{"id":104938,"date":"2020-07-27T16:28:44","date_gmt":"2020-07-27T23:28:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=104938"},"modified":"2020-07-27T16:28:44","modified_gmt":"2020-07-27T23:28:44","slug":"the-vegan-muslim-initiative-dont-kill-an-animal-this-eid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/07\/27\/the-vegan-muslim-initiative-dont-kill-an-animal-this-eid\/","title":{"rendered":"The Vegan Muslim Initiative-Don\u2019t Kill An Animal This Eid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vegan Muslim Initiative<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/veganmuslims.com\/dont-kill-an-animal-this-eid\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

No, I am not going to sacrifice an animal this Eid-ul-Adha nor am\nI going to pay someone to do it for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"happy<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Instead, my sacrifice is going to be of a non animal nature and\nyes, it is religiously\nsanctioned and justified.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I saw animals being slaughtered when I was a boy and it hurt me\ndeeply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I couldn\u2019t understand why such beautiful creatures had to die.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember, killing is not something humans are innately born to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Children do not naturally kill kittens, lambs and bunnies. They\nplay, explore with and protect them. Their first instinct is to love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, I don\u2019t see how it\u2019s part of the fitra\u201d or\nnatural human disposition to go out of one\u2019s way to kill when there\u2019s no\ngenuine need to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, I am aware of the verses in the Qu\u2019ran regarding consuming\ncertain animals but if you\u2019ve ever seen an animal get slaughtered from a young\nage when your innocence is still intact, it stays with you; believe me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re told Islam requires us to slaughter humanely. What exactly,\nis humane\u201d slaughter?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The word humane is defined as: having or showing\ncompassion or benevolence.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does one compassionately\u201d or benevolently\u201d cut someone\u2019s\nthroat? Doesn\u2019t the act of killing by definition negate any benevolence?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is another discussion worth exploring as I genuinely would\nlove to learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For now, I know in my heart God will not be displeased because I\ndecided to show compassion to his creatures and not kill them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this attitude was openly condoned by the Prophet Muhammad\nin an authentic tradition:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Qurra ibn\nIyas reported: A man said, O Messenger of Allah, I was going to slaughter a\nsheep but I had mercy on it (or felt sorry for it).\u201d The Messenger of Allah\n(pbuh) said, If you had mercy on the sheep, then Allah will have mercy on you\ntwice.\u201d (al-Adab al-Mufrad 373 Book 20, Hadith 373), Graded as Sahih<\/strong> (authentic)\nby Sh. Al-Albani, rh).<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

The Issues At Hand<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Having said that, let me make a couple of things abundantly clear\nfrom the outset:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. I am\n not here to argue against the fact Islam allows eating certain animals. It\n does.<\/li>
  2. Nor am\n I here to declare and\/or make what is permissible impermissible and vice\n versa. Not my area.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    I\u2019m here to ask how these can be reconciled with the very real\nchallenges we are faced with today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Yes, some difficult and perhaps uncomfortable questions will be\nasked and I sincerely hope our scholars, learned folks and community alike have\nthe spiritual, moral and ethical courage to address these questions with\nobjectivity and pragmatism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I feel there are two main points:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1.  The impact our animal consumption is having on our world\ntoday<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    2. The way animals are treated especially during the Haj season (and\nof course at other times of the year).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As stated earlier, Islam permits Muslims to consume certain\nanimals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So we have the text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Scholars have written extensively about the rules and regulations\non this topic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    We have the guidelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Sadly however they are devoid of today\u2019s context.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What we have today are rules and regulations based on what should\nbe\u201d<\/em> and not what is\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    From an environmental perspective, today\u2019s world is vastly\ndifferent than the one Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) lived in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Unfortunately, we are yet to upgrade our practices to reflect this\nreality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In fact, we have superimposed our modern day cruel and exploitative\npractices on Islam thereby rendering the original mosaic into an eyesore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Vegan Muslim Initiative No, I am not going to sacrifice an animal this Eid-ul-Adha nor am I going to pay someone to do it for me. Instead, my sacrifice is going to be of a non animal nature and yes, it is religiously sanctioned and justified. I saw animals being slaughtered when I was a boy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104938\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}