As'salamu Alaikum dear brother Mclinkin94,
This is a topic that I wanted to debate you on, and I guess we could start it now . I of course come with complete humbleness and respect to you and to everyone, especially that I am the owner of this blog. So please, feel free to speak your mind freely. I only stopped a few threads about this subject in the past, because I didn't want it to be distracting to the young students that we have here in both college and high school. I don't mind debates at all as long as they don't become compulsive and out of control and devouring to one's time and personal life.
Thank you for allowing me to speak my mind freely. And of course there will be no disrespect in my posts, all my posts will do is present Quranic evidence and possible show evidence that a certain interpretation is correct than the next. If anything seems disrespectful, I would like to apologize beforehand.
I don't take anything you say in this debate personally and please don't take anything I say personally!
For this debate, I would like to completely leave the hadith scene. I will not present hadiths as I do not take them as valid sources (this could be another debate, but for now, we are looking at the Quranic disclosure on evolution. you cannot interpret the Quran using a weak-potentialy corrupted source like hadiths or the bible. The Quran is to be interpreted by the Quran itself).
Having said that, I would like to directly engage you by inviting you to visit: www.answering-christianity.com/cloning.htm. Here are some of the reasons, from many, why evolution is completely false according to Islam. First, when I say "evolution", I mean us becoming humans from animals. This is completely rejected in the Holy Quran for the following reasons:
This is an interesting article and that verse about altering Allah's creation is absolutely relevant in modern times. We are manipulating Allah's creation as we speak. With biotechnology coming over, we are injecting genes into new organisms.
I obviously don't agree that it is rejected in the Holy Quran that humans came from animals and that we were made in diverse successive stages and those stages involved primitive humans whom which we became successors of the Earth with.
The Popular Belief of Multiplying is Wrong:
1- Did you know that according to the Holy Quran Itself, humans weren't created from just sexual intercourse from Adam and Eve, and certainly not from their immediate children having sex with each others? In other words, the popular belief that Adam and Eve had offsprings through their marriage and sex, and their offsprings (siblings) had sex with each others and had other humans, and those other humans had sex and multiplied into other humans, and those other humans had sex and multiplied and so on..... This popular belief is wrong!
It is possible that this popular belief is wrong. I have nothing against the belief as whether these beings mated or not has no relevance to evolution. If Adam and eve did not mate, then they are just 2 people whom which we all descended from.
many Muslims would go against your view, because of Quran 4:1
[Quran 4:1] O mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from one nafs and created from it its pair and dispersed from both of them many men and women. And fear Allah , through whom you ask one another, and the wombs. Indeed Allah is ever, over you, an Observer.Many Muslims assert that this means that Allah created us from Adam and then created eve from adam and then they made many men and women from them. If this is the case, then your view is wrong. But, I don't believe this is the case. Allah did not mention the names of Adam and Hawwa on purpose. This verse is telling us that ALL humans came from a singular "nafs". But what is a "nafs"? A "nafs" is not necessarily a human being.
The question arises: What is a 'nafs'? 'Nafs' is a living being as the following verse informs us:
(Quran 21:35) Every living being (nafsin) shall have a taste of death
Thus we must conclude that we were created from a singular living being in which its pair was created from it. This singular cell and its pair then made many human
men and women. 21:35 "Every living being (nafsin) shall have a taste of death." Whatever dies have Nafs. So it means any living being including single cell being. Therefore, in verse 4:1 "Who has developed you from one Nafs (living being), and from it its mate and sent forth from both many male and female.", one Nafs was not Adam, it talks about the "same origin" of all nafses (beings), the rudimentary simple single cell and the relation between the Nafses.
Since the origin of all living being is same, they certainly were not separately created. There is NO verse that tells that the living being were developed separately. In fact Quran 2:30 tells us that we became successors on Earth. The Question arises, successors to who?
