Why we should not subject animals to abuse

By Sheikh Muhammad Ali Waiswa

Given the rampant abuse of animal rights in Ugandan, there is need for civil ethics and religious emphasised protection of the rights of animals.

With regards to the extent of man's urbanisation and elegant aspects of life, the aspects and forms of such care have varied until the spirit of the components thereof such as religion; law; instructions and principles have come full circle.

Man has over the years learnt so much from animals, for instance, the first man learned to conduct burial from a crow: "Then Allah sent a crow searching in the ground to show him how to hide the disgrace of his brother. He said O woe to me!

"Have I failed to be like this crow and hide the body of my brother? And he became of the regretful." Chapter 5:31.

He used pigeons in his correspondence and mail and prepared poultry farms, vitality and health towers to do so. He also trained many animals to accomplish many tasks such as hunting, where the dog was the most prominent animal in doing and many denotations have been named after the name of the dog so that every trained hunting animal named (becomes) a dog… What you have trained of hunting animals which you train as Allah has taught you Chapter 5:4.

In Bright Civilisation Era a new type of elegiac poetry appeared in the Arabic poetry, that is to say the animal elegy.

This kind of poetry had taken many heroes such as cat, horse and donkey. Thus, this reflects a poetic side in human personality when it takes its share of upbringing, education, urbanisation, civilisation and culture and interacts with the surrounding things, particularly the living creatures, and it becomes in harmony with all its aspects and glory so that it feels and intermingle with them.

In the light of this civilisation and this civic culture promoting good moral with animals and encouraging rejoice with all aspects of life, a new type of endowment appeared and was known as "endowment on animals".

Some wealthy people, who appreciate its importance, established endowment to spend on these types of animals to be safe until death. This endowment provided care, food and necessary drugs and paid wages for those who were taking care of them.

Not long ago, this kind of endowment on horses was common in metropolitan cities of the Islamic world, especially with regard to the distinguished position horses have from a religious and a civilised point of view.

An example is Green Meadow Land in Damascus, which was an endowment on disabled horses whose owners refused to spend any money for taking care of them because they were unable to perform any duty.

Another example, common not long ago, was the endowment on pigeons in the Holy city of Makka. It is established by scholars that anyone who hunts or kills Haram pigeons (pigeons existing within the lawful area of Haram) is considered to be a sinner and has to expiate for that.

In the West, animals are entitled to higher status in terms of socialising with them, care given to them and using them for essential roles to benefit humanity. They pay extensively to visit and tour wild animal parks where ever they may be in the world!

It is, therefore, extremely cautious on our part to commit the highest level of animal abuse in our midst. Especially edible animals and birds meant for our food; in a way of transporting them.

This does not affect only the animals, but even those who consume their meat due to poisoning as a result of mishandling of these animals.

Writer is the Imam of Makerere University Business School (MUBS) and a national population champion and executive board member of the Interreligious Council of Uganda. He is also the Second Deputy Mufti of Uganda Muslim Supreme Council