In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful.
Imaam Ghazali (Rahmatullahi alaihi) mentioned in his book, Ihya Ulumuddin that there are three types of animals in the world.
One: The type of animals that will only benefit you- Cows, Cattles, Goats, Sheeps, Chickens, etc. etc. etc.; many of them give you milk and all of them even give their lives to give you meat. Animals that only benefit you. Normally, they don’t harm you, they don’t hurt you.
Two: The animals that only harm you like snakes, scorpions, etc.; they are only there as you know your dealing w/ them will only harm you.
Three: The animals who don’t benefit you nor do they harm you. They stay away from you in the jungle. They don’t want to see you and they don’t want you to see them.
Imaam Ghazali (Rahmatullahi alaihi) says, oh human being, you are after all a human being. You are Ashraful Makhluqat, the BEST creation of all creations. So, you should be better than ALL the animals, even better than the ones that only benefit you. And actually, you should be even far greater than that. So, oh mankind, you should be at least better than these different categories of animals. And if you don’t want to be a human being then at least be the best level from the three divisions of animals. The best level of animals is that you don’t hurt others, you only benefit them when others need you. And if you can not be the best type of animals then at least don’t be the worst kind of them. Be the other type that don’t hurt. They just stay away. But going lower than that, you are being the worst animal in the world.
May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala make us the REAL HUMAN BEINGS and give us the Akhlaq of the Nabawaa. Aameen.
May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala save us from hurting anyone and anyone’s feelings. Aameen.
May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala give all of us the Tawfiqh to repent and seek Allah’s forgiveness from EVERYTHING that we have done in the past and may Allah Jalla Jalaluhu accept out Istighfar, our Tawbah and may Allah Rabbul Alamin forgive ALL our sins that we have ever committed in our lives. Aameen.
May Allah Rabbul ‘Izzah make us like the BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS in the garden of this world so that we people may only benefit each other. Aameen.
Author: Ehsan
The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and does not necessarily reflect Alfafaa’s editorial views