If you have noticed that the Quran started by saying that Allah created us a from a living being and from THAT singular living being, MEN and WOMEN (humans) formed.
This is completely in line with how the first cell formed from clay and that cell is the ancestor of all beings on earth.
2- According to the Holy Quran, Allah Almighty performed what we call today CLONING from Adam and Eve's immediate children, peace be upon all of the righteous ones from among all of that family. I've written about this long before you joined this blog in the past at:
http://www.answering-christianity.com/blog/index.php/topic,842.msg2547.html#msg2547
The Noble Verse that I analyzed in great details is:
7:172 واذ اخذ ربك من بني ادم من ظهورهم ذريتهم واشهدهم على انفسهم الست بربكم قالوا بلى شهدنا ان تقولوا يوم القيامة انا كنا عن هذا غافلين
[007:172] When thy Lord drew took (اخذ) from the Children of Adam - from their loins backs (ظهورهم)- their descendants, and made them testify concerning themselves, (saying): "Am I not your Lord (who cherishes and sustains you)?"- They said: "Yea! We do testify!" (This), lest ye should say on the Day of Judgment: "Of this we were never mindful":
I have been looking into this recently. I would say that it is possible that this is what the Quranic verse is referring to. The other alternate valid translation is that "Drew from their loins", would be the semen that was taken from their loins. But it is possible that Allah intervened for some reason. The fact is that it still says that Adam and Hawwa may have been husband and wife and that they are 2 people whom which we all descended from. It is also possible that Adam and Hawwa may not be a husband and wife and they were just 2 people whom we all descended from. My point is, it doesn't matter exactly how it occured--it just matters where they came from. And this verse informs us that Adam and Eve (the pair of humans in which we have all descended from, came from sexual reproduction).
(Quran 35:11) And Allah did create you from dust; then from a reproductive fluid; then He made you in pairs^It says "THEN" allah made humans in pairs. So if Adam and eve were a pair (male and female), then they were made AFTER allah created sexual reproduction (reproductive fluid). This fact by it self informs us that the hadith explanation that Adam was not formed from sexual reproduction or in an embryo is wrong. Adam was created from sexual reproduction and he was formed in an embryo and he may have had a parent.
In fact, Jesus was born in an embryo and he had a parent. The Quran informs us that Adam was created in the same way (it is possible, he may not have had a father):
(Quran 3:59) Surely the likeness of Jesus is with Allah as the likeness of Adam; He created him from dust, then said to him, Be, and he was.Both were created from dust: Yes
Both were created from the embryo: Yes
Both had a parent: Yes
Both had Allah intervening in their wombs: Yes
2- And according to the Holy Quran, Allah Almighty CREATED and FASHIONED Adam, and blew from His SPIRIT into Adam's NEW BODY and made Adam alive, peace be upon him. And then Allah Almighty ordered all of the Beings of the Universe to bow down to Adam. Iblis, who later became satan, refused. You can read about all of this at:
www.answering-christianity.com/holy_spirit.htm
www.answering-christianity.com/adam.htm
I do not deny that Allah created and fashioned Adam and blew from his spirit onto Adam. These events do not undermine the Quranic support for evolution. Adam was chosen to be the one whom which the spirit was blown into. The problem is you are assuming that the spirit gives life. The spirit is something that Allah did not explain what it is. It does not have to be life giving. The spirit could be the soul that Allah has inserted into Adam and his progeny so that Allah could test us. Adam and his descendants marked the creation of humans. This is where Allah inputs your soul.
Adam was just chosen to be the descendant of the Earth. And at that moment that is where Allah ordered the beings to bow to Adam. That is the moment where Allah asked Adam the names.
Allah did create Adam in stages from Clay.
Allah did proportion his creation until it reached the human level. (Allah made his creation better)
Allah did blow into Adam his spirit.
