SYNOPSIS
There are thirty-one animals mentioned in the Qur’an.
Can you find them in this wordsearch?
Animals in the Quran Wordsearch
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I see people, you know, they fight for animal rights. There are animals that are extinct. There are groups, advocacy groups that fight for animals that are going extinct, but not Muslims. Muslims remain quiet. While our Qur’an, our Ahadith, our Ahl ul-Bayt, they fought for animal rights. Look at the Qur’an:
“Wa ma min dabbatin fi ‘l-ardhi” (6:38), there is not an animal on earth, “wa la ta’iron yateeru bi janahayh’ (6:38) and not a single bird that flies with its two wings, “illa umamun amthalakum” (6:38), there are nations just like you, just like we humans we are nations, so are animals, they are nations. ‘Ma farraqna fi ‘l-kitaabi min shay’ thumma ila Rabbihim yuhsharoon’ (6:38).
Animals will be resurrected on the Day of Judgment. To do what? An animal will come and will say, my Lord, this individual hurt me. This individual abused me. This individual did not give me my rights. This individual did not feed me. You know there was a scholar who passed away in his youth, Sayyid Muhammad Ridha ash-Shirazi, rahmatu Allahi alayh. Maybe some of you know him. Maybe some of you even met him. I do not know. They say that in his house, he lived in Qum, they had a problem of ants. There was a lot of ants. His family wanted to bring what do you call it? Raid or whatever, to destroy the ants. He said, no, just like we live in this house, ants live in this house. They also live with us in the house. He refused to hurt ants. This is the teachings of Islam, that we do not even hurt animals.
I see on Twitter sometimes pictures of these crazy people. They go and hunt giraffes, and they take pictures and they smile. Have you seen that on social media? They take a picture with a huge giraffe, a beautiful animal. Why would you kill that animal? And they take a picture a selfie with a giraffe, a dead giraffe, or the tiger. They are carrying a tiger. If you are brave, you carry that tiger when it is alive not when it is dead, and they take a selfie for people to like and retweet. You kill an animal for a couple of likes and retweets?
What will you answer God on the Day of Judgment. Islam frowns upon this. Fuqaha (scholars) tell us that if you had water enough only to drink or for a wudhu, what should you do? Perform wudhu and go thirsty or drink the water and perform tayamum? All scholars say perform tayamum, you do not need to perform wudhu. Drink water. Some say no, not just you, your animal. If you have a horse, your water is enough only for your horse to drink. Or you perform a wudhu. Which one is more important? Scholars say, feed your animal, and you go do Tayamum. Do not do wudhu, save your animal!
Let your animal drink water you go and do tayamum because wudhu has a replacement, there is tayammum. But an animal cannot be replaced. This is a life that you will be taking away. Rasul Allah would tell us the rights of animals. I mentioned this a couple of days ago when we talked about superstition. Animals have rights! One, you feed it whenever you stop. Two, you give it water. Whenever you see water, As-salamu alayka ya Aba Abdillah. Islam teaches us to feed animals, let alone human beings. Islam teaches us to quench the thirst of animals, let alone human beings. Do not hit it on its face, do not stand on its back, do not put weight on it more than it can handle. And do not let it walk more than it could handle.
These are Islamic traditions. These are animal rights in Islam. another Hadith by Rasul Allah that says: do not harm animals, Allah will punish those that harm animals. And we should forgive disobedient animals. If you have a disobedient pet, a disobedient animal, forgive them, forgive that animal. And there is a reward subhana Allah. There is a reward for those that forgive a disobedient pet, and a disobedient animal. Where do you find this other than in Islam?
Rasul Allah forbade animal fights. Here in the West, right, the worlds leading civilization, you find cock fights, bull fights, all kinds of fights. They bet on animals fighting, animals killing each other. Islam came and said, no, this is haram. There is no such thing as bull fights or cock fights, or animal fights. Just so that you sit and you enjoy animals fighting. No, this is haram.
