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Creation and EvolutionIslam and Science as one

Arrassi A. Zakaria (72427)

[email protected]

July 9, 2008

Abstract

There is a heavy debates between believers and non-

believers about the origin of man. Science has dis-

covered that man originated from water and gradually

evolved, through intermediary states, to the human be-

ing that we know nowadays classified as Homo sapiens

sapien. Believers, from different religions, argue that

mankind was created by God and placed on earth after

Adam and Eve ate from the fruits of the forbidden tree.

They reject any scientific prove about evolution.

This paper tries to show to the interested reader, that re-

ligion, and in this case Islam, is not in contradiction with

the theories emerging from scientific research. On the

contrary, it supports and reinforces the theories proving

that mankind is searching in the right direction concern-

ing creation and evolution.

As Al-Ghazali, a famous Muslim philosopher said:

Two sides can only debate if they both agree to put

aside their prejudices and discuss with an open mind

searching for the truth. The main concern of believers

is that accepting apes as their forefathers, is that they

think scientist want to depict Adam and Eve as apes.

However, we will see in this paper, that Adam and Eve

are the first kind of Homo sapiens sapiens, which are

fully fledged humans, and not monkey-like.

We will see what, prominent, Muslim scientists had tosay about evolution long before Darwin had described

his theory. Most of this heritage, however, is lost and

is slowly disappearing in books as, only a few people,

even in the Muslim world, are aware of it.

Another heritage that, in contrary to ordinary books,

will not vanish is the Quran. We will see what God tells

us about His creation. We will analyze some verses re-

garding the origin of mankind and its evolution through

the ages.

In the end we will try to understand why, with all this

knowledge in accordance to modern science, most mus-

lims still deny the theory of evolution.

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Pre-Darwinism in the medieval Muslim

world 2

3 The origin of Man in the Quran 3

4 Adam and Eve in the Quran 6

5 The location of the garden of Eden 7

6 On the Forbidden Tree 8

7 On free-will, predestination and chance

events 9

8 Summary and conclusion 10

1 Introduction

This paper has a strange structure. We start by studying

what ancient Muslim savants had to say about evolution

of the humankind from other species. We will see that

their opinions and ideas align with the modern theory of

evolution and Darwinism.

Next, we have a look at what the Quran has to say

about the creation of humankind and evolution. Sincethe Quran has many different interpretation, we had to

filter and select only a few to show in this paper. Some

verses of the Quran are points toward modern scien-

tific facts while other are more symbolic. We will use

the symbolic verses as a transition to from science to

philosophy and the concepts of human knowledge and

free-will. From there we try to summarize the idea of

the paper in a few sentences.

In this clear that we only scratch the surface of the topic.

The literature is broad and the ideas divergent. We tried,

however, the condense, all this in a readable package for

the novice user.

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2 Pre-Darwinism in the medieval

Muslim world

It is generally agreed that Darwins The Origin of

Species (1859) is the pivotal work in evolutionary bi-

ology. The book introduced the theory that populationsevolve over the course of generations through a process

of natural selection. This statement shocked the Judeo-

Christian population in the West and is still today a con-

troversial subject.

Muslim scholars had long recognized that human be-

ings had an ancestral link to apes. Ibn Khaldun, a

Muslim historiographer and social scientist wrote in his

Muqaddimah1:

One should then look at the world of cre-

ation. It started out from the minerals and pro-

gressed, in an ingenious, gradual manner to

plants and animals. The last stage of miner-

als is connected with the first stage of plants,

such as herbs, and seedless plants. The last

stage of plants such as palms and vines is con-

nected with the first stage of animals, such

as snails and shellfish which have only the

power to touch. The word connection with

regard to these created things means that the

last stage of group is fully prepared to be-

come the first stage of the next group. The

animal world then widens, its species become

numerous, and, in a gradual process of cre-

ation, it finally leads to man, who is able tothink and reflect. The higher stage of man is

reached from the world of monkeys, in which

both sagacity and perception are found, but

which has not reached the stage of actual re-

flection and thinking. At this point we come

to the first stage of man (after the world of

monkeys). This is as far as our (physical) ob-

servation extends.[Khaldun, 1967]

Ibn Khaldun described in the above passage a hierarchy

of species with links between them. It starts from the

lowest form of life which are minerals and goes up

to more complex life-form. In the above passage weread the first stage of man showing that Ibn Khaldun

knew about other hominoid species more advanced

than monkeys but not equal to the modern man. He

than stated that he arrived to this conclusion with his

own physical observation of the world.

According to the Muqaddimah, Ibn Khaldun, and

other Muslim scholars, believed that a series of

transmutations from one species into another resulted

in evolution of life. This evolution from primitive

organisms forms a bush with numerous branches. Ibn

1An Introduction to History

Khaldun concludes his view on the origin of races

as follows:[muq, a]Physical circumstances and the

environment are subject to changes that affect later gen-

erations; they do not necessarily remain unchanged.

