Saturday, August 11, 2012

Should one return salaams to aparrot?!

In my grandfather's house thereis a real live parrot, and when I pass
by it, it greets me and says 'al-salaamu 'alaykum". In this case do I
have to return the greeting of this bird?.
Praise be to Allaah.
Firstly:
Al-Fayyoomi (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
The babgha' (parrot) is a well-known bird. The word babgha' may be
masculine or feminine, and the plural is Babghawaat.
Al-Misbaah al-Muneer fi Ghareeb al-Sharh al-Kabeer, 1/35
Secondly:
It seems that it is not prescribed to return the greeting of a parrot
which has learnt how to say salaams, because saying salaam is an act
of worship and a supplication which requires intention on the part of
the one who said it, and there is no suchintention on the part of this
trained creature. So one should not return its greeting. The ruling is
the same as that on a tape on which the greeting is recorded and can
be heard. It is transmission of sound and doesnot come under the
ruling on greeting when it is broadcast live, in which case returning
thegreeting is prescribed and is a communal obligation (fard
kifaayah).
Shaykh Muhammad ibn Saalih al-'Uthaymeen (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
Sometimes the greeting may be recorded and they put it on the tape and
run it. If it is recorded then you are not obliged to return the
greeting, because thisis just transmission of sound.
Liqa' al-Bab al-Mmaftooh, 28/229
See the rest of the fatwa and details on this issue in the answer to
question number 128737 .
Based on that, the parrot does not intend to give the greeting of
salaam, because it does not possess the power of reason, and when it
speaks it is just repeating what it has been taught, without meaning
what itsays.
Some of the scholars have stated that it is not prescribed toprostrate
if one hears a verse from a parrot or from a recorded tape.
One of the conclusions of the book Bahjat al-Asma' fi Ahkaam al-Samaa'
fi'l-Fiqh al-Islami by Prof. 'Ali ibn Dhariyaan ibn Faaris al-Hasan
al-'Anzi (published by Dar al-Manaar in Kuwait) is:
The listener need not do the prostration of recitation if he hears it
from a source that is nothuman, such as a trained bird like a parrot
or hearing it from an echo. End quote.
And Allah knows best.

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