A Lesson in Love Violent Mankind Can Learn From Animals

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 17 October 2022 Kabhi Masjid, Kabhi Mandir, Kabhi Girje Par Baithte Hain Parinde Lekin Koi Imtiyaaz Nahin Ek Insaan Hai Jo Kahta Hai Khud Ko Taraqqi-Pasand Haif, Ratti Bhar Bhi Buland Uski Parvaaz Nahin Behzaad Kalkatvi (The birds sit on a temple, mosque or church without any discrimination at all/ Alas, humans who call themselves 'evolved', lack that flight of advanced thinking) “While a dog loves to chew bones, the human mind loves problems… Every animal has important lessons to teach us if we would only stop, look and listen.” -Eckhart Tolle, “Guardians of Being” Recently I observed that my friend's pet dog has a lovely habit. It keeps aside a little of the food it gets and waits for the birds to come and eat. It eats only after they partake of the food earmarked for him. This is indeed laudable and very touching. That the animals have the sense of fellow-feeling and are moved by emotions is something the entire mankind can learn from them. Not just dogs, but almost all animals have feelings that can at times abash human beings. We all have read a story during our childhood days that a mongoose saved a child from a venomous snake but was killed when the mother of the child thought that it killed the child because there were blood-marks on its mouth. But such instances have happened in real life when feral and ferocious animals didn't harm. Way back in 1984 at Rajnandgaon in MP, an abandoned baby was saved by a pack of stray dogs and they didn't move from there until municipality staff came and took the baby to hospital. That child was later adopted by a couple from Indore and the family has adopted more than ten stray dogs. What an irony, the baby's mother abandoned him but animals saved him! Recently, there was news that cats protected a new-born baby. There have been many instances of animals saving other animals as well as human beings. Many cases of wolves rearing human beings have been recorded. -----------------------------------------------------------------= Also Read: ‘Animals Are Communities Like Human Beings’, Say the Quran, the Bible, the Torah, the Hindu and Other Religious Scriptures -----------------------------------------------------------------= During the British period, an abandoned male child at Azamgarh district in Eastern UP was taken away by wolves and the child lived with them. He died when doctors tried to domesticate him. Elephants have such a deep fellow-feeling and a sense of empathy that when one of the members of the herd dies, other elephants mourn for it. Crows have been found to cry when one of the crows dies. Bengali poet Jibanand Das, who died in a freak mishap when he was run over by a tram in Calcutta, used a crow as his favourite metaphor for profound emotions. German philosopher Immanuel Kant found a crow to be man's best friend. The misanthrope and misogynist philosopher had a pet crow. But what do human beings do? They've no feelings for their brethren, nor have any emotion for animals. We kill people so nonchalantly and never spare a thought for any being, whereas it's been clinically observed that pets (especially dogs and cats) accompanying their owners to slaughter houses, often run away from the gory spectacles and the patches of blood everywhere. In 1979, Danish doctor Miguel Oswenich took his pet dog to an abattoir. It fainted and after that it never touched meat. It became a vegetarian dog! Here my point's not to condemn human beings. I also belong to mankind. What I want to drive home is that even animals can teach us lessons in empathy, love, care, affection and bonhomie. And when it comes to love, it's unconditional on the part of an animal but the man, the most wretched animal ever to have desecrated the earth, cannot even love back his pets with the same fervour and intensity. Muslims should learn how to love an animal. Then only will they be able to love their fellow humans. Recently, social media circulated a poignant picture of a huge goat (obviously fattened for the ritualistic sacrifice) crying while parting with his Muslim owner. The poor and unsuspecting animal was blissfully unaware that the insensate man he was crying for, sold him to some other hard-core Momin who'd slaughter him to please a heartless and dubious Allah. How can you sell off a loving and sprightly animal who became a part of your household? This is a million-dollar question in the realm of basic human sensitivity. Even more reprehensible is, how can you kill an animal in the name of religion who played with your kids and playfully sat on your lap like a baby? That animal loved you and your family like a child and you butchered him and 'relished' its meat! Unimaginable! Acchha Sila Diya Tu Ne Mere Pyaar Ka! Allah ho Akbar! Readers perhaps know that dolphins in groups never fight among themselves and their level of empathy is even greater than that of the general human beings. Many a time, the dolphins in the Bahamas and the Pacific saved children and marooned sailors from sharks and saved them from drowning. And human beings are killing these extremely helpful and innocent animals. It's time we learnt from them as Laotse once said, 'All creatures, however small it may be, can teach us something very deep. An ant teaches us to be more organised in life and a mother deer sends out a message of poignancy when it begs for its young one's life and dies when its young one's taken away or killed.' ----- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. 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