The Origins of Life - A Muslim View by maqsood hasni

The Origins of Life - A Muslim View Presented By: Maqsood Hasni Free Abuzar Barqi Kutabâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;khana Agu. 2017

The Origins of Life SULAYMAN NYANG About the Author Sulayman Nyang, Ph.D., is a professor of African Studies at Howard University in Washington, D.C. He is also the co-director of Muslims in the American Public Square, a research project funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts. More about Sulayman Nyang Islam is one of the three Abrahamic religions in the world. As such, Muslims share with Christians and Jews a number of beliefs that together bracket them from the rest of humankind in self-conception and in the perception and understanding of the human race and its history. Muslims embrace much of the scientific argument about human origins, but not all. We part company with secular

fundamentalists on an important issue: Muslims do not take a Promethean view of man and his activities on Earth, that is, the perception that man is the measure of all things. This disagreement between the Muslim and the purely scientific, secular conception of life and the role and place of man is the litmus test for any meaningful engagement about human origins. The most powerful and intellectually and spiritually potent characters that unite these three faiths are Adam and Eve. Although different interpretations of the myth of human origins put the Abrahamic religions at loggerheads, the story of Adam and Eve is similar in the Tanakh (commonly known as the Hebrew Bible) and in the Christian Bible as well as the Muslim Quran. The Origins of Life vs. Origins of Species In all three narratives, now widely called "Grand Narratives" in the language of the Post-Modernists, the

origin of human life goes back to a heavenly location and to a cosmic time during which God, in his wisdom, decided to bring about this phenomenon called the Human Drama.

Because Islam is the last in this chain of heavenly revelations, Muslims claimed that their Prophet got the last word from heaven. This claim has led Muslim thinkers and masses to embrace a historical narrative about human origins that converges on certain points with the Judeo-Christian narratives but diverges significantly on other matters. According to the Quranic narrative, reported in the second chapter named Baqara (Cow) and elaborated elsewhere in the text, man came into being after Allah (God) consulted with his angels about his selection for the position of khalifa (viceregency) of Allah on earth. Although the angels and Iblis (Satan) warned Him about

man's possible future of violence and mischief, Allah dismissed their objection by saying that He knows what they do not know about human possibilities. This Islamic view of human origins and man's favored status in the universe does not square with the dominant scientific view of evolution as argued by Charles Darwin and the scientific communities around the world. If one follows the logic of the evolutionists, man appeared after a long process of transformation from lower forms of existence to this higher form of biological development. Traditional Muslim thinkers would say such arguments are based not only on the denial of a Creator but also on the doubt about His ability to create ex nihilo, to create out of nothing. Many Muslims also cite the Quranic verses stating that all living things came out of water, and in so doing, they side step the evolution debate while affirming the Divine presence even at this lower level of creation.

This Islamic view was spiritedly made by one of the most outstanding Muslim thinkers of this century, Seyyed Hossein Nasr of George Washington University in Washington, D.C. As a Muslim who embraces the mystical dimension of Islam known as Sufism and a scientist who went through the halls of learning at Harvard University and M.I.T., Nasr argues that the Islamic view of life has room for many ways of reading the ayah (signs) of God in creation. A false dichotomy between Promethean man and the traditional Adam as developed by the classical thinkers conceals more than it reveals about human possibilities. Nasr argues that man is a pontifical creature who serves as a bridge between the terrestrial and the celestial worlds. Neither angel nor animal in the absolute sense, man is more than what scientific knowledge knows about him. His intellect, his psyche and his spirit have endowed him with attributes and capacities that go beyond the wildest dreams of the scientific community.

Rather than enclose man within the biological framework of Darwinian theory, man should be seen as a creature that yearns for a rendezvous with the source of his life and existence. That source, Nasr contends, is not the atoms out of which he is made but the metaphysical and transcendental being whose existence cannot be fathomed by our intellects, even though signs about his presence and existence abound. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4783600

THE CREATION OF MAN AS MENTIONED IN THE QURAN ‫ب ْس ه‬ ‫الرحي‬ ‫الر ْحمـن ه‬ ‫َّللا ه‬ The Quran revealed the process of the creation of man long before science gave every part of his anatomy, down to the inner contents of his individual cells, a unique name and pictorial description. In fact, in the Quran, Allah described the chronological phases of fetal growth and development 14 centuries ago, long before any ultrasound machine existed: ‫ل دْ خ ْ ن ْاْلنس ن من سَلل ِّمن طين‬ ‫في قرار همكين‬

‫ث ه جع ْن ه ن ْط‬

‫ضغ‬ ْ ‫ضغ فخ ْ ن ا ْلم‬ ْ ‫ث ه خ ْ ن ال ُّن ْط ع فخ ْ ن ا ْلع م‬ ‫عظ م فكس ْ ن ا ْلعظ ل ْحم ث ه أنشأْن ه خ ْ آخر فتب ر ه‬ ‫َّللا‬ ‫أ ْحسن ا ْلخ ل ين‬

“Verily We created man from a product of wet earth; then placed him as a drop (of seed) in a safe lodging; then We fashioned the drop into a clot, then We fashioned the clot into a little lump, then We fashioned the little lump into bones, then clothed the bones with flesh, and then produced it another creation. So blessed be Allah, the Best of Creators!” [23:12-14] ْ ‫خ ك ِّمن ترا ث ه من ُّن ْط ث ه منْ ع ث ه ي ْخرجك‬ ‫لت ْب غ ا أش هدك ْ ث ه لتك ن ا شي خ منك همن يت هف من‬ ‫ق ْبل لت ْب غ ا أجَل ُّمس ًّم لع هك ْ ت ْع ن‬

‫ه الهذ‬ ‫ط ْ َل ث ه‬

“It is He Who has created you from dust then from a sperm-drop, then from a leech-like clot; then does he get you out (into the light) as a child: then lets you (grow and) reach your age of full strength; then lets you become old,- though of you there are some who die before;- and lets you reach a term appointed; in order

that you may learn wisdom.” [40:67] According to Tafsir Ibn Kathir, this reference to man’s creation from “ ‫”ترا‬, or dust, implies the origin of mankind viz. the creation of the first human being, Prophet Adam [ ‫]ع يه السَل‬, from dust: “[“And Allah did create you from dust, then from Nutfah”], means, He initiated the creation of your father Adam from dust, then He created his offspring from semen of worthless water.” Modern science has, by now, explained the entire process of the creation of a human being, down to those minute, microscopic intricacies that were invisible to the human eye centuries ago. Many times in the Quran, Allah draws our attention to the way we were created. It is interesting to remember though, that at the time when these verses were revealed, human beings had limited knowledge about the process of human birth, unlike now.

Why would Allah then invite us to ponder on the origin of our creation? The contexts in which He mentions our origins lead to some interesting observations. But first, lets analyze the word most oft-repeated in the Quran when Allah mentions man’s creation: The “nutfah” The root of this word is: ‫ – نطف ينطف‬natafa yantifu: “To flow gently, trickle, ooze, drop.” The dictionary meaning of the word “nutfah” is – “Drop of fluid; semen“. ‫ قل ه ا ْ كثر‬،‫ الم ء الص في‬: ‫“ – النط‬It is clear liquid, a little or a lot. From this it is used for ‫ م ء الرجل‬maa-ur rajul: The water (semen) of a man.” ‫ لي نط ف‬is when it rains all night long. Man is a disputer Allah says in the Quran: ‫فإذا ه خصي ُّمبين‬

‫اْلنس ن من ُّن ْط‬

‫خ‬

“He (Allah) has created man from a sperm-drop; and behold this same (man) becomes an open disputer!” [16:4] ‫فإذا ه خصي ُّمبين‬

‫أ ل ْ ير ْاْلنس ن أ هن خ ْ ن ه من ُّن ْط‬

“Does not man see that it is We Who created him from a sperm-drop? Yet behold! He (stands forth) as an open disputer!” [36:77] The word ‫ خصي‬is derived from ‫ خص‬which means “he contended with in an altercation“, and the word ‫الخص‬ means “the statements that a listener is made to hear, which may cause him to desist or refrain from his assertion, plea or claim“. In another place in the Quran, Allah says about man: “ ‫“ – ” ه أل ُّد ا ْلخص‬And he is the most rigid of opponents” [2:204], where this word ‫ الخص‬is used

again to describe man. Question is, why does Allah mention the origin of man (the nutfah) along with the fact that man is an open disputer? Man disputes about Allah; about religion; about being right. Sometimes, man goes on arguing even if he possesses little knowledge of what he is arguing about, just to prove himself to be right, or to be better, than his “opponent”. This type of arguing and disputing is, usually, less about establishing the haqq and abolishing falsehood, and more about one-upping the adversary to come out looking better, or on the right path, as the definition of the word ‫ الخص‬implies; also, to attempt to make the adversary clam up and desist from putting forth their claims or opinions. Allah mentions how man was created from nothing but a microscopic sperm, which is not even visible, and yet he

grows into a creature who argues about the very being that created Him from this miniscule little drop of fluid – he disputes about Allah, His attributes, or any other aspect of Islam, to avoid submitting to Him – the Creator who not just created him, but also gave him provision since day one to make him grow, acquire a physical form, then be blessed with sight, hearing, and intellect: ‫أ ْمش ج هن ْبت يه فجع ْن ه سميع‬ ‫بصيرا‬

