Skiredj Library of Tijani Studies
Sīdī Aḥmad al-Tijānī and Mercy Toward Animals: A Prophetic Model of Compassion
In the name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Most Merciful.All praise belongs to Allah. May Allah send prayers, peace, and blessings upon our master Sayyidina Muhammad, upon his family, and upon his companions.
Among the noble questions raised by the people of the Tijani path is this: how did Shaykh Sīdī Aḥmad al-Tijānī, may Allah be pleased with him, deal with animals, birds, and other living creatures? The answer is both beautiful and instructive. His life shows that mercy in Islam is not limited to human beings alone. It extends to every living creature.
This article presents an important aspect of the character of Sīdī Aḥmad al-Tijānī: his gentleness, compassion, and deep concern for animals. It also shows how this mercy was nothing other than a continuation of the Prophetic Sunnah.
Mercy as part of the Shaykh’s Prophetic inheritance
Sīdī Aḥmad al-Tijānī, may Allah be pleased with him, was known for mercy in every domain. His gentleness with people is already well known, and his conduct toward those under his care was exemplary. But his mercy was also visible in the way he treated animals, whether domestic beasts, birds, or other creatures.
Those who knew him testified that his compassion in this matter was exceptional. One of the scholars close to the tradition of the path said that Sīdī Aḥmad al-Tijānī had reached a remarkable degree in mercy, one that reflected a deep inheritance from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him.
This is not surprising. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, was sent as a mercy to the worlds, and the friends of Allah inherit from that mercy according to their rank.
A bird should not be left alone in suffering
One striking incident concerns a gift brought to the Shaykh in Fez. A noble الشريف, Sidi Musa ibn Ma‘zuz, once came to the house of the Shaykh carrying a water bird as a gift. A servant took the bird and placed it in the water basin in the courtyard.
When Sīdī Aḥmad al-Tijānī, may Allah be pleased with him, looked toward the basin and saw the bird moving there alone, he immediately addressed one of his servants and said in meaning:
Look at it. If it is a male, then find it a female. If it is a female, then find it a male, because it is harmed by being alone without a mate.
The servant examined the bird and found that it was female. He then went straight to the market to buy a male bird and brought it back, placing it beside the female, exactly as the Shaykh had requested.
This episode is remarkable for several reasons. First, it shows that the Shaykh did not see animals as mere objects. He recognized their condition and their need. Second, it shows a refined awareness: loneliness and distress are not only human realities. Third, it reflects a mercy rooted in insight, not sentiment alone.
It is related that when someone expressed surprise at such concern, the Shaykh replied in a way that indicated that not every truth of life is written in books. Some things are known through living wisdom, spiritual refinement, and mercy.
Refusing to burden an exhausted mule
Another famous account shows the Shaykh’s refusal to benefit from animal suffering.
One day in Fez, Sīdī Aḥmad al-Tijānī, may Allah be pleased with him, wanted to transport some of his belongings and asked for a carrier. A man arrived with a mule that was already overloaded with heavy agricultural bundles. The animal was weak, wounded, thin, and visibly exhausted.
As soon as the Shaykh saw the condition of the mule, he turned away from it. He reproached its owner for the poor treatment of the animal and for placing so much weight on a creature already crushed by hardship.
The owner insisted and offered to carry the Shaykh’s goods anyway. But the Shaykh refused and uttered a memorable expression in Moroccan Arabic whose meaning is:
It already has enough of its own burden; I will not add my burden to it as well.
This sentence captures an entire ethic. The Shaykh did not only refuse cruelty. He refused convenience purchased through the pain of another creature. He would not allow his own needs to increase the suffering of an already distressed animal.
When asked about this, he explained the matter through the Prophetic Sunnah, recalling the well-known hadith in which the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, entered a garden and found a camel crying. The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, wiped its tears and asked who owned it. Then he said to the owner:
Do you not fear Allah concerning this animal which Allah has placed in your possession? It has complained to me that you keep it hungry and overwork it.
Sīdī Aḥmad al-Tijānī was clearly living by this Prophetic standard.
Caring for an abandoned and dying animal
A third account is even more moving.
On one occasion, the Shaykh was returning from outside the walls of Fez with some of his servants. Near one of the city gates, he saw an animal lying in a rubbish place. It was still alive, but barely. It was severely weakened, extremely thin, sick, and close to death.
Its owner had thrown it there out of selfish convenience, apparently fearing the cost of removing it properly if it died inside the city.
When the Shaykh saw the animal, he asked who its owner was. After learning the details, he was deeply saddened by what had been done. Then he turned to one of his servants and said in meaning:
Bring it food and water until it dies. It is not lawful to leave it like this in hunger.
The servant then continued to care for the animal, feeding and watering it until Allah decreed its death.
This scene reveals the Shaykh’s moral clarity. Even when the animal was beyond recovery, mercy was still due to it. The fact that it was weak, discarded, and near death did not remove its right to care. On the contrary, its weakness made mercy even more urgent.
His compassion was rooted in the Sunnah
These stories are not isolated curiosities. They are expressions of a deeply Islamic understanding of mercy.
The Shaykh’s conduct follows directly from the teachings of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. Islam does not permit cruelty to animals. It forbids neglect, abuse, needless overburdening, starvation, and indifference to suffering.
The famous hadith states that a woman entered the Fire because of a cat she imprisoned: she neither fed it nor allowed it to eat from the creatures of the earth.
Another authentic hadith tells of a man who found a thirsty dog panting near a well. He descended into the well, filled his shoe with water, and gave the dog to drink. Allah accepted that act, thanked him for it, and forgave him. When the Companions asked whether there is reward in kindness to animals, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, replied:
In every living being with a moist liver there is reward.
This is one of the clearest foundations of Islamic mercy toward animals. Sīdī Aḥmad al-Tijānī embodied this teaching in practice.
What these stories teach us today
These accounts are not only about the past. They are lessons for the present.
They teach us that:
animals are not tools without rights
overworking or neglecting them is morally blameworthy
feeding and watering them is an act of reward
mercy must extend even to weak, abandoned, or dying creatures
true spirituality is never separated from compassion
following the Sunnah includes gentleness toward all living beings
A person may speak much about religion, devotion, and remembrance, yet fail the test of mercy. But the saints of Allah teach by living example. Their spirituality appears in prayer, remembrance, truthfulness, humility, and also in the way they treat the vulnerable.
Sīdī Aḥmad al-Tijānī as an example of living mercy
For us, as Tijanis, these stories deepen our understanding of the Shaykh’s character. He was not only a master of spiritual knowledge and divine remembrance. He was also a man whose heart was alive with tenderness, justice, and mercy.
His compassion toward animals was not accidental. It was an extension of his fidelity to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him. That is why his life remains instructive. It teaches us that closeness to Allah should produce mercy, not hardness.
A path that claims love of the Prophet must reflect the Prophet’s mercy. Sīdī Aḥmad al-Tijānī did exactly that.
Conclusion
The life of Sīdī Aḥmad al-Tijānī, may Allah be pleased with him, shows that mercy toward animals is not secondary in Islam. It is part of faith, part of character, and part of Prophetic inheritance.
Whether it was a lonely bird, an exhausted mule, or a dying beast abandoned by its owner, the Shaykh responded with attention, compassion, and moral seriousness. He refused cruelty. He refused indifference. He refused to add burden to what was already burdened.
In this, as in so many other matters, he was following the Sunnah of his noble grandfather, Sayyidina Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him.
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