Introduction

I begin in the name of Allah, the Gracious the Merciful.

Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times

What are the different meanings of evolution

Any word can be used in different meanings or with different connotations. For example, the word ‘course’ during a dinner means a part of a menu, in a university it means something to do with syllabus and during a golf game, it means the landscape.

Likewise, the word ‘evolution’ can mean at least three different things. It can mean, especially when atheists use it that humans came about blindly or spontaneously and that God does not exist.

By ‘evolution’ sometimes authors may mean natural mechanisms of evolution, for example, natural selection.

Thirdly, it means that the nine million different living species on our planet earth have a common ancestry and have come down from single cell organisms over the last four billion years. When I talk about evolution that it is a well established scientific fact, I am merely talking about evolution in this meaning.

Most of the book talks about this third meaning of evolution. Occasionally, it opines on the other meanings.

I believe God to be the Creator of all life forms on our planet through the process of evolution. How could He guide evolution is subject of a separate chapter: How could God guide evolution?

The Preface of this Book

The Preface of the book, has of course already been written: Preface of A Book: The Quran and the Biological Evolution.

The Muslims take religious and scientific pride in the expanding universe and rightly so

If we Google the subject of the expanding universe and the Quran, we find countless articles and videos on the theme of describing expanding universe mentioned in the holy Quran. This is a testament to the fact that whenever Muslims find any scientific fact supportive of the truth of the Quran or Islam they are not shy of highlighting that.

I personally have also written on this subject before: The Quran and the Expanding Universe: Is This God Speaking or Muhammad?

If we are going to allow good and established science for one or a few verses of the Quran then the conclusion is inescapable that we cannot and should not deny to understand other and all verses in the light of other scientific truths.

The Quran does not draw a distinction between astronomy and cosmology on the one hand and biological sciences on the other hand and describes them side by side as a miracle of God’s creation and as an argument for humanity to believe in Him. For example in Surah Anbiyya we read:

Do not the disbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were a closed-up mass, then We opened them out? And We made from water every living thing. Will they not then believe? And We have made in the earth firm mountains lest it should quake with them; and We have made therein wide pathways, that they may be rightly guided. And We have made the heaven a roof, well protected; yet they turn away from its Signs. (Al Quran 21:29-32)

In the following eleven verses of Surah Rome, Allah goes back and forth between the biological phenomena and astronomical or cosmological details and calls all of them a Sign or a miracle. Allah does not describe them as merely science, but draws theological and moral conclusions from such a study of nature:

So celebrate God’s glory in the evening, in the morning – praise is due to Him in the heavens and the earth – in the late afternoon, and at midday. He brings the living out of the dead and the dead out of the living. He gives life to the earth after death, and you will be brought out in the same way. One of His signs is that He created you from dust and – lo and behold! – you became human and scattered far and wide. Another of His signs is that He created spouses from among yourselves for you to live with in tranquility: He ordained love and kindness between you. There truly are signs in this for those who reflect. Another of His signs is the creation of the heavens and earth, and the diversity of your languages and colors. There truly are signs in this for those who know. Among His signs are your sleep, by night and by day, and your seeking His bounty. There truly are signs in this for those who can hear. Among His signs, too, are that He shows you the lightning that terrifies and inspires hope; that He sends water down from the sky to restore the earth to life after death. There truly are signs in this for those who use their reason. Among His signs, too, is the fact that the heavens and the earth stand firm by His command. In the end, you will all emerge when He calls you from the earth. Everyone in the heavens and earth belongs to Him, and all are obedient to Him. He is the One who originates creation and will do it again – this is even easier for Him. He is above all comparison in the heavens and earth; He is the Almighty, the All Wise. (Al Quran 30:17-27)

In the last of the above verses, Allah talks about how He is the Originator of all things and has created everything from nothing; to borrow a term from Latin to connect it to the Christian scholarship, it is called: creation ex nihilo. This is a miracle in its own right and a separate chapter is devoted to this topic: The best proof against atheism is to imagine what they profess: What if nothing exists, no God a total blank!

