Social Justice – Episode 37 – When Animals Indict Humans for Cruelty

All right, so now when it comes to library council

now, in hamdulillahi Rabbil alameen, wa salatu salam ala rasulillah him kill him, or any he will be he will sell him to semen cathedra. So this is the last halaqa that we're going to have the for the month of Ramadan. May Allah subhanaw taala allow us to live to see it and to benefit from it and to be forgiven through its allotment. I mean,

today's class is so rich in terms of its content that it might seem like I'm running down the narrations and offering just a little bit of commentary on them as we go down the narrations. And so I want to encourage you on Charlotte's I just, I know that especially those of you that have been attending weekly, you take your own set of notes, but we do post professional notes every, every week, couple of days after the class. So by Thursday, the professional notes for the class will actually be up online. So you can follow along there because you're probably not going to catch every narration or the details of every narration that we go through.

But it's just a really rich topic. And before I even talk about this topic, in particular, some of you are familiar with the narration fact most of you probably are of the Prophet sallallahu wasallam when the funeral of a Jewish man went by him and he was in Medina, and he stood up as that funeral pass by and he said to the companions, He justified his standing up for the Prophet peace be upon him explained his standing up by saying what do you remember the exact language the terminology the prophets lie some use?

Don't be afraid to be wrong. Yeah.

English is fine.

Okay, the prophets lie, some says, isn't it a human soul?

Isn't it a human soul? The prophets lie Selim spoke to the inherent value of the human being, isn't it a human soul meaning even as the body is carried by, there's a soul as well. And that is enough to to allow that to be a sacred moment or to be a sanctified moment. The topic we're going to talk about today is animal rights. Okay? And it is incredible how much literature exists. And I really do you mean incredible about animal rights. And the first thing that you take from that, as you're reading through all of these ahaadeeth and traditions about the sanctity of animals, is if the Prophet peace be upon him, was so dedicated to making sure that animals were cared for in the way

that he was then what about human beings? Everything that we speak about in the context of animal rights should be compounded when we talk about human rights and the prophets lie Selim says so I'll start off with this Hadith of the many narrations that will go through to Hadith in Sahih, Muslim by Abdullah bin Ambassador the title of the Prophet peace be upon him said that definitely do shoot and he he wrote who arroba again laughed at us he do say, he wrote about Allah, which translates to do not take anything containing a soul as a targets. Do not take anything containing a soul as a targets. Okay, so the Prophet peace be upon him is speaking to the animals in a different way or

speaking about the animals in a very different way. Sorry, who obeyed? May Allah be pleased with him, he narrates that I'm loving almost all the 11 who passed by some individuals who had erected a chicken, and they were shooting at it. And when they saw the love, and although they knew they were doing something wrong, they quickly moved away from it and dispersed. So he said to them who did this and no one took responsibility for it. So I'm loving Omar responded and he said, in Rasulullah, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam learned them and found a dialect the Prophet peace be upon him curse people who do this stuff. He cursed the one who does this. So it starts off with that with

treatments in regards to the way that an animal would be killed, right? So hunting and these types of things, so is hunting haraam? Well, the prophets lie some studying a hadith from our beloved norm, or the Allahu taala. And also authentic he said that any person who kills even a tiny Sparrow without rights will be questioned by Allah regarding it. So then it was said and hamdulillah

the companions asked questions because if they didn't ask questions, and these ahaadeeth just stopped at that, then we'd have a big issue sometimes. They said the little lon what is the right of the Spirit? What am I what is the right of that bird? What is the right of the sparrow? So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that it only be sacrificed to feed oneself and that it not be cast aside, that it only be sacrificed to feed oneself and that it not be cast aside. So

hunting for sports. If it's just to shoot at things, then that would be impermissible and that would be hard on even if you're shooting a tiny bird, the only time you should hunt is for the sake of feeding yourself right or for the sake of food and sustenance, otherwise, it becomes impermissible. And the prophets lie Selim paid very close attention to this. And there are a lot of times that we would think that just because for example, hunting is permissible in the context that it is permissible, that there is a disregard for those particular animals. And that's where the faulty framing starts. If this the saliva of a dog is impure is not just that must mean we should hate

dogs.