‫إ هن خ ْ ن ْاْلنس ن من ُّن ْط‬

“Verily We created Man from a drop of mingled sperm, in order to try him. So We gave him Hearing and Sight.” [76:2] Man falls into disbelief and ingratitude Another context in which Allah mentions the origin of man as being from the nutfah, is the fact that man falls into kufr, i.e. when he grows up, he starts to deny Allah’s

blessings, or to belie His Prophets and their monotheistic message, or reject Allah’s commands, refusing obstinately to obey them. Kufr also constitutes the denial of the establishment of the Hour ( ‫)الس ع‬. In Surah Al-Kahf, a man who owned 2 luscious gardens was conversing with his pious companion and bragging about possessing more wealth and a larger family than him. He went on to say that “I do not think that this (wealth) will perish – ever. And I do not think the Hour will occur. And even if I should be brought back to my Lord, I will surely find better than this as a return.” [18:34-36] His pious companion, who was a believer, responds by making him recall how Allah created him, saying: ‫ق ل له ص حبه ه يح ره أك ْر ب لهذ خ من ترا ث ه‬ ‫من ُّن ْط ث ه س ه ا رجَل‬

“His companion said to him, in the course of the argument with him: “Do you deny Him Who created you out of dust, then out of a sperm-drop, then fashioned you into a man?”” [18:37] In this context, Allah warns us through these verses of the Quran, not to fall into the same trap – that if we have been blessed with abundant wealth and a large family, we should not be fooled by this superfluous worldly benefits into denying the absolute reality of the imminence of the Hour ( ‫)الس ع‬. Heedlessness about the Akhirah makes one slowly slip down the slope of adherence to the commands of Deen, and disbelief starts to creep into our hearts like rust, chipping away our faith in Allah and in the Akhirah. One of the ways suggested, in the above verse of the Quran, to keep ourselves humble before Allah and firmly grounded in the correct belief (aqeedah), is to remember our origin – our creation. How, once, we were

nothing more than a tiny embryo, a single ovum fertilized by a single sperm ( ‫)من ُّن ْط‬, from which Allah fashioned us into a complete, symmetrical, fair-looking human being ( ‫ )س ه ا‬in our mothers’ wombs, having a body that contains innumerable anatomical systems (respiratory, nervous, digestive, cardio-, reproductive etc.) functioning together in perfect unison: ‫خ ه ف هدره‬

‫من ُّن ْط‬

“From a sperm-drop He had created him, and then moulds him in due proportions;” [80:19] ‫إذا ت ْمن‬

‫ه‬ ‫الز ْ ج ْين ال هذكر ْاْلنث – من ُّن ْط‬

‫أ هنه خ‬

“That He did create in pairs,- male and female, from a seed when lodged (in its place);” [53:45-46]

The “miracle” of our creation enables us to recognize and remain in total awe of Allah’s limitless powers. That in turn allows us to submit to Him and to His message conveyed to us through His Prophets. For surely, the Magnificent Creator who fashioned a complete living being out of a mere sperm drop, can resurrect that same human being hundreds of years after his death; after his total decomposition into nothingness. Because for the One for whom the first, original creation was so easy, the resurrection will be even easier: ْ ‫كم ب‬ ‫دأن أ ه ل خ ْ ُّنعيده ْعدا ع ْين إ هن ك هن ف ع ين‬ “…Even as We produced the first creation, so shall We produce a new one; a promise We have undertaken. Truly shall We fulfil it.” [21:104]

The “despicable” water Another context, in which Allah mentions the creation of man, is how he originates from“lowly” water viz. human semen. Whilst the first human being was created and fashioned from dust, his progeny continued on earth via this water: ‫أل ْ ن ْخ ُّك ِّمن هم ء هم ين‬ “Have We not created you from a fluid (held) despicable?” [77:20] The place in the human anatomy from where this “despicable” water originates is also mentioned by Allah: ‫من هم ء داف – ي ْخرج من‬ ‫ص ْ ال هترائ‬ ُّ ‫ب ْين ال‬

‫–خ‬

‫ف ْينظر ْاْلنس ن م ه خ‬

“Now let man but think from what he is created. He is created from a drop emitted. Proceeding from between the backbone and the ribs.” [86:5-7] Allah then goes on to exhort how, if He could create a human progeny from such a water that gushes forth from man’s own body, He is utterly and completely able to recreate man in the Akhirah, after his death and decomposition in this world/dunya: ‫ر ْجعه ل در‬

‫إ هنه ع‬

“Surely He (Allah) is able to bring him back (to life)!” [86:8] Allah mentions 3 other words in another place in the Quran where He mentions the “despicable” water – “‫”نسل‬,”‫ ”طين‬and “ ‫”سَلل‬: ‫الهذ أ ْحسن كل ه ش ْيء خ ه بدأ خ ْ ْاْلنس ن من طين – ث ه‬

‫جعل ن ْس ه من سَلل ِّمن هم ء هم ين‬ “Who made all things good which He created, and He began the creation of man from clay; And made his progeny from a quintessence of the nature of a fluid despised.” [32:7-8] The point that comes across is how Allah brought every one of us into this world from a mere drop of fluid – a fluid that is considered dirty, lowly and worthy of being washed off and discarded; which emanates from a part of the body that is also kept hidden and considered shameful; a part that excretes the filth (urine) from our bodies. Furthermore, when a human baby comes into this world, it again does so through the same anatomical part of his mother’s body. Allah reminds man again and again of his lowly and inferior origins, of his first and subsequent creation, in

order to cull his arrogance and reinforce his belief in Allahâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s absolute power of creation and resurrection. Because as long as we keep reminding ourselves of how we were created, how we were born, and how we came into existence from nothing, to ultimately grow bigger and take the shape of a functioning human being from the merger of two tiny cells, we will perhaps be able to stop doubting how Allah will put us back together in the Akhirah when the Hour is established. http://muslimmatters.org/2012/02/03/the-creation-of-man-as-mentione d-in-the-quran/

CREATION OF MAN

In the 19th century Charles Darwin put forward a theory that man came into being through a long process of evolution and not all of a sudden in one stroke as stated in the Bible. He concluded that the evolutionary process which produced man in his present form probably took millions of years. The second main point in Darwin's theory is that man evolved from lower forms of animal life. In the beginning there existed only small types of animals which during the course of time were followed by larger and larger ones. Eventually one of these kinds of animals developed into man as we know him but it has now become extinct although it can be maintained that a better form of that animal, the missing linkage is represented by the monkey. This theory is based on the fact that ancient human skeletons which have been unearthed in various places show remarkable differences from one age to another in the size or

structure of the bones or skull. This is taken to indicate that there has been a slow development and progress of the species from era to era. It is also argued that the embryo in the womb, at different stages of its development, successively resembles a number of lower animals such as a rabbit, fish or something else. This is taken to furnish ground for the conclusion that the stages which the embryo passes through represent, so to say, the stages which man has passed through from a lower animal to that of a human being. A further argument advanced in support of the theory of evolution is that there are a number of similarities which seem to indicate that man and these lower animals are one and the same thing and that the structure of the human body is not an exclusive feature of the human species as it has evolved from the bodies and structures ures such as those shared by the apes. The second point in Darwin's theory was that man and apes developed from a common link which is now extinct.

