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وَ کَاَیِّنۡ مِّنۡ دَآبَّۃٍ لَّا تَحۡمِلُ رِزۡقَہَا ٭ۖ اَللّٰہُ یَرۡزُقُہَا وَ اِیَّاکُمۡ ۫ۖ وَ ہُوَ السَّمِیۡعُ الۡعَلِیۡمُ ﴿۶۰﴾
“And how many a living creature does not carry its sustenance! Allah sustains it and yourselves. And He is the Hearing, the Knowing.” — ch. 29, Al-‘Ankabūt, v. 60
In my khutba last Friday, I read a similar verse, ch. 15, v. 20, which says that God has made in the earth means of subsistence for humans and for those creatures for whom humans do not provide means of sustenance. This verse says that there are many living creatures who do not carry around with them their means of sustenance. God enables them to find food and drink wherever they go. That is something we can observe in nature. God also says here that He does the same with humans. This verse was revealed in connection with the forced emigration of Muslims from Makkah to Madinah. They were worried about leaving their means of livelihood behind in Makkah, when they could not be certain of finding the same in Madinah. This verse pointed out to them how in nature sustenance is provided for animals. Jesus said something similar in the Gospels:
“Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”
— Matthew, 6:26
Anyhow, our topic here is that the mercy and fostership of Allah extends beyond humans to the whole of His creation, and He wants humans to exercise similar broad fostership and mercy not only over each other but also over all other creatures. An incident involving the Holy Prophet Muhammad and a creature is reported by a Companion as follows:
“We were with the Prophet in a cave at Mina when Al-Mursalāt (ch. 77 of the Quran)was revealed to him. He was reciting it and I was learning it from his mouth and his mouth was fresh with it, when suddenly a snake appeared in front of us. The Prophet said: ‘Kill it.’ We hastened to kill it but it escaped. Then the Prophet said: ‘It escaped harm from you just as you escaped harm from it’.”
— Bukhari, book 28: Penalty for Hunting during Pilgrimage, ch. 7, hadith 1830
The Holy Prophet is here considering the two acts, i.e., the snake killing people, and people killing the snake to be similar in kind, even though killing the snake was obviously necessary and justified. The Holy Prophet felt relief that the snake did not need to be killed as it retreated of its own accord. So, if a dangerous animal needs to be killed because it would attack humans, but then it ceases to be a risk to human life, it should not be killed as there is no longer a reason for it.
People have always indulged in cruel practices on animals as a form of sport and enjoyment. It happens even under modern civilisation. Such practices were forbidden by the Holy Prophet. It is related in Bukhari that Ibn Umar (son of Hazrat Umar) went to see someone and he came across that man’s son who had tied a hen to shoot arrows at it. The report says:
“Ibn Umar walked up to the hen and untied it. Then he brought it and the boy (to the father) and said: ‘Prevent your boys from making this bird a target for killing (i.e., by tying it), as I have heard the Prophet forbidding that any cattle or other animal be made a target for killing (by tying it).”
— Bukhari, book 72: Hunting, hadith 5514
According to the next hadith in Bukhari, Ibn Umar happened to come across some youngsters who had tied up a hen as a target and were shooting arrows at it. Seeing him, they fled. Ibn Umar said: “Who has done this? The Prophet cursed the person who does this.” Ibn Umar also related that the Holy Prophet forbade the cruel custom of cutting off limbs of live animals and leaving them in that state, or to disfigure or mutilate them.
There is a brief report in Hadith as follows:
“Whenever we stopped at a place (while travelling), we did not pray until we untied the saddles of the camels.”
— Abu Dawud, book 15: Jihad, hadith 2551
This meant that the animals were left free to get fodder and to relax, just like their riders. Another translator of Abu Dawud translates the words “until we untied the saddles of the camels” as “until we let the camels graze” and he adds this comment:
“Based upon this narration, scholars consider it desirable that when a person halts to camp, he should give fodder to the animal before he himself takes his meal.”
So, when taking a break, before doing anything else, the riders must ensure that the animals they were riding are fed and resting.
The teachings of Islam about the humane treatment of animals are not merely our claim as Muslims. These teachings were noted and admired by an English writer, Reginald Bosworth Smith, in 1874 in his book Mohammed and Mohammedanism. This book consists of a series of four lectures that Bosworth Smith delivered in London at the well-known organisation, the Royal Institution. He said:
“Nor does Mohammed omit to lay stress on … the duties we owe to what we call the lower animals.”
Smith says that just as it is a “crucial test of a moral code, and even of a religion” as to what kind of teachings it gives about how to treat the poor and the weak, it is also a crucial test of a moral code and religion as to what it teaches about how to treat animals. He then writes this about Islam:
“There is no religion which has taken a higher view in its authoritative documents (meaning Quran and Hadith) of animal life, and none wherein the precept has been so much honoured by its practical observance.”
