Animals in Islamic Tradition and Muslim Cultures

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Richard C. Foltz

ANIMALS IN ISLAMIC TRADITION AND MUSLIM CULTURES

~

ON E W 0 R L D ox/'onD

ANIMALS IN ISLAMIC TRADITION AND MUSLIM CULTURES Oneworld Publications (Sales and Editorial) 185 Banbury Road Oxford OX2 7AR England www.oneworld-puhlications.com © Richard C. Foltz 2006

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Copyright under Berne Convention A eIP record for this title is available from the British Library

ISBN-H 978-1-85168-397-0 (hacdback) ISBN-m 1-85168-397-6 (hacdback) ISBN-H 978-1-85168-398-7 (papecback) ISBN-W, 1-85168-398-4 (papecback) Cover design by Mungo Designs Typeset by Jayvee, Trivandrum, India

Printed and bound in India by Thomson Press Ltd.

To Bijan

CONTENTS

Preface

Xl

INTRODUCTION: ISLAM, MUSLIMS, AND NON-HUMAN ANIMALS

1

Muslims and Islam: Some Facts and Definitions

8

ANIMALS IN ISLAMIC SOURCE TEXTS

11

The Role of Arab Norms Cosmic Hierarchy in the Qur' an The Hadiths Meat-eating and Slaughter

12 15 17 25

2 ANIMALS IN ISLAMIC LAW

29

Animals in the Classical Legal Texts Laws Pertaining to Animals as Food Obligations of Humans Towards Animals Wild Animals Domestic Animals The Basis for Wildlife Conservation in Islamic Law Hunting to Extinction Wildlife Preserves in Islamic Law The Need for a New Jurisprudence Initiatives at AI-Azhar

31 32 32 33 34 36 37 39 41 44

f, Vlll Contents

3 ANIMALS IN PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE

Scientific Works on Animals The Book of Animals The Lives of Animals

ANIMALS IN LITERATURE AND ART

65

Animals in Muslim Literature Animals in Arabic Literature

66 66 68 70

The Case of the Animals versus Man Alive, Son of Awake

Kalila and Dimna The Thousand and One Nights Animals in Persian Literature The Parrot Book Sufi Literature

The Conference of the Birds

5

47 47 49 53 54 55 59

Animals in Islamic Philosophy

4

Contents

72 72

76 77

Jalal aI-din Rumi Other Sufi Sources Animals in Art

78 80 82

CONTEMPORARY MUSLIM VIEWS ON ANIMAL RIGHTS

85

B. A. Masri Said Nursi Advocacy on the Internet Not a Mainstream View Contemporary Muslim Views on Wildlife Conservation

89 94 97 99 100

6 TOWARDS AN ISLAMIC VEGETARIANISM

105

Islamic Vegetarianism on the Rise Compassion for Animals Determining Lawful Foods: A Growing Challenge for Muslims

110 114 116

Islamic Social J listiee and Animal Rights To Kill or Not to Kill? Food for Thought

ix

120 121

125

7 MUSLIM ATTITUDES TOWARDS DOGS

129

Dogs in Muslim Literature Dogs in Sufi Literature Some Modern-Day Muslim Defenders of Dogs

135 139 141

CONCLUSIONS

145

Notes Bibliography Organizations Index

153 173 181

185

PREFACE

T

his is a book I had hoped someone else would write. I have long felt that such a book is much needed, above all as a resource for Muslims. Islamic communities, however, have wellknown and established criteria for determining who has authority to speak for the tradition, and I do not meet those criteria. I have not studied at any recognized institution of traditional Islamic learning; I have not received an ijiiza (permission to teach) from any acknowledged authority on Islamic law. A Ph.D. from an American university does not carry much weight in traditional Muslim circles when it comes to religious questions, nor perhaps should it. To my mind, at least, it would have been preferable for this book to have been written by, say, a practicing 'iilim (religious scholar) with a large following, or perhaps a law professor at the University of Jiddah, so that its credihility would be harder to assail. Or alternatively, had the arguments it contains been put forth by one of the Mnslim world's great contemporary radical thinkers, such as Khaled Abou EI-Fadl, Farid Esack, or Abdol-Karim Soroush, it might have hoped to stir up debate within Muslim communities, at least among intellectuals. Perhaps one day they will be taken up, but for now it seems that all of these brilliant minds are too preoccupied with the many crises currently facing the human animal alone to focus very much on other species or our relations with them. I have tried myself to persuade some of these eminent figures to devote a little time and thought to inter-species questio,ns, and failed.

