Humanity

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

Yesterday a brother sent out an email to everyone asking for help:

sorry for abusing the lists but i am in a bit of a crisis. a newborn chick dropped into my room. its raining outside and i havent seen any birds outside for some time, so i think its parents arent going to come anymore. it doesnt want to go outside and frankly i dont want it to either, because if its parents arent here, then its just going to die. im looking for any bird rescue organisation in cambridge, but in the meantime if anyone knows the professional way to go about this, please can you contact me. its really sweet and scared, and it can't fly at all. its desperately chirping for its mom i think. its perched n my hand and im writing onehanded. putting it in a box makes it very restless. please advise me on what to feed it in the meantime, he doesnt eat any moistened cereal. and it looks too delicate to chew on seeds. its perched on my fingers now and is very hungry. i am very worried id appreciate any advice.

Immediately after that, a few brothers and sisters replied to his email telling him what to do, including contact RSPB, get help from the porter and also any vet (or student vet), also what to feed this little chick. The below is his reply after trying everything:

ok i fund the bird website whichsays to leave it where it was, which is my room to start with. im scared if i leave it on my windowsill it might fall off, because it actually fell in on the edge between my windosill and room. it says the baby bird can fly and not to worry its parents will be around, but this chick cant fly it tries and keeps falling down. and its not letting go of my finger either which is problem. when i try to push it away it goes off into corners which is scary because thngs could fall on it.

Still, a lot of email were sent out by brothers and sisters to offer some advice. So of it were really inappropriate, kind of making fun of this whole situation and I don't know why they would think eating it is a good idea! Anyway, at the end, he said:

Assalaamualaikum

Thank you all for helping the chick, I tried the suggestions. I thought I'd let you know that sadly the chick has died due to my erronous decision. According to Rspb, Rspca, a vet and other websites, the best action to take was to leave it where it was, since it was more likely to be found by its parents and live than to be taken care of by humans and live. Though I was unsure about it, it seemed best to follow their advice. The sooner the better so that the parents would find it quickly. Since it kept scrambling out of the box, I kept it in a box right under my window on the ground, which was safer than the windowsill, and ok according to rspb. I planned to pick it up after 2 hours if its parents hadn't come by then. It was chirping for an hour or more continuously under my window, and then it stopped, so I went down to check on it, but could not find it anywhere. I could hear the same chirping though, and I hopefully thought it had found its nest nearby. A while ago I thought I'd do a search again to be sure, and unfortunately I found the chick had died beside the box.

It wasn't a pigeon, it may have been a starling chick. Its buried in great St Mary's Church grounds. It was really lively only this morning and clasping my finger and perching on my neighbour's head. I suppose if anyone wants to leave with a message from this experience to make it worth their time, I'm sure Mohamed Mashaal would remind us from this how fragile our lives are, that we are constantly in Allah's protection, and perhaps this was a sign from Allah to make us really appreciate the significance of Mohsin's orphan appeal. I'd tell you how stressful it is to be a parent for just one morning. Its kind of really strange and bitter, since I was actually reading about Ramsey island and voluntary work in bird reserves on the Rspb wesbite this morning when the chick happened to fall in.

Salaam.

It's a sad story, but what involved in this whole case is the sense of humanity shown to an animal, the creation of Al-Mighty ALLAH. Some brothers and sisters are kindly offering helps and advice, and even to console this brother. On the other hand, there are some brothers and sisters who made fun of this issue, it's a shame to say that they didn't even mind to send out emails to the whole list to show their jokes. And I'm talking about Muslims, Muslims who know that ALLAH creates everything and ALLAH is the Most Merciful and Most Compassionate, where are all these attributes among the Muslims nowadays? Anyway, the reminder sent by this brother at the end is really touching. As I said before, behind everything there is always a great wisdom, and only for those who ponder about the signs and creations of ALLAH that will be amongst the guided ones.

ALLAHU'alam.

Wassalam.