大象传媒

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Yousra Samir Imran, a British Egyptian writer and author

Good morning.

I recently visited Istanbul for the first time and was astounded not at the sheer number of street cats, but at the way Turks treated them 鈥� with an immense amount of love, care and affection.

As I walked with my husband through streets and down alleyways, I squealed in delight as I saw cats of all shapes and sizes reclining lazily across restaurant chairs, dozing with their little paws and bellies facing upwards towards the sun.

The restaurant owners did not move them along, but rather diners sat alongside them.

Likewise, in coffee shops, cats shared seats with us and in mosques, cats curled up beside us as we offered our prayers.

No one knows just how many street cats there are in Istanbul, but estimates are anywhere between a hundred thousand and a million.

Unlike other countries in the world, stray cats are viewed by Turks as communal pets.

Turkey is a Muslim-majority country, and treating animals well is something the Prophet Muhammad encouraged. 鈥淚f you kill a cat, you need to build a mosque to be forgiven by God,鈥� is one famous saying.

Turkey鈥檚 love of cats dates back to the Ottoman Empire; cats guarded Islamic libraries and kept plague-infested rats at bay. One 13th century cat-loving Sultan endowed an entire garden to city cats where all their needs would be catered for.

Oh Most Merciful One, put love and affection for animals in our hearts; let us pay all animals including wild and stray animals, the same respect and care we have for our pets.

Ameen.

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