Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Human evolution and Islam


Islam is quite clear on the subject of human evolution: there was none.
This is how About Islam.com explains the issue...
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).
Notice how the author already muddies the issue by confusing the idea of man and apes evolving from a common ancestor (what anthropologists believe and what we have evidence for) with man evolving from apes (what no anthropologist or scientist has ever suggested). Notice also the sly use of the word randomly - meaning what exactly in this context?

My Muslim friend and I were debating this issue some years ago. If, he said, "a missing link between men and apes" (meaning between man and his hominid ancestors) were ever discovered, he would abandon his faith since the creation of Adam and Eve as the originators of mankind is a basic tenet of Islam.

So what do Muslims make of the ever-increasing amount of fossil evidence for the so-called missing links. How do they fit homo erectus and homo habilis for example, into their world view?

Let us return to the Muslim view of the creation of Man for one moment as described once again by About Islam. (and lest anyone accuse me of picking on Islam here, let's remember that Mohammed got his "facts" from the Judeo-Christian creation stories, which in turn were borrowed from more ancient myths and so on and so on...)

The Qur'an describes how Allah created Adam: "We created man from sounding clay, from mud moulded into shape..." (15:26). And, "He began the creation of man from clay, and made his progeny from a quintessence of fluid" (32:7-8). Thus, human beings have a fundamental attachment to the earth.


While the creation of Eve is not described in detail, the Qur'an does make it clear that a "mate" was created with Adam, from the same nature and soul. "It is He Who created you from a single person, and made his mate of like nature, in order that he might dwell with her in love" (7:189). She is not mentioned by name in the Qur'an, but in Islamic tradition she is known as "Hawwa" (Eve).


From these two individuals, generations of human beings have inhabited the earth. "Oh humankind! We created you from a single pair of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, so that you may know each other (not that ye may despise each other). Verily the most honoured among you in the sight of Allah is the who is the most righteous of you. And Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things)" (49:13).
As can be seen from the above surah, there is no escaping the very explicit reference to "two individuals" and "a single pair of male and female".
No Muslim can allow himself or herself to accept what modern science tells us to be our origins. If they do, they must, logically, reject their faith and will burn in Hell for all eternity...Because rememeber, Allah is "the most merciful of all those who are merciful"...

Doe this perhaps explain the despicable rantings of our favourite lunatic revert, Yusuf Estes?

19 comments:

  1. Peace,

    It is amazing how you deleted the part of the verse to misquote it !! Are you serious my friend ? or you just dont care and would make things up ? Let me give you the entire verse, and the parts you deleted in UPPERCASE:

    5:101
    O you who believe, do not ask about things which, if revealed to you, would harm you; AND IF YOU ASK ABOUT THEM AFTER THE QUR'AN HAS BEEN SENT DOWN, THEN THEY WILL BECOME CLEAR TO YOU. GOD PARDONS FOR THEM, AND GOD IS FORGIVING, COMPASSIONATE.

    5:102
    A people before you had asked the same, then they became rejecters in it.

    I hope you are a honest person and correct this mistake that you made intentionally/unintentionally.

    By the way, evolution is the best explanation of the origin of man(so far). Muslims generally reject it because they are like sheep, their mullahs are the shepherd. The mullahs are in love with arab fabrications that became popular centuries after the death of Muhammad.

    Peace be on you

    ---------- Student of Allah

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    1. Hello, can I be a friend of yours please?

      Here is my Facebook Email:

      next_hissa@hotmail.com

      Please give me an Add...

      Delete
    2. Salam,

      You can click on my name and find my blog and subscribe there. From there you can send a friend request I suppose.

      Peace
      ------------- Student of Allah

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  2. Hello Student of Allah,
    Peace to you too, man.
    Thanks for the comment. In answer to your first objection: I didn't misquote - I showed clearly [...] that I had taken a portion of the text to highlight my concern that God should apparently be telling us NOT TO ASK QUESTIONS. (apart from the obvious logical problem of not knowing which particular things we shouldn't ask about because we don't know which answers will "harm us" until we get a response. Perhaps you can enlighten me on that one...?)I should also like to point out that the actual quote is this: "But if ye ask about things when the Qur'an IS BEING revealed, they will be made plain to you..." A small but important distinction, I think.
    Thank you for your thoughts on evolution. Are you saying therefore that you don't believe in Adam and Eve?

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    1. Peace be on you,

      The "...." thing is ok, but only when you are not alleging something that is refuted by the content in the "....". I hope you get my point. If you read the Qur'an, you will find the what those questions are. The general tendency of the people around the messenger was to trouble him. Being a human being like you and me, he could not give them any guidance, instead, if he started giving them stuff from his own, he would surely send them towards rejection. Here is one such example:

      7:201 Those who are pious, when any evil from the devil touches them, they remember, then they can see.

      7:202 And their brethren attempt to drive them towards error, they do not cease.

      7:203 And because you do not bring them a sign, they say: "If only you had brought one." Say: "I only follow what is inspired to me from my Lord. This is an evidence from your Lord, and a guide and mercy to a people who believe."

      7:204 And if the Qur'an is being read, then listen to it and pay attention, that you may receive mercy.

      10:15 And when Our clear revelations were recited to them, those who do not wish to meet Us said: "Bring a Qur'an other than this, or change it!" Say: "It is not for me to change it of my own accord, I merely follow what is inspired to me. I fear, if I disobeyed my Lord, the retribution of a great Day!"

