Mufti Menk – The Cat & the Imam – Responds

			Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato. My brothers and sisters. A few days ago, there was an imam
from Algeria who was fulfilling the evening prayer known as tarawih. And the cat happened to jump on
him. And it actually spent a bit of time there. The beauty of all of that was he did not panic, and
he did not cut his recitation, he didn't even pause or stop or jerk And subhanAllah he maintained
his concentration as he was prior to the jumping of the cat. That was something amazing, Mashallah.
And may Allah bless the Imam and grant him goodness. What I want to say is, this video went viral
and rightly so mashallah, Mashallah. And many people got to see a side of bearded people, or should
		

			I say, practicing Muslims with animals, I want to seize this opportunity to say, the Prophet
Muhammad peace be upon him has told us that people have entered Paradise because of their good
treatment of dogs and cats. And people have entered Hellfire because of their bad treatment of cats.
There is a narration which means these animals, and the Prophet peace be upon him says feel equally
can be didn't rot, but in agilon, every creature that has a liver, every creature that has life
Subhanallah, we need to be good to eat, and we will get a reward for being kind and good. Not only
that Islam extends to your ecosystem, your environment, the trees that you have, you don't just chop
		

			them down in a destructive manner. But we are encouraged very strongly to plant trees. The Prophet
Muhammad peace be upon him says whoever plants a tree will continue to get a reward for as long as
the tree is standing even beyond that person's death, for as long as it is providing some form of
benefit in terms of shade, in terms of fruit, or whatever else it may be for the people or the
birds, and the animals and so on. So this is Islam. I'm so happy that this video went viral. Because
many people think as Muslims, we're not supposed to be kind to animals, and so on, including dogs
and pigs SubhanAllah. I've mentioned quite a few times in the past that the fact that something is
		

			prohibited to consume, such as a pig or pork does not make it permissible for us to be nasty to
those animals. Those animals are still animals created by Allah Almighty be kind and the Almighty
will be kind not just to you in this world, but even in the hereafter. So if people can earn
paradise, through being kind to animals, imagine what they would earn by being kind towards fellow
human beings. Subhan Allah may Allah Almighty make us from those who happen to be very kind. This is
the month of kindness and generosity the month of Ramadan, and this is the message I have for you
tonight, as salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.