Taken from: Men & the Universe: Reflections of Ibn Al-Qayyem  By Abdul-Hameed Al-Qoz 

Our purpose here is to refute the claim put forth by many that the giraffe is the outcome of the mating of many animals

which meet at the places of drinking - such claims arc a lie about the giraffe and a lie about creation. To refute this lie,

one only needs to observe that when the male donkey and the mare mate, or the wolf and the she-hyena, or the sheep

and the she-goat, there will not be in the offspring an organ from the father and another from the mother; not like the

giraffe's having an organ similar to a horse's and another similar to a camel's; it is rather a mixture and compromise of

the two, as you see in the mule: its head, ears, back, and hoofs are midway between the organs of its father and mother

and a joint outcome of both. Even its braying is a mixture of the horse's neighing and the donkey's braying. This proves

that a giraffe is not the descendant of parents of different species, as is assumed by some. It is rather an exquisite

creation and a wonderful making, a creation of Allah, Who originated it, as a sign and an evidence of His power and

wisdom which is without limit; so that His slaves should witness that He is the creator of various animals, Who

diversified them as He wished and made them in the shapes He willed. Some are symmetrical, with balanced organs,

some are asymmetrical, with different shapes, structures and looks. Similarly, he shows His servants His perfect power

by creating the human species in four different ways, which point to their being created by the Lord's power and will and

their being subordinate to Him. The four divisions are as follows: the human who was created without male or female,

the father of the human species; the one created from a male without a female, the mother of humans who was created

from a rib of Adam's; the one who was created from a female without a male, Jesus son of Mary; the one who was

created from a male and a female, all the rest of human beings. He is thus showing His servants His signs and

revealing Himself to them with His favors and power, that if He wills something to be He will say: Be, and it will be. Why

the giraffe has that long neck is, according to those who observe its life and living place, because its home and grazing

place is among tall, extremely tall trees; by having a long neck, the giraffe can reach the ends of branches of those trees

to eat of their leaves and fruits. This is the extent of what those people know, although the wisdom of the Gentle, the

Knowing is far deeper and superior to that.

 

The giraffe

 Consider now the case of the giraffe, its different organs, and then the resemblance to various animals: its head resembles

a horse's, its neck a camel's, its hooves a cow's, its skin a tiger's; this has led some to the claim that it is a hybrid

resulting from impregnation of a female animal by several males of different species. They say that various land species

come to drink at the same place, and that the wild male animals mate with domesticated ones and the outcome is this

mongrel, which is like a human crossbreed that is the hybrid of different humans. In my view, a person who makes such

a claim is lying about the giraffe and lying about the creation. Animals do not impregnate females of different species: the

camel does not fertilize the cow, nor the cow the she-camel, nor the horse the cow or the camel, nor vice versa, nor do other

beasts or birds do that. It is true that some species do mate with their closely related species: the wild cow and the

domesticated cow; the sheep and the goat; the horse and the donkey; the wolf and the hyena, when the mule, the

mongrel sheep -goat or wolf -hyena result.

 

Ibn Al Qayyim: al-Tibb al-Nabawi (Prophetic Medicine)

 

Taken from: www.islamicbook.ws الطب النبوي

This text is also found as a quote in: Ibn Abd as-Salam al-Manufi (d1525): Al-fīd al-madīd fī akhbar an-Nil as-sa’id

The Nile is one of the rivers of Paradise (al-janna). It rises in a land behind Jabal al-Qamar - in the remotest part of al-Ḥabasha -

from rains which collect there into streams and join one another. God Almighty drives it into barren lands where no vegetation

could grow if the Nile would not water them. But, thanks to the Nile, vegetables can be grown there and they provide food for men

and animals. As the land to which God led the Nile is black, hard slime, normal rains would not be sufficient to water it

adequately and it will produce no vegetation; if the rains are excessive, they will damage the homes and harm the inhabitants;

thus no life would be possible in that territory. Therefore, God causes the rains to fall abundantly in countries far away, and led

the rain water to those barren lands through this great river and made the flood season to water them adequately. Once the

land is watered and flooded, God makes the river shrink and decrease in order to ensure the welfare [of the inhabitants] by the

cultivation of crops.

 

Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya: Alfawayid Almshwwq 'iilaa Eulum Alquran;

(The interesting benefits to the science of the Koran)

 

Naqd al-Manqool (Criticism of the transmitted)

 

Beware of the Zanj, for they are a deformed creation (1).

(1) Beware of the Zinj, they are a distorted creation.

This hadith is repeated by: Abu Nu’aym al Isfahani 1038; Abu Ubayd al Bakri 1067; Ibn Qudama al Maqdisi 1223; Ibn al Jawzi 1257; Ibn abd al Rahman al Mizzi 1342; al Dhahabi 1348; (and many others). Al Kulayni 939 was maybe the first to use it.