(Quran 32:7) Allah is He who has perfected everything he created, and He began the creation of the human (being) out of clay--> He made everything he created better. Evolution seems to explain the mechanism of perfecting God's creation. (Clay is a product of wet earth-Exactly what you are made of: Water and Earth. What's even more fascinating about this verses is that Allah say he made all of his creation better from the original and he began the creation of a human. This verse is hinting at a connection. A connection that human beings were made through a process of evolving better than the original creation.
(Quran 32:8) Then He made his posterity out of the extract of a liquid disdained.^This verse comes right after the previous one. So AFTER human beings BEGAN forming,, our posterity comes from an extract of semen. This is hinting at sexual reproduction forming.
(Quran 32:9) Then He proportioned him and breathed into him from His [created] soul and made for you hearing and vision and hearts; little are you grateful.^AFTER Allah made sexual reproduction, he proportioned us and given us vision/hearing/consciousness.
Allah BEGINS the process of creation, lets sexual reproduction happen, and then we get proportioned and achieve higher consciousness. Aren't these verses clear in their support of gradual creation of humans?
The preceding verse seems to be a highlight of the major evolutionary steps and it uses a sequential conjunction to illustrate its purpose. Creation began from a basic earth like substance (clay), then after the initiation of creation, sexual reproduction develops and then after that higher intelligence forms. This verse specifically says that our posterity was made from an extract of a liquid disdained, this implies that after the initiation of creation of man from the Earth, the ability to sexually reproduce formed. After sexual reproduction formed, higher intelligence develops. Evolutionary, we can say that life formed from the Earth (or what became to be the earth). Their mode of reproduction was asexual. Then sexual reproduction occurred which allowed for more variation and more complexity in organisms. Through sexual reproduction, more variation occurred which allowed extremely complex multicellular organisms capable of thought, like humans to develop. This Quranic verse appears to highlight such a phenomenon by stating that creation started out of the Earth, then sexual reproduction developed, then humans formed.
This is extremely fundamental as it describes the creation of humans on earth EXACTLY AS IT HAPPENED!
(QURAN 7:11)And We have certainly created you, [O Mankind], THEN given you [human] form. Then We said to the angels, "Prostrate to Adam"
We were created in one form (early hominid), THEN given another form (human form), THEN Allah made the angels prostrate to Adam. Look at the sequence of events and the evolutionary implication. We were created in a form, then given human form, Then Adam was created, then Allah made the angels prostrate to him. That means that the creation of Adam involved many diverse stages.
Another Quranic verse informs us that Allah creates by increasing and adding on to his creation. Making his creation better!
(Quran 35:1) All praise is due to Allah , Creator of the heavens and the earth, who made the angels messengers having wings, two or three or four. He increases in creation what He wills. Indeed, Allah is over all things competent.In this verse, Allah informs us that he increases the complexity of creation. He adds onto his creation things--He improves upon/perfects his creation. This verse is informing us that Allah increases complexity in creation and that he works through improving creation. Also notice what chapter this verse happens to be coincidentally in. The chapter name is "The originator". Just by mere juxtaposition, the Quran informs us that Allah originates creation and he adds on to creation. Now look at this verse in reference to 32:7. Now do you see why I appeal to translation #2? Allah prefects his creation, he improves it, he adds on to it, he makes it good. Allah perfects his creation.
(Quran 82:7) O mankind, what has deceived you concerning your Lord, the Generous, Who created you, then proportioned you, and then balanced you?
This verse may refer to three main stages of the creation of human beings. The first was creation of a living cell (The Arabic verb khlaqa, created). The second was the change from unicellular prokaryote organism to the multi-cellular eukaryote animal organism (The Arabic verb sawwa, fashioned you). The third was the human departure from the animal stage (The Arabic verb 'adala, made you walk in an upright way, fixed you, made you better). Allah has improved his creation. Allah has added on to his creation, just like Allah mentioned when he said he added wings to angels. Allah originates creation, then Evolves it (increases it, improves it, perfects it).