With animals

When good interpersonal skills become one’s habit, they become

his second nature and an integral part of his personality.

Such a person is always found to be easygoing, light-hearted,

gentle, forbearing and sensitive with all, including animals and

non-living things.

Once, when the Prophet \was on a journey with his companions,

he stopped over to answer the call of nature. Meanwhile,

some of his companions noticed a redstart bird with two

chicks. He took the chicks away. The bird came and began to

circle around them flapping its wings. When the Prophet \came

and saw the scene, he turned to his companions and said, “Who

distressed the bird by taking its chicks from it? Return the chicks

to the bird!”

On a different occasion, the Prophet \noticed a burnt ants’

nest. “Who burnt the nest?” he demanded.

One of his companions replied, “I did.”

The Prophet \became angry and said, “No one but Allah

punishes with fire!”

The Prophet \was so merciful that if he saw a cat whilst

he was performing ablution, he would lower the utensil down

for the cat to drink from and then perform ablution from the

leftover water.

Once he passed by a man who had laid a sheep  on the ground

and placed his foot on its neck to slaughter it while sharpening

the knife as the sheep looked on. The Prophet \became angry

upon seeing this and said, “Do you want it to die twice? Why

didn’t you sharpen your knife before you laid it on the ground?”

On another occasion, he \passed by two men in the middle

of a conversation and each of them was sitting on his camel.

When he saw this, he felt pity for the camels and therefore forbade

people from using animals as chairs, meaning that one is

not to mount it except when required and that when the need

is fulfilled, one should dismount and allow it to rest. The Prophet

\also forbade branding an animal on its face.

Why not turn your interpersonal skills, such as gentleness

and generosity, into your natural disposition that would constantly

remain with you and in everything you do, even when you

deal with animals, trees and non-living things?

The Prophet \would give Friday sermons resting his back

on an erect trunk of a date-palm tree in his mosque. A woman

from the Ansaar said, “O Messenger of Allah, shall I not make

something for you to sit on? I have a servant who is a carpenter.”

The Prophet \said, “If you wish.”

The woman made a pulpit for him. The next Friday, the

Prophet \climbed the pulpit she had made, and as he sat on

it, the tree-trunk behind him mooed like a bull screamed as if

it was about to split in half. The mosque shook. The Prophet \

descended from the pulpit and embraced the trunk and it wailed

like a child.

Thereupon the Prophet \said, “I swear by the One who has

Muhammad’s soul in His Hand, were it not that I embraced it, it

would have continued crying until the Day of Resurrection.”

                                        A hint...

Allah has honoured man, but this does not give him an excuse

to oppress the rest of His creatures.