Animals and Religion: In The Beginning.

On August 7th 2010, my cat of 13 years, “Black Cat” passed away due to old age and illness. After burying her in our back garden, memories of our time together came flooding back.

We had been together since I was 6 years old, (which is why I couldn’t think of any other name for her except Black Cat - And to my surprise, the name stuck!) She was a stray cat, but after getting used to us, she soon became a very precious member of the family.

13 long years. And now she was gone. Where would she go now?

Being a Muslim, I believe in a life after death, a Day of Judgement, Heaven and Hell, but I had never thought about whether the same journey existed for animals.

Perhaps those of us who are interested in religion are guilty of anthropocentrism and speciesism; in that we regard religion as something which is solely concerned with the human being and the human being alone.

To counter this, my aim is to explore what the World Religions say about the creatures with whom we share our Earth, specifically focusing on:

• Hinduism

• Buddhism
• Christianity

• Islam

I then hope to delve into the issue of religious vegetarianism, in Christianity and Islam, where the ideas of animal sacrifice and meat-eating are far more prevalent than in Hinduism and Buddhism.

Finally, all that is left is for me to introduce the other members of my Cat Family: Sheba (Black Cat’s Daughter) and Muezza (Black Cat’s Grandson; Sheba’s Son.) Yes, you may have noticed; we like to keep things in the family!

Black Cat

Sheba

Muezza