His point of view is that species are not fixed, but are

subject to change according to the environment. He

believed that the physical characteristics of organismare determined by their essence. He believed that the

active nature 2 has the ability to generateand change

essence[muq, b].

If Ibn Khaldun lived in our time, he would replace the

word essence by DNA. He also describes the transfor-

mation of species into other species as a change in of

the essence:

The essences at the end of each particu-

lar stage of the worlds are by nature prepared

to be transformed into the essence adjacent tothem. This is the case with the simple ma-

terial elements; it is the case with the palms

and vines (which constitute) the last stage of

plants, in their relation to snails and shellfish,

(which constitute) the (lowest) stage of ani-

mals. It is also the case with monkeys, crea-

tures combining in themselves cleverness and

perception, in their relation to man, the be-

ing who has the ability to think and to re-

flect. The preparedness (for transformation)

that exists on either side, at each stage of the

worlds, is meant when (we speak about) their

connection.[muq, c]

According to Al-Biruni (973-1048), Islams greatest ge-

ologist, man gradually evolved from other organisms

through the struggle for survival of the fittest as we can

read in his book,Kitab al-Jamahir3

Man reached his maximum degree of per-

fection compared to other animals below him

(in the evolutionary ladder). He ascended to

the present state from other kinds of beings

such as dog-like, bear-like, ape-like etc. Then

finally he became man.[Al-Biruni, 1934]

Abu Bakr Ibn Tufail4 (1095-1138), a poet and physi-

cian born in Guuadix, Spain was known to have influ-

enced Jewish and Christian thinkers and was the teacher

of the great philosopher Ibn Rushd5[Shavanas, 2005].

Ibn Tufail is remembered through his famous work,

The Journey of the Soul (The Story of Hai bin

Yaqzan).[Tufail, 1138]. The book is a fictional biogra-

phy about a child born without parents and place the

2kiyan - arabic3Book of the Reunion - translation is mine4Latin name: Abu Bazer5Latin name: Avveroes

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wander world. The idea is that the child has no knowl-

edge of the environment and no education. He must

learn by observing nature and make his own conclusion

without any bias or interference due to previous knowl-

edge,6 Simon Ockely undertook the translation of the

book in 17087. Henry Fairfield Orborn8 summarizes the

story as follows:

There happens to be under the equator an

island, where Man comes into the world with-

out father and mother; by spontaneous gener-

ation he arises, directly in the form of boy,

from the earth, while the spirit, which, like

the sunshine, emanated from God, unites with

the body, growing out of a soft, unformed

mass. Without any intelligent surround-

ings, and without education, this Nature-

man through simple observation of the outer

world, and through the combination of vari-

ous appearances, rises to the knowledge of the

world and of the Godhead. First he perceives

the individuals, then he recognizes the vari-

ous species as independent forms; but as he

compares the varieties and species with each

other, he comes to the conclusion that they all

sprung from a single animal spirit, and at the

same time that the entire animal race forms a

single whole. He makes the same discovery

among the plants; finally he sees the animal

and plant forms in their unity, and discovers

that among all their differences they have sen-

sitiveness and feeling in common; from thathe concludes that animals and plants are on

and the same.[Osborn, 1908]

The boy, according to Osborn, concludes that plants and

animals all sprang from one common origin.

We have seen that Darwinism was already spread in

the Muslim world long before Darwin was born. The

problem is that the actual Muslim world has lost much

of its scientific heritage, as the Europeans did when

they abandoned the knowledge of Greeks and Rome

during the Middle Ages. Books are rarely re-read with

a critical eye to build new theories from the one theancestors layed out for us. All Muslims are proud of

their scientific heritage but only a few really know

what that heritage means9 when it comes to content of

biology, history, geology or medicine.

6Each human has an education and an environment were he grows

up. Because of that our knowledge is always biased and we are

trapped in our own perspective of the world.7A century before Darwin was born81883-1890, professor of comparative anatomy at Princeton from

1883to 1890and joined Columbia University in 1891were he became

professor of biology and then professor of zoology in 1896.9Except maybe for the fields of mathematics were it remained

strong because everyone still refers to numbers as Arabic numbers

The West heavily used Arabic books in the late Mid-

dle Ages and the Renaissance to rebuild the science

it had lost during the Dark Ages. Many books that

were used as school books, or canon, have Muslim au-

thors. It is fair to think that Darwin, following RogerBacons advice to learn Arabic and Arabic science for

progress[Briffault, 1928], might have known the mus-

lim theory of evolution.

