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.
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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.'
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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.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/love-violent-mankind-animals--/d/128197
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