The basis of the argument is that certain kinds of monkeys have a striking resemblance to man. Darwin surmised that in this chain one link is missing as indicated by the gulf which should not have otherwise existed between man and the apes on one side, and the apes and animals on the other. Since there is a remarkable degree of similarity between man and the apes, and since, on the other hand, a gulf seems to separate the apes from other animals, it appears that some link has disappeared which bridged this gulf---the link from which man and the apes have evolved during the process of time. Haeckel, after Darwin, was of the opinion that the missing link was an animal which he called Lipotylu which has become extinct leaving no trace behind it. If this animal, or its remains, could be found then the missing link which breaks the chain of continuity would come to hand and leave no vagueness or uncertainty about the theory of evolution. Thinkers of this kind believe that the

gorilla and chimpanzee stand in the line of human ancestry. Darwin's theory was subjected to criticism by many thinkers who pointed out that the wide gulf separating man from the apes precluded a common ancestry for both. In these differences, however, Huxley found further support for the theory of evolution. He pointed out that the difference found between different kinds of monkeys was greater than the one found between man and the apes. In spite of the wide differences between varieties of monkeys, all were taken and accepted as monkeys. Huxley argued that when differences between different species of monkeys were so wide then why could not man have also traveled a long way from the ape during the course of time? He concluded, therefore, that this gulf did not stand against evolution but on the other hand tended to support it. More recent research which is supported by Professor Jones and Professor Osborne, tends to conclude that

although man has developed through an evolutionary process he branched off from other animals at a much earlier period; and during that time he developed on independent exclusive lines as compared with other animals. In other words, man did not branch off from some kind of ape, as Darwin believed, but a long time before that during the development of animal life. Archaeologists and anthropologists have found that human civilization has passed through very distinct stages. In the Stone Age man took his first step towards culture and civilization. Since that time he had evolved into a state of only the most rudimentary human existence and, in contrast with other forms of animal life, he did not have the advantage of claws and fangs, he used stones as weapons for offense and defense. Then came the Bronze Age when man made use of this metal. This was followed by the iron age. As a result of excavations archaeologists are agreed that all the stages of his life man has been a bearer of culture of one kind or another.

QURAN ON THE CREATION OF MAN

First I would like to refer to the following passage from the Holy Quran: What is the matter with you that you hope not for greatness and wisdom from Allah? And He has created you in different forms and different conditions. See you not how Allah has created seven heavens in perfect harmony, and has placed the moon, therein a light and made the sun a lamp? And Allah has caused you to grow out of the earth as a good growth. Then will He cause you to return, thereto, and He will bring you forth a new bringing forth. (71:14-19) A close paraphrase of this passage would be: O you human beings! What is the matter with you that you fail to understand that Allah does not do anything unless there is wisdom and purpose underlying it? You yourselves are not ready to accept the assumption that

you do things with no aim or purpose in view. Why do you therefore assume that Allah, the Most Wise and All Knowing does things without purpose? Why do you jump to the thoughtless conclusion that He created man with no purpose in view? Why do you fail to grasp the evident truth that your creation has not been the result of a sudden meaningless impulse? It was the result of wise planning and deliberate execution in a succession of stages from one point to another. Do you not see that Allah has created the seven heavens in perfect harmony with each other and similarly the sun and the moon? Also that the earth was one of the stages through which you passed in a process of slow growth to the point of perfection? This is the description of the origin and emergence of man given in the Quran. The law of evolution working in the universe which Europe claims to have discovered was clearly defined in the Holy Quran more than fourteen hundred years ago that man was not created in an

instant in the form in which he is today. God did not make a model of clay and breathed life into it to become the first man. No! Man has reached his present stage after passing through many intermediary stages. Man originated from and on this earth---Allah caused you to grow out of the earth as a good growth.

It is particularly distressing to note, however, that the present day popular Muslim belief has lost sight of the two crucial points that man's creation and emergence did not take place in an instant. He was created from the earth and on the earth. Popular Muslim belief has come to have it that man was created in paradise from where he was put down on earth. It is also believed by a large section of Muslims that God has a bag of souls which, from time to time, He releases singly to become human beings. In view of the prevalence of such foolish fancies that the popular Muslim mind, through some irony, is peculiarly bent upon holding views contrary to the clear

teachings of the Holy Quran. The Quran tells us that the creation of man took place in gradual stages, the underlying wisdom being that through this slow development defects should be eliminated from his constitution and nature. The gross ignorance of the views held by some Muslim religious leaders may be gaged from the following. Maulvi Syed Sarwar Shah, a prominent member of the Ahmadiyya Movement and companion of the Promised Messiah, used to relate that one of his teachers once said that the explanation for one man being handsome and another ugly, and yet another middling, is that at the time God decided to make man He awarded a contract to the angels for carrying out the job fixing a daily quota which had to be fulfilled. The angels started kneading the clay well and shaping from it nice and handsome figures. They worked steadily, without hurry, until noon giving careful attention to each piece. After a while they found that they were lagging behind the quota fixed and began to work

only with the idea of completing it. They ceased paying careful artistic attention to their work with the result that the beings formed during the first spell of their work were very attractive while those formed in the early part of the afternoon were middling. As the afternoon wore on the angels realized with dismay that they were still lagging far behind the quota for the day so they threw all care to the wind. They hurriedly shaped a figure from the clay with a finger-poke to make the mouth and two pokes to make the eyes. No wonder these ungainly dented figures could not be compared with those made during the first spell of work. This example shows how, through ignorance, unwarranted beliefs among Muslims, Christians, Jews and others have turned beautiful truths into distressing caricatures and spurious myths.

FIRST STAGE

The next point revealed by the Quran in connection with the creation of man is that the first stage was a condition of non-existence. A controversial subject. The view of the Arya Samajists is that matter from which the universe has been shaped, is eternal. God did no more than to bring the soul to matter together into a close relationship and so man was created. This belief is repudiated by the Quran which teaches that matter is not eternal but it is a creation of God and that man was created. God says in the Holy Quran: Does not man remember that We created him before, when he was naught? (19:68) Human birth now takes place from the seed of the male. This verse refers to the first original creation of the species, or the first man. it should be carefully noted that the Quran does not say that existence was created

from non-existence. It says that prior to the stage when matter and other things came into being, there was a stage when nothing existed. We say that a chair can be made from a piece of wood; or we say that a chain can be made from a piece of iron. Here we have matter in one form which can be utilized to make another article. Atheists often raise the objection that it is not possible to shape out anything from nothing. This, however, is not what is meant by the Quran. What is meant is that prior to the creation of the universe there was a stage when nothing existed. Then came creation and the creation of man. God has not given knowledge to man as to how this came about, possibly because it is beyond the comprehension of man to grasp. If man could visualize how creation took place then he would be in a position to create man himself.

SECOND STAGE

It appears from the Holy Quran that the second stage in the creation of man was a state of existence when the human body was there but the brain or its active faculties which distinguish a human being from the lower animals were not operative and active as they came to be later. There was, so to say, a human body which was not yet a human being or, in other words, there was the physical human body minus the evolved and perfected human brain or mind. We are not in a position to say whether in this state he was a kind of rock formation or a kind of plant. We can say, however, that he was not yet an animal. The Quran says: There has certainly come upon man a period of time when he was not a thing spoken of. In other words, there has been a stage in the history of man when it was not madhkur, i.e., it was not aware of itself, lacked consciousness at the time and was not capable of recognition. He was a form of being

without consciousness and intelligence, not aware of himself or of other things.

THIRD STAGE

The third stage in the evolution of man was reached when he attained to a state of being where the production of the species began to take place through the seed of the male planted in the body of the female through sexual intercourse. From this point onwards occurs the almost infinite variety of individual human temperaments. Among animals there are varieties not characterized by sex. God says in the Quran that a stage came in the course of the evolution of man when he developed into an animal characterized by sex, divided into males and females, when his procreation began to take place through the seed of the male which is a characteristic of the higher forms of animal life. His

procreation began to occur from a nutratin amshajin, from the male sperm drop embracing a combination of a number of elements. God says in the Holy Quran: Indeed: We have created man from a mingled sperm-drop, that We might try him, so We made him hearing, seeing. From this stage his procreation began to be compounded from many elements because his role in the universe was to be many sided which necessitated that he should possess a wide range of qualities.

FOURTH STAGE

The fourth stage came when the human brain reached perfection and characterized by a highly developed form of awareness and intelligence. From having the capacity of hearing and seeing which are qualities also to be found in the lower animals, he became capable of exercising his intelligence to a point where, through a sustained

spirit of inquiry and search, inference and invention came within the range of his faculties. Here he rose one very distinct step higher than the other forms of animal life, an animal capable of sustained thought and speech. These links in the chain of the evolution of man are the initial links of the various stages, The intervening periods between the emergence of these links have not been clearly brought out by the Quran for it is not a scientific treatise on the subject. The Quran refers to these matters which were necessary for bringing out a point of moral spiritual truth, leaving the filling in of the gaps to the human mind. We glean from other passages in the Quran that there are also other links in the chain of human evolution: And Allah created you from dust, then from a sperm-drop, and then he made you pairs. Elsewhere the Quran says: 'And Allah caused you to grow from the earth, a good growth ', while here it is said:

'Allah created you from dust, then from a sperm-drop'. The remaining links have been omitted, till He made you pairs. i.e., a being capable of living in social units the point from which emerges what we call civilization and culture, with a system and order of life. The meaning of Azwaj used in the Arabic text of the verse which I have just quoted does not mean division into male and female because that point has already been covered in the mention of creation by a sperm-drop. Then he made you pairs, coming after sperm-drop has to be interpreted to mean something beyond the emergence of sex. In Arabic the word zauj also means kind, variety or complimentary groups; and this is the meaning implied here. When the human mind fully developed and a variety of temperaments emerged, individuals began to evince leanings towards or away from certain other individuals. This gave rise to the emergence of social units on this or that basis such as family groups or combination of certain individuals well disposed towards each other.

