Views Regarding Particular Animals
Certain animals in Islamic traditions are mentioned or have a particular view attached to them:
- Bats: In Shiite hadith, bats are praised as a miracle of nature.
- Birds: Birds are commonly revered in Islamic literature, especially in Sufi tradition where they are a metaphor for the soul's divine journey to God, such as in The Conference of the Birds. In the Shi'a book of the sayings of Ali, Nahj al-Balagha, an entire sermon is dedicated to praising peacocks.
- Camels: Muhammad's camel, Qaswa, was very dear to him. Muhammad is reported as having reprimanded some men who were sitting idly on their camels in a marketplace, saying "either ride them or leave them alone".
- Cats: Muhammad is said to have loved his cat Muezza so much that "he would do without his cloak rather than disturb one that was sleeping on it."
- Dogs: see below.
- Pigs: Pork is Haraam, or not permissible to eat. One reason for this is that pigs are omnivorous, not herbivorous.
- Sheep: Muhammad prided himself in being part of a rich tradition of prophets who found their means of livelihood as being shepherds.
- Snakes: Snakes are considered to represent viciousness.
Read more about this topic: Kalb (term)
Famous quotes containing the words views and/or animals:
“I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“What distinguished man from animals was the human capacity for symbolic thought, the capacity which was inseparable from the development of language in which words were not mere signals, but signifiers of something other than themselves. Yet the first symbols were animals. What distinguished men from animals was born of their relationship with them.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)