Title:
Does Islam Refute Evolution?
Question:
What is Islam's view on evolution?
How do we explain the fossil bones of our ancestors?
Does that mean that the prophet Adam also looked like them?
Answer:
In your question, if 'evolution'
implies that man is actually an evolved form of a certain other creature, then
Islam does not affirm such a standpoint. According to the Qur'an, Adam (pbuh)
- the first man - was a direct creation of God, as a man. The Qur'an does
not support that Adam evolved from another species.
However, it may be of some interest
to note that in Al-Sajadah 32: 7
- 9, the Qur'an has referred to three different stages involved in the
creation of man in such words that a slightly varied version of 'evolution'
may be derived from it. The Qur'an says:
He, Who perfected everything that
He created - He started the creation of man from clay then he inculcated in
him [i.e. man] the potential to reproduce through a drop of humble fluid then
He embellished and fashioned him in due proportion; and breathed into him of
His spirit and [thereby] developed in you [the abilities of] listening, vision
and feeling.
The above verses clearly tell us
that in the beginning man was created from clay. The words 'creation from
clay', obviously, do not necessitate that God created an effigy of man from
clay and then gave life to it. It may, as we know, imply that in the beginning
man came into existence out of the earth [the mud or the clay etc. of the
earth]. In other words, God inculcated in earth - mixed with water - the
potential to produce life. Over centuries or even millennia, the life-bearing
potential of the earth materialized and a species quite similar to, yet somewhat
different from man was born.
This was the first stage in the creation of man, as is evidenced by the words:
"He started the creation of man from clay".
In the second stage, the potential
of reproducing life - of bearing offspring - through sexual contact between
the male and the female genders was inculcated in this species. This stage is
mentioned in the words: "then he inculcated in him the potential to
reproduce through a drop of humble fluid".
In the third stage, the species was
physically fashioned into proportion and with that God also breathed into it of
His spirit, which developed in it the abilities of listening, vision and feeling.
The words: "then He embellished and fashioned him in due proportion;
and breathed into him of His spirit and [thereby] developed in you [the
abilities of] listening, vision and feeling", point to this final stage in the
development of the human species.
It may be interpreted from the above
explanation that it was only the first pair of near-humans - i.e. Adam and Eve
- who went through the three stages explained above. That is Adam's (and
Eve's) creation was initiated from clay - that is they were produced through
the life-generation potential inculcated in the earth. Later on, the potential
of reproduction through sexual contact was inculcated in Adam (and Eve). In the
third stage, Adam (as well as Eve) was physically fashioned into due proportion
and God breathed into them of His spirit and thereby developed the higher
sapiential abilities in them.
However, contrary to the above
interpretation, another theory that may be developed on the basis of the
information given in the referred verses may be as follows:
-
Man's creation, in the first stage, was initiated by the production of a
like species from the earth. In this stage, a number of near-human pairs -
male and female - were produced directly from the earth.
-
In the second stage, the near-human pairs were inculcated with the ability
of reproducing life through sexual interaction between the male and the
female gender of the species.
-
In the third stage, one of the directly produced pairs (as in the first
stage)
- i.e. Adam and Eve - were physically fashioned into due proportion and
were inculcated with the advanced human abilities. It was at this stage that
Adam and Eve became complete humans.
-
Over subsequent centuries, the other directly produced pairs (in the first
stage) and their offspring became extinct. The only pair that survived,
through its offspring was that of Adam and Eve.
-
The whole human race that populates the planet is the offspring of the one
directly produced pair, which was physically fashioned into due proportion
and inculcated with the advanced human faculties.
In view of the information provided
by the Qur'an and the human knowledge that has developed over time, one may
ascribe to any explanation that seems correct to him. However, if the latter
theory is accepted to be correct, it also helps explain the existence of the
slightly different fossil bones. It seems that these bones are of the
near-humans that, in contrast to Adam and Eve and their subsequent generations,
were not physically fashioned into proportion or inculcated with the advanced
human faculties and which became extinct over time.
It should be stressed here that the
above is a development of a somewhat detailed scenario, on the basis of some
vague indications of the Qur'an and the general knowledge that has become
available to man. The scenario may or may not be completely accurate.
26th
March 2000
The last part of the referred verses clearly informs us that it was at a
later stage that the species was physically fashioned into proportion and
inculcated with advanced human abilities.
It may be noted that it was not merely the faculties of 'hearing' and
'sight', which, like other living things, the species seems to have
possessed before this stage as well. On the contrary, at this stage the
abilities inculcated in man were that of 'listening', 'vision' and
'feelings', which is a stage ahead of mere 'hearing' and 'sight'
and is probably possessed, at such an advanced level, only by man.
The theory is primarily developed by my teacher Javed Ahmed Ghamidi.
As the Qur'an at another place (Aal
Imraan 3: 59) tells us that Adam was directly produced from clay
(earth) and was not born to a father and a mother.