Brian Griffith's Blog - Posts Tagged "compassion"

Although Islam is more famous than Zoroastrianism for dividing all creation into good and evil sides, the Quran sometimes seems to eliminate any distinction between good and evil animals, and even any moral chasm between humanity and the beasts: “There is not an animal on the earth, nor a being that flies on its wings, but that forms communities like you” (Quran 6:38). According to Anas, Muhammad said “All creatures are like a family of God.” A prostitute was reportedly forgiven by Allah because she brought water in her shoe for a thirsty dog. Another woman went to hell because she caged a cat till it died. Abu Dawud claims the Prophet warned, “Fear God in your treatment of animals!” War and Peace with the Beasts: A History of Our Relationships with Animals

Sympathy beyond the confines of man, that is, humanity to lower animals, seems to be one of the latest moral acquisitions. This virtue, one of the noblest with which man is endowed, seems to arise incidentally from our sympathies becoming more tender and more widely diffused, until they are extended to all sentient beings.
Charles Darwin