| Answer: If a person is a vegetarian
because he does not like meat and prefers eating vegetables or because of some
dietary reasons, then this cannot be objected to on religious grounds. However,
if he or she thinks that slaughtering animals to eat their meat is doing
injustice to them, then this perhaps is not the correct attitude. He or she must
realise that animals which give Halal meat have been put to the service of man
by the Almighty:
And cattle He has created for you.
From them you derive warmth, and numerous benefits, and of their [meat] you eat.
(16:5)
It is God who made cattle for you
that you may use some for riding and some for food. (40:79)
In my humble opinion, one should not try
to be more merciful than the Merciful Allah. Such philosophising is tantamount
to expressing ingratitude to the Creator. One should remember that Allah has
created many things for the service of man so that man himself realise that
these favours and blessings have a source: The Almighty. A person who develops a
true comprehension of His Gracious Creator cannot lead a life of sin, though he
may sometimes stumble into sin.
In other words, eating the meat of the
animals is acknowledging the favours of a Gracious Creator, and this
acknowledgement in turn is instrumental in the inner purification of a person –
the primary goal of Islam.
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