A Muslim's Love for Allah's swt Animals
Friday, November 06, 2009 Read more → Allah God, allah's creations, Eco-Islam, muslim character, Zahra-Shah In the name of God, entirely Compassionate, especially Merciful | Peace be with you
Asalaam alaikum,
My sister was given this stray kitten. This teeny tiny ball of white and gray fur we named Lily, who I also refer to as "roomy", since we bunk together.
Such a sweet little thing, unlike most kittens who you can barely keep still enough to pet, Lily is always front and center on your lap.She doesn’t like to sleep or sit alone for long periods of time. In the night if I wake up or I get up to go somewhere she will find another warm body to bunk with till I return to my spot... Sad to think this poor little creature was left in a box on the side of a road.
The cat is generally a loving and clean animal so much so it’s actually sunnah to keep a cat as a pet as long as its not bought or sold for money, is fed and kept well and given space to move.
Even though its not sunnah to keep a dog as in Islam it is believed that angels do not enter the home with a dog due to the issue of cleaniness and praying, still, we as Muslims must treat all animals with respect, this includes dogs and even pigs.
It’s sad that as Muslims we tend to dislike an animal or harbor fear for no apparent reason, just because pigs and dogs aren’t the cleanest animals, just because we can neither eat them nor keep them as pets shouldn’t make us completely revolted by them.
I constantly here the words “eeww” after someone mentions a dog or a pig, but these are the beautiful creations of Allah swt, just because we don’t benefit from them directly does not mean they do not serve a purpose on this earth. We tend to under estimate their feelings and intelligence just because we are raised not to like them… It's more of a culture, it's not religious. If we followed our Islam we would see that we should love all animals.
Just because we can not eat them or keep them as pets does not give us the right as Muslims to mistreat them and sadly due to misunderstandings I have heard and read about a lot of Muslims treating these animals harshly.
There is a hadith in Bukhari and Muslim that’s quite well known regarding a woman who locked up a cat and refused to feed it. The Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said that her punishment for that on the day of judgment would be torture and hell. That is how serious good adab (good conduct in behavhior) is taken in Is
lam, even towards animals. This however not only goes for cats but other animals as well. Mistreating an animal is clearly outlined as a sin in Islam and the animals mistreated will testify against you on the day of judgment.
By: The Immigrant
Peace & respect ★
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