Way of The Seekers — Page 79
79 THE 1. To beat animals unnecessarily. 2. To overwork animals: This vice is peculiar to the farmer. He continues to exact work out of an animal but when it becomes too old and weak to function, he sells it to the butcher. I do not mean it should not be slaughtered. What I mean is that it is wrong to overwork and weaken an animal to make it unfit for work. 3. To under feed animals: It is not the farmer but others who are usually guilty in this regard. A farmer would rather feed his animals even at the cost of remaining unfed himself. Supposing there is famine. The farmers do not say there is no food for them; they say there is no fodder for the animals. 4. Not to provide proper medical treatment for sick animals. 5. Torturing an animal: For instance, branding. The Holy Prophet once saw a donkey which had been branded on the face. He admonished: Do not brand an animal on the face for it is a very sensitive spot. If it has to be branded, let it be branded elsewhere – on the leg, etc. 6. Not to protect animals against the inclemencies of the weather. 7. Not to pay due regard to the sexual requirements of lower animals: Animals have passions like humans. Arrangements should be made for their satisfaction or they should be desexualized. 8. To torture animals: Either in front of their young, for instance, to slaughter or starve them; or torture their young before their eyes. National or group vices: 1. Propagation of evil: If someone goes about saying that so and so is a liar, apart from being a person to person evil, it also becomes a national evil; for if it continues to be announced for some time that a group or nation has liars in its ranks, the intensity of feeling against lying wears off,