3 The origin of Man in the Quran

In contrast with the Bible, the Quran does not have a

chapter on the genesis of human life. However, there

are many verses in various surah10 that indicate how

the origin of life originated. The Quran itself asks to

meditate and research the origin of life as stated:

Truly in the creation of heavens and the

earth, and in the alternations of the night and

day are signs for those have acumen, who ut-

ter (the name of) God, standing, sitting, and

on their sides, and ponder over the creation

of the heavens and the earth, (saying), Our

Lord, You have not created these in futility,

Glory be to You:guard us then from the tor-

ment of the fire.(Quran 3:190-191)

in another surah:

On the earth are signs for those whohave sure faith (in the meaningfulness of all

things), as also (there are signs) in your own

self: will ye not, then, observer? (Quran

51:20-21)

The two verses above God urges mankind to search for

signs of His existence in physicals events, like the alter-

nation of the night and dayor our own self.

In another verse God is even more focused by saying

that mankind shouldfind signs of His existence in the

creation and origin of man:

Say: Go all over the earth and beholdhow [wondrously] He has created [man] in

the first instance: and thus, too, will God

bring into being your second life - for, verily.

God has the power to will anything! (Quran

29:20)

Analyzing the first part of the verse we see that God asks

men to travel the earth and search how man was cre-

ated. This indicates that the origin of man happened on

earth and not in the Heaven as many scholars indicate.

10A group of verses form a surah. It corresponds a chapter in a

book

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Also, if God ask men to search for signs of creation

those signs must understandable by human. Hence, the

origin of man is something divine, but that can be ex-

plained by science.

Muhammad Asads comments in his translation of the

Quran, are the following:

. . . which alludes to mans coming into ex-

istence out of most primitive elements, and

gradually evolving into a highly complex be-

ing endowed not only with a physical body

but also with a mind, with feelings, and in-

stincts

The following is another verse where God explains the

creation of man:

Now, indeed, We create man out of the

essence of clay, and then we cause him to re-

main as drop of sperm in [the wombs] firmkeeping, and then We create out of the drop

of sperm a germ-cell, and then We create

out of the germ-cell an embryonic lump, and

then We create within the embryonic lump,

bones, and the We clothe the bones with flesh

- and then We bring [all] this into being as a

new creation: hallowed, therefore, is God, the

God, the best of artisans!(Quran 23:12-14)

This verse specifies the origin of man and also, de-

scribes, with much detail, the evolution of an embryo

in the womans womb11.

Interesting for us is the first part: We create man out of

the essence of clay. According to Lane, the verb create,

khalaqa, apart form the classical meaning create, means

proportioning a thing into another thing and to bring

a thing into existence according to a certain measure,

or proportion, and so as to make it equal to (another

thing). In proportion a thing into an original and

previously non-existing thing, it also signifies the orig-

inating, or to bring a thing into existence from a state of

non-existence.[Edward William, 1993]

For [Shavanas, 2005]the meaning ofkhalaqaaccording

to [Edward William, 1993]is threefold:

[. . . ], there are three components to the

meaning of the word khalaqa: (a) shap-

ing an original substance or entity into an-

other object (proportioning a thing to an-

other thing); (b) the newly formed object

or creature must have its own peculiar char-

acteristics so that it can be identified sepa-

rately from its original source-not like father

and son, but like a tree to a canoe or an ape

11Remember, the Quran was revealed around 622 J.C to an illiter-

ate person, Muhammad, in the middle of the desert.

to a human; and (c) the newly formed ob-

ject or creature with its characteristic feature

were nonexistent before its original birth (to

bring a thing into existence from a state of

non-existence). In this process the new crea-

ture becomes a prototype. Therefore, the clas-

sical12 meaning of the Arabic word khalaqaca be summarized as; To bring a thing into

existence according to a certain measure or

proportion, so as to make it equal to another

thing that is not pre-existing.

Now, indeed, We create man out of the

essence of clay, and then we cause him to re-

main as drop of sperm in [the wombs] firm

keeping, and then We create out of the drop

of sperm a germ-cell, and then We create

out of the germ-cell an embryonic lump, and

then We create within the embryonic lump,

bones, and the We clothe the bones with flesh

- and then We bring [all] this into being as a

new creation: hallowed, therefore, is God, the

God, the best of artisans!(Quran 23:12-14)

Going back to verse 23:12-14 about the evolution of the

embryo in the womb. The verse uses many times the

word create. If we use the classical meaning of the word

as in making something ex nihilo, the verse would not

have any sense. It would say that each step in the pro-

cess is not depended of the previous phase. Using the

another meaning the sense is clear by saying that each

has a link with the previous step.

In the book; LHomme dou vient-il?13 written by Dr.

Maurice Bucaille, he stresses the classical meaning of

khalaqa:

A lintention de mes lecteurs arabophones

et arabisant, je souligne a propos de la tra-

duction donnee ici de la reference n* 2 que

lusage voudrait que le mot arabe khalaqa

soit traduit par creer. Mais il faut savoir

que le sens primitif du verbe est comme il

est precise dans lexcellent dictionnaire de

Kazimirski, donner une mesure a une chose

ou la faire dune certaine mesure ou quan-tite. Pour Dieu (seul), on a simplifie en

traduisant en utilisant le mot creer, cest-

a-dire donner lexistence a ce qui netais pas.