To support this point, Bosworth Smith then quotes the verse of the Quran (6:38) which states that all animals and birds are communities like humans.
Bosworth Smith also makes a point which I cannot be certain is entirely correct but it is very moving and thought-provoking. He writes:
“At the slaughter of an animal, the Prophet ordered that the name of God should always be named, but the words ‘the Compassionate, the Merciful’ (by which he means Ar-Raḥmān, ar-Raḥīm) were to be omitted.”
The reason for this omission, he says, is that it would be unfitting and not appropriate to refer to God as Merciful when slaughtering an animal, and he writes that the Holy Prophet
“could not bring himself to believe that the destruction of any life, however necessary, could be altogether pleasing to the All Merciful.”
Reading this reminded me of what Maulana Muhammad Ali has written in his English translation and commentary of the Quran. Verse 118 of chapter 6 reads as follows: “Eat, then, from that on which Allah’s name has been mentioned, if you are believers in His messages”. Maulana Muhammad Ali comments as follows:
“Thus it is allowed to Muslims to slaughter animals for food, but the condition is here laid down that Allah’s name must be mentioned when the animal is slaughtered. There is no doubt that the taking of a life, even though it be the life of an animal, shows a kind of disregard for life, and it is allowed by God, only because the full physical development of man requires the use of the flesh of animals. It is, however, allowed subject to the condition that Allah’s name be mentioned at the time of the slaughter, and this is a reminder to man that this act is made lawful only by Divine permission, for the attainment of a necessary purpose. Thus, … the order [to mention the name of Allah when slaughtering] is based on moral grounds, and as a safeguard against the development of habits of disregard for human life itself, which is a sad aspect of the development of the material civilization of our day.”
Bosworth Smith, whom I was quoting just above, adds that if the teachings of Islam about the treatment of animals are followed then there would be no need to have any of the modern legislation like that in the West which prohibits cruelty to animals, and no need for any animal welfare organisations. He also writes in a footnote:
“The sympathy of the Prophet for his domestic animals is well known. There is a great variety of traditions respecting his horses, his mules, his milch and riding camels, and his goats.”
— See pp. 178–180, Mohammed and Mohammedanism, London, 1874
An incident involving a camel of the Holy Prophet throws light on another aspect of the Holy Prophet’s character. A report runs as follows:
“The Prophet had a she-camel called Al-Aḍbā which could not be excelled in a race, or could hardly be excelled. Once a Bedouin came riding a camel which surpassed it in the race. The Muslims felt it badly so much that the Prophet noticed their distress. He then said: ‘It is the law of God that He brings down whatever rises high in the world’.”
— Bukhari, hadith 2872 and 6501
The Holy Prophet’s statement is similar to the well-known saying: “Records are set so that they can be broken.” Muslims were upset that the Holy Prophet’s camel was beaten in a race by a camel belonging to an ordinary Bedouin. But the Holy Prophet did not take any offence at this at all. A worldly ruler or any other worldly person would have been most unhappy and angry and would have taken it as a personal insult. But the Holy Prophet explained to his followers that this was a law of God, that something might be much better and much greater than all its competitors, but God can still bring something else which is even better than it. The Holy Prophet accepted the reality, even though it was unpalatable, that his camel was defeated, because the reality was the work of God’s laws, and God’s laws are above anyone’s personal desires. He didn’t accuse the Bedouin of cheating!
In the Hadith collection of Nasā’ī, in the section on sacrificing animals, there is a hadith (4445) that the Holy Prophet said:
“If a person kills a small bird or a larger one without good cause, Allah will question him about it on the Day of Judgment.” People asked him: What is meant by “good cause”? He replied: “Good cause is that you slaughter it and eat it, but don’t cut off its head and throw it to one side”.
Lastly, in five of the six main collections of Hadith there are sayings in which the Holy Prophet has instructed that when an animal is slaughtered for food it must be done as humanely as possible. He said:
“Allah has commanded goodness (or kindness) in everything, so when you kill an animal you should do it in the best way, when you slaughter an animal you should do it in the best way, always sharpen your knife and let the slaughtered animal die in comfort.”
The words translated as “let the slaughtered animal die in comfort” are f-lyuriḥ dhabīḥa, which are also translated variously as:
— Sahih Muslim, h. 1955a, Abu Dawud, h. 2815, Tirmidhi, h. 1409, Ibn Majah, h. 3170, Nasā’ī, h. 4405 and 4414
In Abu Dawud the title given by the compiler to the chapter in which the hadith occurs is: Being gentle with the animal to be slaughtered.
So may Allah enable us to spread these teachings of our Holy Prophet which show that Islam is a humane and compassionate but also a practical religion — Ameen.