And if you can hunt birds for the sake of sustenance, that must mean that all the birds don't matter. Okay? And that birds that there's no sanctity, in regards to them. If you can kill an ant, that must mean that you can kill all ants and you can do whatever you want with them. But it's actually very sophisticated. It's a lot more than that, of the loving mosquito. The aloha animal says we were on an expedition with the Messenger of Allah sallallahu wasallam. And he went out to relieve himself. And we saw a red Sparrow that had to have her babies with her, a red Sparrow that had to have her babies with her. So when we took the babies of that Sparrow, the sparrow started to

flap her wings in distress, the prophets lysozyme came to us and the wording that the prophets lysozyme use, he said, who has devastated this one by taking her children like you would think he's talking about a human being. Right, who has devastated her by taking her children. If you if you only took that part of the Hadees. And you didn't realize the context, you think he's talking about it like a human being. So the prophets lie. Selim looked around, he said, Whoever did let them return the children to her now. I'm loving Massoud continues, he said on the same expedition, now we're talking about an expedition here we're talking about a very important time. Because an AI

automatically uses Hadeeth to refute this. I said, How can we talk about animal rights when we have Syria going on and Philistine and there's so much to do with human beings and their homeless people? Why are we talking about animal shelters and talking? I mean, it doesn't make sense. We'll get to that one day. That's the same logic to Yeah, *. Why do we take care of people in Dallas when things are happening overseas? And the people that say that are not doing anything for the people overseas or the people in Dallas? And the people that say, why aren't we take Why do we even talk about animal rights when we got so many human issues are not doing anything for human beings? Right?

It's an excuse for our laziness, the Prophet slicin did not, did not treat tragedy as an either or. Okay, he looked at each one as its own unique problem that requires a unique solution from a unique place of compassion. So the same expedition, he's already shocked them by paying attention, so I set them to that bird. Okay. On the same expedition, he said that we we saw an ant colony when we set up, you know, obviously, these expeditions would last days, weeks, sometimes even months to reach the location. So there was an ant colony. So they said they burned the ant colony, right? Because they were, you know, obviously, we're setting up in this area that they don't want to get bit by the

ends. So the prophets lie, some of them. He came out and he said, who burned this?

I said, Yeah, this little law we did. He said, No one should punish with fire except for the Lord of fire.

No one should punish with fire except for the Lord of fire. So, in this expedition, how could it be that a prophet that the prophets I send them would disregard human beings, right, if he's paying this much attention to the birds, and to the ants, this is edited, narrated, and soon to be doubled, and also, and the other side of him? So that's one framing to take the hunting and the killing, and the disregard in that regard, you know, in regards to taking the life, the life of an animal, either in cruel fashion or unnecessarily. And then, the second ones are the spiritual incentives. The prophets why Selim says there are two ahaadeeth actually, they're separate narrations, a lot of

times they get mixed up. They both have the same lesson, but still, it's good to talk about them separately. There's

a lot of times that the prophets lie Some said as a man was walking along, his thirst became intense. So he climbed down a well and he drank from it. Then when he emerged from that, well, he found a panting dog licking the dirt from thirst, profits by some is creating a scene is giving us this the scene so that men reflected and he said that I was thirsty, and Allah sustained me. Therefore, I should do the same thing for that dog. So he went back into the well he took off his shoe and he filled his shoe with water. And then he held it he climbed towards the dog and he held it for the dog to drink from his shoe. So the profits of a lot how it was set him the way the

prophets lie Selim even mentions the Hadith is quite beautiful. He says for shachar Allah hula hoop

He was grateful to Allah. So he sold choco to Allah subhana wa Tada. He showed grant gratitude to Allah. So Allah showed gratitude to him a lot, appreciated him and forgave him was alpha. So you can appreciate a lot, you can show gratitude a lot, but you can't forgive God, right? So he showed gratitude to Allah. So Allah showed gratitude to him and forgave him for all of his sins. Okay, in that one moment, and this speaks to the idea that you don't know which one of your good deeds is going to be the one that's going to be accepted by Allah subhana wa tada that he forgives you by and that's a good way to approach life, it's a good way to approach them a lot. It's a good way to

approach our good deeds as a whole. Also, to take from this did the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam? Or did this men do anything? Do anything that

benefited Allah himself?

