Third, these people face punishment, exemplary chastisement, and disgrace for the wicked deeds they commit: one is executed, another punished, another subjected to amputation, and another made to suffer and imprisoned. These are punishments prescribed by religious law. As for decreed punishments, some peoples were drowned, others destroyed by various forms of torment, and others afflicted with unjust rulers who subjected them to burning, drowning, mutilation, strangulation, and blinding. Animals are safe from all this.

Fourth, the wicked among the jinn and mankind will face horrors, the Fire, torment, shackles, and other things in the Hereafter from which animals are safe. Comparing their respective conditions makes clear the superiority of animals over these people.

Fifth, all animals believe in Allah and His Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace; they glorify Allah with praise and are obedient to Him. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“There is nothing on the face of the earth that does not know that I am the Messenger of Allah, except the wicked among the jinn and mankind.”

The second form of comparison is to say that humanity as a whole is superior to the angels as a whole, without comparing individuals. On the view that righteous human beings are superior to the angels, this claim remains open to question; I do not know whether it is true. For we regard the second generation as a whole as superior to the third generation, although we know that many people of the third generation are superior to many people of the second.