The life of the Holy Prophet of Islam — Page 19
Divine punishment for punishing animals The Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) saw a woman in a vision that was tortured in hell due to punishing a cat to death. Hadrat Abu Hurayrah narrrats the Hadith in the following words: Allah’s Apostle said: A woman was tortured and was put in Hell because of a cat that she had kept locked till it died of hunger. Allah’s Apostle further said: Allah knows better, Allah said to the woman, ‘You neither fed it nor watered when you locked it up, nor did you set it free to eat the insects of the earth. ’ (Sahih Bukhari). KIND TREATMENT OF THE SLAVES Regarding slaves, when Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) became the messenger of Allah, the people of his land had become accustomed to having countless slaves and usually treated them quite harshly. During the period of his prophethood he worked diligently to do what he could to cut down on their numbers. Islam closed most of the doors leading to slavery and encouraged the freeing of slaves in many ways. He constantly exhorted those who owned slaves to treat them kindly and well. He insisted that they must treat the slaves fairly and with mercy. The Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) says: If the owner of a slave beat his slave or abused him, the only compensation that he could make was to set the slave free. (Sahih Muslim) The Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) always devised and encouraged his followers for freeing of slaves on every pretext. He said: If a person owning a slave sets him free, God will in recompense save every part of his body corresponding to every part of the slave’s body from the torment of Hell. (Sahih Muslim) Again, he laid down that a slave should be asked to perform only such tasks as he could easily accomplish and that when he was set to do a task, his master should help him in performing it so that the slave should experience no feeling of humiliation or degradation. If a master went on a journey accompanied by a slave, it was his duty to share his mount with the slave either by both riding together or each riding in turn. Abu Huraira after becoming a Muslim spent the whole of his time in the company of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and he had repeatedly heard the Prophet’s injunctions regarding the treatment of slaves, has said: I call God to witness in Whose hands is my life that were it not for the opportunities that I get of joining in holy war and of performing the Pilgrimage and were it not that I have opportunities of serving my old mother, I would have desired to die a slave, for the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) constantly insisted upon slaves being well and kindly treated. (Sahih Muslim) Abu Dharr, a companion of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), narrated about the advices given by the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) regarding the slaves in the following words: The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: ‘Feed those of your slaves who please you from what you yourselves eat and clothe them with what you clothe yourselves, but sell those who do not please you and do not punish Allah’s creatures. (Abu Dawud) The Holy Prophet’s love was greater than the love of the parents It was not just a lip service on the part of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). He himself was an excellent exemplar for his followers in the kind treatment of the slaves. The Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) set a good example of