Cat Information

Muslims, is it true that Mohammad had a pet cat?

I was just wondering if he really did have a pet cat while he was alive. And if he did, do you know what he named it?

Public Comments

1. No that's not true Mohammad was against people eating or killing cats, but he didn't have one.. Now Abu Huraira, one of his friends had a cat.
2. Hmmmm,I could have sworn a book I had said a cat saved him from a poisonous snake or something like that.I need to find this book
3. That was me, when I was traveling
4. He loved all cats his favorite was one named Muizzah! One day Muizzah was asleep on his shirt on the sleeve portion of it, and the call to prayer was announced so the Prophet(pbuh) went to get his shirt..instead of waking Muizzah from his slumber as he probably looked very sweet and peceful he cut the sleeve off and wore his shirt that way. He loved cats and all animals thus! By the way I have a pet cat named: Muizzah!
5. i dunno i wasn't there when he (pbuh) was alive ! so i wouldn't know what he named it
6. Yeah it was Abu Hureirah who loved cats. His name literally means father of the little cat, the name he picked. I'm naming my son Hureirah, because I like cats too :)
7. i think he did. i was Reading a story about cats and it wasn't a religious one or anything but it said that mohammad (saw) had seen a cat sleeping on his shirt. so he cut the shirt so he wouldn't disturb the cats slumber. and i have a pet cat called jasmine. edit: elisioibrahim has written the same thing i have ..
8. Well I too heard that Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) had a pet cat called Muezza and you find that story on many cat lovers websites from typing Muezza and Prophet Muhammad in a search engine. As AlessioIbrahim has kindly mentioned on here, the story goes something like this...that the cat was sleeping on his prayer robe one day and the Prophet (pbuh) was called to prayer and rather than disturb the cats peaceful slumber he cut the sleeve of his robe and left the cat in peaceful slumber. Its a beautiful story and since cats are held in high esteem in Islam I like to believe it is genuine. Also, one of his companions (Abu Hurayrah) loved cats so was named "Father of the small male cat" (the name Abu Hurayrah), as Aashiq has mentioned. There is also a legend about Abu Hurayrah's cat saving the Prophet's (pbuh) life from a deadly snake. The story is narrated by Annemarie Schimmel in the book "Deciphering the Signs of God", as quoted from Muslimheritage.com, as follows: "There are variants of the story of how Abu Huraryra's cat, which he always carried in his bag, saved the Prophet from an obnoxious snake, whereupon the Prophet petted her so that the mark of his fingers is still visible in the four dark lines on most cats' foreheads, and, because the Prophet's hand had stroked her back, cats never fall on their backs" http://www.amazon.co.uk/Deciphering-Signs-God-Phenomenological-Approach/dp/0791419827 http://www.muslimheritage.com/topics/default.cfm?articleID=686 In Islam, cats are considered clean and are thus allowed in mosques. Here is a another very beautiful story, as quoted from Muslimheritage.com, extracted from the book 'Cats of Cairo' by Lorraine Chittock: "The grammarian Ibn Babshad was sitting with his friends on the roof of a mosque in Cairo, eating some food. When a cat passed by they gave her some morsels; she took them and ran away, only to come back time and time again. The scholars followed her and saw her running to an adjacent house on whose roof a blind cat was sitting. The cat carefully placed the morsels in front of her. Bashbad was so moved by God's caring for the blind creature that he gave up all his belongings and lived in poverty, completely trusting in God until he died in 1067 (oral tradition recorded in the late 14th century by the Egyptian theologian and zoologist Damiri (d. 1405)" (Lorraine Chittock, Cats of Cairo, p. 40)." http://www.muslimheritage.com/topics/default.cfm?articleID=686 Subhanallah, how beautiful and touching...surely these are creatures of God's grace :) Please read the full article on "Cats in Islamic Culture" : http://www.muslimheritage.com/topics/default.cfm?articleID=686 You might also like to read this article about the cats healing purr: "A Cats Healing Purr" by Lev G. Fedyniak, MD Thanks :) Peace.