12 Benefits of Feeding Birds in Islam

There are three living creatures in the world: human being, animals, and plants. Among those
three being, human is the most perfect. Thus, human being has more responsibility for the lives
of the other two since they are the only one who capable of. There come great rewards for Allah
SWT to whoever human who show generosity by feeding animals.

Birds are animal that have a long history in Islam. In the past, when Abrahah was attacking
Mecca and aimed to destroy Ka’bah, Allah SWT sent an army of Ababil birds that held deadly
volcano stone from Hell as help. As birds had been very useful for Islam, there are many benefits
of feeding birds in Islam.

Among those are:

Rewarded by Allah SWT

There are no good deed that is not rewarded by Allah SWT. Feeding birds, one of the dearest
creature of Allah SWT will gained human reward directly from Allah SWT. As it shows his
generosity as well as helping other being to stay alive. Not only birds, we must feed any other
animal we meet. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said,

“(Yes) there is a reward for serving any animate (living being).” (Bukhari and Muslim)

Gain Forgiveness from Allah SWT

Every human needs forgiveness from Allah SWT so that all of his sin can be erased. We never
know where would Allah’s forgiveness come from, just like the story about woman prostitute
whom sin was forgiven after she gave water to a nearly dead dog.

As related by Abu Hurairah (RA), the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said,
“A prostitute was forgiven by Allah, because, passing by a panting dog near a well and seeing
that the dog was about to die of thirst, she took off her shoe, and tying it with her head-cover
she drew out some water for it. So, Allah forgave her because of that.” (Bukhari)

Rewarded by Allah SWT

Story about the prostitute above made us realize that Allah SWT is extremely generous for He
would forgive a big sin only with a small deed. This big rewards is for anyone, so that we must
never underestimate the benefits of feeding birds in Islam. In fact, we should always do good
anywhere since we never know which deed can give us the biggest rewards,

Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said,

“Do not deem any good deed as insignificant.” (Muslim)

Equal with Doing Charity

Doing good deed is a way to make up for the sins we have done, so that we must do it
continually for the rest of our lives. Doing charity is one of the deed we can do. To give charity,
we shouldn’t give certain amount of money, especially when we are poor. Showing generosity to
other living being is enough to be counted as charity itself.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) also said,

“There is not a Muslim who plants trees or cultivates land of which a bird, man, or beast eats
thereof except that is a charity on his behalf.” (Muslim)
Embodying the Prophet’s Spirit

As a human being, we should be useful for other living creatures in the world. Thus, our
existence will be benefiting. Other than that, the Prophet (peace be upon him) was someone
who love animal dearly, so to embody his generous spirit we should do the same thing too. That
is the reason why we created as the most perfect being in the world.

“We have not sent thee, save as a mercy unto all beings.” (21:107)

Fun Educational Activities for Children

Young children always fascinated when it comes to animal. It’s important to educate all young
children to love other creatures and to take care of them. As a start, we can teach our children to
feed the birds. It will be fun and enjoyable for them since bird is a friendly animal, not to
mention their colorful furs that children loves. Through this, they will learn how to share and
how to take care of animal. This fun activity can also bring parents and their children even closer.

Following the Sunnah

Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was a guide book for Muslims when it comes to
attitude, way of life, worshiping Allah SWT, and any other aspects in life. Allah SWT command us
to follow every step he took as he is the most excellent guide for all Muslims. Feeding the birds
means we also following the Sunnah of the Prophet, and gain favor from Allah SWT at the same
time.

“You have in the Messenger of Allah an excellent exemplar for him who hopes in Allah and the
latter day and remembers Allah much. (33:21)

Taking Care of Fellow Living Creatures

It has become our undeniable obligations to take care of other living creatures in the world. We
should never hunt animal and kill them roughly nor we kill plants by burning the forest or cut
them down. Since none of them can never take revenge to human, we will be severely sinned if
we are not taking care of them.

Doing Good Deed for Animal

Doing good deed is very easy and we have so many ways to do good deeds. One of them is
surely feeding the birds and other animals.

Enabling Interaction with Nature

Feeding the birds can be the first interaction with the nature for our kids. Later on, they will have
no fear of getting close to other animals.

Setting Example for Children

If we want our children to love and cherish their nature, it should be started from us. We have to
show them how to love animals for them to follow suit in the future.

Releasing Stress from the Body

Seeing the colorful birds and how well they eat is a sight for us. It release many stress hormones
from the body, as proven through a research.

So those are all the benefits of feeding birds in Islam. Not only birds, we should love and taking
care of other animals equally.

Kindness to Animals

Islam forbids treating animals cruelly or killing them except for food. Muhammad often chastised
his companions, or followers, who mistreated animals and spoke to them about mercy and
kindness. Here are examples from the hadith that instruct Muslims how to treat animals:

Mercy is rewarded: “Whoever is merciful even to a sparrow, Allah will be merciful to him on the
Day of Judgment.”

Animals are like humans: “A good deed done to an animal is like a good deed done to a human
being, while an act of cruelty to an animal is as bad as cruelty to a human being.”

Animals cannot speak up for themselves: Muhammad once passed a camel that was so
emaciated its back had almost reached its stomach. He said, “Fear Allah in these beasts who
cannot speak.”

Mental cruelty is also forbidden: A group of companions was once traveling with Muhammad
when he left them for a while. During his absence, they saw a bird with its two young, and they
took the young ones from the nest. The mother bird was circling above in the air, beating its
wings in grief, when Muhammad came back and said, “Who has hurt the feelings of this bird by
taking its young? Return them to her.”

Give rest to beasts of burden: Muhammad said, “Do not use the backs of your animals as chairs.
Allah has made them subject to you so that by them you can reach places that you would not
otherwise be able to reach except with great fatigue.”