Letter to Hilath: Why the obsession for feeding stray animals?

Dear friend,

One of my neighbors keeps a handful of cats at his home. As if that is not enough, everyday he puts out cat food near his home's gate so that the stray cats in the neighborhood will not go hungry. A charitable deed indeed.

I was inspired to write this letter to you today because today I became very excited upon, again, seeing a stray cat which always hangs out on the steps of City Garden restaurant on Boduthakurufaanu Magu (street) in Male'.

I often am required to pass this restaurant on errands during evenings and I always spot this grey adult cat lying peacefully on the steps of the restaurant. I think it is because the restaurant feeds it regularly. (I feel sorry for the stray cats who are at the mercy of cafes and restaurants for their survival). However, I stopped spotting this cat some weeks back, and it was like losing a familiar friend.

I kept wondering about its fate: whether it died or some well-wisher gave it shelter. So imagine my relief today morning when I discovered it is alive. I then imagined that it changed its schedule - to hanging out near the restaurant in the morning rather than during the evening.

There's something we need to deeply think about when keeping pets, whether inside or outside our dwellings: they are living organisms which need constant care, attention, and love.

As Muslims, we have to ponder on the moral of a widely told incident where a woman, during the time of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), kept a cat tied and it died because she didn't feed it. As a result of her negligence and cruelty, she was destined to suffer in Hell, Islam teaches us.

In Maldives, the action of feeding stray animals goes further: people also feed rock pigeons, crows, and myna, while free parrots, bats and koels find their own means of food from trees in Greater Male' Area.

Sri Lankans, one of Maldivians' closest neighbors, also engage in such acts, and go further - by putting out bananas, watermelons, etc., in Buddhist and Hindu temples or outside their private dwellings.

I asked a Sri Lankan friend why they demonstrated this charitable action and he replied that oriental religions and eastern faiths believe in reincarnation of some human beings in the form of animals depending on their karma in their previous life.

This may also explain why vegetarian diets are popular, yet some South Asians do eat eggs, chicken, ducks, fish, and pork. If so, doesn't this amount to a cannibalism of sorts because they could be consuming humans who appear as animals in this life? In fact, couldn't they happen to be devouring their own relatives?! (Maybe I am reading into things too much after watching "Dahmer" and "Game of Thrones").

Perhaps, because I am a devote Maldivian Muslim, I cannot make sense of such alien concepts, principles, and actions, and therefore, there is no point in me losing sleep over it. Peace.

Sincerely yours,
XX