Consumption Ethics for Wild Animals: An Islamic Practice
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Abstract
Religion, particularly Islam, plays an important role in lifestyle as well as in shaping cultural beliefs, including the teachings on consumption ethics. This ethics is based on the Sharīʿah—which is derived from the Qurʾān and the Sunnah by Muslim jurists—and is aimed at avoiding plagues and ensuring health security. Accordingly, this article discusses some lessons on Islamic ethics regarding the consumption and hunting of wild animals for food. A scholar of Islamic jurisprudence, Shaykh Muḥammad Arshad al-Banjārī (1710–1812), authored a work on fiqh entitled Sabīl al-Muhtadīn li al-Tafaqquh fī Amr al-Dīn (The Way of the Rightly Guided People in Mastering the Commandment of Religion) which has successfully managed to enjoin people to protect many species of wildlife in the Malay World, particularly, and in the larger region of South East Asia generally. A list of around 627 species from four major animal orders in Indonesia are listed as the following: primates, carnivores, reptiles, and amphibians—all of which are prohibited from being consumed and hunted by Muslims. They include important varieties of species the populations of which are decreasing, for example: numerous species of monkeys, bats, pangolins, tigers, and many more which are mentioned in al-Banjārī’s work. The work, thus, has helped conserve the said species of wild animals that are still present predominantly in the areas where the Muslim populations reside. If this consumption ethics can be shared with the rest of the world, it could contribute to the conservation of nature.
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