In Surah Baqarah we read:

Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and in the alternation of night and day, and in the ships which sail in the sea with that which profits men, and in the water which Allah sends down from the sky and quickens therewith the earth after its death and scatters therein all kinds of beasts, and in the change of the winds, and the clouds pressed into service between the heaven and the earth — are indeed Signs for the people who understand. (Al Quran 2:164)

The following verses from Surah Jathiyah give us formal invitation to study our own creation and of all life forms in scientific light:

This Scripture is sent down from God, the Mighty, the Wise. There are signs in the heavens and the earth for those who believe: in the creation of you, in the creatures God scattered on earth, there are signs for people of sure faith; in the alternation of night and day, in the rain God provides, sending it down from the sky and reviving the dead earth with it, and in His shifting of the winds there are signs for those who use their reason. These are God’s signs that We recount to you Prophet, to show the Truth. (Al Quran 45:2-6)

So, just the expanding universe is not a miracle, rather the whole of Allah’s creation and the holy Quran are miracles: Why is the Quran a Sign or a Miracle, According to Itself? and: Everything is a Miracle According to the Holy Quran and Albert Einstein.

Additionally, any discussion about religion in the West soon changes into a discussion about evolution as agnostics and atheists have a significant presence in books and videos talking about merely natural mechanisms to explain our universe and our species.

Generally the devout believers do not discuss science at length with agnostics and atheists and choose to walk away and live in their bubbles, but if their children are driven by science and biology, they will not be able to escape the subject.

Therefore, I suggest that it is high time for all the Muslims, at least those living in the West, to understand and master the subject of evolution and its relationship with the Quran.

Standing on the shoulders of Dr. Maurice Bucaille

I came to know of him in 1981 when I was in my medical school, King Edward Medical College in Lahore, Pakistan. It was the first medical school to be established in subcontinent India in 1860. It is now called King Edward Medical University. I have often gone back to his book over the years.

Sir Isaac Newton, the famous English scientist, once said, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Of course, Newton wasn’t literally standing on the shoulders of giants. Newton was explaining that his ideas didn’t come from him alone. He relied on the ideas of those who came before him.

If I succeed to any degree in explaining Islamic metaphysics, corelating modern science with some of the verses of the holy Quran, especially in the domain of biology, then lion’s share of the credit goes to those who have gone before, most notably Dr. Maurice Bucaille.

He was born in France and worked in Egypt. He became a Muslim and wrote a book, the Bible, the Quran and Science. The book was written in French and has been translated into numerous languages. In this book he has examined different passages of the Quran and the Bible in light of science.  His book has been very popular in almost every Muslim majority country. It is in a way a vote of confidence by the Muslim masses that the Quran should be interpreted in light of good science.

This general approval of this book is a testament that the Muslims want to understand the Quran in the light of modern science.

So, I propose a question to the readers.  Have you, your favorite teacher or commentator of the Quran ever interpreted any verse of the Quran in light of new science that was not available in the 7^th century Arabia?  If yes then you agree with me in principle that the Quran can and should be interpreted in the light of the best science.  The leap of faith, I will take here, is the broader application that if one verse of the Quran can be interpreted in light of new and recent science, then any other verse can and should also be.

We may quibble about what is good science, but never about the domain that it can and should be used to understand the Quran.

The demographics of the Muslim masses and scholars about evolution

The book is intended for the 1.8 billion Muslims, especially those living in the West and their religious scholars.

Very few Muslim scholars have fully accepted the theory of evolution and the full implications of it on the understanding of the holy Quran, specifically the story of Adam. Ghulam Ahmad Parwez (1903–1985) is the exception to the rule. He was a well-known teacher of the Quran in India and Pakistan. He posed a challenge to the established Sunni doctrine by interpreting Quranic themes with a logical approach. He gained some popularity among educated populace, who held Parwez in high esteem, despite his encounter with numerous criticisms from conservative Islamic scholars throughout his tenure.  His ideas, based on modern science, helped people better understand Islam. He was introduced to Muhammad Ali Jinnah by Muhammad Iqbal. He was appointed to edit the magazine Tolu-e-Islam, which was established to counteract the propaganda emanating from certain religious circles that favor Congress. In his commentary of the Quran and some of his books he presented the story of Adam to be completely a metaphor.[i] [ii] [iii]

This and many of his ideas did not win him any applause from the traditional Muslim scholars.  This can be appreciated from Urdu audios of even the most moderate among the scholars from Pakistan, for example Javed Ahmed Ghamidi.[iv]

A more recent scholar in USA, Dr. Yasir Qadhi believes in evolution for all the species except for humans. He has a large following in Dallas, Texas and in his twitter account. He pleads a special case of creation for humans in a half hour video, available in YouTube that I have saved in the Muslim Times as well for the posterity: Dr. Yasir Qadhi’s partial acceptance of evolution.

