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Islam - Children's Corner
The Cruel Woman
and her Cat
There was once a
woman who had a cat. She was a cruel woman and treated her cat badly.
One day the Prophet (SalAllahu alayhi wasalam) told his friends a story about
this bad woman.
"She did not look after the cat properly" he said. "She did not give it anything
to eat or drink."
Because of this, the cat became very thin, and its fur began to fall out. The
woman had a very bad temper. When she was angry, she used to kick her cat or
throw it out of the door and make it stay in the street all night.
Before
long, the cat became very frightened of the woman. Every time the woman came
near him, the cat cried and hid underneath a table or chair.
The women's neighbours were very angry with her. One day, a neighbour came to
see her.
"You are very cruel to your cat!" the neighbour said. "A cat is one of Allah's
creatures, just as we arre! You are doing a great wrong!".
The woman was very angry when she heard this.
"Go away!" she shouted at her neighbour. "The cat belongs to me. I will treat it
badly if I want to! Go away and leave me alone!".
The neighbour was very unhappy to hear this. Then, he thought of a plan to save
the cat. He went back to his house and waited until night fell. Next door, he
heard the cruel woman shouting at her cat.
"Get out of here, you dirty animal!" she shouted. "I will not have you n my
house tonight"
The neighbour heard the cruel woman open her front door. Then, he heard the cat
crying and howling as the woman threw it out into the street. Then, the cruel
woman slammed her door shut.
The neighbour waited for a few minutes to make sure the woman would not come out
of her house again. Then, he went out into the street. There was the cat,
sitting pitifully by the woman's front door, hoping the woman would open it and
let him in. The neighbour's heart was filled with pity for the cat.
"You poor creature", he said. "Look how thin you are!". He bent down and picked
the cat up. He stroked the cat's heat and the cat stopped crying.
"I will take you to my house" the neighbour said, "and give you food"
When the neighbour got back
to his house, he filled a plate with some food and gave it to the cat. The cat
ate hungrily. Soon, the plate was empty. The neighbour filled the plate again.
Again, the cat ate all the food very quickly. But at last, the cat had enough
food and lay down on the floor to sleep.
Next morning, the cruel woman could not find her cat. She looked everywhere. She
searched in the street. She searched in the market. But the cat was nowhere to
be found. The woman was very angry.
"Someone has stolen my cat" she said to herself. Then, she remembered what her
neighbour had said the day before. He had tried to stop her treating her cat
cruelly.
"That neighbour of mine has the cat!" she said. "He must be the one who has
stolen it!".
So the woman went to her neighbour's house. She banged on the door and shouted
angily. The neighbour opened the door.
"I know you have stolen my cat!" the woman shouted at him. "You are a thief!
Give it back to me at once!"
"No," said the neighbour. "You are a cruel woman and you do not deserve to have
a cat!".
"I want that cat! Give it back" the woman shouted again. She was getting more
and more angry.
"I will not give you your cat until you promise that you will treat it kindly"
the neighbour replied.
When the woman heard that, she laughed to herself.
"Silly man!", she thought. "All I have to do is promise to treat my cat well,
and he will give it to me!"
So, the woman pretended not to be angry any more. She smiled at her neighbour.
"Of course I will treat the cat well if you give it back to me!", she said in a
friendly voice.
"You promise?" the neighbour demanded.
"Yes, yes, I promise," the woman replied.
"You will give the cat enough to eat and will not throw it out of the house at
night?", the neighbour wanted to know.
"Of course not," the woman said sweetly. "I will feed the cat and look after it
properly from now on. I will not be cruel to my cat ever again!".
Did the woman keep her promise? No, she did not. Unfortunately, though, the
neighbour believed her, and did not think that she was telling lies. He gave the
cat back to her.
The cruel woman took the cat back to her house and treated it more cruelly than
ever before. She tied a rope round the cat's neck and then tied the rope to a
chair.
Once again, she gave the poor cat nothing to eat or drink. The poor animal
became thinner and thinner and weaker and weaker. After a short while, it died.
"WHat a terrible thing to do!" cried one of the friends of the Prophet (salAllahu
alayhi wasalam). "What a very cruel and wicked woman!".
The prophet (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) agreed. "This made Allah very angry with
the cruel woman" he told his friends.
Of course the woman was not only cruel. She told lies as well. She had committed
a great sin because she had ill-treated one of Allah's living creatures.
The woman who treated her cat cruelly was not forgiven for her sins, and so
Allah sent her to Hell. |
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The
Holy Quran Quotes
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“Prayer (Salat) is the most important practice in Islam. Allah has ordered the Muslims to be mindful of it. The Holy Qur'an says:"Guard strictly your prayers, especially the Middle Prayer, and stand before Allah with all devotion.”
(Al-Baqarah, 2:238)
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