Print advertisement created by JWT, Turkey for Association of Shelter Volunteers and Animal Rights Istanbul, within the category: Public Interest, NGO.
Islam's and the Quran's View of Animal Welfare
In Islam, cruelty toward an animal is considered a sin. The Quran and guidance from the Prophet Muhammad, as recorded in the hadith, a record of Muhammad's traditions and sayings, give many examples and directives about how Muslims should treat animals.
Animal Communities
The Quran says that animals form communities, just as humans do:
"There is not an animal that lives on the earth, nor a being that flies on its wings, but they form communities like you. Nothing have we omitted from the Book, and they all shall be gathered to their Lord in the end" (Quran 6:38).
Kindness to Animals
Islam forbids treating animals cruelly or killing them except for food. Muhammad often chastised his companions, or followers, who mistreated animals and spoke to them about mercy and kindness. Here are examples from the hadith that instruct Muslims how to treat animals:
- Mercy is rewarded: "Whoever is merciful even to a sparrow, Allah will be merciful to him on the Day of Judgment."
- Animals are like humans: "A good deed done to an animal is like a good deed done to a human being, while an act of cruelty to an animal is as bad as cruelty to a human being."
- Animals cannot speak up for themselves: Muhammad once passed a camel that was so emaciated its back had almost reached its stomach. He said, "Fear Allah in these beasts who cannot speak."
- Mental cruelty is also forbidden: A group of companions was once traveling with Muhammad when he left them for a while. During his absence, they saw a bird with its two young, and they took the young ones from the nest. The mother bird was circling above in the air, beating its wings in grief, when Muhammad came back and said, "Who has hurt the feelings of this bird by taking its young? Return them to her."
- Give rest to beasts of burden: Muhammad said, "Do not use the backs of your animals as chairs. Allah has made them subject to you so that by them you can reach places that you would not otherwise be able to reach except with great fatigue."
translat by : دارالترجمه انگلیسی