Ruling on Imitating Animal Sounds, Telling Animal Fables, and Lying to Make People Laughحكم محاكاة أصوات الحيوانات، والحكايات على ألسنتها، والكذب للإضحاك

Questioner: What is the ruling on imitating animal sounds, on telling stories in which animals speak, and on jokes and stories that circulate among people?

As for men imitating the sounds of animals, Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on him, forbade this, and mentioned in his Fatawa six angles from which it is prohibited. He noted, in more than one place, that Allah has given mankind their own distinguishing characteristics and given animals theirs, and it is not permissible for the children of Adam, whom Allah has honoured, to imitate animals. Some jurists merely considered this disliked (makruh) rather than forbidden, but Shaykh al-Islam held it to be absolutely prohibited. Those who do not prohibit it argue that no specific text forbids imitating an animal's sound as such, unlike imitating the disbelievers, concerning whom it is reported, "Whoever imitates a people is one of them" — referring to the people of innovation and misguidance — since imitating them produces a real effect and harm, weakening one's loyalty and disavowal (wala' wa bara'); this effect is not present in merely imitating the sound of a bird, which is why they consider it only disliked, out of caution.

As for the stories and jokes that circulate among people, there is detail to this. Whoever fabricates a false story specifically to make people laugh has sinned, based on his ﷺ statement: "Woe to the one who speaks and lies to make people laugh; woe to him, then woe to him" — a sound hadith narrated by Imam Ahmad and others. So whenever a person lies in order to make others laugh, he has committed a serious sin. As for one who repeats a story believing it to be true when it is not, there is further detail: if the story concerns a tribe or an individual, then repeating it is forbidden, because of the harm that results — it breeds resentment in people's hearts. The proof of this is that members of the tribe being spoken of will attack and turn against the one who spread the story, and in reality this leads to retaliation between tribes, each mocking the other. Islam forbids this and warns against it, because it wants Muslims to be a single nation, bound together, and the Muslim is the brother of the Muslim; nothing should come between a Muslim and his loyalty to his brother — the white is loyal to the black, and the Arab to the non-Arab, with no distinction between them except piety (taqwa), based on Allah's statement, "Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you." Anything that breeds resentment and enmity between Muslims must be forbidden, including attacking the people of a particular land or region without valid religious grounds.

Among the evidences for this principle is the Prophet's ﷺ statement, "Do not curse the dead, for they have already reached what they sent forth" — even though this was said regarding cursing the dead among the polytheists, who are the most hated of creation to Allah — because doing so breeds enmity in the hearts of their relatives and descendants. This shows that anything that provokes the enmity of others is to be forbidden. Yet when some of the Companions quarrelled and one said to another, "O son of the black woman," the Prophet ﷺ became angry with him and said, "Did you insult him over his mother? You are a man who still has some jahiliyyah (pre-Islamic ignorance) in you" — indicating that whoever has something of this in him has a deficiency in his faith. So remarks that breed enmity are to be forbidden absolutely, whether they involve attacking tribes, individuals, or regions.

As for stories that may serve an educational purpose, which a person invents on the tongues of animals, this has been reported from many of the scholars — Ibn al-Qayyim and Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on them, would narrate that the fox said such-and-such, and the lion said such-and-such, as did other men of letters before them, the purpose being to bring ideas closer to people's understanding. This kind of storytelling is permissible and there is no harm in it. But conditioning children on jokes and falsehoods known to be lies, for the purpose of creating enmity with others, is to be forbidden absolutely. As for stories intended to instill good character in children — such as describing one animal as having a certain trait and another as having a different one — these are educational matters that can be beneficial.

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