There is no animal fights in Islam. There is no betting on animal fights. This is wrong. This is immoral. Rasul Allah says that on the Day of Judgment, a small bird, if you killed a small bird for fun, for leisure, for entertainment, not because you wanted to eat it, that small bird will come on the Day of Judgment and will complain to Allah that this person killed me just for the sake of fun. You wanted to have a good time. A small bird will complain on the Day of Judgment.
Once there was a big famine in Palestine. It was during the time of the Prophet, Prophet Sulaiman (King Solomon). He came out with his people and proceeded to an open place in the desert to pray for the rains to come. Suddenly, he saw an ant standing on its two legs, raising its hands up towards the sky and saying, “Oh Allah! We are but very small among all Thy creatures. We cannot survive without Thy grace. Please bestow upon us Thy sustenance and do not punish us because of the sins of human beings. Please send down the rains so that trees can grow, farms become green and grains become available and we have our food to eat.”
Prophet Sulaiman knew the language of all animals. He told his people, “Let us go home. The prayer of this ant is enough.” It then rained heavily and all the land became green and productive.
The ant is an intelligent creature. During warm days it collects and stores grain inside the holes. It knows that during wet and cold months, it would not be able to go out to search for food. For fear that grain may start growing because of wetness, it splits it into two or more pieces. At times, during moonlit nights, it brings the split grains out of the stores for drying and preservation against decay.
The holes under the ground are made very carefully and covered with shelter to prevent the rain water from getting inside the holes. The ant, unlike the other animals, can lift a burden twice its own weight. It is not a selfish creature. When an ant finds some store of food grains, it runs up to its group and takes its fellow ants to that place. It shows everyone of them its own find of the store. They always behave in this manner. They work and live in co-operation with each other.
This shows how the ant works for the group and how each of them fulfils the needs and livelihood of its fellow-beings. How shameful it is for a man, who has no regard for another man; who has no concern for his fellow human beings who could be starving because of want of food.
Once, while Prophet Sulaiman was travelling together with hosts of men, jinn and birds, they reached a valley of ants.
When the chief of these ants witnessed the pomp and the glory with which Prophet Sulaiman and his companions were approaching toward it. He warned all the ants to get into their holes lest they got trampled and crushed unknowingly by the approaching men and Jinn. Prophet Sulaiman smiled at this warning sounded by the ants’ chief, and ordered his companions to wait till the ants went inside their holes. “None of us should hurt any ant while passing over their land”, he said.
It is said that Prophet Sulaiman addressed the chief of the ants and said: “How could my people hurt you or your fellow ants when they are floating through air! Don’t you know that I am a messenger of God and would never act unfairly?” The chief of the ants replied: “O Messenger of God! My cautioning the ants was not for any hurt that they would suffer but to prevent them getting astray and forgetting the glory of God after seeing your pomp and show.”
There is a deep meaning in this event. It shows that even the most humble and smallest of creatures has been endowed with the necessary wisdom to live safely and avoid being hurt as far as possible. It also shows, how even a small ant does have the natural understanding of the true position of Allah. It imparts a lesson that one should not forget the true might and glory of Allah when one experiences a great power and dignity of any creature in this world.
Thus an Ant is one of the most wonderful small creatures in this world. Sura “Naml” (the Ant) in the Holy Qur’an is a chapter named after this creature. Over 1300 years ago, Imam Ali (a) was giving a sermon in Kufa, in which he was describing the beauties of creation in various forms of life. He was referring to small creatures and asking man to study how God made them so small yet so sturdy and strong. He described the ant in these words:
‘Look at an ant. How tiny is its body and how delicate are its features! It is such a small creature that it often escapes the eye, and few people care to attach any importance to it among the living beings found on this earth. Look at it and study its ways of life; how it crawls, how it attacks its food; how it lifts a grain so many times heavier than its body, carries it to its hole; how it stores grains; and how in summer it gathers and stocks food for winter and rainy days.’
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