The Pakistani Spectator

Is locking up rabbits, having birds in cages and keeping aquariums justified? Personally I feel it is inhuman but some mullahs say that it is okay because they are protected from other animals and they get their food on time. I have heard that these animals give bud-dua but I do not know how far this is true.

There are many Ahadith on kindness to animals:

A Sahabi narrates, “We were on a journey with Prophet Mohammad SAW, and he left us for a while. During his absence, we saw a bird with its two young ones and took them. The mother bird was circling above us in the air, beating its wings in grief. When the Prophet came back he said: “Who has hurt the feelings of this bird by taking its young ones? Return them to her.”

There is also a Hadith where Prophet Mohammad told his companions that a woman has been sent to hell because she did not feed her cat and the cat died. (This woman was actually a religious woman). If a religious person can go to hell for abusing an animal, we can understand what would happen to the average person.

Prophet Mohammad said, “Whoever kills a sparrow or anything bigger than that without a just cause, Allah SWT will hold him accountable on the Day of Judgment.” The listeners asked, “O Messenger of Allah, what is a just cause? He replied, “That he will kill it to eat, not simply to chop off its head and then throw it away.”

In another narration, a sinner was forgiven because he gave a thirsty dog water to drink.

Now I would like to move on to the much criticized method of slaughtering an animal in the Islamic manner; the halal method. According to propagandists, this is an inhumane way of killing an animal. (I’m assuming that the jhatka method or shooting an animal is a very humane way of killing). The fact is that in the Islamic manner, the pain nerve is cut off but the animal swirms because blood is being released. Also, the blood that is drained gets rid of bacteria and germs, which can cause diseases.