Animal Rights in Islam And the Creation of New Discourses

Today's talk Kushala is meant to be thought provoking. So stay with me sha Allah. We begin with a very simple ayah in the Quran. Allah says in the Quran when mom and dad button for the other day without thought it immediately to Regina Hey Illa Omen I'm 30 ma for rotten Africa Tabby min shape, there is not a single beast on earth, nor is there any bird flying in the air, except that Allah azza wa jal is aware of it and it is written in the book nothing has been left out of this book. Allah's risk is of giveth being given to this animal and Allah will take care of it. We haven't left anything out of this book from this is some rule AMA, have discussed in our times, especially this

notion of animals in Islam. Allah mentions animals multiple times in the Quran, we have Surahs named after animals spirit and the head we have it what other Surah Surah it's an anchor, but we have it as well. Right? And we have which other Surah Surah Baqarah we have right Surah tell feel. So we have all of these concepts of animals mentioned in the Quran and in the Sunnah. So the question arises, does our Shetty I say anything about animals and animal rights? And that is a very, very interesting question. And many books have been written in the last 3040 50 years. In fact, I did a quick Google search today to find books in Arabic and English, I found no exaggeration, at least two

dozen books written in the last 3040 years, different titles, animal rights and Islam, this and that PhDs done on this topic, and much can be said, I want to summarize some points before moving on to something different than the beginning topic. What we can say for example, regarding animal rights, we can mention a number of points of them is that the Sharia has come with the commandment to treat animals with kindness to not kill animals unnecessarily. So for example, we have in the famous Hadith of the prophets of Salaam, that the lady who locked up a cat and didn't feed that cat, what happened to her, she was punished in Jahannam for killing an animal for no reason. We have in the

Hadith that the lady who lived an evil lifestyle, but she was kind to a dog, and she gave a dog water that Allah forgave her entire life of sins, because of that kind treatment she gave to that dog. And our Prophet system said that if any animal that's walking past your garden, take something you will get an answer for that eating from that. So they said yeah, rasool Allah, we will get a jewel for behind him for animals. And the prophets have said yes, everything that has a liver, meaning everything that has a heart, the herbs, the liver, for the heart, everything that has a heart, if you are kind to it, you will get an award for that. These are in our traditions as well.

In fact, we are told explicitly that an animal should not be killed for no reason. And we went over many weeks ago or months ago right over here I gave a whole talk about an Hadith in Sahih Bukhari our Prophet system said, an ant bent when a bit one of the previous prophets right and the Prophet got so irritated he doesn't mention the name. The Prophet got so irritated. What did he do? Remember we gave it this lecture here. He burned the entire colony of ants. And Allah said because of one ant, you could have stopped that's no problem smack the ant kill the ant is biting you okay, you have the right to kill that one and but because of that one ant you destroyed an entire nation of

ants, this was not allowed to do so the default is that we have to protect an animal we have as well. The issue of the Profit System forbade using animals as target practice. This is a Hadith liner to Allah if you use a live animal to target practice what happens in Spain when you kill animals for entertainment, this is Allah as Lana is there and our Prophet system forbade using animals to fight one another for entertainment again, this is done around the world. We have a hadith and disregard of the things as well we can mention is that explicitly the Sharia has come commanding people to not overburden animals with work. Famous Hadith in the syrup, famous Hadith or

processing was invited into a garden to eat some food and whatnot. And he's sitting down and a camel comes and starts crying in front of him famous I didn't see two books and body and others and it starts making the noises of a camel grunting of a camel and our profit system, Pat's the camel hugs the camel. And then he says, Where's the owner of the camel? He said, Dr. Sorrell, I'm the owner. He said the camel has complained to me that you beat it and you overwork it and you do not feed it. Fear Allah with regards to these creatures who cannot express themselves. He literally said it duckula feel fear Allah with regards to the creatures who cannot express their pain. He came to me

Allah allowed me to understand, I am telling you to fear Allah with regards to these animals. We also have explicit a hadith about not mutilating animals. In fact, this is in the Quran. Shaitan says, I'm going to misguide mankind fella you but he couldn't than an hour

