Animals · a Light

A woman was punished over a cat she shut in

The Prophet ﷺ told his companions about a woman who was punished on account of a cat. She confined it and did not feed it, and did not let it go so that it could eat the small creatures of the earth. He was not describing an obscure legal case. He was telling people who kept animals in a hard climate that a locked door and an empty bowl are a moral act. The same collections record the opposite case, of a man forgiven for giving water to a thirsty dog, and the general principle he stated: in every living creature there is a reward for the one who helps it.

Reported from Ibn Umar · Madinah

Source · Bukhari 3318