The evolution of man may be summed up by saying that at first man was only a clod of earth or some kind of rock formation. After some intermediary stages which the Quran has not mentioned, man reached a stage where he became a kind of animal growth divided into male and female and procreating through sexual intercourse. Again the Quran leaves out some intermediary stages until man emerges as a social being divided into several groups as a result of which there sprung up a variety of mental, physical or economic affiliations. This is the point where the story of human civilization begins. Among the stages of the evolution of man is when water mingled with the particular dust, clod of earth or rocky substance. This mingling of the dry clod with water which resulted in a kind of life being born in it is mentioned in the Quran: And We made from water every living thing... (21:31)

He Who has made perfect everything He has created. and He began the creation of man from clay. (32:8) The word in the Arabic text for clay is teen which means earth mixed with a quantity of water which becomes adhesive. According to the Quran, therefore, human life originated in a substance which was a mixture of earth and water which, in the course of time, developed into man. In the fore-going verses we are told that an early initial stage in the evolution of man was when he was given a particular form from wet earth. That was followed by a stage when man began to be procreated through function of the sex organs of the male and female of his species. In the words of the Holy Quran: Then He made His progeny from an extract of an insignificant fluid. (32:9) Did We not create you from an insignificant fluid, and we placed it in a safe place? (77:22) These verses indicate very clearly that man's origin in

dry earth or rock was one stage from which step by step he passed through a stage when it was mixed with water causing the development of a rudimentary form of life which later on began to procreate through the functioning of the sex organs which had developed in the male and female. All these stages represent different periods of time the duration of which can at best be only vaguely conjectured or imagined. The Holy Quran mentions a general principle with regard to the creation of man: And that with thy Lord is the final judgment; and that it is He Who makes people laugh and makes them weep; and it is he Who causes death and gives life; and that He creates the pairs, male and female, from a sperm-drop when it is emitted; and that it is for Him to bring forth the second creation. (53:43-48)

CONCLUSIONS

From these verses of the Quran which I have quoted emerge the following conclusions:

( 1 ) The material from which man has been created is not eternal. It was created by God. (2) Man's creation involved an evolutionary process extending over a long period of time. He was not created in a moment. (3) Man was created from an origin of his own species. It is not correct that he evolved from a species of monkeys or apes which is the theory advanced by Darwin. (4) One of the evolutionary stages through which he passed was something akin to stone or rock. (5) He next passed through a stage of animal life but

intelligence had not yet developed in him although he moved about, ate and drank like other animals. (6) He became an intelligent being able to speak and communicate. (7) In his final stage he devised a system of life and started on the road to civilization and culture. Instead of each individual living for himself, as is the case with other and lower animals, he began to work in co-operation with others of his species evolving a system and law of life.

Courtesy of Mr. Zia Shah, zshah@ix.netcom.com. June 6, 1995

THE ORIGIN OF LIFE

The Quran provides a clear cut answer to the question: At what point did life begin? In this section, I shall set forth the verses of the Quran in which it is stated that the origins of life are aquatic. The first verse also refers to the formation of the universe: Do not the Unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together, then We clove them asunder and We got every living thing out of water. [21:30] The notion of 'getting something out of something else' does not give rise to any doubts. The phrase can equally mean that every living thing was made of water (as its essential component) or that every living thing originated in water. Life is in fact of aquatic origin and water is the living component of all living cells. Without water, life is not possible. When the possibility of life on another planet is discussed, the first question is:

Is there a sufficient quantity of water to support life? Modern data leads us to think that the oldest living beings probably belonged from the vegetable kingdom: Algae have been found that date from the pre-Cambrian period, the time of the oldest known lands. Organisms belonging to the animal kingdom probably appeared slightly later: They too came from the sea. The words translated here as 'water' is in fact 'ma', which means both water in the sky and water in the sea, or any kind of liquid. In the first meaning, water is the element necessary to all vegetable life: [God is the One Who] sent water down from the sky and thereby We brought forth pairs of plants each separate from the other. [20:53] This is the first reference to a 'pair' of vegetables; we shall cause to return to this notion later. In the second meaning, which refers to any kind of liquid, the words is used in its indeterminate form to designate the

substance at the basis of the formation of all animal life. God created every animal from water. [24:45] Thus the statement in the Quran on the origins of life, whether referring to life in general, the element that gives to birth to the plants in the soil, or the seed of animals, are all strictly in accordance with modern scientific data. None of the myths on the origins of life that abounded at the time the Quran was communicated to man are mentioned in the text. Reference: What is the Origin of man?; The Answers of Science and the Holy Scriptures, By Dr. Maurice Bucaille, Translated from the French by Alastair D. Pannell and the Author, Second Edition, Revised. Publisher: SEGHERS, 6 Place Saint-Sulpice, 75006 PARIS. Courtesy of Mr. Ali Abbas. August 1, 1995 http://www.ldolphin.org/islamcreat.html

Creation of the Universe as Described in the Qur'an

The descriptions of creation in the Qur'an are not intended as dry historical accounts but rather to engage the reader in contemplating the lessons to be learned from it. The act of creation, therefore, is frequently described as a way of drawing the reader into thinking about the order in all things and the All-Knowing Creator Who is behind it all. For example: "Verily in the heavens and the earth are signs for those who believe. And in the creation of yourselves, and the fact that animals are scattered (through the earth), are signs for those of assured faith. And in the alternation of night and day, and that fact that Allah sends down sustenance from the sky, and revives therewith the earth after its death, and in the change of the winds, are signs for those who are wise" (45:3-5).

BIG BANG? When describing the creation of the "heavens and the earth," the Quran does not discount the theory of a "Big Bang" explosion at the start of it all. In fact, the Quran says that ". . . the heavens and the earth were joined together as one unit, before We clove them asunder" (21:30). Following this big explosion, Allah ". . . turned to the sky, and it had been (as) smoke. He said to it and to the earth: 'Come together, willingly or unwillingly.' They said: 'We come (together) in willing obedience'" (41:11). Thus the elements and the matter destined to become the planets and stars began to cool, come together, and form into shape, following the natural laws that Allah established in the universe.

The Qur'an further states that Allah created the sun, the moon, and the planets, each with their own individual courses or orbits. "It is He Who created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon; all (the celestial bodies) swim along, each in its rounded course" (21:33).

EXPANSION OF UNIVERSE

Neither does the Qur'an rule out the possibiity that the universe is continuing to expand. "The heavens, We have built them with power. And verily, We are expanding it" (51:47). There has been some historical debate among Muslim scholars about the precise meaning of this verse, since knowledge of the universe's expansion was only recently

discovered.

SIX DAYS FOR CREATION?

The Qur'an states that "Allah created the heavens and the earth, and all that is between them, in six days" (7:54). While on the surface this might seem similar to the account related in the Bible, there are some important distinctions. The verses that mention "six days" use the Arabic word yawm (day). This word appears several other times in the Qur'an, each denoting a different measurement of time. In one case, the measure of a day is equated with 50,000 years (70:4), whereas another verse states that "a day in the sight of your Lord is like 1,000 years of your reckoning" (22:47). The word yawm is thus understood, within the Qur'an, to

be a long period of time--an era or eon. Therefore, Muslims interpret the description of a "six day" creation as six distinct periods or eons. The length of these periods is not precisely defined, nor are the specific developments that took place during each period. After completing the Creation, the Qur'an describes how Allah "settled Himself upon the Throne" (57:4) to oversee His work. A distinct point is made that counters the Biblical idea of a day of rest: "We created the heavens and the earth and all that is between them in six days, nor did any sense of weariness touch Us" (50:38). Allah is never "done" with His work, because the process of creation is ongoing. Each new child who is born, every seed that sprouts into a sapling, every new species that appears on earth, is part of the ongoing process of Allah's creation. "He it is Who created the heavens and the earth in six

days, then established Himself on the Throne. He knows what enters within the heart of the earth, and what comes forth out of it, what comes down from heaven, and what mounts up to it. And He is with you wherever you may be. And Allah sees well all that you do" (57:4). The Quranic account of creation is in line with modern scientific thought about the development of the universe and life on earth. Muslims acknowledge that life developed over a long period of time, but see Allah's power behind it all. Descriptions of creation in the Quran are set in context to remind the readers of Allah's majesty and wisdom. "What is the matter with you, that you are not conscious of Allah's majesty, seeing that it is He Who has created you in diverse stages? See you not how Allah has created the seven heavens one above another, and made the moon a light in their midst, and made the sun as a (glorious) lamp? And Allah

has produced you from the earth, growing (gradually)" (71:13-17).