When he gave water to the dog, why would Allah thank him he didn't do anything for our last printout, right? But when you care for the creation of Allah, that's how you show appreciation to the Creator. So the language is also very powerful in what it says. And in the Hadith, by the way, in the longer version of it, which is in in Bukhari and Muslim the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he said that in every moist liver, and I'm only saying the translation of these edits, because because of the time constraint, but all the Arabic will be posted as well. He said, in every moist liver, is an opportunity for reward. That language seems weird. In every moist liver, what the

prophets lie Selim means frequently hate in every living thing. But he used a very specific, a very specific languaging. Why because if in every moist liver, that means it doesn't matter what animal it is. So dog, cat, whatever it may be, it doesn't matter how pretty the animal is. It doesn't matter if the animals saliva is not just or not impure, not all of that is completely, you know, is completely irrelevant to the discussion of charity towards animals. So in every moist liver, there's an opportunity for an opportunity for reward from Allah subhanaw taala. The other narration the prophet SAW, I said, I mentioned also authentic that as a dog was circling around a well on the

verge of dying from thirst, a prostitute from Benny Israel, if saw that dog, so she removed her shoe, and she, she collected some water for that dog. And for that Allah subhana wa tada Allah her opha horfield Allah be Allah forgave her for that act, meaning forgave her for everything that she had done for that act. Some of the scholars mentioned in that particular Hadith that the wisdom of that that Allah forgave her for that. It's not that the woman said, I can justify everything that I'm doing, by doing this one act, it's that that woman acted in a moment of sincerity. And Allah knows it could have been a catalyst for something else that took place in her life, maybe there was

a reminder to her that Allah will sustain her the way that she sustained that dog or Allah sustain that dog for her, and she doesn't have to resort to something that's hot. That's prohibited in order to sustain herself. So there are a lot there's a lot that's lost often in these headaches, and we're supposed to take the lesson. And in our day and age, really interesting, you know, I've just noticed that every time I teach a class the questions that I get every single time This isn't to discourage any of you from asking questions, but they get weirder and more specific every single time. Because we've been taught to always reach for the irrelevant details.

Like she, if she was the prostitute, why was she wearing shoes? Like something like that? Like I get asked these strange questions every single time I'm like, where did these questions come out of but it's reach for this irrelevant detail the province lies on wants you to take a lesson. So he didn't give you the biographical details of this woman and tell you what happened before and after. To make you feel good because let her make cassava, Lake America. Right, she will have her reckoning with a lot you will have your reckoning with a lot all of that is irrelevant. So it's to take it's to take a lesson from it in whatever capacity you can. And of course the the opposite of that. The Prophet

slicin I mentioned a woman who tortured a cat, and she trapped it until it died, and she entered the Hellfire as a result, neither did she fear her nor give her anything to drink, nor did she leave her to eat from the insects of the earth so she did not provide for her. Nor did she allow her to to eat from the insects of the earth. The real amount mentioned the profit slice. I'm here as mentioning imprisonment of that cats. So for example, how would I approach this? How would a jurist approach this? Is it impermissible to keep a cat temporarily in a cage

from a fifth perspective from a jurist

perspective,

not if you feed it, okay, so not if you're providing for it, but it should be for what's necessary, it can't be that you want to leave it, leave it leave it in a permanent state in that cage. But it should be for what's necessary or to keep it in a small cramped space where it would affect that cat's well being alright. But if you're feeding it and taking care of it, then it doesn't apply. If you think about this particular thing, so the Prophet slicin did not just condemn the woman caging the cat, but again, not allowing her to even eat from the insects of the earth. So you have the state of sun excellence in regards to the woman that provided for the dog. And you have in this

case, the the epitome of cruelty, right? And that's where agenda and not our paradise and Hellfire are think about the attitude of Muslims towards dogs. No, I'm really serious about this religious Muslim in the 21st century walking in a park and sees a dog come by, and I'm not going to make a panting motion because people would enjoy that too much. And they make fun of me, but, uh huh. But like, imagine, like you're walking in the park and a dog starts panting and the dog comes close to you, as a religiously inclined Muslim. It's like,