Ce faisant, on evoque le term de laction, mais

sans preciser la notion de mesure qui sy at-

tache. Il serait peut-etre plus exact dutiliser

une expression comme faonner ou former

12Befitting with the overall reading of the Quran because it is

based on the true language that was prevalent among the natives of

the Arabian Peninsula at the time of the Prophet Muhammed and not

upon modern Arabic13Where does Man come from? - translation is mine

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avec la mesure voulue. On serait ainsi plus

pres du sens primitif du mot en arabe. Aussi

jutliserai souvent pour ce mot le sens de for-

mer dans ma traduction, en sous-entendant

le sens primitif en arabe.

(To my arabic speaking lecturer, I stress

the importance of the translation of the wordgiven as reference n* 2 that the worldkhalaqa

is translated as created. One must know

that the primitive verb is, like it is described in

the excellent Kazimirski dictionnary as, giv-

ing a measure to something or doing it by a

certain measure or quantity. Only for God,

weve simplified the word and translated it as

created, that is, give existence to something

that did not exist before. We evoke the ac-

tion, without precising de notion attached to

it. It would maybe be better to use a more pre-

cise expression like fashion or form givena certain mesure. We would be more related

to the sense of the primitive word in arabic.

As such, I will use the for this word as in

form in my translation implying the prim-

itive sense of the arabic word - translation is

mine)[Cre,]

we are ready to further analyzing other verse from the

Quran about the origin of man.

Modern biology discovered that all life originates from

water as written in the verse:

Are, the, they who are bent on denying the

truth not aware that the heavens and the earth

were [once] one single entity, which We then

parted asunder? - and [that] We made out of

water every lining thing? Will they not, then,

[begin to ] believe? (Quran 21:30)[Asa, a]

The origin of earth14 and man.

It is made clear that water plays a crucial role for the

creation, and sustainer, of life as [Asad, 2003] com-

ments:

The statement that God made out of wa-ter every living thing expresses most con-

cisely a truth that is nowadays universally ac-

cepted by science. It has a threefold mean-

ing: (1) Water -and, specifically, the sea - was

14. . . the above unmistakable reference to the unitary origin of the

universe - metonymically described in the Quran as the heavens and

the earth - strikingly anticipates the view of almost all modern as-

trophysicists that this universe has originated as one entity from one

single element, namely, hydrogen, which became subsequently con-

solidated through gravity and then separated into individual nebulae,

galaxies and solar systems, with further individual parts progressively

breaking away to form new entities in the shape of stars, planets and

the latters satellites.[Asad, 2003]

the environment within which the prototype

of all living matter originated; (2) among all

the innumerable - existing or conceivable -

liquids, only water has the peculiar properties

necessary for the emergence and development

of life; and (3) the protoplasm, which is the

physical basis of every living cell - whetherin plans or in animals - and represents the

only form of matter in which the phenomena

of life are manifested, consists overwhelm-

ingly of water and is, thus, utterly dependent

on it. Read together with the preceding state-

ment, which alludes to the unitary origin of

the physical universe, the emergence of life

from and within an equally unitary element

points to the existence of the unitary planun-

derlying all creation and, hence, to the exis-

tence and oneness of the Creator.

In another verse, the Quran, emphasizes again that all

living creatures originate from water:

And it is God who has created all animals

out of water; and [He has willed that] among

them are such as crawl on their bellies, and

such as walk on two legs, and such as walk on

four. God creates what He wills: for, verily,

God has the power to will anything.

The term all animals comes from the arabic dabbah

and denotes: every corporal being endowed with both

life and spontaneous movement hence in its widestsense, it comprises the entire animal world, including

man[Asad, 2003].

The grammatical structure of the verse is of capital im-

portance because it indicates that the verse englobes

rational, man, and irrational, animals, creatures as ex-

plained in [Shavanas, 2005]:

If the noun dabbah (animals) were ap-

plied only to rational or irrational creatures

separately, the two phrases, fa min-hunna or

fa-min-ha, would have been used in properArabic grammar. Instead, the Arabic use the

phrase fa min hum in the verse conveys the

Arabic noundabbah(animals) in the verse re-

fer to both rational and irrational creatures.

Therefore, the verse states that a rational an-

imal that walks on two legs was also created

from water.

Human is the most rational of all creatures. Therefore,

the creature walking on two legs referred in the verse in-

dicates human. This is in accordance with the previous

verse (21:30) and with modern science.

