Epigraph

“What is the matter with you? Why will you not fear God’s majesty, when He has created you stage by stage? Have you ever wondered how God created seven heavens, one above the other, placed the moon as a light in them and the sun as a lamp, how God made you spring forth from the earth like a plant, how He will return you into it and then bring you out again, and how He has spread the Earth out for you to walk along its spacious paths?” (Al Quran 71:13-20)

Presented by Zia H Shah MD

The above two short audios are Hamza Yusuf talking about evolution, a few years ago.

I firmly believe in only one aspect of evolution, which is that all the 9 million species on planet earth are coming from a single ancestry or from the single original unicellular organism. The holy Quran in the first verse of Surah Nisa and in a few other places including Surah Anaam says that humanity came from a single soul.

Having said that let me focus on the subject at hand, what to learn and what to unlearn from the great scholar Hamza Yusuf.

I admire Hamza Yusuf. He has a lot to teach the Western Muslims or even non-Muslims about Islam.

Hamza Yusuf (born Mark Hanson; 1958)^[5] is an American Islamic neo-traditionalist,^[6][7]Islamic scholar,^[3][8] and co-founder of Zaytuna College.^[2][9] He is a proponent of classical learning in Islam and has promoted Islamic sciences and classical teaching methodologies throughout the world.^[10]

The Guardian has referred to Yusuf as “arguably the West’s most influential Islamic scholar.”^[20] The New Yorker magazine also called him “perhaps the most influential Islamic scholar in the Western world,”^[21] and journalist Graeme Wood has called him “one the two most prominent Muslim scholars in the United States today”.^[22] He has been listed in the top 50 of The 500 Most Influential Muslims.^[23]

The above two audios summarize Yusuf’s criticism of evolution. Now, I will present several posts where he shines in teaching Islam and then I will present below a few, where I want to bring the Muslims to the better understanding of evolution, namely our common ancestry with other apes. The second last post below is about Yusuf’s misunderstanding about jinns and demons. I conclude with Yusuf’s video at the time of Templeton award ceremony in 2018 to present him at his best.

I wish him the very best.

But in interest of the truth and to promote God of Abrahamic faiths, the Truth, my one liner to understand and applaud Yusuf is that he is an intellectual force to be reckoned with in the study of modern Islam, but, he has not picked up some very necessary and true teachings of modern science.

In ours age of information we do ourselves no favor if we limit ourselves to only one or a few teachers, be it theology, philosophy, metaphysics or science.

Hamza Yusuf Interviewed by Robert Lawrence Kuhn: About Islam

Hamza Yusuf (born Mark Hanson; 1958)[5] is an American Islamic neo-traditionalist,[6][7] Islamic scholar,[3][8] and co-founder of Zaytuna College.[2][9] He is a proponent of classical learning in Islam and has promoted Islamic sciences and classical teaching methodologies throughout the world.[10] He […]

Video: Religion is Supposed to Unite Us by Hamza Yusuf

Collection of Ideas to Overcome Sectarian Divide Among the Muslims Epigraph: And We (Allah) have sent thee (Muhammad) not but as a mercy for all peoples. (Al Quran 21:107)  Reconciling […]

The Roots of Our Crises – Hamza Yusuf

The Muslim Times has the best collection about metaphysics and religion and science

Video of Hamza Yusuf: The Prophetic Practice of Mindful Walking

Additional reading The Power of Mindfulness: What You Practice Grows Stronger | Shauna Shapiro | TED Talk Prayer and Meditation: Taming Your Mind How to Use Meditation for Anxiety and […]

Video: Hamza Yusuf About Al Ghazali

Suggested reading by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times: The contemporary often create a debate between ‘Incoherence’ by Ghazali and ‘Incoherence of the Incoherence’ by Ibn Rushd. […]

Why Intelligent Design Movement is Not only Bad Science, But Also Bad Theology

Epigraph: لَّا تُدْرِكُهُ الْأَبْصَارُ وَهُوَ يُدْرِكُ الْأَبْصَارَ ۖ وَهُوَ اللَّطِيفُ الْخَبِيرُ  Eyes cannot reach God but He reaches the human consciousness. And He is the Incomprehensible, the All-Aware. (Al Quran 6:103)  هُوَ […]

Michael Heller: Templeton Award-winner 2008, Denies Intelligent Design Movement

Epigraph وَهُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ بِالْحَقِّ ۖ وَيَوْمَ يَقُولُ كُن فَيَكُونُ ۚ قَوْلُهُ الْحَقُّ ۚ وَلَهُ الْمُلْكُ يَوْمَ يُنفَخُ فِي الصُّورِ ۚ عَالِمُ الْغَيْبِ وَالشَّهَادَةِ ۚ وَهُوَ الْحَكِيمُ الْخَبِيرُ  It is He who created the heavens and the earth […]

Let Francis Collins Guide You into Guided Evolution

Epigraph What is the matter with you? Why will you not fear God’s majesty, when He has created you stage by stage? Have you ever wondered how God created seven […]

Dr. Yasir Qadhi’s partial acceptance of evolution

Epigraph And most of them follow nothing but conjecture. Surely, conjecture avails nothing against truth. Verily, Allah is well aware of what they do. (Al Quran 10:36) But they have […]

The Single Quranic Verse that Can Convince You about Evolution

Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times Allah has advised us to read the Quran on a daily basis. (Al Quran 17:78/79) This is […]

Surah Al Baqara (The Cow): Section 4: Adam and Eve

By Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times 2:30. Call to mind, when your Lord announced to the angels: I am about to place a vicegerent in […]

Hamza Yusuf on Jinns: Powerful Men or Demons?

Shaikh Hamza Yusuf on Jinns: Powerful Men or Demons? Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times The above audio is a presentation by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf about […]

Epilogue

Say, ‘O People of the Book! come to a word equal between us and you — that we worship none but Allah, and that we associate no partner with Him, and that some of us take not others for Lords beside Allah.’ But if they turn away, then say, ‘Bear witness that we have submitted to God.’ (Al Quran 3:64)