get away, don't mess up my old rule, right? You're not gonna think about feeding or providing for the dog or seeing what's, you know, or showing some sort of kindness to the dog. That's not Dean, that's culture. That's not Dean, that's culture that has nothing to do with the religion. That's all culture. Okay. Somehow though, we, we take the culture, we start with a place of culture, and then we find the religion and throw it in there as well. So the Hadith that's mentioned here, in regards to this woman obviously, gives the opposite of that the Prophet sly send them also mentioned, or he spoke quite a bit about the, the overburdens animal, the animal that's overburden and these are,

this is an animal that is used for some sort of, for some sort of benefit beyond simply taking care of it, or feeding it or being fed from it. Beyond that, and I love these ahaadeeth when you when you read them in their detail, I'm loving jack federal the law of Thailand. he narrates that the prophets lie some entered the garden of an unsightly man, and he found a camel inside that garden. When the camel saw the profit slice of them it whimpered, and its eyes overflowed, as if it was complaining to the Prophet sly setup. So he said the prophets lie Selim went to the camel and he started to wipe its tears. Again, you would think it's a human being, who Halla from the amount of

compassion that the prophet SAW some assurances animal so he said that the prophets lie some comforted the camel and wiped its tears. And when the man came out, the Prophet slicin him said, Who's Campbell's this, who's Campbell's this, so he said, it's mine, the profit slice and I want to fear Allah regarding these beasts which Allah has placed in your possessions. But it has complained to me that you starve it and that you overwork it.

The camel complained to the profit slice alone, that it was being starved and overwork. And again, the prophets lie Selim always uses a languaging that's consistent by now in these last few ahaadeeth. You should, you should compare this to how the prophets lie sometimes to deal with our children, how to deal with our spouses, in the era of lift, which again, you know, slavery or whatever it may be how you deal with those captives of war. It's always related to

authority. If Allah has given you authority over someone or something, shouldn't you show compassion with it? So the prophets lie something wants to show compassion, or once you fear, a love regarding these beasts, that Allah subhanaw taala has placed in your possession, where it has complained to me that you starve it and you overwork it. It's also a decent Buddhahood and it's authentic. The Prophet slicin I mentioned because again, not all animals can complain.

To the prophets lie Selim. Right? And no, we you know, Dr. Doolittle is not a real thing.

Only half of you left which is

scares me.

I need to come up with a more a more relevant example, don't I? All right, can't talk to animals, right? We don't get to talk to animals or understand them. So the prophets lysozyme says is a headache from sun Alhamdulillah or the Allahu taala and Sullivan and Hamodia. He said that the prophets lie Selim once passed by a camel, whose back neared its stomach, meaning the camel clearly was showing was showing signs of being overburdened. So the prophets license said fear Allah regarding these beasts who cannot speak for themselves. Fear Allah regarding these beasts who cannot speak for themselves. He said, ride them healthy and eat them healthy. Meaning if while they're

living, you show them you show them mercy. And when you take their lives or when you have to sacrifice a camel camel or an animal that's new work when you have to sacrifice an animal

More than show mercy, right it healthy and make sure that you also eat them healthy you sacrifice it healthy. So, fear a lot regarding these animals who cannot speak for themselves. Now obviously on the Day of Judgment, everything speaks,

the land will speak, the water will speak, the environment will speak, everything will speak. So yes, animals will will speak, the hands will speak, the tongue will speak, the ears will speak, the eyes will speak, the feet will speak, everything speaks right testifies on the Day of Judgment. So that too, is the case when it comes to the beast. What else could the prophets lie some of them? You know, think about it this way. Let's say that you're you're in a society where you have horses and camels as your main mode of transportation. What else could be the right of that camel or that horse?

What do you guys think?

Would you say? rest? Absolutely.

Cleaning after them, okay, absolutely. What about like, like, picture this to people riding their horses or their camels in the streets.

And then they, they stop, like, let's say when you're when you're in a neighborhood and you're in your car, and

you both stop and you start you roll down your window and start talking to each other. Right? So think about Medina. Okay, two people riding their camel across the street. And they start to have a conversation with each other.

The profits, why sell them. He said, beware This is a decent Buddha wooden saw here. He said beware of taking the backs of your riding animals as pulpits for Allah has only made them to deliver you to a place which you would otherwise not reach without great exertion.