xii Priface

, I

So I am not sure that what I have to offer here will be seen as having mnch value for Muslims, though I wiJI be most pleasantly surprised if it is. I suspect, however, that the audience for this book is more likely to be non-Muslims who are sympathetic to Muslim culture and interested in learning more about what it has to offer in terms of animal rights. I hope that this audience too will not be disappointed in what they find here, for this book is not an exercise in apologetics. The Islamic tradition does indeed offer much that can lend itself to respect for species other than our own, but it also contains much that is problematic from an animal rights activist point of view. And even much of what could resemble animal rights within the tradition is unheeded by most Muslims or unknown to them. Having made clear my own lack of confidence and trepidation in writing this book, I cann9t fault readers for asking why I have written it. The answer is simple enough: because there needs imd deserves to be something available on the subject of animals in Islam, and for the present at least, no one else seemed prepared to do it." In the Persian language, one of the commonest expressions heard in daily conversation is ghorban-e shoma, "May I be a sacrifice for you" (literally, "I am your sacrificial animal"). Such is the spirit of humility which, hopefully, underlies this book. I am grateful to Paul Waldau, whose invitation spurred me to write my first short survey of Islam and animals, to Martin Rowe, for encouraging me to expand that survey to a book-length treatment, and to Ayatollah Hasan Emami of Esfahan for kindly providing me with a copy of ]azayery's book on animals in (Shi'i) Islam. I am indebted to Richard Bulliet, Chris Chapple, Khalid Keshk, and Robert Tappan for their comments on the typescript and, as always, to Desiree and 5hahrzad who are my dearest ,~ To be fair, there do exist several short treatments, listed in the

bibliography, but apart from the fact that all have serious weaknesses (not the least of which is an unwillingness to examine the

tradition critically), they are mostly out of print and extremely hard to find.

Priface Xlll

friends in the world. Novin Doostdar and the staff at Oneworld have been a continuing source of support and encouragement. Finally, I would like to thank my dog, Max, one of the strangest nd at times most difficult of the many non-humans I have hved :ith, but also the most loving, forgiving, and non-judgmental, for constantly reminding and teaching me that human needs are no more pressing, important, or real than non-hmnan ones, and

indeed often less so.

INTRODUCTION: ISLAM, MUSLIMS, AND NON-HUMAN ANIMALS

iscussions about the presence and roles of non-human animals in world religions have only recently come to be a part of academic inquiry, despite the fact that every religious tradition is full of stories about noh-human animals and how humans interact with them. Paul Waldau cautions us, however, that" Although such accounts can be surpassingly beautiful, they also cahhe positively misleading about the realities of other animals." 1 Religions are our primary source for codes of ethics, but these ethical systems are often considered to apply only to how we treat members of our own species. The international animal tights movement, which has its roots in early nineteenth-century ,J3n@;larldbutreally only began to flourish after the publication of ,Il;li€lr:ll philosopher Peter Singer's book Animal Liberation in ,' of nature 75 magic in 71-2 as moral/instructive 65,68-72 Muslim 66 mystical tradition in 77-81 Persian 72-6 and political allegory 75-6 reversal of fortw1e in 75 Sufi 76-81 Lives of Animals (al-Damiri) 55, 59-63 lizards 95 Llewellyn, 'Uthman 'Abd aI-Rahman 87,103

189

lynxes 21 al-Ma'acri, Abu'l-'Ala 35,67,109 McDaniel, Jay 5 magpies 20 Maguire, Daniel 150 Maliki school 31-2 Mansur (Mughal painter) 83-4 marine animals 16,56 al-Marvvazi 55 Masri, Basheer Ahmad (a.k.a. aI-Hafiz aI-Masri) 45,88, 89-94,97,114,131,145,146 Mathnawi al-ma'anawi 78-80 Mawdudi, Abu A'la 86-7 meat-eating 25-6 ethical questions surrounding 106-7 and the Internet 112-14 legal disagreements 31-2 sanctioning of 105-6 Mecca 14,39,115 Medina 39 metamorphosis 14 Mevlevi Sufis 78 mice 21,33,75-6 Mishkat al-masabih 102,106 monkeys 11,12; 58 Montaigne, Michel de 5 Moses 14 mosquitoes 11, 96 Mughal period 37-9,63,83-4 al-Mughni 103 Muhaiyadeen, M.R. Bawa 114-15 AI-Muhajabah internet site 119 mules 11,16,68 AI-Munajjid, M.S. 108 Muslim literature, dogs in 135-9 Muslim (hadith collector) 18 Muslims aversion to dogs and pigs 2 awareness of animal rights 4-5 facts/definitions 8-9 local cultural norms 3,4 and mainstream Islam 3 (non)universal sources of tradition 3 Mu'tazilites 6-7

190 Index

Muttaqi, Shahid 'Ali 122-3,145 Naik, Zakir 107 Nakhshabi, Zia ai-din 73-6,138-9 Nasir aI-Din Mahmud ('The Lamp of Delhi') 115 Nasr, Seyyed Hossein 103 Natures of Animals (al-Marwazi) 55 nightingales 77 nilgai 63,124 Nisa'i 18 North American Halal Foundation 118 Nurbakhsh, Javad .133-4 Nursi, Said 88,94-7

On the Superiority of Dogs to Many of Those Who Wear Clothes 132 Orwell, George 68 O'yx 37,40 Parrot Book (Nakhshabi) 73-6,83, 138-9 parrots 63,65 peacock 63 People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) 97,108,109 Persian literature 72-6 The Philosophical Way (Rhazes) 48 philosophy 148 Alive, Son of Awake 53-4 based on Hellenistic tradition 47-9 Case uf the Animals versus Man