LIFE CAME FROM WATER

The Quran describes that Allah "made from water every living thing" (21:30). Another verse describes how "Allah has created every animal from water. Of them are some that creep on their bellies, some that walk on two legs, and some that walk on four. Allah creates what He wills, for truly Allah has power over all things" (24:45). These verses support the scientific theory that life began in the Earth's oceans.

CREATION OF ADAM & EVE While Islam recognizes the general idea of the development of life in stages, over a period of time,

human beings are considered as a special act of creation. Islam teaches that human beings are a unique life form that was created by Allah in a special way, with unique gifts and abilities unlike any other: a soul and conscience, knowledge, and free will. In short, Muslims do not believe that human beings randomly evolved from apes. The life of human beings began with the creation of two people, a male and a female named Adam and Hawwa (Eve). https://www.thoughtco.com/creation-of-the-universe-2004201

Islamic views on evolution

Islamic views on evolution are diverse, ranging from theistic evolution to Old Earth creationism.[1] Most Muslims around the world believe "humans and other living things have evolved over time," yet some others believe they have "always existed in present form."[2] Muslim thinkers have proposed and accepted elements of the theory of evolution, some holding the belief of the supremacy of God in the process. One modern scholar, Usaama al-Azami, suggested that both narratives of creation and of evolution, as understood by modern science, may be believed by modern Muslims as addressing two different kinds of truth, the revealed and the empirical.[3] Unlike the Bible, the story of creation in the Qur'an is not told in one chapter, but rather can be pieced together from verses all over the book.[4]

Creation of the universe According to Professor Christine Huda Dodge, the first chronological mention of creation in the Qur'an is in Sūrat al-Anbiyā , which hints that the universe was "joined together as one unit, before We clove them asunder." After this, Allah demanded the planets and stars to form and reshape themselves according to the destinies that were set up for each body, "He Who created... the sun and the moon; all (the celestial bodies) swim along, each in its rounded course."[5] Further, some scholars such as Faheem Ashraf of the Islamic Research Foundation International, Inc. and Sheikh Omar Suleiman of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research argue that the scientific theory of an expanding universe is described in Sūrat adh-Dhāriyāt:[6][7][8] And the heaven We constructed with strength, and indeed, We are [its] expander.

— Quran 51:47 Sūrat al-A rāf states that "heavens and the earth" was created in the equivalent of six yawm.[5] Some interpret the Arabic word yawm to mean "day" akin to the story of creation in the Book of Genesis, which states the creation of the universe took seven days.[8] However other scholars interpret the term yawm to mean an "eon" or unit of time much longer than a day, seeing as the term appears elsewhere in the Qur'an such as in Sūrat al-Ma ārij where it denotes "50,000 years" and Sūrat al- ajj where it denotes "1,000 years."[5] After completing the Creation, Allah "settled Himself upon the Throne" to admire his work. The concept of a "day of rest" does not appear in the Qur'an.[6][8] The only explicit reference to the creation of life in the Qur'an appears in the aforementioned Sūrat al-Anbiyā , which Allah proclaims "We made out of water every living thing." According to Muhammad Asad, "only water has the peculiar properties necessary for the

emergence and development of life."[9] Sunni theologian Said NursĂŽ stated the Earth was already inhabited by intelligent species before humankind. He considered, supported by the hadiths from Ibn Abbas and Tabari, the Jinn lived here before but were almost wiped out by fire.[10] Some interpreters of the Quran believed that even before Jinn, other creatures like Hinn lived on the earth.[11] The characters of Ă&#x201A;dam and awwÄ h (Eve) appear in the Qur'an as the first man and woman.[5] However, no explicit mention is made of how the two people developed.[12] Therefore, it is open to speculation of whether Adam and Hawwa evolved naturally from a common ancestor as Islamic scholar Mohamed Ghlian asserts[13] or were supernaturally created through a miracle by Allah as Islamic scholar Yasir Qadhi asserts.[14] In Kitab al-Hayawan (Book of the Animals), the 9th

century scholar al-Jā iẓ references several parts of modern-day evolutionary theory such as animal embryology, adaptation, and animal psychology. One notable observation al-Jā iẓ makes is that stronger rats were able to compete better for resources than small birds, a reference to the modern day theory of the "struggle for existence."[15] In the same century, Persian scholar Ibn Miskawahy wrote about the evolution of man in his books, Tahdhīb and Fawz al-aṣghar.[16] The 14th century influential historiographer and historian Ibn Khaldun wrote the Muqaddimah or Prolegomena ("Introduction") on what he referred to as the "gradual process of creation." He stated that the Earth began with abiotic components such as "minerals." Slowly, primitive stages of plants such as "herbs and seedless plants" developed and eventually "palms and vines." Khaldun connects the later stages of plant development to the first stages of animal development. Finally, he claims that the greater thought capabilities of human beings was

"reached from the world of the monkeys."[17] In his 1874 book titled History of the Conflict between Religion and Science, John William Draper, a scientist and contemporary of Charles Darwin, criticized the Catholic Church for its disapproval of "the Mohammedan theory of the evolution of man from lower forms, or his gradual development to his present condition in the long lapse of time."[18] In the 19th century, a scholar of Islamic revival, Jamal-al-Din al-AfghÄ nÄŤ agreed with Darwin that life will compete with other life in order to succeed. He also believed that there was competition in the realm of ideas similar to that of nature. However, he believed explicitly that life was created by God;[19] Darwin did not discuss the origin of life, saying only "Probably all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some primordial form, into which life was first breathed".[20] A contemporary of Al-Afghani, Shia scholar Hussein al-Jisr, declared that there is no

contradiction between evolution and the Islamic scriptures. He stated that "there is no evidence in the Quran to suggest whether all species, each of which exists by the grace of God, were created all at once or gradually," and referred to the aforementioned story of creation in SĹŤrat al-AnbiyÄ .[21][22] In Turkey, important scholars strove to accommodate the theory of evolution in Islamic scripture during the first decades of the Turkish Republic; their approach to the theory defended Islamic belief in the face of scientific theories of their times.[23] The Saudi Arabian government, on the other hand, began funding and promoting denial of evolution in the 1970s in accordance to its Salafi-Wahhabi interpretation of Islam.[24] This stance garnered criticism from the governments and academics of mainline Muslim countries such as Turkey[25] Pakistan,[26] Lebanon,[27] and Iran,[24] where evolution is taught and promoted. Khalid Anees, of the Islamic Society of Britain, discussed

the relationship between Islam and evolution in 2004:[28] "Islam also has its own school of Evolutionary creationism/Theistic evolutionism, which holds that mainstream scientific analysis of the origin of the universe is supported by the Quran. Many Muslims believe in evolutionary creationism, especially among Sunni and Shia Muslims and the Liberal movements within Islam. Among scholars of Islam İbrahim Hakkı of Erzurum who lived in Erzurum then Ottoman Empire now Republic of Turkey in the 18th century is famous for stating that 'between plants and animals there is sponge, and, between animals and humans there is monkey'."[29] Contemporary Islamic scholars Ghulam Ahmed Pervez,[30] Edip Yüksel,[31][32] and T.O. Shanavas in his book, Islamic Theory of Evolution: the Missing Link between Darwin and the Origin of Species[33] say that there is no contradiction between the scientific theory of evolution and Quran's numerous references to the

emergence of life in the universe. While Muslims scholars reject Young Earth creationism,[34] and claim the story of creation in the Book of Genesis was corrupted,[35] a movement has begun to emerge recently in some Muslim countries promoting themes that have been characteristic of Christian creationists. This stance has received criticism, due to claims that the Quran and Bible are incompatible.[36][37][38] Adnan Oktar,[39] also known by his pen-name Harun Yahya, is a Muslim advocate against the theory of evolution. He is considered a charlatan by many Muslim scholars, and his representative at a conference on Islam and evolution in January 2013 was ridiculed during and after the conference.[3][40] Most of Yahya's information is taken from the Institute for Creation Research and the Intelligent Design movement in the United States.[41] Oktar largely uses the Internet to promote his ideas.[42] His BAV (Bilim Araştırma Vakfı/ Science Research

Foundation) organizes conferences with leading American creationists. According to the Guardian newspaper, some British Muslim students have distributed leaflets on campus, advocating against Darwin's theory of evolution.[36] At a conference in the UK in January 2004, entitled Creationism: Science and Faith in Schools, "Dr Khalid Anees, of the Islamic Society of Britain stated that 'Muslims interpret the world through both the Koran and what is tangible and seen. There is no contradiction between what is revealed in the Koran and natural selection and survival of the fittest'."[28] Maurice Bucaille, famous in the Muslim world for his commentary on the Quran and science, attempted to reconcile evolution with the Quran by accepting animal evolution up to early hominid species, and then positing a separate hominid evolution leading to modern humans. However, these ideas differ from the theory of evolution as accepted by biologists.[41]

