الوصف
Abstract. This paper discusses some theological and philosophical views of animal pain within the classical Islamic tradition. After providing an overview of the normativity regarding the treatment of animals according to the Qurʾān and some ḥādīth materials, I introduce the contrasting positions of ʿAbd al-Jabbār (d. 1025) and al-Ghazālī (d. 1111) concerning the meaning of animal pain. Then, having discussed the consequences of these two kalāmic positions, I turn to the philosophical views of al-Rāzī (d. 923) and Ibn Sīnā (d. 428). Particularly, I deal with the way in which the former deals with the ethical treatment of animals and the latter with the issue of animal self-awareness and the consequent experience of pain. The insights provided by all these thinkers prove, contrary to what some current approaches to animal ethics hold, that the concern for animal pain and the ethical treatment of animals was never kept marginal within the Islamic intellectual tradition.
Keywords: animal ethics, the experience of pain, kalām, falsafa, ʿAbd al-Jabbār, al-Ghazālī, al-Rāzī, Ibn Sīnā.