The prophets lie Selim prohibited people from taking from talking too long, while they sat on their animals. And another one he said do not take them as couches for your street and market conversations, also an authentic hadith. Like Don't, don't hang out on your animals, when you talk to people. That's the extent of the Prophet sallallahu wasallam. Taking care of these, these animals, the problem and you know that that speaks to beyond just the physical, the physical burden, that there are things that this society did not even think about and that culture, that culture was created, where you had a society that would bury little girls alive. And now you have the same

people that used to find that tolerable, fearing the loss of penance out about their animals, testifying against them on the Day of Judgment, like they went from treating their daughters as less than human. So not only fully, you know, embracing what Allah gave them as a gift and highlighting their rights to now even treating animals with the same rights as human beings in ways that societies other societies did not even treat human beings. More how you have no Cora he narrates from his father that a man said to the Messenger of Allah sallallahu wasallam that

the O Messenger of Allah, I slaughter a lamb and I feel mercy for it. So basically, he's saying like, he's complaining to the Prophet sighs I'm that when he sacrifices he's one of the tender hearted people, he feels a sense of mercy, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he said, if you have mercy on the lamp, Allah will have mercy on you.

You have mercy on the lamp Allah will have mercy on you know, the Hadith or hammelmann fell out of your hammock or Memphis unnatural mercy to those in this earth. The one in the heavens will show mercy to us. So the prophets lysozyme is using that same languaging as well when he speaks to about that lamb and that's why the prophets lie Selim. He saw someone laying down a lamb while still sharpening the blade in front of it. And the Prophet slicin um said do you wish to kill it twice? Couldn't you have sharpen that blade? Before you laid it down? Why are you you know and that's why the prophets I said you don't show the don't cause the animal distress and the way that you

slaughter the animal that's one of the halaal things too by the way if you're talking about how to make your slaughter holiday or the be hunted

you know the way that the slaughter takes place should be done in a way that's not cruel to the profit slice so don't kill it. Twice

the profit slice I'm also forbade branding,

okay?

jabber I'm not allowed just mentioned one Hadith here. He said that the Prophet peace be upon and passed by a donkey whose face was branded again, a donkey was looked at as not a very prized riding animal. It was the lowest of the animals, terms of riding animals. So he saw a donkey whose face was branded. So the prophets lie some of them said to the owner has not reached you that I have cursed those who brand animals in their faces or strike them in their faces. So even hitting an animal in a face. Often slide Some said did not reach you that I cursed people who brand animals in the face or who hit them in the face and again, he was speaking about a

A donkey, another Hadith the Prophet slicin passed by a camel whose face was branded by fire and the prophets and the prophets. I said what is this branding and lambda? So the law and we said this is the branding we used to do in the days of ignorance. So the prophets lie Selim said do not brand with the fire, Allah punishers with fire, do not brand with the fire, Allah subhana wa tada punishers with fire. What about other kindness that the Prophet peace be upon him spoke about or what was lived in the culture of the prophet SAW Selim, and authentic hadith.

In Muslim Imam Ahmed, a man once visited the great companion to mean a daddy of the lavon. And to me, my daddy was the governor of Jerusalem, and quotes. So he found to me there's so much beauty in this he found to me was the governor of Jerusalem. And when you think the governor of Jerusalem at that time, and a great companion like me, you know, said, Daddy, you're thinking, I mean, you're automatically getting, you know, you have this impression of great royalty. So he sees to me cleaning the wheat for his horse, cleaning the wheat for his horse. So you know, making sure that the food that he feeds him is clean.

So the man said to me to tell me, don't you have someone who could do that for you? Like, do you really have to be the one that sits there and cleans the wheat for your horse? You're the governor of Jerusalem. So he responded, he said I do. But I heard the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam say, no Muslim, cleans his horses wheat, and then serves it to him. Except that Allah subhana wa tada has written for him a good deed for every grain of that wheat

facade here. I mean, that, that that should change immediately the way that you deal with every animal that you'd see outside somehow I think about the Muslim world where cats look like rats, because of the neglect if they knew the edges, if they knew the good deed that was in feeding each and every single one of those animals. Right? What would they do so Tamim? nosa Daddy, and this is the spiritual incentive that we spoke about last week that goes beyond simple policy, to me, as the governor of Jerusalem is not belittling the reward and cleaning the wheat and washing and cleaning the wheat that he would give to his horse because there is a reward in that.

