Darwin himself was a Theist as he confirmed in
his book “Life and Letters” “Another source of conviction in the existence of
God, connected with the reason, and not with the feelings, impresses me as
having much more weight. This follows from the extreme difficulty or rather
impossibility of conceiving this immense and wonderful universe, including man
with his capacity of looking for backwards and far into futurity, as the result
of blind chance or necessity. When thus reflecting I feel compelled to look to
a First Cause having an intelligent mind in some degree analogous to that of
man; and I deserve to be called a Theist. I cannot pretend to throw the least
light on such abstruse problems.
The
mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must
be content to remain an Agnostic."Evolution is discussed in great detail
in the Qur’an but was forgotten by Muslim for several reason I can’t go into
but deeper research clearly had shown that long before Darwin, Muslim
scientists, that understood several verses of the Qur’an infer the idea of
evolution as we can see, notably by, Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), who was even
called the father of Sociology. In his famous book Muqaddimah, Ibn Khaldun
proposes a theory of evolution starting from minerals. Minerals, according to
him, evolve and become seeded and seedless plants. Plants evolve and reach to
their zenith with palm trees and vines. The evolution continues with snails and
shelled sea animals.
The
diversification in animal kingdom reaches the zenith of creation by gradual
evolution into human beings with consciousness and thinking skills. According
to Ibn Khaldun, monkeys are the link between animals and the first stage of
humanity. He presents the theory of evolution by using scientific language,
arguing that the essence of creation (in modern terminology: genetic code)
passes through various changes (mutations) generating one species after another
(descent with modification) Muhammad al-Haytham (965-1039), who is known in the
West by the name Alhazen, defends human evolution starting from minerals,
plants, and animals in Kitabal Manazer, his book on optical science. The Muslim
Geologist al-Biruni (973-1048) in his book Kitab al-Jamahir also asserts that
humans are created after long periods of evolution from simple organisms
through natural selection. Unfortunately, violent suppression of free speech
and enforcement of anti-Quranic apostasy law by Muslim rulers and their
hand-picked scholars plunged the Muslim world into another Jahiliyya period
(dark age) that we are yet to emerge from.Based on the above, for 20 years i
delved into the issue and i am able to produce a book, yet to be published,
which i titled “Science and Scriptures: Friends or Foes?” in which i explain
the evolutionary theory as Qur’an introduced it long before Darwin and the main
difference between evolution according to scripture and that of Darwin and
neo-darwinians is the atheistic overtones and the campaign to eliminate God
from scheme of things. Below is a quote from my book,“Q39:6 "He created
you all from one being"It is known that insofar as life and living matter
can be investigated by science, plants and animals cannot be described as being
alive in different degrees.
Animals and plants are extremely closely
related. They are alike in their fundamental characters and the actual
boundaries between plants and animals are artificial and are based solely on
the ingenious analysis of the systematists.The most obvious distinction is that
animal's cell wall is either absent or composed of nitrogenous materials,
whereas the plant cell wall is composed of carbohydrate material, the
cellulose. All forms of life in this planet are found in cell or are the
product of the activity of cells. The cell has no counterpart in the natural
inanimate objects except perhaps the atom. The cellular structures of all cells
are modulation of a common plan. Plants and animals require food to repair
waste, build up new tissues and provide materials, which by chemical change may
liberate the energy, which appears in the process of life. Both have the same
general chemical composition being made up of water, inorganic salts,
carbohydrate, fats and proteins. Both take their water and inorganic salt
directly as such. The distinction between plants and animals are in fact
obviously secondary and adaptive and points clearly towards the conception of
common origin for the two forms of life, a conception which is still more
probable by the existence of many low forms of life (The protists) in which the
primary difference between plants and animals fade out.
Besides in the above verse God said we all
came through "one being" not one man as popularly assumed. Water God
told us in the Qur’anQ21:30"We have made from water every living thing.
Will they not then believe?"And in the Old Testament Genesis 1:20"And
God said let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures that hath life”
Science has already established that the first emergence of life in this planet
from inorganic beginnings had only happened once in the history of the earth
from water. The first living cell emerged in an aquatic habitat about 3.5
billion years ago. The ozonosphere was in the process of accumulation, not
developed enough to protect organism on land. At that stage under these
conditions life was only possible deep inside the ocean at which depth all the
ultraviolet rays would have been absorbed. In the above verse God told us he
created every living thing (plants, animals and protists) from water.
You
may well ask, are all living things adaptable to water? Of course not rather
God is telling us that the first form of life to have emerged was from water,
which subsequently gave rise to all forms of life. Scientist has remarkably
explained how chemicals in the oceans with the help of other external agencies
helped in making the first living cell to emerge. How does it managed to
produce its descendants? Mate (Eve) after the creation of Adam (who happens to
be the first living cell) God decided to evolve all other living things from
him. For this task, there must be an agency that will be responsible for the
procreation because for any new individual to be brought into being there must
be cooperation between the male sex and the female sex (sperm or spermatozoa
and ovum or egg).God says in Qur’anQ7:18" 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)"And in Genesis 3:20"And Adam called his wife’s
name Eve” The female, Eve (Hawwa) which is derived from the root word Haya (In
Hebrew) means ‘to live’. Genesis 3:20 further explains “Because she would
become the mother of all living” So from the single cell, within its parts God
creates the opposite sex "of like nature", that is the opposite sex
was created within the first living cell possessing the same constitution and
properties.
