Fatwa ID: 05128

Answered by: Maulana Sibghat Ullah

Question

What is the status of the horse in Islam?

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Answer:

The Prophet said, “There is always goodness in horses.”[i]

The horse, being a highly beneficial animal receives special respect in Islam.

Allah says in Quran

“And [He created] the horses, mules and donkeys for you to ride and [as] adornment. And He creates that which you do not know.”[ii]

Training horses is also considered as one of the acts that you can get a reward for it. Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: “Indeed, Allah will surely admit three into Paradise by a single arrow. Its maker who seeks good by his making it, the one who shoots it, and the one who holds arrows for him.” And he said: “Practice archery and practice riding, and then you should practice archery is more beloved to me than that you should ride. All idle pastimes that the Muslim man engages in are falsehood, except for the shooting of his bow, the training of his horse, and he’s playing with his wife, for they are from the truth.”

Having said that, anything which diverts your attention from the remembrance of Allah is prohibited. Also, if someone is keeping horses to show off will get sins instead of rewards.

The hadith also point out that it is the intention with which a horse is kept that determines whether it is a source of blessing or not.

“Horses are kept for one of three purposes; for some people, they are a source of reward, for some others, they are a means of shelter and for some others, they are a source of sins. The one for whom they are a source of reward, is he who keeps a horse for Allah’s Cause tying it with a long tether on a meadow or in a garden with the result that whatever it eats from the area of the meadow or the garden where it is tied will be counted as good deeds for his benefit, and if it should break its rope and jump over one or two hillocks then all its dung and its footmarks will be written as good deeds for him; and if it passes by a river and drinks water from it even though he had no intention of watering it, even then he will get the reward for its drinking. As for the man for whom horses are a source of sins, he is the one who keeps a horse for the sake of pride and pretence and showing enmity for Muslims: such a horse will be a source of sins for him.”[iii]

Only Allah knows best.

Written by Maulana Sibghat Ullah

Checked and approved by Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah

Darul Ifta Birmingham 

[i] Sahih Bukhari, Virtues and Merits of the Prophet and his Companions

[ii] Al Quran, Sura Nahl, Verse 8

[iii] Sahih Muslim, Book of Zakat, Chapter: The sin of one who withholds Zakat