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4 Adam and Eve in the Quran

The main-stream of Muslims believe that Adam was

created from nothing and Eve from his rib. The Quran

does not state anywhere this procedure. However, it

tells us that Adam was created, with the classical Ara-bic meaning of the word, and then fashioned and shaped

into perfection as the following verses states :

O man! What is it that lures thee away

from thy bountiful Sustainer, who has created

(khalaqa) thee, and formed (khalaqa) thee

in accordance with what thou art meant to

be, and shaped thy nature in just proportions

(hadala). Quran 82:6-7[Asa, b]

and in another translation:

O you man, what deluded you concern-

ing your Munificent Lord, who created (kha-

laqa) you, fashioned (sawwa) you and shaped

you in perfection (hadala). (Quran 82:6-

7)[Khatib, a]

To further stress the importance of the words; cre-

ate (khalaqa) and fashioned (sawwa) we find the

verse:

Yea, indeed, We have created (khalaqa)

you, and then formed (sawwarra) you; and

then We said unto the angles, Prostrate your-

selves before Adam! - whereupon they [all]

prostrated themselves, save Iblis: he was

not among those who prostrated themselves.

(Quran 7:11)[Asa, c]

[Khatib, a] translated the verb hadala as shaped you

in perfection and [Asa, b] as shaped thy nature in

just proportions. Both translation differ in their mean-

ing. Lanes lexicon[Edward William, 1993] gives yet

another meaning to the word: rate a thing as equal to

a thing of another kind so as to make it like the latter.

This means that the verb indicated the transformation

from a thing into another distinctly identifiable thing.

As proof he quotes the Quranic verse:

All praise be to God who created the

heavens and the earth, and ordined darkness

and light. Yet the unbelievers make oth-

ers equal (hadala) of their Lord. (Quran

6:1)[Khatib, b]

and the translation from Muhammed Asad

reads:

All praise is due to God, who has created

the heavens and the earth, and brought into

being deep darkness as well as light: and yet,

those who are bent on denying the truth re-

gard other powers as their Sustainers equal

(hadala)

Here we see that both translators agree upon the mean-

ing ofhadalaas making a thing, here other powers or

others, equal to another thing,Lordor Sustainer. There-fore, we can assume that the same meaning can be ap-

plied to the verses 82:6-7. We replace the wordskha-

laqaand hadalawith the classical Arabic meaning and

obtain using the translation from [Khatib, a]:

O you man, what deluded you concern-

ing your Munificent Lord, who shaped you

from a pre-existing thing (khalaqa), sculpted

(sawwa) you transformed you to [distinctly

identifiable] perfect human shape (hadala).

(Quran 82:6-7)[Khatib, a]

As for theperfect human shape, [Shavanas, 2005] refers

to Homo sapien sapiens.

The same exercise can be applied to the verse Quran

7:11 and we would read:

Yea, indeed, We have shaped you from a

preexisting thing (khalaqa), and then sculpted

or perfected you to become distinguished

with modern human (first Homo sapien

sapiens or Adam and Eve) characteristics

(sawwarra); and then We said unto the an-

gles, Prostrate yourselves before Adam! -

whereupon they [all] prostrated themselves,

save Iblis: he was not among those who pros-

trated themselves. (Quran 7:11)[Asa, c]

We see that the first Homo sapien sapiens we shaped

from a preexisting thing. The evidence is again

to be found in the Quran were God explicitly tells

mankind that the modern man evolved from earlier ho-

minids.

And thy Sustainer alone is self-sufficient,

limitless in His grace. If He so wills, He

may put an end to you and thereafter cause

whom He wills to succeed you - even as He

has brought you into being out of other peo-ples seed. (Quran 6:133)[Asa, d]

The attentive reader would then ask the question: Who

are those other people?

Al-Biruni called them; animal man. We call themHomo

sapien, Homo erectus and other human likes who pre-

ceded theHomo sapiens sapien.

To end this part I would like to quote and article from

the leading journal in the scientific field, Science, sum-

marized the latest studies as follows:

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In the beginning, there was mitchondi-

ral Eve-a woman who lived in Africa between

100,000 and 200,000 years ago and was the

ancestor to all living humans. Geneticists

traced her identity by analyzing DNA passed

exclusively from mother to daughter in the

mitochondria, energy-producing organelles inthe cell. To test this view of human ori-

gins, scientists have been search ever since

for Eves consort: Adam, the man whose Y

chromosome) was passed on to every living

man and boy. Now, after almost a decade of

study, two international teams have found the

genetic trail of Adam. and it points to the

same time and place where mitochondrial Eve

lived.

This scientific evidence does not contradict the Quranic

assertion that humankind was created from a single pair

of a male and a female.

5 The location of the garden of

Eden

Many Muslims believe that Adam and Eve were created

in Paradise. After eating the fruit of the forbidden they

were expelled, send down, to earth. There is a great de-

bate the location of the garden.

According to Ibn Kathir and Ar-Razi four interpreta-

tions about the location prevail:

the Garden is Paradise itself located in the heavens

the Garden is a separate Paradise for Adam and

Eve and is not the paradise in heaven.

the Garden is located on earth

it is best for Muslims not to be concerned about the

location

The following Quranic verse discards the possibility

that the garden is in Paradise itself:

And [as for all such believers,] no humanbeing can imagine what blissful delights, as

yet hidden, await them [in the life to come]

as a reward for all that they did. (Quran

32:17)[Asa, e]

The words; no human being denotes all mankind, fol-

lowed by; can imagine indicate that no living soul, in-

cluding Adam and Eve, have seen the Paradise.

