them, and so We abased him. Therefore his likeness, his description, is as the likeness of a dog: if you attack it, by driving it away or curbing it, it lolls its tongue out, and if you leave it, it lolls its tongue out, and no other animal is like it in this way (both conditional sentences constitute a circumstantial qualifier, that is to say, it has its tongue lolling out despicably in all circumstances. The purpose here is to point out the similarity ˹between the one who follows his whims and a dog˺ in terms of condition and vileness, judging by the ˹contextualising˺ fā’ ˹of fa-mathaluhu, ‘therefore his likeness’˺, which relates what comes after it to what came before it in the way of ‘inclining towards this world and following whims’, and judging by God’s saying: That, likeness, is the likeness of those people who deny Our signs. So recount the tale, to the Jews, that they might reflect, upon it and so believe.
القرآن:٧:١٧٦ –

وَلَوْ شِئْنَا لَرَفَعْنَاهُ بِهَا وَلَٰكِنَّهُ أَخْلَدَ إِلَى الْأَرْضِ وَاتَّبَعَ هَوَاهُ ۚ فَمَثَلُهُ كَمَثَلِ الْكَلْبِ إِنْ تَحْمِلْ عَلَيْهِ يَلْهَثْ أَوْ تَتْرُكْهُ يَلْهَثْ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ مَثَلُ الْقَوْمِ الَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا بِآيَاتِنَا ۚ فَاقْصُصِ الْقَصَصَ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ  

{ولو شئنا لرفعناه} إلى منازل العلماء {بها} بأن نوقفه للعمل {ولكنه أخلد} سكن {إلى الأرض} أي الدنيا ومال إليها {واتَّبع هواه} في دعائه إليها فوضعناه {فمثله} صفته {كمثل الكلب إن تحمل عليه} بالطرد والزجر {يلهث} يدلع لسانه {أو} إن {تتركه يلهث} وليس غيره من الحيوان كذلك، وجملتا الشرط حال، أي لاهثا ذليلا بكل حال، والقصد التشبيه في الوضع والخسة بقرينة الفاء المشعرة بترتيب ما بعدها على ما قبلها من الميل إلى الدنيا واتباع الهوى وبقرينة، قوله {ذلك} المثل {مَثَلُ القوم الذين كذَّبوا بآياتنا فاقصص القَصَصَ} على اليهود {لعلهم يتفكرون} يتدبرون فيها فيؤمنون.