The Donkey Sanctuary

On Monday the 14th of March we visited the Donkey Sanctuary for the first time. There are a few of them in the UK where donkeys find home and care. The sanctuary is located in a vast, beautiful park. 

I’ve come to know about it on the internet while I was searching for a place to go for a trip with the kids.

On the website I’ve read that you could adopt a donkey for a year. This is simply to help with the care expenses.

There are 20 donkeys and 3 of them are for adoption at the moment: Cisco, Moses and Oscar.

As a Muslim I am against naming an animal after a prophet but I’m not a type of a person who picks at someone for that so I didn’t make a fuss.

We adopted Moses anyway. My middle daughter wanted Oscar but Tracy, a lovely lady who works there told us that Oscar is naughty sometimes and Moses is more gentle so we chose him. In the picture Moses who's weraing a green jacket with Cisco - miniature who's for adoption too.

We can visit him now throughout a year during set hours, stroke him and brush him. It’s a shame kids won’t be able to ride on him as the donkeys in this sanctuary only help children with special needs serving as part of therapy.

 In an indoor paddock we’ve met a 34 year old Charlie, the oldest donkey in this sanctuary (donkeys live on average about 30 years). Charlie still serves the children with his back.

He let us stroke him and we were able to witness what sound he makes when he asks his carer for food.

We bought 2 figurines and a soft toy as a souvenir plus a story book about donkeys of course :)

I bought additional Schleich figurines yesterday.

There are donkeys in Minecraft as well :)

A donkey is mentioned even in the Qur’an in surah Al-Baqarah 2:259. Prophet Ezra (peace be upon him) was passing by town ruins with his donkey and was wondering how Allah could bring this town back to life. At that very moment Allah caused him and his donkey to die. Then He brought him back to life and asked how long he was dead for. The prophet replied that it was a day or a portion of day. Allah told him that it was 100 years. Then Allah brought the donkey back to life in front of the prophet. He even gave him back the food he was carrying with him on the day he died. It was a reminder of God’s power over all things and of the life after death.

Muslims are not allowed to eat donkey’s meat.

“And [He created] the horses, mules and donkeys for you to ride and [as] adornment. And He creates that which you do not know.” [Qur’an 16:8]

There are also many hadiths in which these animals are mentioned and Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) had a donkey named Ufayr (or Yafur) which means “deer”. [Bukhari, 2865]