Cats and Islam

Nahmaduhu wa nusalli 'ala Rasulihi'l Karim

All our Praise is for Him (Allah), and we invoke His blessings on His Noble Prophetic Messenger (Muhammad) Sallallahu 'alayhi wa Sallam.

Was going through a website - wayfarer - wherein i got to read a new point about cats. It may be new to me, but would like to share with you here

"Also Legend has it that the reason Sayyiduna Muhammad (saw) loved cats so much was that his life had been saved by one. A snake had crawled into his sleeve and refused to leave. A cat was called and asked the snake to show its head, in order to discuss its departure. When the snake finally appeared, the cat pounced on it and carried it off.

There is also a legend about this in which a cat saved the Prophet's life from a deadly snake. The story is narrated by Annemarie Schimmel as follows: "There are variants of the story of how Abu Huraryra's cat, which he always carried in his bag, saved the Prophet from an obnoxious snake, whereupon the Prophet petted her so that the mark of his fingers is still visible in the four dark lines on most cats' foreheads, and, because the Prophet's hand had stroked her back, cats never fall on their backs" (A. Schimmel, Deciphering the Signs of God, Albany, NY, 1994)."

Dawud ibn Salih ibn Dinar at-Tammar quoted his mother as saying that her mistress sent her with some pudding (harisah) to Aisha who was offering prayer. She made a sign to me to place it down. A cat came and ate some of it, but when Aisha finished her prayer, she ate from the place where the cat had eaten. She stated: The Messenger of Allah  said: It is not unclean: it is one of those who go round among you. She added: I saw the Messenger of Allah  performing ablution from the water left over by the cat.

After reading this, my intrest in reading more about cats and our Prophet ' s love towards cat craved. And this was about the cat named Muezza, Prophet's pet and favorite cat. {islam.ru site}

 Muhammad  (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) 's  favorite cat was called Muezza. There is a well-known story regarding the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and Muezza.

When the call to prayers was heard, Muezza was asleep on one of the sleeves of the Prophet’s (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) robes. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) wanted to wear the robe to go to prayers. Rather than disturb Muezza, Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) robes cut off the sleeve to leave Muezza in peace. Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) then stroked the cat three times, which, it is said, granted Muezza seven lives and the ability to land on his feet at all times (as you might know, cats have a self-righting mechanism, a righting reflex, which is a complex series of movements when a cat falls and which protects the cat from breaking her back).

Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)was so attached to his cat that when he gave sermons he let Muezza rest on his lap and he also drank from water previously drunk by his cat. He (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also did his ablutions from the same water that was drunk by a cat. He (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)  seemed to treat his cat in the same way as cat lovers do today but even cat lovers might think twice about drinking the same water that had been drunk by a cat for fear of transmission of disease from the cat’s saliva

Scientific benefits and other benefits of cats are as follows ( Source : Deen Islam )

Doctors and scientists in a number of different medical fields are researching the healing properties of sound, and the results are pretty promising. Most body cavities and tissues have their own resonant frequencies, and sound in those ranges can stimulate the respective organs to heal. For example: the human lungs resonate at around 39 hertz (in a fluid medium) and researchers found sound at that frequency to be beneficial to people with lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis.

Vibrational stimulation not only relieves suffering in 82% of persons suffering from acute and chronic pain but also generates new tissue growth, augments wound tissue strength, improves local circulation and oxygenation, reduces swelling and/or inhibits bacterial growth?

Lowered stress and increased calmness could be the cause, but studies over the last twenty years have also shown that people who own pets are much healthier than their non-pet owning counterparts; they are often less-prone to minor illnesses like colds and influenza, score better on psychological tests, and claim to feel a greater sense of well-being

Adults are not the only ones who benefit from caring for a cat. Children who have participated in the raising of a pet have shown higher self esteem levels, better social skills, and a greater sense of responsibility toward others. For young children and infants, exposure to cats at a young age can also help the child develop resistance to allergens and asthma.

A new study suggests cat owners are less likely to die of a heart attack or stroke than people who, well, don't own cats. Researchers, found that feline-less people were 30 to 40 percent more likely to die of cardiovascular disease than those with cats.