50-3 and cruelty to animals 124 pigs 11 associated with 12 considered unclean 131 forbidden to eat 25,58 humans transformed into 58 pilgrimage 39 The Pinnacle of Eloquence (Nahj al-baliigha) 18 Pluhar, Evelyn 43 poetry 66-7,78-80 Prophet Muhammad 40,137 accounts of words/deeds of 18

Ind,x 191 compassion for animals 19-24 divine will revealed to 1.1 and dogs 129,130 ' and haramayn 39 night journey to heaven 59 and sacrince of animals 14 sayings of his nephew 18 vegetarian diet of 110 Pure Brethren 49-53,68 al-Qaradawi, Yusuf 88 al-Qazwini, Abu Yahya 55 al-Qazwini, Hamdallah al-1VIustawfi 55 Qur'an 3,4,42,96,146 and aclrnowledgment of other species 149 animal chapters/species in 11, 132 and animal communities 148 and balance 36-7,150 concern with wildlife 102,103 cosmic hierarchy in 15-17 and dietary laws 25-7 and dngs 129,132-3 and eating of meat 105-6, 111 and human problems 149 human/non-human blurring in 12 and killing of animals 121 and lawful foods 116-20 and ownership ofthe earth 150 role of Arab norms in 12-14 as source of jurisprudence 43 taboos/sacrifice in 13-14 terminology in 11-12 Quraysh (shark) tribe 13 al-Qushayri, 'Abdal-Karim 81 Ramadan, Tariq 147 rats 21 Regan, Tom 43 Rhazes (Abu Bakr Muhammad b. Zakariyaa al-Razi) 48 rhinoceros 59,63 Robinson, Paula Rahima 109 Rollin, Bernard 43 rooster 13 Rules for Judgement in the Cases of Living Beings (al-Sulami) 34

Rumi,lalal ai-din 78-80,141 sacrifice 13-14,122 Sa'di ofShiraz 141 al-Sadiq,la'far 29 St 101m the Divine cathedral (New York City) 5 Salt, Henry 7 Sana and Shafa Vegetarians' Association 111 science 48, 148 scientific texts 54-5 Book of Animals 55-9 Lives of Animals 59-63 scorpions 21,56 al-Shan'i, Muhammad ibn Idris 4, 29,35,40 Shafi'i school 31-2 shari'a 3, 29-30, 146 sheep 11,14 al-Shibli, Abu Baler Dulaf 80 Shi'ite Muslims J 8 Siddiqi, Muzammil 108 Sidhom, Petra Maria 45 Singer, Peter 1,2,7,43,90,124 snakes 11,21,32,56,69,81 Society for the Protection of Animal Rights (SPARE) 42,45,129 Soroush, Abdol-Karim 147 souls 49,66,77,147 species preservation 43 speciesism 2, 35 spiders 11,16,78 Stilt, Kristen 42 Sufi Abdullah (Nagshbandi shaykh) 96-7 Sun literature 76-81,139-41 Sufis 96-7 al-Sulami, 'Izz aI-din ib11 'Abd al-saJam 34,36 Sunni Muslims 18 swallows 21

Tahmasp (Safavid king) 83 T amerlane 63 Tappan, Irfan Ali Robert 97,98, 108,145 Thanvi, Ali Ashraf 42,130,107

Tharwat, Ahmed 141 The Thousand and One Nights 70-2, 75 tigers 37 Tirmidhi 18 The Treatise of Forgiveness (al-Ma'arri) 68 Treatise on the Foundations of Jurisprudence (al-Shan'i) 35 The Treatise of the Horse and the Mule (al-Ma'arri) 67-8 Treatise of Lights (ibn' Arabi) 1 J Treatment of Animals in Islamic Law 42 Tuziik-i Jahangiri 38 'Ubaida, Abu 54 'Umar 120 Umayyad period 82 USA Today III vegans 35,109 vegetarians, vegetarianism 2,37,92, 93,97 benefits of J 10-11 and compassion for animals 114-16 and determining lawful foods 116-20 historical background 106 and the Internet 112-14 and interpretation of Qur'an 125-7 and killing/not killing problem 121-5 move towards 110 as non-existent 107-8 opponents of 106-10 resistance to acceptance of 108-9 on the rise 11 0-14 and social justice/animal rights 120-1 and spiritual abstinence from meat 109

Wagdi, Shaykh Farid 122,123 Waldau, Paul 1 water rights 35

192 Index Whirling Dervishes 78 wild animals 3,20, 33, 48 wildlife conservation 36-7 and anti-scientific social policy

100-1 contemporary views 100-3 huoting to extinction 37-9 and interpretations of hadith

Wilson, E. O. 41 wolves 21, 79 women 147 internet site 119 morals of 70-1,73-4,76 Wonders of Creation (al-Qazwini) 55 worms 56

collections 102 Muslim worldview 102 and need for biodiversity 100 preserves in Islamic law 39-41 and value of natural resources

101

Yahya, H.S.A. 102 Yusuf, Harnza 108

Zaynab 109 zebra 83-4