Debt/ess 203)'OU holds a sapling in his hand, let h im hurry and plant it."13 The believ-
ing conscience must thus, to the very end, be sustained by this intimate
rclation with nature, to the extent that one's last gesture should be associ-
ated with the renewal of life and it s q 'cies.
The same teaching is present throughout the P rophet's life as far as ani-
mals are concerned. We have seen that when marching toward !",Iecca with
his army, he had expressly re{luired that a litter of puppies lying b y the
wayside be protected. That the Prophet insisted that animals must be well
treated even in the extreme caSe o f war is, once again, a direcf conse-
quence of his more fundamental teachings in this respect. f.,-ruhammad
particularly loved cats, but, more generally, he constantly made his
Companions aware of the need to respect all animal species. He once told
them this stOty: ''A man was walking o n a road in scorching heat; he saw
a well and went down into it to quench his thirst. When he climbed up
again, he saw a dog panting with thirst and said to himself: 'This dog is as
thirsty as I was..' He went down intO rhe well again, filled his shoe with
W<lter. and climbed up, holding it between his teeth. He gave it to the dog
to drink. and God reW<lrded him for this and forgave his sins." The
Prophet W<lS men asked: " 0 Prophet. do we get a reward for being good
to animals?" And the Prophet answered: "Any good done to a living crea-
tu re getS a reward.,,14 On another occasion, he said: "A woman was pun-
ished for a cat she had imprisoned until it died. Because of this cat. she
went to hell. She did not give it food or drink while she confined it, nor
did she enable it to eat its prey.,,15 T hrough such traditions, and through
his own example, me Messenger stressed that respect for animals was part
of the most essentiallslarnic teaching. He made use o f every o p portuni-
ty to insist on that dimension.
T hus, concerning the sacrifice o f animals for food, the Prophet di d not
merely order Muslims to respect the rimal and say the formula" BisI1IiLLBh,
Allahlf Akbar' (in the name of God [I begin], God is the l\'!OSt Great).
which made it possible to kill the animal to eat it. He required that the ani-
mal be treated in the best manner and spared any needless suffering. One
day an individual had immobilized his beast and was sharpening his knife
in front of it, and the Prophet intervened to say: " D o you want [0 make
it die twice? \'(lhy did you not sharpen your knife before rou laid it
down?,,16 Muhammad had requested that aU people stri\'e to master their
Own area of competence as best they could ; for someone sacrificing ani-