And he shall be allowed. And this is a not a very well known Hadith, but it's authentic hadith. Also, an assistant also had narina Toba Ronnie, he said, she says that the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, when he would see a cat, he would, he would tilt his vessel, his vessel, the vessel that he would make, he would perform the loop from the ablution from and he would wait for that cat to finish drinking. And then the prophets lie Selim would would use what was left of it to make his will. And then he would give the rest he would give the rest of the water whatever it was not needed for his will he give it back to the cat.

Alright, so even the Prophet sly son was paying attention to his vessel of law with the cat, okay, that was around him.

There's of course, animal cruelty, as it exists in other ways, obviously, you know,

gambling and pit bull fighting and all that type of stuff. The profit slice I'm just a headache, and bustle the lawn I know that he forbade instigating fights between animals or, or doing this as a form of game. It was common in their culture, it's still common in our culture. Today, the Prophet slicin I'm also forbade, and this is this is one that requires

requires some, some level of explanation in terms of in terms of the jurisprudence of it. The prophets lie some forbade castrating animals, particularly the Hadith mentions I'll hide behind. So it's the bigger animals, cows and camels and horses and things of that sort. So what does this mean in terms of neutering cats?

Is it permissible or not permissible? Many of the scholars spoke about and they said that if the choice is between, you know, not having or not bringing cats in and taking care of them

and neutering them because you can't handle the burden of those cats, then it's better to do that, because this is not a definitive practice in regards to the smaller animals, it was referring to the larger animals, but still, from a from, you know, just by using analogy, if a person can avoid doing that, they should avoid doing that. But if the choice is between,

you know, this or abandoning those cats abandoning those animals, because if we bring the cat in, we're gonna have to worry about, you know, a bunch of cats, then it's better for a person to, you know, to do with it to neuter the cat, instead of not bringing a cat in at all. So, still, the scholars spoke about it in many situations, relating it to the bigger animals, and obviously it would be haram to do so unnecessarily at all.

With no reason whatsoever, declawing the animals is something the scholar spoke against very heavily. declawing, the animals, the prophets lie Selim, he also mentioned in terms of space and in terms of the way that you walk and the way that you drive the way that you also deal with the land that is around you. He said some a lot whining listening when you travel, and authentic hadith and Muslim, when you travel during a green pasture period, give the animals their share of grazing the earth.

For they are entitled to the mercy of Allah just like you. Alright, so the way that you even traverse the land, you should consider these things. We know a lot. So Joel mentioned to us the story of a man at his Salaam, the Prophet Solomon, and burning the the ant pile.

This is something that we find the scholars paid very close attention to the companions paid very close attention to a Buddha or the law of Toronto as he was on his deathbed. Buddha, obviously, is one of the great mysteries of the companions. As he was on his deathbed. He looked towards his camel, and he said, Oh, camel, do not indict me with your Lord, for I never made you carry beyond your capacity. And he's bidding farewell to his family, he looks to the camel that he used to ride. And he and he, you know, he's testifying that he never wrong that camel, do not indict me with your Lord, because I never overburdened you. beyond your capacity. I didn't know how to model the law. I

know it's narrated, that he used to crush bread, or the answer. This is one that a lot of people have a hard time swallowing, he used to crush bread for the hands. And he used to say they are our neighbor, neighbors, and they have a right upon us.

That doesn't mean bring ants into your house.

But that shows you that some of these people really took this seriously to the extent that they cared for the insects that were on the outside as well, on top of the a lot of time and who he wants. So I'm just going through the narrations and just commenting on them. As I said, I'm under the law. And we once saw a man that was dragging a lamb by its foot to the slaughter. And he said well to you lead it to its death beautifully. So almost all the law, I know even paying attention to the way that you treat an animal that you're going to slaughter beyond just not showing it the knife that you would use for sacrifice, even in the treatment of it beforehand. There's a narration from a

bliss half that he walked with his companions when a dog

appeared upon the road. And so when one of the companions rebuked him, the mom stopped and he said, Don't you know that the route the road This road is a mutual entitlement between us that it has its share of this road as I have the share of the road as well.