In another verse:

Immortal youths will wait upon them with

goblets, and ewers, and cups filled with water

from unsullied springs by which their minds

will not be clouded and which will not make

them drunk; and with fruit of any kind that

they may choose, and with the flesh of any

fowl that they may desire. (Quran 56:17-

21)[Asa, f]

The words; and with fruit of any kind that they may

choose refers to the fact that no forbidden fruit is lo-

cated in the Paradise. This is different from the Garden

of Eden were thethe forbidden treewas located.

As such, the Garden of Eden could not have been Par-

adise. Another verse to rule out the possibility of the

Garden being Paradise:

And He imparted unto Adam the names

of all things; then He brought them within the

ken of the angels and said: Declare unto Me

the names of these [things], if what you say is

true.

They replied: Limitless art Thou in Thy

glory! No knowledge have we save that

which Thou hast imparted unto us. Verily,

Thou alone art all-knowing, truly wise.

Said He: O Adam convey unto them the

names of these [things].

And as soon as [Adam] had conveyed unto

them their names, [God] said: Did I not say

unto you, Verily, I alone know the hidden re-

ality of the heavens and the earth, and know

all that you bring into the open and all that

you would conceal?And when We told the angels, Prostrate

yourselves before Adam! - they all pros-

trated themselves, save Iblis15, who refused

and gloried in his arrogance: and thus he be-

came on of those who deny the truth. (Quran

2:31-34)[Asa, g]

We read above that God learned all names to Adam.

According to Asad the meaning of names can be more

related to the essence of all things:

. . .

the knowledge of all the names denotes

here mans faculty of logical definition and,

thus conceptual thinking.[Asa, g]

The basic knowledge needed to start deducing.

The rest of the story is found in another surah as:

[And God] said: What has kept thee

[Iblis] from prostrating thyself when I com-

manded thee?

Answered [Iblis]: I am better than he: Thou

15Satan

7


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hast created me out of fire, whereas him Thou

has created out of clay.

[God] said: Down with thee, then, from this

[state] - for it is not meet for thee to show ar-

rogance here! Go forth, then: verily, among

the humiliated shalt thou be!

Said [Iblis]: Grant me a respite till the Day[of Judgement] when all shall be raised from

the dead.

[And God] replied: Verily thou shalt e

among those who are granted a respite.

(Quran 7:12-15)[Asa, h]

After the refusal of Iblis to bowe down before Adam,

he was expelled from the Garden and given respite until

they would be raised up from death on the Day of

Judgement. Hence Adam and Eve lived in a place were

death and decay were a reality and they knew that their

time was limited.

Another point is that after the expellation of Satan, he

was still able to dwell in the Garden of Eden, which

makes this place clearly different from Paradise were as

the Quran points out:

No empty talk will that hear there [in Par-

adise], nor any call to sin, but only the tiding

of inner soundness and peace. (Quran 56:24-

26)[Asa, i]

The Paradise described in the previous verse has no call

to sin. Hence, this Paradise is different than the Gardenof Eden from the story of Adam and Eve. This shows

us, that the Garden of Eden was located on earth.

6 On the Forbidden Tree

For long, the story of the Forbidden Tree has been taken

literally by believers. In Christianity, the Tree is respon-

sible for the original sin blamed on women because, ac-

cording to the story, Eve ate the fruit first.

In Islam the dual form16

is used. This verse conformsthat the eating of the fruit has been performed by Adam

as well as Eve.

And so the two ate [of the fruit] thereof:

and thereupon they became conscious of their

nakedness and began to cover themselves

with pieced-together leaves from the garden.

And [thus] did Adam disobey his Sustainer,

and thus did he fall into grievous error.(Quran

20:121)[Asa, j]

16Arabic has a special plural form that is used when talking about

exactly two persons.

Therefore, the original sin is for both man and woman.

Also, regarding the symbolism of Adam and Eves be-

coming conscious of their nakedness, Asads commen-

tary clarify as: of their utter helplessness and, hence,

their dependence to God.

Now, that we have put this problem aside, we must

study in more details the story of the Forbidden Tree. It

holds in its content, the key to humankind as we know

it now. It also gives allusion to the concept of free-will

as rule of the Universe, which will be explained more

in details in the next section.

Continuing the study of the Quran, we look

at explanation for the Forbidden Tree given by

[Asad, 2003]

This symbolic tree is designated in the

Bible as the tree of life and the tree of

knowledge of good and evil, (Genesis ii, 9),

while in the [above] Quranic account Satan

speaks of it as the tree of life eternal (al-

khuld). Seeing that Adam and Eve did not

achieve immortality despite their tasting the

forbidden fruit, it is obvious that Satans sug-

gestion was, as it always is, deceptive. On the

other hand, the Quran tells us nothing about

the real nature of that tree beyond pointing

out that it was Satan who described it - falsely- as the tree of immortality: and so we may

assume that the forbidden tree is simply an al-

legory of the limits which the Creator has set

to mans desire and actions:

. . .

become free of al all limitations and thus,

in the last resort, of the very concept of God

- the only concept which endows human life

with real meaning and purpose.[Asa, k]

We have a transition in state, from irrational, only know-

ing what was given to him, into a rational creature with

the ability of choice17. This transition denotes a step

from animal without reason into a fully fledged human.

