Is it permissible to kill the ants that are in the houses?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : As for the ants that come to the houses to eat... I mean, you find places... what does one mean? I do not know, there is a prohibition against killing them. How should one deal with them?
The Shaykh : Yes, the prohibition against killing ants is correct, but only if no harm results for the people of the house. However, merely seeing this phenomenon is not an excuse for killing them... This is from one perspective. From another perspective, if there is harm, one should use something to drive them away and expel them, not to kill them. If the harm does not cease except by killing them, then killing them is permissible at that time. This sequence is necessary. And the truth is... the wisdom and power of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) in His creation is very strange... A small ant, you see its head connected to its body by a neck that is like a thread. You put your hand on the ant to kill it... except... it is very strong. I said, Glory be to my Lord, what is this divine power? It tears apart... Yesterday, I was leaving the house and I found something amazing... A rooster... it advanced to dry land, and you know the heavy rains had fallen and then the drought... the land became... from the drought, I did not see anything except the rooster came to this piece of land and started... as if it was dazed, chasing... it called "ka ka"... the chickens went to eat, it picked up something, and some of the other chickens saw it and said, chase it. It was confirmed, and when it found a worm in its mouth, I said, Glory be to Allah, what did this rooster know? That there was [a worm] there, digging until it saw this worm. And from its bravery, the rooster is cited as an example; it puts its chickens before itself. "Ka ka," it called the chickens, one got ahead...
The questioner : He knows...
The Shaykh : Allah is the Greatest[As-Sajdah 32:7] , long ago I was in a farm there in Damascus, there they have irrigation, so the owner of the land directed the water for irrigation; he was planting eggplants... I did not see anything except a bird hovering and flying like this, circling, circling around an eggplant seedling. I contemplated what it wanted to go to this place for... they call it... I did not see it except it descended and perched and sat on a branch of the eggplant seedling and lowered a branch to the ground! Allah is the Greatest, I do not forget the scene, an eggplant branch, when it perched on this branch, the branch bent until it almost touched the water. And the bird was seeing what we call in Syria a "hanush," meaning an earthworm, of this length, of this thickness, with few legs, it becomes... the roots of the plants, I do not know what you call them... it has no knowledge of this earthworm...
The questioner : An earthworm, of the types of earthworms, its work is to gnaw on tree seeds.
The Shaykh : We call this what? The "hanush." In any case, this does not live in water; it makes a house there in the roots. When the water started irrigating the land... it was lost... it was crawling on the surface of the ground, the water came and swept it away. It tried to get rid of it. The bird from above saw it, how could it eat it? It could not reach it; it was heavy for the bird. So Allah inspired it to descend on the branch, and the branch descended on the "hanush," and it picked it up... Allah is the Greatest.
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : They say so-and-so is a person, meaning so-and-so is an animal who does not understand. And Allah, the animal understands...
The Shaykh : Yes, the prohibition against killing ants is correct, but only if no harm results for the people of the house. However, merely seeing this phenomenon is not an excuse for killing them... This is from one perspective. From another perspective, if there is harm, one should use something to drive them away and expel them, not to kill them. If the harm does not cease except by killing them, then killing them is permissible at that time. This sequence is necessary. And the truth is... the wisdom and power of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) in His creation is very strange... A small ant, you see its head connected to its body by a neck that is like a thread. You put your hand on the ant to kill it... except... it is very strong. I said, Glory be to my Lord, what is this divine power? It tears apart... Yesterday, I was leaving the house and I found something amazing... A rooster... it advanced to dry land, and you know the heavy rains had fallen and then the drought... the land became... from the drought, I did not see anything except the rooster came to this piece of land and started... as if it was dazed, chasing... it called "ka ka"... the chickens went to eat, it picked up something, and some of the other chickens saw it and said, chase it. It was confirmed, and when it found a worm in its mouth, I said, Glory be to Allah, what did this rooster know? That there was [a worm] there, digging until it saw this worm. And from its bravery, the rooster is cited as an example; it puts its chickens before itself. "Ka ka," it called the chickens, one got ahead...
The questioner : He knows...
The Shaykh : Allah is the Greatest
perfected everything which He created
أحسن كل شيء خلقهThen He guided
ثم هدىThe questioner : An earthworm, of the types of earthworms, its work is to gnaw on tree seeds.
The Shaykh : We call this what? The "hanush." In any case, this does not live in water; it makes a house there in the roots. When the water started irrigating the land... it was lost... it was crawling on the surface of the ground, the water came and swept it away. It tried to get rid of it. The bird from above saw it, how could it eat it? It could not reach it; it was heavy for the bird. So Allah inspired it to descend on the branch, and the branch descended on the "hanush," and it picked it up... Allah is the Greatest.
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : They say so-and-so is a person, meaning so-and-so is an animal who does not understand. And Allah, the animal understands...