Is it permissible to kill an animal merely for entertainment?
One day, the Prophet ﷺ saw young people practicing archery by using a live bird as a target. His reaction, reported in the authentic collections, draws a clear line between sport and cruelty.
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It is reported that the Prophet ﷺ once passed by a group of Quraysh youth who had tied up a bird and were shooting arrows at it for sport, with each person paying the bird's owner for every arrow shot. When they caught sight of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, they scattered at once, realizing that this practice could not meet with his approval. The Prophet ﷺ then spoke stern words to them, condemning the act of immobilizing a living creature to use it as nothing more than a target for amusement. This account is reported in Sahih Muslim.
A clear boundary between sport and cruelty
This hadith illustrates an essential principle of prophetic teaching: sport, games, or entertainment should never come at the cost of suffering inflicted on a living being without necessity. The tied bird, unable to flee or defend itself, had been reduced to an object, even though the Quran recalls the dignity of every creature. In Surah Al-An'am, it is said:
"There is not an animal on earth, nor a bird that flies on its wings, but they are communities like you."
(Surah Al-An'am, verse 38)
This verse places animals in a reality that transcends their mere usefulness to human beings: they belong to communities in their own right, worthy of respect. To kill or wound an animal only for distraction, without a legitimate purpose such as food or necessity, stands in direct opposition to this principle.
Other teachings pointing in the same direction
It is also reported in Sahih al-Bukhari that the Prophet ﷺ forbade mutilating animals or using them as live targets (known in Arabic as al-muthla). Among the points emphasized by these accounts:
Inflicting suffering on an animal without reason incurs a moral responsibility.
Human entertainment never justifies cruelty toward a living creature.
An animal, even one destined for food, must be treated with care until its last moment.
It is reported in another authentic hadith that a woman was mentioned as having been punished for locking up a cat without feeding it or allowing it to seek its own food, until it perished — an account found in both Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, which reinforces this same requirement of mercy toward animals, regardless of their size or apparent usefulness.
An enduring call to compassion
These teachings are not merely a historical detail: they outline a comprehensive ethics in our relationship with animals, grounded in restraint, compassion, and the rejection of all gratuitous violence. Even today, this lesson remains fully relevant, whether facing hunting without necessity, violent games involving animals, or simply in our everyday attitude toward the creatures around us. To remember that tied bird, more than fourteen centuries ago, is to recall that no living being deserves to be reduced to an object of amusement, and that true nobility lies in protecting the vulnerable rather than using them for sport.