There's a beautiful story about entrepreneur also the line when our entrepreneur asked conquered Egypt, there was a pigeon that landed on his tent. Okay, so it landed on his tent, and it actually formed a nest, and it laid an egg on his tent. So when the house was leaving,

you know, he chose not he saw that pigeon, and he chose not to remove the tent, he just left it there. So what actually ended up happening is people started to build around that tent, right, it became like sort of a symbol that this is where I'm gonna set up his tent, he never removed it because of the bird that set itself up there. And that became, you know, that became a city in Muslim Egypt. And in fact, that's why the city is actually called today full stop, which means tents. So till today, that city where I'm gonna set up his tent and he left it there and people after he left it there, started building around and they didn't touch that. They actually named the

city for start, which means tent.

There are other narrations, one of them about Ahmed Ibn Abdul Aziz Rahim, Allah tada that Omar Aziz

issued a decree that no one should kick his horse except for a need and that he used to have his his patrolmen ensure that nobody was was was being cruel to their horses or poking them with sticks, or donning them and heavy rains. And he wrote to his his governor in Egypt, honorable Abdul Aziz was very specific about the the reforms that he made, he wrote to his governor in Egypt. He said that it has reached me that in Egypt, the delivery camels, so they didn't have trucks, they had camels right to do their deliveries,

that people would put 1000 ruts, which is about 380 kilograms on their backs. So he said, let me not discover that any camel under my protection in my own mind is carrying over 600 which is about 228 kilograms. It's actually one of those precise measurements. So you almost cut it in half. Well, the lads had had when he said I don't want ever hear about a camel that's that's carrying more than that. So you find an early

Islamic history.

We talked about oh cough last week we talked about endowments, there are things that people lay down as rules that that we wouldn't even imagine nowadays. So you'll find entire chapters and books of jurisprudence and books about a blind cat string into your house. What do you do for blind cat strays into your house? And the scholars would write that that blind cat now has established a right upon you. It's It is your duty to take care of that. That cat. So a lot basically sent that cat to your house, you got to do what you got to do. I spoke some of you know this about my mother, may Allah have mercy on her. My hat was full of my hat, my house, I just mixed up to words again, house

was full of cats. Like seriously full of cats. I'd wake up every day with a new family member.

We had like, and I'm talking about, it got to a point where it's over 10 cats at some point coming in and out of the house growing up. So we just had cats everywhere. How do we have cats everywhere, my mom would just start feeding them outside. And the next thing you know, they'd come into the house sometimes. And for like, a few weeks, they'd only like let her touch them. And then slowly, she'd introduce the rest of us to our new brother or sister as they came into the house. It was really amazing. I mean, we'd give them names they were they just that's how we we never bought a cat when people would come into our house and be like, Did you guys purchase cats? We were like, No,

it's just our mom just goes out and starts playing with cats feeding these cats. And the next thing you know, they're in our house at some point. So they're in them actually talked about the scars actually talked about this, like they spoke about it as a loss delivering a gift to you. There's a straight animal that ends up under your protection and care for it. That's a lot giving you an opportunity for a lot giving you an opportunity for good deeds. So all of these, these different things existed. The Oh cough, as I mentioned last week, which were a hallmark of the Islamic civilization, unmatched, truly unmatched in history. These endowments covered the needs of animals

to a point

that we said that there were there were hospitals that were covered through these endowments for elderly animals,

you know, retired animals.

Not until after that, for example, was a pastor in Damascus. If you look up a mountain, and maybe inshallah yaqeen, we're going to do some research on the elk off on some of the endowments that exist in Islamic history. That's one of the things that we want to research is actually list them all out what were the endowments that existed? And what are some of the current

manifesting or current lessons that we could draw, not as if there was a pastor in Damascus, for for animals that were that had a, you know, a difficulty fetching for themselves. It was a pasture for them to be able to fetch for themselves.

You can even find in a sham, madrasa fell apart, which literally would translate into the school of cats. Okay, where cats would be taken care of, and the word that was used with madrasa because they'd be trained to take care of themselves and things of that sort. You can you can find them yes, you can actually find a walk in history. Malaya, Martin keylab

refugee camps for dogs. That litter that's how you translate into Mohammed refers to a refugee camp that that, that stray dogs would be sheltered and treated in in different parts of the oma in Damascus and otherwise, when we look in our Islamic history, so I'll leave you with one narration in Charlottetown. And then I'll just give a few thoughts and then I'll open it up to questions. There is this hadith you know where the prophet SAW Selim was on his way, in her they be a 3d of her they be at a mecca, and the camel of the prophets lie Selim refused to move forward. And the Sahaba some of the companions, they said about they said hello to cos one. Plus one which is the name of the

