Al-Huda
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the Message Continues ... 6/117
Newsletter for May 2011
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Love thy Animals
by
Dr.
Assad Nimer Busool
The teachings of the Qur'an and
the Tradition of the Prophet
led Muslims, regardless of their education or social status, to
be kind to animals.
It is true that Prophet Muhammad's
main concern was the welfare of his people. He indeed labored
very hard to give them security and sustenance, and before his
death, Muslims were secured and well fed wherever they were.
However, this concern extended to animals and the environment
too. Whenever he saw a weak, bruised, working or riding animal,
he found its owner and preached him to take good care of his
animal. One day, the Prophet entered a grove which belonged to
one of the Ansars, and there he saw a camel. When the camel saw
the Prophet , he moved toward him. Tears were flowing out of his
eyes. The Prophet approached him, rubbed his head, and the camel
calmed down. The Prophet asked: 'who is the owner of this
camel?' A young man from the Ansar said: 'He belongs to me, O
messenger of Allah!' The Prophet said: 'Don't you fear Allah,
Who handed you the ownership of this beast? He complained to me
that you do not feed him and you over work him' (reported by Abu
Dawud). Then the Prophet asked the camel's owner 'What are you
going to do with your camel?' The man answered: 'we want to
slaughter him while he has some flesh'. The prophet said: 'Don't
do that! Sell him to me.' The man answered: 'He is yours O
Messenger of Allah'. The Prophet sent him to graze with the
Sadaqah camels until he died naturally... (See Ibn Kathir -
Shama'il ar-Rasul)
Ahmad Ibn Hanbal
reported that once, Umar ibn al-Khattab, expressed his desire
for a meal of fresh fish. His aid, Yarfa', without telling him,
jumped on the back of one of Umar's camel and traveled for two
nights going and two nights returning to buy a basket of fresh
fish to Umar. When he arrived home, he washed the camel. But
when Umar learned of what his aid did, he said to him: 'let me
look at the camel first.' He went to the camel and inspected it
very closely, suddenly he turned to his aid saying: 'you forgot
to wash the sweat and its ears. You tortured an animal for
Umar's desires! By Allah, 'Umar will never taste the fish, take
your basket away from me.'
Based on the enormous wealth of Islamic teachings regarding the
respect and protection of animals and the environment, the
renown Muslim jurist Izz ad-din abd as-Saalam, formulated the
following legal opinion on the right of livestock and animals
from human beings:
A person who owns livestock, must spend on them the provision
that their kinds require, even if they have aged or sickened
such that no benefit comes from them; he should not burden them
beyond what they can bear; he should not put them together with
anything by which they would be injured, whether of their own
kind or other species, whether by breaking their bones or
butting or wounding; he should slaughter them gently and with
kindness; when he slaughters them, he must neither flay their
skins nor break their bones until their bodies have become cold
and their lives have passed away; he should not slaughter young
within their sight but he should separate them; he should make
comfortable their resting places and watering places; he should
put their males and females together during their mating
seasons; he should not discard those which he takes as game; and
neither shoot them with anything that breaks their bone nor
bring about their destruction by any means that renders their
meat unlawful to eat.
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