"This still makes no sense to me. Even if humans are being tested or are responsible for their suffering, why are animals suffering as well? There is so much needless cruelty in the animal kingdom that it makes me question my faith" (example response)
Ans: suffering is subjective you can be in pain and not suffer, look at the kung fu monks who can break stones with their heads and people who can withstand fire burning them willingly, they might scream from the pain but not necessarily suffer, i have been in pain and felt peace more than at a family dinner with anxiety, we don't know how the animals feel, they see what we don't see, they know Allah and they maybe living in our material world luckily due to knowledge available to us we know they might not be vibrating at the same frequency as we are in fact they might have all chose to come to earth live a little and move on no judgement or anything, just like we accepted to be tested and took the burden of responsibility, this is a logical explanation to your question a simpler explanation to a person of faith is to say trust Allah, the very concept of God is that he can't be benefited or harmed, if Allah wants to do something he does not need to explain to anyone or anything so when he says he does not wrong even an atom's worth that statement is all we need even if we don't understand because God does not need to lie he is highly exalted above that, the mere existence of us is prove of his divine selflessness to give life to others, he is the only true live being and he gave life, so when he says trust me don't you think he is deserving of that trust, it might not always make sense but like a child trusts his parents with sour medication, Allah is more deserving of that trust, so don't worry about other beings because you cannot comprehend how much Allah cares for them more than u can possibly imagine even if the "image" confuses you