23/06/2021
My Islamic discourse on Evolution
There are quite controversial scientific theories that seem to conflict with Islam, and evolution is not an exception. Many scientists and philosophers have proposed theories that counterattack the islamic scriptural inerrancy, directly or indirectly. In many ways, philosophy as well as science have a very intertwined relationship with islamic theology. Science and Islam sometimes exist in opposition to each other. Islam treats its holy scriptures (Qur'an & many hadith) as a fundamental axioms that cannot be formulated, unlike scientific researches that somebody will eventually find where it flawed and correct it. That conspicuously doesn't happen in our holy books. Hence, there's a need for students of education to have a sound intellectual and religious orientation before venturing into sci-islamic debates.
Well, let's take a look at Darwinian narrative on evolution. Broadly speaking, evolution occurs in a stepwise fashion: through a successive series of distinct stages, a dialectic relationship between genetics and environmental factors leads to the differentiation of species into various branches, which are subsequently developed through time. As the species of these branches progress further, adapt to their localities, and thus diversify even more, they create more genetic differentiation, leading to our current natural context, in which humans are just one end of a parallel series of multiple, diverse evolutionary pathways. He considered apes as our progenitors, which is not. Thus, apes are considered to be our genealogical cousins, for we once shared ancestral node before genetic "split" between humans and apes starts to sharpen.
The central concern in the debate of evolution in islam is the position of Adam and, more broadly, humans. It's mentioned in the holy Quran that Adam was created in the best molds (Quran 95:4), that he was made a vicegerent of God on earth (Quran 2:30) and that he was fashioned by the God Himself (Quran 38:75). This shows that Adam and his offspring have an elevated status above the rest of creation. How can such an honored, noble entity have been produced from random processes and imperfect ancestors? Concurrently, Adam is referred to as the father of humanity in the Quran (17:70) which seems that Adam was the first human without any parent on his own, and many paradigms from Quran and Hadith say much about that.
Hence, we have the Quran and hadith literature which shows that Adam was created and placed on earth, and on the contrary, we have Darwinian narrative of evolution. These two are irreconcilable, at least after a cursory reading of this piece. If the above references from Quran cannot be dismissed scientifically, this determines that no extra-evaluative principles can discern what Allah says on the early existence of human being, and we don't need to be confused with this theory.
By Safwan Suhaib Ibrahim