I'm going to cause them to slice the ears of the of the camels of the cattle. This was how they would market the animal. They would mutilate in a very vulgar manner, the ear and our profit system curse, the one who brands an animal in the face, if you must brand your brand at the back so that your name is there, you don't put it in the face, this is extra them for no reason. So we have all of these a hadith as well. In fact, interestingly enough, we even have a hadith about perfecting the slaughter of animals, famous Hadith and a Buddha automate the Muslim ummah, but our profit system said, Allah has written a son, perfection in all that you do. Even when you kill and slaughter

animals, Allah has written perfection. This is the Hadith. So when you slaughter an animal, sharpen the blade, and give comfort to the creature, this is a Hadith, when you slaughter the animal even then, practice isn't make the blade sharp, give the animal some food and drink, take the animal away from the other animal don't slaughter one animal in front of another. And all of these accounts are in the Shetty. And I have always wanted to give a very long lecture about animal rights and no exaggeration. If I were to give such electric very easily, we can spend maybe two or three hours or I can even give one detailed lecture maybe one day and show the next year we'll have an animal

rights lecture in Islam, but actually wanted to use this as a segue for another topic. This was just a brief introduction to a much deeper topic that I hope inshallah you will contemplate over. I said there's 1520 30 books written about animal rights in Islam. But all of them have been written in the last two, three decades. As far as I'm aware, no book has been written in early Islam Kitab have the dab of the higher why nots Google hire Why not Phil Islam, animal rights in Islam. In fact, you hardly find mention of this topic in detail in the books of faith and the books of our theta. Yes, you find you call them a shout out you find little bits here and there. Imam Al Bukhari has a book

cuttable it's like a 600 page book, at the very end, one or two little chapter headings about not having animals fight one another, for example, dish whatever in animals, very small things you don't really find classical that we're

talking about this in a lot of detail. Some of you will say didn't adjust to the reputable one. It he did write a six volume we'll get we'll have one, but it's not about animal rights. So you can just look it up what it is. So the point is, where did this topic come from? Why are the modern thinkers and writers writing so many books, PhD dissertations on how to call higher? Why not fit Islam? The response? We all know why. And that is it's a modern discourse.

1000 years ago, people weren't talking about animal rights the way we do now. Animal rights is a modern topic. And there are societies that are dedicated to animal rights in this in the world, right? In this country. There's laws 200 years ago, Western countries began for the first time instituting laws, you can go to jail in any or most countries in the world. If you torture an animal for no reason, right? These types of laws did not exist for the bulk of mankind. Even in our Shetty, I one can say that there is no law per se, if you were to mistreat the rabbits from Allah, not from the government, right? If you were to mistreat when the lady mistreated the cat, right, that is

going to come from Allah, generally speaking, books that field don't have animal rights. So here's the question.

Is it correct for us as Muslims to discuss animal rights in Islam? Is this a problem? Because we are discussing it and it wasn't discussed in the past? Should we not talk about it? Because we don't find our classical Obama talking about it the way that we currently discuss it? Or is this a strength of the religion that in every time and every place and every discourse, we have something to contribute as well? You see, I'm using a very quick animal rights to get to a much bigger topic far more controversial, but we're not going to go there with the controversy. Today, we're going to lay the foundations for you to think about, because what we have brothers and sisters is not just

animal rights, we have 1,000,001 issues that are new in our times, human rights, living in secular democracies, liberalism, democracy itself, feminism, gender roles, all of these new ideas have come and they are not found in the classical past. There are no books about freedom of speech in Islam 1000 years ago. So what is one to do? We have two extremes as usual. And as usual, I always say we should stick with the middle. The one extreme is we absorb these new discourses that are found outside of our tradition. Fact of the matter. I

Animal rights as a discourse as a as a as a discipline as a set of values and ethics. Fact of the matter is that it was taken as a separate discipline by the Western world. 300 years ago, people began talking about 200 years ago, the RSC, PA, whatever the British society was, one of the first was 1700 1800 laws began formulated, it happened in this part of the world. And so our Obama in the last 50 years have then reacted, this is what we believe, as well. The fact that this discourse began in the West, does it mean that anybody who then takes on this idea of animal rights in Islam, and tries to expound and write books and PhDs and entire volumes, does it mean that they have an