Contemporary Islamic scholar Yasir Qadhi believes that the idea that humans evolved is against the Quran, but says that Allah may have placed humanity perfectly into an evolutionary pattern to give the appearance of human evolution.[40] Usaama al-Azami later argued that scriptural narratives of creation, and evolution as understood by modern science, may be believed by modern Muslims as addressing two different kinds of truth, the revealed and the empirical.[3] The late Ottoman intellectual Ismail FennĂŽ, while personally rejecting Darwinism, insisted that it should be taught in schools as even false theories contributed to the improvement of science. He held that interpretations of the Quran might require amendment should Darwinism eventually be shown to be true.[43] A research paper published in 2016 by the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research wrote that there is not a consensus among scholars on how to respond to the theory of evolution, and it is not clear whether the

scholars are even qualified to give a response.[44] As per a 2008 report, Evolutionary biology was included in the high-school curricula of most Muslim countries. Science foundations of 14 Muslim countries, including Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Indonesia, and Egypt, recently signed a statement by the Interacademy Panel (IAP, a global network of science academies), in support of the teaching of evolution, including human evolution.[41] In 2014, when the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant captured the Iraqi city of Mosul, the group issued a new set of rules for the schools there, which included a ban on the teaching of evolution.[45] A 2009 survey conducted by the McGill researchers and their international collaborators found that 85% of Indonesian high school students and 86% of Pakistani high school students agreed with the statement, "Millions of fossils show that life has existed for billions of years and changed over time."[1]

According to a more recent Pew study these numbers appear to increase slowly but steadily. For instance, a relatively large fraction of people accept human evolution in Kazakhstan (79%) and Lebanon (78%), but relatively few in Afghanistan (26%) and Iraq (27%), with most of the other Islamic countries somewhere in between.[2] Rana Dajani, a university professor who teaches evolution in Jordan, wrote that almost all of her students are hostile to the idea of evolution, at the beginning of the class, but by the end of the class, the majority accept the idea.[46] In 2017, Turkey announced plans to end the teaching evolution before the university level, with education Alpaslan DurmuĹ&#x; claiming it is too complicated and "controversial" a topic to be understood by young minds.[47] Main article: Ahmadiyya views on evolution

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Movement's view of evolution is that of universal acceptance, albeit divinely designed. The movement actively promotes god-directed "evolution". Over the course of several decades the movement issued various publications in support of the scientific concepts behind evolution.[48] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_views_on_evolution

Origin of Life in Holy Qurâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;an A. I. Makki Scientists tell us that, once upon a time, the Earth was extremely hot. Volcanoes were everywhere, spewing out hot molten lava, gases, and water vapor. The gases caused the sky to be very dark and gloomy. Once in a while, shafts of strong sunlight pierced the gloomy skies. They were frequently illuminated by lightning and the red glare of huge volcanic eruptions. According to these scientists, there was no sea, land, or life. After a long passage of time, the earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s crust started cooling and became very thin and brittle. Occasionally, hot and turbulent lava sloshed beneath this crust. Within a few hundred million years, the outer layers of the crust thickened, with only a rare volcano here and there. Then, somehow, water vapor in the air was

condensed and began to fall as rain on the earth’s surface where it collected in low-lying volcanic craters. Suddenly, life began. But how and when did it begin? How did it “evolve?” In an investigation of claims made by various scientists as to the origin of life, we can observe that the “best brains” rely more on theories than on actual facts. Two scientists, Charles Darwin and A.R Wallace, who worked independently of one another and published their work almost simultaneously, advanced the theory of evolution shortly before 1858. They attempted to account for the evolution of life from its first and simplest forms – single celled organisms – to the most complex of plants and animals, including man. The theory of evolution took the scientific community by storm – so much so that it was almost immediately accepted without its finer details being analyzed (for

example, how each species of animals evolved from a common ancestor). These things could be decided later; the immediate problem they faced was determining how the first living organisms arose. To answer this tricky question, a number of theories were advanced. Among these was the consideration that life first made its appearance through a supernatural event; in other words, an act of God. This was the belief held by theologians who based it on a literal interpretation of their religious texts. Most scientists, though, prided themselves as atheists and agnostics, and immediately rejected this interpretation as unbelievable, incredible, and bizarre. They refused to accept this theory since it was not subject to scientific scrutiny and investigation. They started proposing one theory after another â&#x20AC;&#x201C; each of them equally bizarre and totally unsupported by facts

or field evidences. In 1903, as the debate on the theory of evolution continued to rage, a scientist by the name of S. Arrhenius proposed that life developed on earth as a result of a spore or some other stable form of life that came to the earth on a meteorite from outer space or by the pressure of sunlight. One form of this theory assumed that life had no origin â&#x20AC;&#x201C; that like matter had always existed. Being that scientists always like to discredit one another, other scientists immediately rejected this theory on the grounds that evidence exists that long-lived radioactive elements were formed billions of years ahead of life. They believed it was unimaginable that life could have simultaneously come into existence. As soon as that theory was ruled out on the basis of scientific reasoning, another theory proposed that life was formed on another planet and then traveled to earth.

However, it did not answer the question of how life arose on the first planet. Origin of Life in Holy Qurâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;anIn addition, most scientists doubt that any form of life can survive in outer space and fall through the earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s atmosphere without being destroyed. Therefore, this theory was soon rejected as highly improbable. A fourth hypothesis held that the first living organism arose from inorganic matter by an improbable event. This theory was rejected on the grounds that, in order for such an organism to grow from an inorganic environment, it would have to synthesize all its cellular components from carbon dioxide, water, and other inorganic nutrients. Scientists had to reject this theory because their knowledge of biochemistry indicated that even the simplest bacteria are extremely complex. The probability of a spontaneous generation of a cell from inorganic

compounds in a single event was unlikely in the approximately five billion years since the earth’s formation. In 1920, a theory was advanced that was considered plausible by most scientists – that life arose spontaneously in the oceans of the primitive earth. It was proposed by two scientists working independently of each other, Alexander Oparin from Russia and J.B.S. Haldane from Britain, and detailed sequences whereby life could have emerged from non-living interacting chemicals. Haldane pondered on the vigorous chemistry, cosmic rays, and lightning that the volcanoes produced and concluded that “organic” (carbon-based) molecules could have easily formed under these conditions. Because of their similar nature, these molecules accumulated at different places and gave the ancient oceans the consistency of a rich warm broth.

Oparin was also thinking along the same lines. He envisioned the chemical richness of the early oceans – speculating that the first cells would have been sticky floating bubbles called “gel droplets.” As they exchanged chemicals with the sea around them, they eventually assembled into “self -replicating” molecules of greater and greater complexity until a structure was formed that could be called “living.” In other words, the synthesis of the first living organisms involved a series of non-biological processes. Some of the steps he proposed were considered highly improbable. Later came ingenious experiments that would test these speculations. In laboratory experiments carried out at the University of Chicago in 1953 by biochemists headed by a scientist named S. L. Miller, methane, ammonia, water and hydrogen (gases that were known to have been present in the Earth’s outer atmosphere during ancient geological times) were mixed. Electrical sparks were then fired into the mixture

to simulate the lightning of primitive earth’s atmosphere long ago. Origin of Life in Holy Qur’anAfter a week of “cooking,” flasks containing the gases were coated with amino acids (simple nitrogen/hydrogen assemblies that are the building blocks of all proteins). Other basic chemical constituents of life like hydroxyl acids, aliphatic acids, urea and some basic forms of sugars were produced in these experiments. The exposure of this mixture to ultraviolet light also gave similar results. Demonstrating that bits and pieces of life can be created by lightning and solar radiations from chemicals was one thing, but it was still necessary to determine the mechanisms by which these units were assembled to manufacture protein and genes, and how the entire process could be proven in the laboratory. The missing piece in the jigsaw puzzle was to find the catalyst to concentrate these raw materials so that

these reactions would proceed to form polypeptides, nucleotides and polynucleotides capable of self-duplication. It was not an easy problem to solve. Oparin suggested that water would bring different molecules to close proximity, but it would also keep washing them apart and making it difficult for them to “plug” the chemically active end of one molecule to the “socket” of a receptive molecule. Therefore, the gel droplets suggested by Oparin were too wet to work. To get around this problem, evaporation was suggested, as it is a good way of eliminating unwanted water. Haldane suggested a tidal shore billions of years ago that washed up soapy organic solutions that then dried out leaving a rich residue of organic compounds to react with one another. Other scientists had very little difficulty imagining such.

However, J.D. Bernal, another British scientist, pointed out in the 1940â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s that some of these organic compounds evaporated as readily as water. He suggested the use of clay, usually found near seashores, which consists of numerous stacked sheets of silicate with just enough clearance between individual sheets to allow air or water to circulate. These sheets contain positive and negative electrical charges arranged in a neatly structured way. Bernal also suggested that these electrical fields would have imposed certain orientations on any compounds passing through them. Origin of Life in Holy Qurâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;anFurther laboratory experiments suggest that mineral sheets of clay tend to concentrate organic molecules in a confined volume, as water evaporates, and orient them in a way that facilitates their link-ups to other molecules and shields these fragile newly formed molecules from ultra-violet rays from solar radiation.

