May humans kill animals and eat meat?

Yes. Islam allows eating meat, but requires that animals be treated well and their suffering kept as small as possible. Anyone who wishes to live as a vegetarian is equally free to do so.

To understand this question, it helps to look at the natural world God has created. Everywhere, simpler forms of life serve as food for higher ones. The big fish eats the small fish. Even animals regarded as plant eaters take in countless tiny creatures with their food. This is a law of nature, not an exception.

At the same time there are fixed limits. No animal eats every other animal. Each species has its own particular food, and predators as a rule do not eat their own kind. God has likewise given humans certain animals as food, as the verses above show, and not others.

This does not contradict God’s mercy. In creation, the lower serves the higher. We know this from everyday life too. A doctor sometimes has to use the knife so that a child can get well. The pain is real, but it serves a higher goal.

Man stands at the summit of creation and is the only one who has a choice. He may eat meat, and he may live as a vegetarian. No religion can deny that choice to someone who does not want to eat meat. He should simply know that even with plants, tiny living things are always eaten too.

With choice comes responsibility. Man’s path should lead from little compassion to ever greater compassion. That is why Islam requires animals to be treated well and needless suffering to be avoided in slaughter, as the hadith above shows.