Hence, the first thing given to human is the ability to

make a mistake, which opened the doors to the ability

to distinguish between good and bad deeds.

17Therefore, the Forbidden Tree is also called the Tree of Knowl-

edge

8


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7 On free-will, predestination and

chance events18

There has always been an important debate about ac-

tions and their consequences, and if, yes or no, we have

free-will or if our future is predestined.

We have seen that free-will, or at least, rational think-

ing, started with Adam and Eve eating from the fruits

of the Forbidden Tree. And that the, bad, action, of go-

ing against the will of God, opened a pandora box, of

possibilities for human.

Going back to the Quran we study the importance of

the word;vicegerent.

And lo! Thy Sustainer said unto the an-

gels: Behold, I am about to establish upon

earth one who shall inherit it. They said:

Wilt Thou place on it such as will spread

corruption thereon and shed blood - whereas

it is we who extol Thy limitless glory, and

praise Thee, and hallow Thy name? [God]

answered: Verily, I know that which you do

not know. (Quran 2:30)[Asa, l]

The importance of the word, vicegerent, resides in its

definition. It is a;person excersingdelegated poweron

behalf of a sovereign or ruler. As God speaks to all

mankind [Asa, m] all men a Gods delegate. Hence, the

responsibly of the earth has been given to us.

If we have delegated19 powerwe cannot but have free-

will. If God had pre-destined everything he would not

have made us His vicegerent but merely puppets playing

a long act calledlife.

Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (647-70520), the 5th

Umayyad Caliph, agreed with the concept of predesti-

nation. Imam al-Hasan al-Basri (642 - 728)21, a well-

known Muslim theologian replied:

O Commander of the faithful: do not alter

it or interpret it falsely. God would not openly

prohibit people from something and destinethem to do it secretly as the ignorant and the

18This chapter has been written to respond to the paradoxi-

cal title of the book: Dieu ou le hasard? Il faut choisir

- God or chance? One need to choose - from AbdelKhaled

Abdelkrim[Abdelkrim, 2002]. Paradoxical because God who created

everything also created chance and choosing between the two is not

consistent.19Entrust a task or responsibility to another20Reigned as Caliph from 685 to 70521Islam was still fresh and taken very seriously by the rules and

savants; More important still was the creation of great monumen-

tal buildings, themselves a public statement that the revelation given

thought Muhammed to mankind was the final and most complete one,

and that its kingdom would last for ever.[Hourani, 2005]

heedless say. If that were so, He would not

have said in the Quran, 41:40:Do what you

wish but would have said:Do what I have

destined you to do. Nor would He have said

in the Quran, 18:29:Whoever wills shall be-

lieve and whoever wills shall disbelieve but

would have said:Whoever I will shall believeand whoever I will shall disbelieve.

The fundamental purpose of the Quran, and the

Prophets authentic tradition, is to make us aware of

heaven and hell and of the moral or immoral decisions

that we could make by the use of our free-will in an

unpredictable world.[Sha, ]

Many Muslims believe that because evolution is based

on chance events22 it is in contradiction with Islamic

teachings. If we agree with the idea that the universe

has been created in a deterministic fashion, we fall into

grave moral issues.

First, nobody would have the possibility to act differ-

ently of what was predicted. Hence, Marc Dutroux23

would not had acted based on his personal decisions but

would had followed what was predestined for him. And

this case, he is not responsible for his actions24 because

he only followed Gods plan.

Second, as God made us His vicegerent, and thus

delegates the responsibility of the earth to us, we take

decisions according to what we know.

The main verse that predestinationism uses as argument

is:

God has sealed their hearts and their hear-

ing, and over their hearts and their hearing,

and over their eyes is a veil; and awesome suf-

fering awaits them. (Quran 2:7)[Asa, n]

Reading it literally we see that God has sealedthe heart

of persons in such a way that they cannot but change

their destiny. However, it is their own actions that led

them to that state. [Asa, o] has this to say about the

verse:A reference to the natural law instituted

by God, whereby a person who persistently

adheres to false beliefs and refuses to listen

to the voice of truth gradually loses the abil-

ity to perceive the truth so that finally, as it

were, as seal is set upon his (Raghib). Since

it is God who has instituted all laws of nature

22Notonly chance - note added because my professor of philosophy

might be furious if I did not clarify this.23A notorious Belgian pedophile who raped and killed innoncent

little girls, Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo and others, in 1995.24Try explaining this to the parents of the children.

