What is the ruling on killing ants and harmful insects?
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Question:
He asks: Is it permissible to kill ants if they are harmful inside the house? And is it permissible to kill insects with an electric device that is hung from the ceiling?
Answer:
Harmful insects, ants, birds, cats, and others are to be killed if they cause harm, in order to remove that harm. However, they are not to be killed by fire or by electricity, because electricity is a type of fire. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:Sunan Abi Dawud 2673Sahih (Al-Albani) But ants and others may be killed with the known insecticides.
He asks: Is it permissible to kill ants if they are harmful inside the house? And is it permissible to kill insects with an electric device that is hung from the ceiling?
Answer:
Harmful insects, ants, birds, cats, and others are to be killed if they cause harm, in order to remove that harm. However, they are not to be killed by fire or by electricity, because electricity is a type of fire. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
no one punishes with fire except the Lord of the fire
لا يعذب بالنار إلا رب النار، ولما رأى قرية نمل
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، ما مشروعية قتل النمل والحشرات المؤذية؟ للشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.