Sadaqah to our furry friends (and non-furry ones too)
"Meow, meow!" wails a cat somewhere in the building. My heartstrings are immediately tugged. I look around to find the source of the noise. There, under a staircase near a restaurant lay a heavily pregnant cat with a seemingly blind left eye.
Almost instantly, my eyes are filled with water. Before I could weep myself to death (okay, that is a bit exaggerated – crazy cat lady anyone?), I see dry cat food being laid out for her on a piece of newspaper. Again, my heartstrings are tugged.
Alhamdulillah. This act of genuine kindness (without expecting anything in return) gives me hope. Despite all the news about animal abuses – remember the Petknode case when the animal boarding centre left 150 cats to starve, dehydrate and drown in their own waste over the Hari Raya holidays last year? – there are still generous sadaqah-giving animal lovers in the world
In fact, Abu Hurairah rahimahullah (whose name coincidentally means "father of kittens") reported that Prophet Muhammad saw said: "When a human being dies, all of his deeds are terminated except for three types: an ongoing sadaqah, a knowledge (of Islam) from which others benefit, and a righteous child who makes du'a for him." (Muslim and others).
It should be noted that sadaqah is not restricted from a human being to another. A sadaqah, of course, can be given to animals. And the reward from Allah is Masya-Allah, amazing. I am sure you have heard of the story in the time of the prophet where a lady who did all kinds of wrongdoings in her life was guaranteed a place in heaven just because she gave a thirsty dog water!
And who knows, our furry (and non-furry) friends might return our kindness with a du'a (not that we should expect them to because, well, as mentioned earlier, we should not expect anything in return when we give sadaqah).
Wallahu'alam.
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