What is the ruling on a person saying that a human being is a rational animal?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : He says: Honorable Shaykh, peace be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings.
The Shaykh : Peace be upon you.
The questioner : The statement of the jurists, and here there is naturally a grammatical error in the original, the statement of the jurists, although he means the logicians and philosophers, that a human being is a rational animal. Give us your ruling, may Allah reward you with good?
The Shaykh : If I were to say to this questioner, "You are a rational animal," what would he say? It is a curse upon you. Ha ha. What is his position regarding it?
Would he be pleased with it or not? He would not be pleased. Therefore, if it were said to a person, "You are a rational animal," he would become very angry and say to the one who said this to him, "You are the rational animal." The term "rational animal" among the logicians does not mean the same as "rational animal" in our usage and custom. So, if you say to a person, "You are a rational animal," this is considered an insult to him and a defect attributed to him, and it is not permissible to say this to him, as he believes this falls under the category of cursing and abuse. However, in the context of definition.
And the term of the logicians, they say that the meaning of "animal" is one that has life, and the meaning of "rational" is one who speaks. They say that the word "animal" is the genus and the word "rational" is the differentiator of the genus, because it includes everything that has a soul, such as a human, a camel, a horse, a sheep, a cow, and so on. "Rational" is the differentiator that excludes from the animal everything other than the human being. There is no dispute regarding the terminology.
So we must know the difference between what these logicians intend and what people intend by their custom and habit. It is not permissible for a person to say to a general person who does not understand the intended meaning, "You are a rational animal," because this is considered cursing and abuse in his belief. However, if he intends to speak and explain to the students the meaning of this term, then there is no harm in it.
The Shaykh : Peace be upon you.
The questioner : The statement of the jurists, and here there is naturally a grammatical error in the original, the statement of the jurists, although he means the logicians and philosophers, that a human being is a rational animal. Give us your ruling, may Allah reward you with good?
The Shaykh : If I were to say to this questioner, "You are a rational animal," what would he say? It is a curse upon you. Ha ha. What is his position regarding it?
Would he be pleased with it or not? He would not be pleased. Therefore, if it were said to a person, "You are a rational animal," he would become very angry and say to the one who said this to him, "You are the rational animal." The term "rational animal" among the logicians does not mean the same as "rational animal" in our usage and custom. So, if you say to a person, "You are a rational animal," this is considered an insult to him and a defect attributed to him, and it is not permissible to say this to him, as he believes this falls under the category of cursing and abuse. However, in the context of definition.
And the term of the logicians, they say that the meaning of "animal" is one that has life, and the meaning of "rational" is one who speaks. They say that the word "animal" is the genus and the word "rational" is the differentiator of the genus, because it includes everything that has a soul, such as a human, a camel, a horse, a sheep, a cow, and so on. "Rational" is the differentiator that excludes from the animal everything other than the human being. There is no dispute regarding the terminology.
So we must know the difference between what these logicians intend and what people intend by their custom and habit. It is not permissible for a person to say to a general person who does not understand the intended meaning, "You are a rational animal," because this is considered cursing and abuse in his belief. However, if he intends to speak and explain to the students the meaning of this term, then there is no harm in it.
Source
لقاء مفتوح ببريدة - 2 — archive.org (19:20)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.