Proteins are one of the two major chemical systems that orchestrate life. Nucleic acids are the other. Both are made of smaller compounds – a group of proteins combine to form amino acids, and nucleic acids are made up of nucleotides which are compounds of carbon and nitrogen joined with sugars and phosphates. DNA, deoxyribonucleic acid, on the other hand is recognized by scientists as the “architect of life” and uses a sequence of nucleotides as a “code” or blueprint to spell out what life form is being built. Proteins form the horizontal beam or material with which life is constructed according to this plan. The unanswered question for scientists is: which came first – the blueprint or the assembly of material for proteins? According to Professor Leslie Orgel of the Silk Institute in La Jolla, California, the blueprint clearly came first. He tells us that proteins could not have occurred first because they must be assembled according to a plan laid

out by genes, or nucleic acids with enzymes, to assist their replication. Now it is well known that a single gene in the smallest virus known to man is made up of thousands or more units of nucleotides and they are a far cry from the millions of nucleotides that constitute one human gene in a single cell. Who laid the blue print for such a gene? A layman on reading this would immediately answer “God”. But the scientists are not the type, who would give up at this stage that the process for the plan was not started with the DNA but with transfer RNA [t-RNA, or t-Ribonucleic acid], which is a family of simple compounds that are exact copies of parts of the more complex DNAs’. Transfer RNAs work like construction crews to the larger DNA architect-they round up amino acids in the cells and move them to the biological assembly line

where they join to make a specific protein required for by the DNA blueprint. But, who authorized the t-RNAs to work as construction crews for the bigger DNA? The scientists tell us that the t-RNAs could be helped by a small enzyme that assisted in the replication process. Where and how did the small enzyme come from and how did it know as to what are the exact quantities required of it to help the t-RNA to replicate it into an RNA-DNA hybrid? Or becomes a DNA under special conditions as suggested by the scientists? Origin of Life in Holy Qurâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;anThe scientists have no perfect answers. They have only theories and hypotheses. They are and will be on a crusading zeal till the end of the world to come up with all the answers. The answer will elude some of them. For others they have only got to pick up and read the Holy Qurâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;an. They will find the answer in Chapter 7:11-12,

which reads as follows; 11. “It is We, Who created you and gave you shape. Then we bade the angels to prostrate to Adam, and they prostrated, not so Iblis [Satan]; He refused to be those who prostrate.” 12. (Allah) said: “what prevented thee from prostrating when I commanded thee?” He said: I am better than he is: Thou didst create me from fire and him from CLAY.” In the verse 13 of the same chapter we are told that Allah casts out Iblis who had become Satan the accursed for his open rebelliousness towards Allah (swt), and Allah further tells us that he the Satan was the meanest of all creatures in the sight of Allah. In the verse 14, Satan in his rebelliousness begs of Allah a respite from his punishment tills the Day of Resurrection of Mankind. In verse 15, when he is granted that respite, he promises Allah (swt) with the following words;

16. He said: “Because thou hast thrown me out (Of the Way), lo! I will lie in wait for them, on Thy Straight Way. 17. ” Then will I assault them from before them and behind them, from their right and their left; nor will Thou find in most of them gratitude (frothy mercies). 18. (Allah) said: Get out from this (garden), despised and expelled. If any of them follow thee-Hell, will I fill with you all. The warning in verse 18, of Chapter 7, of the Holy Qur’an is from Allah, the God of all mankind. Will the scientists at least now pay heed? By applying the same yardstick of the scientists, it is not possible to believe in the Theory of Evolution as postulated by the scientists is not acceptable to the students of Islamic theology and Muslims unless proved so scientifically by the scientists. The fossil records do not lie; it is the scientists who utter the falsehood by saying that animals “evolved from a

common ancestor and thereby mislead many among mankind from the path of Allah.

This article was first published in 2012 and is currently republished for its uniqueness.

http://aboutislam.net/science/faith-science/origin-lifeholy-quran/

CREATION OF MAN

stages of his life man has been a bearer of culture of one kind or another.

QURAN ON THE CREATION OF MAN

O you human beings! What is the matter with you that you fail to understand that Allah does not do anything unless there is wisdom and purpose underlying it? You yourselves are not ready to accept the assumption that you do things with no aim or purpose in view. Why do you therefore assume that Allah, the Most Wise and All Knowing does things without purpose? Why do you jump to the thoughtless conclusion that He created man with no purpose in view? Why do you fail to grasp the evident truth that your creation has not been the result of a sudden meaningless impulse? It was the result of wise planning and deliberate execution in a succession of stages from one point to another. Do you not see that Allah has created the seven heavens in perfect harmony with each other and similarly the sun and the moon? Also that the earth was one of the stages through which you passed in a process of slow growth to the point of perfection?

This is the description of the origin and emergence of man given in the Quran. The law of evolution working in the universe which Europe claims to have discovered was clearly defined in the Holy Quran more than fourteen hundred years ago that man was not created in an instant in the form in which he is today. God did not make a model of clay and breathed life into it to become the first man. No! Man has reached his present stage after passing through many intermediary stages. Man originated from and on this earth---Allah caused you to grow out of the earth as a good growth. It is particularly distressing to note, however, that the present day popular Muslim belief has lost sight of the two crucial points that man's creation and emergence did not take place in an instant. He was created from the earth and on the earth. Popular Muslim belief has come to have it that man was created in paradise from where he was put down on earth. It is also believed by a large section of Muslims that God has a bag of souls which,

from time to time, He releases singly to become human beings. In view of the prevalence of such foolish fancies that the popular Muslim mind, through some irony, is peculiarly bent upon holding views contrary to the clear teachings of the Holy Quran. The Quran tells us that the creation of man took place in gradual stages, the underlying wisdom being that through this slow development defects should be eliminated from his constitution and nature. The gross ignorance of the views held by some Muslim religious leaders may be gaged from the following. Maulvi Syed Sarwar Shah, a prominent member of the Ahmadiyya Movement and companion of the Promised Messiah, used to relate that one of his teachers once said that the explanation for one man being handsome and another ugly, and yet another middling, is that at the time God decided to make man He awarded a contract to the angels for carrying out the job fixing a daily quota which had to be fulfilled. The angels started kneading the clay

well and shaping from it nice and handsome figures. They worked steadily, without hurry, until noon giving careful attention to each piece. After a while they found that they were lagging behind the quota fixed and began to work only with the idea of completing it. They ceased paying careful artistic attention to their work with the result that the beings formed during the first spell of their work were very attractive while those formed in the early part of the afternoon were middling. As the afternoon wore on the angels realized with dismay that they were still lagging far behind the quota for the day so they threw all care to the wind. They hurriedly shaped a figure from the clay with a finger-poke to make the mouth and two pokes to make the eyes. No wonder these ungainly dented figures could not be compared with those made during the first spell of work. This example shows how, through ignorance, unwarranted beliefs among Muslims, Christians, Jews

and others have turned beautiful truths into distressing caricatures and spurious myths.

FIRST STAGE

Human birth now takes place from the seed of the male. This verse refers to the first original creation of the species, or the first man. it should be carefully noted that the Quran does not say that existence was created from non-existence. It says that prior to the stage when matter and other things came into being, there was a stage when nothing existed. We say that a chair can be made from a piece of wood; or we say that a chain can be made from a piece of iron. Here we have matter in one form which can be utilized to make another article. Atheists often raise the objection that it is not possible to shape out anything from nothing. This, however, is not what is meant by the Quran. What is meant is that prior to the creation of the universe there was a stage when nothing existed. Then came creation and the creation of man. God has not given knowledge to man as to how this came about, possibly because it is beyond the comprehension of man to grasp. If man could visualize

how creation took place then he would be in a position to create man himself.

SECOND STAGE

spoken of. In other words, there has been a stage in the history of man when it was not madhkur, i.e., it was not aware of itself, lacked consciousness at the time and was not capable of recognition. He was a form of being without consciousness and intelligence, not aware of himself or of other things.

THIRD STAGE

developed into an animal characterized by sex, divided into males and females, when his procreation began to take place through the seed of the male which is a characteristic of the higher forms of animal life. His procreation began to occur from a nutratin amshajin, from the male sperm drop embracing a combination of a number of elements. God says in the Holy Quran: Indeed: We have created man from a mingled sperm-drop, that We might try him, so We made him hearing, seeing. From this stage his procreation began to be compounded from many elements because his role in the universe was to be many sided which necessitated that he should possess a wide range of qualities.