inferiority complex? Does it mean that they've done something wrong? Does it mean they're watering the religion down? Because they have left the classical tradition? We don't find our grateful kaha having discourses about animal rights? Or does it mean, our grateful kaha were indeed grateful? kaha, but they are reacting to their time. And we should react to our time. See, this is the paradigm, this is the ideas I want to put into because it is dangerous, I'll be the first to say. So on the one hand, we have one extreme, and what is that extreme? Whatever comes from outside must be positive, we have to find evidences in Islam to support it. So if they have their version of human

rights, well, then our Shetty I must have the exact same version. If they have their version of freedom of speech, they have their version of liberalism, they have their version of femininity and feminism that we have to find exactly within our tradition, and justify and distort and follow hook, line and sinker. And we have people like this, whatever we find in the outer, outer side of our Islamic tradition, you will find people within us trying to say no, no, this is exactly Islam. This is exactly what Islam says. And this is wrong. And I have criticized them in my entire life. I'm in a very huge critic of They call themselves the progressive movement. I've been a critic of that

movement, they don't have a backbone. They're simply following whatever comes from outside and they take it in. But we also have the other side, brothers and sisters, and the fact of the matter. That other side is more common in the conservative circles, we interact with that side more. Most of us don't interact with the progressive sides, because they don't come to our gatherings. They don't come to the masjid regularly. But what we do have is the flip opposite what is the flip opposite? The flip opposite opposite is to shut down your mind to any discourse related to this topic? To automatically say, no, no, no, the *tier doesn't have anything to do with animal rights. This has

been to talk about animal rights. Because our classic liberalism, I did not talk about it, it is watering the religion down you are a reformist that soldiers off to the highest bidder, you are importing the ideas of Cook Subhanallah, just because they're scared of one extreme, they find refuge in the other extreme, and they shut down any positive discourse about a new topic. And of course, this is wrong. And honestly, if they continue this way, honestly, it will harm heart harm, the religion of Islam, and the flourishing of the religion of Islam. Actually, much can be said, I just want to point out one thing, those who say, Oh, we have to stick to the tradition, our

classical dilemma did not talk about it, with utmost respect to them. They are not aware that the classical aroma themselves were reacting to ideas and concepts outside of the tradition. And that's why they debated so many things. And it became what you think is the tradition. Do you understand what I'm saying here? That's exactly what they did in the past. And they did what they're supposed to do. Just because they came 500 years ago, 1000 years ago, does not make them Colosse we cannot do anything after them. So give you a simple example and I have many more advanced lectures online. If you look at any book of Islamic Aveda, Islamic theology, the bulk of what you find in a classical

textbook is actually because of controversies that happened outside of Islam. And we had to respond to those controversies. We had to think what does the Quran and Sunnah say about this controversy we had to extrapolate the Sahaba never debated the reality of Allah's names and attributes. For example, yet every group has to spend 1000s of pages, discussing Allah's names and attributes. The Sahaba never extrapolated the types of other but every book of al Qaeda has types of other in the Sahaba never talked about is the Quran created uncreated. But when Muslims conquered Christian lands and the Christians were discussing the nature of Jesus, the nature of logos is the logos created

uncreated. This was a controversy outside of Islam. And when the Muslims came across them, so then these questions were imported into Islam and Muslims had to discuss is the Quran creator, uncreated? How do we understand the attributes of Allah because the Christians were discussing it not because the Sahaba were discussing it. That's

The way the world is. And so what this traditional person says, We have to follow the tradition, what he doesn't understand. That's exactly what the tradition is. It actually interacted with the broader world. And it defended Islam against the broader world. That's what the tradition is. Now, those controversies of the past have gone, we now have new controversies. And Islam must be defended against these controversies. And the way that it will be defended, we have to go back to the Quran and Sunnah. We have to go back to our sources, and we have to use our tried and tested tools. And we have to bring forth a new discourse, even if our classic rhythm I did not talk about it. This has

not stopped for the law district dissing them, it's not disrespecting them, it is honoring them, because they did it for their time. We appreciate their methodology, we must do it for our time. So the one extreme, we follow hook, line and sinker, whatever the outside world says, They have human rights, whatever they say, Oh, we have the same human rights, they have their freedom of speech, whatever they say, we have the same freedom of speech. They have their morality, sexuality, gender issues, feminism, we have the same thing. No, we have something to stand on. But then we cannot fall to the opposite extreme, which is unfortunately, another problem. And that is to say, oh, there is