camel has become stubborn. And the prophets lie some actually took up for the camel, he said, well, like a mathematical crosswalk that I swear by a lot plus was not stubborn. Well now that he could be hollow and that's not a proper trait to attribute to customer. And then the hobbies or hobbies would feel would help customer back is what held the the elephants back when they were on their way to destroy the camber when abraha was taking them to destroy the cab. The scholars draw so much from the profit slice some was literally sticking up for an animal that he took up for that camel that it's inappropriate for you to say these things about that. That animal right to speak about it that

way. Don't wrong, that animal by giving it a trait.

That is not true to it. Even when we think about human beings defining people by their worst or something that we perceive in an instance and then defining them by that trait. The profits licensor. It's not fair for you to attribute stubbornness to a camel that's been a good camel, right? So what my daddy kinda hubby Hold up, but alas, stop.

camel for something else.

The scholar is, and this is, I guess this is the point that I really want to end on.

When there are things that are on this earth, people or things that are completely at our mercy, they are just as much a test for us as we are for them.

That's an opportunity. And you are you are supposed to be learning something about your existence, your very purpose in the presence of those people or those things. And so the axon, the excellence that these and that's where the incentive comes from the spiritual incentive comes from the spiritual incentive does not mean that had the spiritual incentive not been there, you would not have taken care of people or animals or what what what may what it may be that's vulnerable, that's a need. But it makes you act with a certain level of a son with excellence going the extra mile. Right? So this was a training that these people had for themselves. You know, it's interesting.

If Mohammed Mr. Nye was actually sharing this with me, and I found it very beautiful, is saying that there's a narration of one of the seller one of the pious predecessors, I believe it was remember, Suki was not one of the pious predecessors who comes later on, but that his son saw a dog outside and he said, Go away. You killed him. They'll kill him. And all he said was, he called it a dog, the son of a doc,

Nell Cal.

And a Suki called him. He said, Come here. Yeah, what? Oh, boy.

Right. So he didn't address him as a son. He called them as a boy.

And he said, What is it?

He said, Don't you know that? Allah subhanaw taala has prohibited he said, What I said was factual. It's a dog, right? I didn't say anything wrong. I didn't insult the dog. I just called it a dog. That's how we're clever, right? I just called it a dog. I didn't say anything that's like in backbiting, right? I would say to his face, but we're talking about dog now. All right, again, that filthy animal, all right. So he said, I just called it a dog. I didn't say anything. And he told him, don't you know that the permissibility of speaking about something and its factual sense, is that there is no ill intent, there is no intention to insult behind it. So you can speak about

someone in a factual sense.

And not say anything, that's incorrect. But if the if the, the intention is is to insult, then it's still held on for you, it's still bad character, bad manners on your part. So he was actually holding his son accountable for the way his son spoke to that dog. Right. And that's something that, I mean, I know that these standards, especially I do know how often taking bread out bread crumbs to ants, like, I know that these are standards that are very difficult for us to apply. But at the same time, it says something about our tradition of speaking against animal cruelty, and actually spiritually, feeling the incentive to do things for animals that other people would not even think

about doing. Okay, and that there is an edit in that there's a good deed in that. And that that might be the the action that gets you into gender. So there's the cruelty piece of this, that Islam as a tradition proceeded,

you know, others in regards to how it spoke about cruelty, the way animals are killed, the way they should be treated, the way insects should be treated, all of that. But then there's, of course, you know, not not merely

not merely avoiding putting an animal through agony, but at the same time you yourself, feeling and showing mercy towards these animals, because you know, that the dependence that you have on your Creator is far more far greater than those the dependence that those animals have upon you. So you pay attention to these things that other people do not pay attention to. May Allah subhanaw taala allow us to treat

everything around us in the prophetic way of a son of excellence in whatever capacity it may be. This This reminds me of a saying from one of the scholars he said that if we treated our friends the way that the Prophet slice them treated his enemies then we would be good.

Like the standards are elevated. And that's really the point here is to start with the standard charlatan and draw out from that standard, our present day implementation so the last parameter allow us to rise to that level of that level of excellence a one of the main questions

Yeah,