      I am sure you will or have found many other such excerpts where you notice this tendency of people to poke the messenger ..lol. And these behaviors dominate till date, that is the fuel for the so called "sunnah".

      I believe in Adam, but not in the traditional sense. To state it straight forward, I think of Adam to be the first exemplary person in the long lineage of homo-sapiens. I was thinking about writing an article on it. What do you say ?

      If you want to contact me, you can email or leave a message in my blog.

      Peace be with you

      -------------------- Student of Allah

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    2. "Being a human being like you and me, he could not give them any guidance, instead, if he started giving them stuff from his own, he would surely send them towards rejection."
      But he did "give them stuff from his own". What about when was questioned by suspicious putative followers about the Mary/Miriam confusion? He told them that calling ancient ancestors "sister" (as in "sister of Aaron" was a custom in those days.
      I'm glad you've got beyond believing Adam and Eve were created by God as the first humans. Perhaps you could persuade the vast majority of the followers of Islam, including your imams.

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    3. Peace,

      Hello Spinoza, its difficult for me to find you, because I have to google out this page and come back to see if you responded. Anyways here we go:

      I do not know what you are talking about when you mention the Mary/Mariyam confusion. I can not recall which part of the Qur'an are you referring to. If you are referring to yet another "hadith", well let me clarify that in my blog, I officially shred them into pieces. People collecting public surveys 3 centuries after a man's death can not be attributed to the man with any degree of sanity. Besides, the Qur'an is clear on stating that it is fully detailed and no outside sources should be considered for Islam.

      Adam/Eve, hmm, well, for that matter, God says he created me from dust too...so what ? now should I disbelieved that I was a product of my parents having sex ? These imams/sheikhs cherry pick and interpret using hadith, and hadiths are mostly arab tradition and christian/jewish traditions repackaged. I can not persuade the vast majority, one has to help her/himself out. If I am not wrong, you are an athiest, and that is because you cared enough to learn by yourself and accept/deny based on what information you have at hand. That to me is a better position than being a follower of God based on nothing but "blind sheep" method.

      I would advice you to study the Qur'an, as you seem to be interested in debunking ISLAM. Study it, and document things you agree/disagree with. There is no point in studying the hearsay traditions and attacking Qur'an on that basis. Once you start reading Qur'an, you will see what I am talking about. It is a document which is under-appreciated by both muslims/non-muslims. Almost everything you know about Islam is probably not from Qur'an but from hadith.

      Anyways, best of luck with all good work that you do in life. May you walk the straight path and do not conceal the truth knowingly.

      Peace
      -------------- Student of Allah

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    4. Hi Student of Allah,
      Thank you again for your thoughtful comments.
      The Mary/Miriam confusion is important and I think you would find it interesting to study. Here's my post on it: http://rationalislam.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/did-mohammad-confuse-mary-and-miriam.html
      This is nothing to do with the hadith apart from Muhammad's response.
      By the way, if you don't believe the hadith, then why do you pray 5 times a day? I can't remember seeing that injunction in the Qur'an. Surely, according to my understanding, if you follow only the Qur'an and ignore or discount the hadith, then you are what is termed a Qur'anist and not a Muslim.
      I HAVE studied the Qur'an. I have read it many times in many languages - I am a linguist by profession.

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    5. Hi Spinoza,

      I will have a look at the link you gave me.

      Your question: By the way, if you don't believe the hadith, then why do you pray 5 times a day?

      My answer: Did I tell you that I pray 5 times a day ?

      Well, you can use any term you like, I do not give others the right to decide if my understanding of the scripture makes me non-muslim. But if you say that I am not a traditional muslim, thats true. Even though I envy your linguistic skills, I can't help but point out that you should have known better about the Qur'an's rejection of any other source's beside it. You should have known that it tells you that its detailed by "the author" by bringing forth every kind of examples. I am not talking about interpretation or extrapolation, I am talking about Qur'anic verses themselves.

      Peace be with you

      ------------ Student of Allah

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  3. Islam is name of humility, peace and tolerance. But Western media show the bad image of Islam

    umrah visa 2013

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  4. Islam is name of humility, peace and tolerance. But Western media show the bad image of Islam

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. Islam is name of humility, peace and tolerance. But Western media show the bad image of Islam

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  7. Islam is name of humility, peace and tolerance. But Western media show the bad image of Islam

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  8. Islam is name of humility, peace and tolerance. But Western media show the bad image of Islam

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    1. I think we got it the first time, Sajjad.
      Shouting it lots of times doesn't make it any truer...
      (btw - I take it your picture is "ironic" given the content of your insistent comment...)

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  9. Hi
    i stumbled upon this site while searching for evolution and islam and i remembered this article i read http://www.ldolphin.org/islamcreat.html also u can ignore the introduction seeing how the article is quite outdated also id like to note that throughout the quran the notion of gradual creation is mentioned abundantly and also finally the quran isnt a book of science its a book of faith so the problem people have with things not being spelled out in a "scientific" manner is an irrelevant issue.

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    1. Hi Jack,
      Thanks for your comment. I shall follow the dolphin link. In the meantime can you refer me to some of the "abundant" descriptions of gradual creation in the Qur'an and how these suggest that its author therefore is referring to the evolution of man over billions of years?

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  10. Muslims do not believe in the 'survival of the fittest', rather they believe in the survival of the numerically most abundant population. That's how they intend to dominate the democratic world.

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