FOURTH STAGE

The fourth stage came when the human brain reached perfection and characterized by a highly developed form

of awareness and intelligence. From having the capacity of hearing and seeing which are qualities also to be found in the lower animals, he became capable of exercising his intelligence to a point where, through a sustained spirit of inquiry and search, inference and invention came within the range of his faculties. Here he rose one very distinct step higher than the other forms of animal life, an animal capable of sustained thought and speech. These links in the chain of the evolution of man are the initial links of the various stages, The intervening periods between the emergence of these links have not been clearly brought out by the Quran for it is not a scientific treatise on the subject. The Quran refers to these matters which were necessary for bringing out a point of moral spiritual truth, leaving the filling in of the gaps to the human mind. We glean from other passages in the Quran that there are also other links in the chain of human evolution:

And Allah created you from dust, then from a sperm-drop, then he made you pairs. Elsewhere the Quran says: 'And Allah caused you to grow from the earth, a good growth ', while here it is said: 'Allah created you from dust, then from a sperm-drop'. The remaining links have been omitted, till He made you pairs. i.e., a being capable of living in social units the point from which emerges what we call civilization and culture, with a system and order of life. The meaning of Azwaj used in the Arabic text of the verse which I have just quoted does not mean division into male and female because that point has already been covered in the mention of creation by a sperm-drop. Then he made you pairs, coming after sperm-drop has to be interpreted to mean something beyond the emergence of sex. In Arabic the word zauj also means kind, variety or complimentary groups; and this is the meaning implied here. When the human mind fully developed and a variety of temperaments emerged, individuals began to evince

leanings towards or away from certain other individuals. This gave rise to the emergence of social units on this or that basis such as family groups or combination of certain individuals well disposed towards each other. The evolution of man may be summed up by saying that at first man was only a clod of earth or some kind of rock formation. After some intermediary stages which the Quran has not mentioned, man reached a stage where he became a kind of animal growth divided into male and female and procreating through sexual intercourse. Again the Quran leaves out some intermediary stages until man emerges as a social being divided into several groups as a result of which there sprung up a variety of mental, physical or economic affiliations. This is the point where the story of human civilization begins. Among the stages of the evolution of man is when water mingled with the particular dust, clod of earth or rocky substance. This mingling of the dry clod with water which

resulted in a kind of life being born in it is mentioned in the Quran: And We made from water every living thing... (21:31) He Who has made perfect everything He has created. and He began the creation of man from clay. (32:8) The word in the Arabic text for clay is teen which means earth mixed with a quantity of water which becomes adhesive. According to the Quran, therefore, human life originated in a substance which was a mixture of earth and water which, in the course of time, developed into man. In the fore-going verses we are told that an early initial stage in the evolution of man was when he was given a particular form from wet earth. That was followed by a stage when man began to be procreated through function of the sex organs of the male and female of his species. In the words of the Holy Quran: Then He made His progeny from an extract of an insignificant fluid. (32:9)

Did We not create you from an insignificant fluid, and we placed it in a safe place? (77:22) These verses indicate very clearly that man's origin in dry earth or rock was one stage from which step by step he passed through a stage when it was mixed with water causing the development of a rudimentary form of life which later on began to procreate through the functioning of the sex organs which had developed in the male and female. All these stages represent different periods of time the duration of which can at best be only vaguely conjectured or imagined. The Holy Quran mentions a general principle with regard to the creation of man: And that with thy Lord is the final judgment; and that it is He Who makes people laugh and makes them weep; and it is he Who causes death and gives life; and that He creates the pairs, male and female, from a sperm-drop

when it is emitted; and that it is for Him to bring forth the second creation. (53:43-48) CONCLUSIONS From these verses of the Quran which I have quoted emerge the following conclusions: ( 1 ) The material from which man has been created is not eternal. It was created by God. (2) Man's creation involved an evolutionary process extending over a long period of time. He was not created in a moment. (3) Man was created from an origin of his own species. It is not correct that he evolved from a species of monkeys or apes which is the theory advanced by Darwin. (4) One of the evolutionary stages through which he passed was something akin to stone or rock.

(5) He next passed through a stage of animal life but intelligence had not yet developed in him although he moved about, ate and drank like other animals. (6) He became an intelligent being able to speak and communicate. (7) In his final stage he devised a system of life and started on the road to civilization and culture. Instead of each individual living for himself, as is the case with other and lower animals, he began to work in co-operation with others of his species evolving a system and law of life.

Courtesy of Mr. Zia Shah, zshah@ix.netcom.com. June 6, 1995 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE The Quran provides a clear cut answer to the question: At what point did life begin? In this section, I shall set

forth the verses of the Quran in which it is stated that the origins of life are aquatic. The first verse also refers to the formation of the universe: Do not the Unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together, then We clove them asunder and We got every living thing out of water. [21:30] The notion of 'getting something out of something else' does not give rise to any doubts. The phrase can equally mean that every living thing was made of water (as its essential component) or that every living thing originated in water. Life is in fact of aquatic origin and water is the living component of all living cells. Without water, life is not possible. When the possibility of life on another planet is discussed, the first question is: Is there a sufficient quantity of water to support life? Modern data leads us to think that the oldest living beings probably belonged from the vegetable kingdom: Algae have been found that date from the pre-Cambrian

period, the time of the oldest known lands. Organisms belonging to the animal kingdom probably appeared slightly later: They too came from the sea. The words translated here as 'water' is in fact 'ma', which means both water in the sky and water in the sea, or any kind of liquid. In the first meaning, water is the element necessary to all vegetable life: [God is the One Who] sent water down from the sky and thereby We brought forth pairs of plants each separate from the other. [20:53] This is the first reference to a 'pair' of vegetables; we shall cause to return to this notion later. In the second meaning, which refers to any kind of liquid, the words is used in its indeterminate form to designate the substance at the basis of the formation of all animal life. God created every animal from water. [24:45] Thus the statement in the Quran on the origins of life, whether referring to life in general, the element that

gives to birth to the plants in the soil, or the seed of animals, are all strictly in accordance with modern scientific data. None of the myths on the origins of life that abounded at the time the Quran was communicated to man are mentioned in the text. Reference: What is the Origin of man?; The Answers of Science and the Holy Scriptures, By Dr. Maurice Bucaille, Translated from the French by Alastair D. Pannell and the Author, Second Edition, Revised. Publisher: SEGHERS, 6 Place Saint-Sulpice, 75006 PARIS. courtesy of Mr. Ali Abbas. August 1, 1995 http://www.ldolphin.org/islamcreat.html

About the Origin of Life in the Quran By Ashley Portero

Some Muslims believe the Quran contains several verses that support the Big Bang theory. Some Muslims believe the Quran contains several verses that support the Big Bang theory. The Quran does not offer a single, unified theory regarding the creation of the universe and how life began on Earth. Various aspects of creation are mentioned throughout the holy book of Islam, including lines that some Muslims believe refer to theory of evolution and even the Big Bang. The Quran also states that human life on Earth began with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, a belief shared with the Christian and Jewish faiths. In Islam, every act of creation â&#x20AC;&#x201C; whether that of the universe as a whole or human life â&#x20AC;&#x201C; is considered a confirmation of the power of Allah.

Six Days Quranic tradition indicates that Allah created “the heavens and the earth, and all that is in between them,” in six days. Mission Islam points out the Quran uses the Arabic word “Youm” in the original text; it can refer to either a single day or a period of time. The creation of the planets and the Earth took place in the last two periods of time, according to the Quran. Big Bang The Quran says that “the heavens and the earth were joined together as one unit, before We clove them asunder,” one of several verses that seem to support the idea that the universe began as a result of a Big Bang. According to Mission Islam, all the matter in the universe was compacted together until Allah gave the command to blow it apart. The particles and gases that were emitted eventually combined to form the planets and stars of the universe. The Quran, in the view of some

modern Muslims, also supports the theory that the universe continues to expand. (For example: "The heavens, We have built them with power. And verily, We are expanding it.”) Life Began in Water The Quran states that Allah “made from water every living thing,” a verse (among others) that some Muslims believe supports the scientific theory that life on Earth began in the ocean before eventually evolving to live on land. However, some traditional Muslim thinkers claim the theory is a denial of Allah’s power as creator, since its casts doubt on his ability to create life out of nothing, NPR reports. Some Muslims believe science, such as cosmology and evolutionary biology, actually supports the creation theories outlined by the Quran, according to the BBC. Adam and Eve

While Islam does not discount the idea that life may have evolved in stages on Earth, the Quran states that the beginning of human life originated with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Human beings, according to Islam, are a unique life form that Allah granted with specific abilities unseen in other animals, such as a soul, knowledge and free will. The Quran says Adam was created from “sounding clay, from mud moulded into shape.” It does not specifically describe Eve’s creation other than stating that a “mate” was created for Adam (unlike the Old Testament, which says Eve was created from one of Adam’s ribs). http://classroom.synonym.com/origin-life-quran-6278. html

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