The Nabateans: peasant farmers of non-Arab stock.

1607 – Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ saw a donkey that had been branded on its face and objected to it. He said, “By Allah, only the part farthest from the face may be branded.” He then ordered that his own donkey be marked, so it was cauterised on its jāʿaratān (the two sides of its hindquarters near the tail). He was the first to brand an animal on its jāʿaratān. Reported by Muslim.

(The jāʿaratān are the two areas beside the hips, around the animal’s tail.)

1608 – He also narrated that the Prophet ﷺ passed by a donkey branded on its face and said, “May Allah curse the one who branded it.” Reported by Muslim.

In another version recorded by Muslim: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade striking the face and branding the face.”

[Explanation]

These hadiths cited by al-Nawawī (may Allah have mercy on him) in Riyāḍ al-Ṣāliḥīn, in the chapter on the prohibition of tormenting animals, slaves, children, and others whom a person may discipline, make it clear that the purpose of discipline is reform, not the infliction of pain and suffering.