I have respectfully singled out Yasir Qadhi to highlight that truth, religious or scientific, has a strange way of coming back to haunt us, if not us then our children or grand children. If our common ancestry with all life forms including the apes and monkeys is a reality then it is no use brushing the facts under the rug. We might as well face the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth and see how it changes or evolves our understanding of the holy Quran.

Many Muslims around the world believe in evolution. In 13 of the 22 countries where the question was asked, at least half say humans and other living things have evolved over time. By contrast, in just four countries do at least half say that humans have remained in their present form since the beginning of time.

In Southern and Eastern Europe, a majority of Muslims in Albania (62%) and Russia (58%) believe in evolution. But Muslims are divided in Bosnia-Herzegovina (50% believe humans have evolved, while 45% take the opposite view) and Kosovo (34% vs. 40%).

In four of the Central Asian countries surveyed, more than half of Muslims say they believe in evolution, including nearly eight-in-ten in Kazakhstan (79%). In Tajikistan and Turkey, by contrast, the predominant view is that humans have remained in their present form since the beginning of time (55% and 49%, respectively).

At least six-in-ten Muslims in Lebanon (78%), the Palestinian territories (67%) and Morocco (63%) think humans and other living things have evolved over time, but Jordanian and Tunisian Muslims are more divided on the issue. About half in Jordan (52%) believe in evolution, while 47% say humans have always existed in their present form. And in Tunisia, 45% say humans have evolved, 36% say they have always existed in their present form, and 19% are unsure. Iraq is the only country surveyed in the Middle East-North Africa region where a majority rejects the theory of evolution (67%).

Muslims’ views on evolution vary in South Asia and Southeast Asia. Muslims in Thailand (55%) and Bangladesh (54%) tend to accept that humans have evolved over time. But Muslims in Malaysia and Pakistan are divided: roughly four-in-ten Malaysian Muslims (37%) believe in evolution, while 45% say humans have always existed in their present form. In Pakistan, 30% think humans have evolved, while 38% disagree and 32% say that they do not know. In Afghanistan and Indonesia, the prevailing view is that humans and living things have remained in their present form since the beginning of time (62% and 55%, respectively).

In countries surveyed in Southern and Eastern Europe, more religiously observant Muslims are less likely to believe in evolution. In Russia, for example, 41% of Muslims who pray several times a day believe in evolution, compared with 66% of those who pray less frequently. Significant gaps also appear between more and less devout Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina (-19 percentage points) and Kosovo (-14). Views on evolution do not differ significantly by religious commitment in the other regions surveyed.

Here are some of the comments that Pew Research Center received:

While a certain percentage of the Muslim public is open to evolution, very few Muslim scholars are open to the truth of evolution. There is a Wikipedia page that lists views of some of the well known Sunni Muslim scholars.[vi]

One of the main purposes of this book is to convey the new scientific reality to the well known Muslim scholars respectfully. To complete the picture, I have highlighted views of some of them to document the current state of affairs, as the Muslims intelligentsia and masses continue the journey of reading the Quran in light of modern scientific, philosophical and metaphysical scholarship:

Javed Ahmad Ghamidi, A Great Theologian, Yet Joins the Long List of Scholars, Who are Ignorant about Evolution

Dr. Yasir Qadhi’s partial acceptance of evolution

Hamza Yusuf a Great Teacher of Islam, But for Evolution and Jinns

Video: Omer Suleiman Denying Human Evolution from Apes

Exposing Creationism of Zakir Naik, Tahir ul Qadari, Yusuf Estes and Harun Yahya

How can God guide evolution?

This is a very important aspect of my book, as stated before I do not suggest blind evolution rather I promote guided or theistic evolution. There is a separate chapter devoted to this issue that has a 26 minute video also by Closer to Truth also: Preface of A Book: The Quran and the Biological Evolution.

Just like God can grant our prayers today and influence human history over the millennia, in similar manner and through similar means He has guided evolution.

To read the book:

Book: The Quran and the Biological Evolution

References

[i] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideas_of_Ghulam_Ahmed_Perwez

[ii] https://www.parwez.tv/audiolist.html

[iii] http://islamicdawn.com/urdu-books/

[iv] https://themuslimtimes.info/2024/04/02/javed-ahmed-ghamidi-about-ghulam-ahmed-pervez/

[v] https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2020/08/26/on-the-intersection-of-science-and-religion/#:~:text=In%20the%20U.S.%20context%2C%20a,since%20the%20beginning%20of%20time.

[vi] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_views_on_evolution