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- which, in their aggregate, are called Sunnah

Allah (the way of God) - this sealing is at-

tributed to Him: but obviously a consequence

of mans free choice and not an act of pre-

destination.

Apparently, there is some kind of attractor on the wayof God. A person falls too far from the way, as a

consequence of his own actions, there is no turning

back.

However, we need to study for whom these verses are

meant. The response is the verse preceding it.

Behold, as for those who are bent on

denying the truth - it is all one to them

whether thou warnest them or dost not

warn them: they will not believe. (Quran

2:6)[Asa, p]In this verse, the frequently occurring word al-kafirun

(those who deny the truth), is not used but the past

tense is used; alladihnia kafaru indicating conscious

intent, and is therefore, appropriately rendered as

those who are bent on denying the truth[Asa, q]

It is then important to further analyze the expression

kafrbecause, as most Muslims think, it does not mean

not believing, but has another more general meaning ex-

plained by the verse.

not of ease, for all who [now] deny thetruth! (Quran 74:10)

This is the first time the wordkafir25 has been used in

the Quran. According to[Asad, 2003]the word indi-

cates; one who denies [or refuses to acknowledge]

the truth in the widest, spiritual sense of this latter

term; that is, irrespective of whether it relates to a cog-

nition of the supreme truth - namely, the existence of

God - or to a doctrine or ordinance enunciated in the di-

vine writ, or to a self-evident moral proposition, or to an

acknowledgment of, and there fore gratitude for, favors

received.[Asa, s].

Also, the term iskafircannot , as many Muslim theolo-

gians of post-classical times and practically all West-

ern translator of the Quran have done, with unbe-

liever: or infidel in the specific, restricted sense of

one who rejects the system of doctrine and law pro-

mulgate in the Quran and amplified by the teachings

of the Prophet - but must have a wider, ore general

meaning.[Asa, r]

Hence, the term indicate only the core of unbelievers,

25The root of the word comes from kafara; he [or it] covered [a

thing][Asa, r]

that do not even adhere to aself-evident moral proposi-

tion.

Now, that we have established that free-will is given

to mankind as a way to choose between possibilities

and that the small amount of predestination is only ade-

quate in very rare cases

26

we can widened our analysistochance events.

The concepts of predestination, free-will and chance

events are closely related. If modern Muslims ac-

cept predestination as the governing rule of the world,

chance events cannot happens. In that case we live in

universe created as a clock that is deterministic without

any ability for change and adaptation. As the whole fu-

ture of mankind would be predetermined and the only

role of God would be to observe time go by.

In that case the attribute of God; Al-Muakh-khir27

looses all meaning and cannot be given to a God who

from the start has fixed everythingChance events, as with evolution, are a reality of this

world. However, many Muslim reject it as we will see

in the next section were we will try to understand why

so many Muslims reject the modern discoveries about

creation and evolution.

8 Summary and conclusion

We have taken a long trip from the creation of

mankind28 whove evolved from an irrational to a

rational creature and given the ability to think, reflect

and distinguish between good and bad.

We have tried to understand why the mainstream of

modern Muslims do not agree with modern scientific

discovery. Even when savant Muslims from the Middle

Ages whom are given hugely respected by the commu-

nity (umma) have written long passages in their books

about it. Are Muslims entering a Dark Age, like the

European Middle Ages? Is it possible that high Muslim

authorities, like the Christian Middle Age priests, hold

information back from the masses. Those questions

need to be answered to avoid stubborn and meaningless

debates between believers and non-believers aboutscience and religion being not compatible.

To be clear I would like to say that I only support

evolution as a theory and not yet as a fact. The point

Im trying to prove here is that science and religion

can, and should be, reconciliated. The Quran is not

a book of science. However, a book claiming to be

from God should resist the test of time. That is, in the

beginning of Islam the Quran was regarded, and is still

26Cases obtained by ones free will to do so.27The Delayer, the Retarder, The One who puts things in their right

places. He makes ahead what He wills and delays what He wills.28Creation of the Universe is also explained in the Quran.

10


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regarded, as the highest literature text in Islam. That

alone was sufficiant to convert many non-believers to

Islam because they realised that the book could not

have been written by prophet as he was an illiterate.

Now we live in a world that is based on scientific facts.

Everything needs to be provable and sound. My paper

shows that the Quran easily adapts to our time. Byshifting our point of view, we can see how the Quran

support modern scientific research and results. This is

what Dr. Zendani Abdelmajid understood better than

no one. In his book, Ceci est la verit e and talks

he confronts top scienticts with the scientific truth

from the Quran. As such, he takes the example of the

Prophet confronting the highest respected poets from

his time. The convertion of those highly influencial

people adds weight to the message because of their

respected position.

In the end, Islam is a religion of science and will,

thanks to the Quran and its Prophet stressing theimportance of it, always find a way prove wrong

theories from people who read to literally or are bent

on defending their opinion without any valid arguments.

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