What is the ruling on one who kills an animal unintentionally?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
This questioner says: I was driving my car, and a cat crossed in front of me, and I was unable to avoid it, and it died. So, is there a sin on me, or do I have to pay money to Allah?
Answer:
There is nothing on you, as long as you did not intend to kill it, there is nothing on you. But if you did intend it, you must repent and seek forgiveness, because it is not permissible to kill it if it is not harmful. Only the harmful cat is killed, as for the one that is not harmful, it is not killed. So, if you intended to kill it, this is forbidden, you have committed a sin, and you must repent and seek forgiveness. But if you did not intend it, and it surprised you under the car without any intention on your part, there is nothing on you.
This questioner says: I was driving my car, and a cat crossed in front of me, and I was unable to avoid it, and it died. So, is there a sin on me, or do I have to pay money to Allah?
Answer:
There is nothing on you, as long as you did not intend to kill it, there is nothing on you. But if you did intend it, you must repent and seek forgiveness, because it is not permissible to kill it if it is not harmful. Only the harmful cat is killed, as for the one that is not harmful, it is not killed. So, if you intended to kill it, this is forbidden, you have committed a sin, and you must repent and seek forgiveness. But if you did not intend it, and it surprised you under the car without any intention on your part, there is nothing on you.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، ما حكم من قتل حيوانًا عن غير عمد؟ للشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.