no such thing as democracy. There is no no, because our scholars didn't mention Subhanallah go back to the Quran and Sunnah. See, what can be done? Is there a version of democracy that can be Islamic? I'm just saying, I'm not gonna give the lecture here. But that discussion has to happen, right? There's no such thing as human rights because our Shetty doesn't have the term vocal in sun. Yeah, it doesn't agree with you. But that doesn't mean we don't have any rights. I just give you simple examples of animal rights, just because our scholars didn't call it animal rights. It doesn't negate our process and said, Don't torture animals. He said, treat them with dignity. He said, so we can

extract an entire new topic called animal rights in Islam. We're not reinventing the Sharia. And we can benefit from outside ideas. And we can see what does our Shediac actually say? And we have to be careful, because yes, it is a dangerous discourse, I'll be the first to say that. But we cannot just remain isolationist and say just because they're talking about animal rights, we cannot talk about it, because our tradition doesn't talk about it, just because they're talking about modernity, about citizenship, about living in a democracy about all of these issues, we cannot talk about it. No, we cannot retreat to the familiar of the past, because that's not going to protect our children in the

future. Now, I'm going to be the first to say whoever does this, without a doubt, you're going to make some mistakes, we're going to have to be understanding and allow some mistakes to happen. Because you can't reinvent the wheel all of it all of a sudden, you cannot just do this automatically. But collectively, we have to support such people realize that the only way Islam is going to flourish is when we provide the broader world an alternative to their version, when we say look, your version of human rights, your version of animal rights, do we agree with 80% 70%, but we disagree with 30%. And we bring why we disagree and we show evidence based. So for example, for

example, some extreme versions of animal rights, they equate animals and man as the same level of dignity and respect. And so because of this, they go to veganism for example, right? They say it's unethical to kill animals, because animals have the same sanctity as human life. And we say you have gone to an extreme. Agree, you treat animals with dignity, agree you don't torture unnecessarily. But at the same time, Allah explicitly says Sahara Allah, Allah has made animals you know, subjugated to you, there is a hierarchy, and we are above animals and that hierarchy, this gives us the right to write them to have, you know, a benefit with them to even eat them. But we bring in the

Shetty out, and we say, even when we write even when we benefit from them, even when we slaughter, if someone is present there, and we bring forth a new discourse, Islamic animal rights, it's not going to be Western, but it's also not going to be something or classical Obama did. And we're not doing anything wrong when we do so. Now I gave a non contract for the controversial example animal rights. But the reality was, today's lecture wasn't meant for animal rights. It was meant for us to understand that the world we live in is radically different than the world of seventh century about that, then the world of the ubass and the Abbasids. And you're gonna have to if you want Islam to

flourish, 100 years from now, we don't have now an Islamic Khilafah we don't have the land, we don't have anything and not just this Subhanallah the the methodology of living in our times the nation states, the liberal democracies we live in, you're not going to find Ibn Taymiyyah commenting on citizenship in America. So these types of discourses, you're going to have to have people think outside the box they

But they're going to make some mistakes. But unless and until we have such a roadmap forward thinkers, what's going to be the alternative? Just go back to the past and not confront the future. So to conclude, just because our past tradition doesn't have certain topics, doesn't mean it's wrong to discuss them. What is not what is important is not the label Islamic animal rights. What is important is the content. What did Allah say? What did the process that I'm saying? Can we bring forth a discourse? Even if our classical ulama? Did not? Can we bring forth a new conversation? And as they give you an example of animal rights, not only can we must, and we should, and not only that

we make Islam something to be proud of? That's the beauty of our faith. It's meant for every time in place, it's meant to solve mankind's problems. It's meant to address us right here in America in the 21st 22nd century. It must it must be eternal, how will it be eternal if we refuse to bring Islam onto the table and discuss it? In light of modern controversies? How can we bring forth Islamic solutions? If we're always going to go back to the past 1000 years ago, when somebody said something not relevant to us? That's why brothers and sisters or mutton was certain follow the middle path follow those people insha Allah connected to the tradition but also trying to bring forth Islam to

protect our children and grandchildren. May Allah subhanho wa Taala guide all of us to that which he loves. May Allah subhanho wa Taala allow us to be instruments of credit and good May Allah azza wa jal allow us to be hardy and Madea when we seek refuge from being misguided and misguiding others Zach Moloch heads and I'm

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