Haram for Muslims to have pet snakes
SYDI ALIF
According to the Federal Territories' Mufti keeping snakes are considered haram because the reptile is deemed to be a vicious and harmful creature.
The office on its website said it was prohibited to sell or buy snakes.
This is supported by several narrations of hadith where Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) ordered snakes to be killed either in a state of ihram or otherwise.
For example, in a hadith narrated from Abdullah Mas'ud, the Prophet (PBUH) said, "Indeed, the Messenger of Allah ordered people in ihram to kill snakes in Mina."
According to Imam Nawawi, this hadith depicts that a person during ihram is permitted to kill a snake.
While anyone in the state of ihram is forbidden to kill animals, Islamic law makes an exception for animals grouped as fawasih which are deemed as vicious and harmful. It is even encouraged to kill these animals in order to prevent it from causing harm.
In another hadith from Aishah, the Prophet (PBUH) said, "Five fawasiq animals that can be killed in halal and haram (or in the state of ihram) on land are snakes, diseased crows, rabid dogs and eagles."
'Fawasiq' is in this hadith refers to disturbing animals and pests. Based on the hadith, Islamic scholars agreed that one is allowed to kill such animals either in holy land Mecca and Medina and in other places .
Meanwhile, jurists such as Ibn Hajar al-Haitami have stated that it is forbidden to keep these animals as pets.
Meanwhile according to Imam al-Zarkasyi, a Muslim is forbidden to keep several types of animals including dogs eagles, rats, crows and snakes.
In regards to commercial purposes, Imam al-Nawawi stated that it is not valid to buy and sell animals that do not bring any benefits such as beetles, scorpions, snakes, mouses, ants and the like.
Insects such as silkworms and bees are allowed to be bought and sold since they can manufacture silk and produce honey.
Recently, Twitter was abuzz with netizens ire over the discovery of a man who adopts kittens to feed his pet snake. User @syazuanism goes around asking around if fellow users have kittens or rabbits to let go as his "Helga is alone.". Helga here refers to his pet snake.
@vvnloll revealed this on a tweet on Feb 7. In a post uploaded with a number of screenshots of the snake owner's previous tweets, she said, "Yall, there’s a man in his late 20’s going around “adopting” kittens to feed his pet snake. Be careful! this is happening in Malaysia."
In response @nadiyahsusinoo tweeted , "People gave him those kittens because they thought that they could keep Helga company, but it turns out, the kittens are company in Helga's tummy... How could he stand hearing those kittens sobbing while being wrapped and eaten?"
@SyhrnSyzwn shared a link to the FT Mufti office on its stand on the subject. In the thread he tweeted that, "It is forbidden to adopt a snake as a pet, let alone feed it with a living kitten. This dude is seriously a psycho."
Some others expressed their hope that the snake owner would end up being eaten by his own pet. For example, @El_0fcg said, "You are really disgusting. Hope you'll get eaten."