We
all know that sexuality is not an either/or determination. Some organisms (like
the first living cell) reproduce by simple meiosis, just as ordinary cells do.
Some organisms produce both sperm and egg (The Hermaphrodites) other organisms
have the opposite sex in separate organisms. The reproductive process of all
living organisms shows the male sex cell always seeking the female sex cell and
they have affinity for each other the love mentioned in the above verse. The
first being God created was Adam whom God planned to be the progenitor of all
living things not only Humans as majority of people wrongly assume. He created
Adam (the first living cell) in water and programmed him with all the
information and the biochemical processes (the chromosomes and genes) that will
subsequently gave rise to all other classes of living things. And that is what
God says “Taught Adam the nature of all things “not only humans but also the
whole animal, plant and protest kingdoms. In a lesser degree we can also see
that any individual came into existence after the fertilization of the ovum by
a sperm, which produce a zygote. This microscopic cell undergoes a process of
proliferation and differentiation that develops into a fully matured individual.
The first living cell giving rise to all other cells is no more over-whelming
than the zygote producing an individual with billions of cells. The basic
genetic mechanism is fundamentally the same in all-living things. In further
elaboration God says Q 39: 6" He created you all from one being, then from
that being he made its mate. And he provide for you eight head of animals kind.
He created you in wombs of your mothers; he created you in stages one after
another, in three veils of darkness.
Such is God, your lord and cherisher “This verse
in a nutshell summarizes evolution. Islamic scholars, when explaining this
verse tend to restrict the meaning to only creation in the womb. Their
difficulty arises in the inclusion of animals in the verse (they couldn’t
fathom the roles of animals in the scheme of things), as they lack evolutionary
knowledge. In another verse Q 36:71 "Do they not see that it is we who
created for them- from that which our hands have fashioned- cattle which are
under their dominion?”God here is calling on mankind for 12 centuries to
understand that all animals have evolved from "that which God’s hand have
fashioned" What is that specifically? God supplied the answer in the next
two chapters Q 38:75 "(God) said "O Iblis (Satan)! What prevents you
from prostrating yourself to one whom I have created with my own
hands?"Adam, the first living cell, is the only one created by Gods own
hands meaning he is the only one to come directly out of inorganic matter. All
others came through existing living parents or parent. Adam is the progenitor
of humans as well as animals as the above two verses confirms. The former verse
was talking about three stages of evolutionary development, which God calls
"the three veils of darkness". One, we all came from that first
living cell, which contained all the information, needed to develop into the
three kingdoms (some scientist are now calling for four or five kingdoms, the bacteria
and viruses apart).
Then
back to our kingdom, the animal kingdom God ordered the division of the kingdom
into eight heads. Those are: 1. KINGDOM: This is the division the three forms
of living organisms that exist in this planet namely the plants, animals and
protists. The Animals kingdom is distinguished from the other two as God says
in Q 29: 60" How many are the creatures that carry not their own
sustenance" For more than half of about three million species that
populated this planet are animals and all animals are incapable of synthesizing
carbohydrates and proteins from inorganic or simple organic substances, but
must ingest them in complex form as food and they have freedom of spatial
movement. On the other hand plants are capable of synthesizing carbohydrates
and proteins from inorganic or simple organic substances and they do not have
freedom of spatial movement. For protists they combine the characteristics of
both kingdom e.g. bacteria and protozoa 2. PHYLUM: This constitutes the primary
division of the animals' kingdom into vertebrates and invertebrates 3. CLASS:
Those that have similarities common to the group but differed from members
categorized in primary group together e.g. mammals 4. ORDER: Composing of
families of similar construction e.g. carnivores and omnivores 5.FAMILY:
Composed of those genera having certain characteristics in common e.g. Cats,
Tigers, and Lions. 6. GENUS: - These are species that are structurally or
phylogenetically related or consisting of isolated specie showing universal
difference e.g. Horses and Zebras are of the same genus. 7. SPECIES: Those with
common characteristic, being genetically distinctive and reproductively
isolated natural population e.g. Homo sapiens .8. VARIETY: - Which is the
Geographical distribution of a population that differs from each other in minor
details e.g. in Dogs you have the spaniel and shepherd. Finally every individual
came into being through the process of fertilization of an ovum and the through
the process of proliferation and differentiation of that single cell, he
develops into a new individual with full pledge organs composing of billions of
cells. God call these processes as "stages" and "veil of
darkness" can anyone explain better? We have seen earlier God told us Q 25:54
"It is he who created man from water" We know that on the primitive
earth during the emergence of life, life was not possible on land because of
intensive radiation and God told us we all evolved from one being he has
created from water. Man was created from water through evolution.
And if Adam was human can he exist in
water. Furthermore God told us that he explained everything in detail in the
Quran. But nowhere in the book did God told us about the existence of Adam as
human on earth. Had it been he is a man, his story on earth about his family,
struggle and life would have been narrated like all other prophets that
existed. The reference in chapter 5 verses 27 to 31 about the sons of Adam is
reference to early men not of son's as in the relationship of father and son,
besides every human is labeled as son of Adam. In contrast to this God has told
us in Graphic imagery of the existence of Adam in the former plane from his
spiritual creation to his fall. God says Q 24:45 "And has created every
animal from water, of them are some that creep on their bellies" The
marine fauna generally swims and their swimming is like creeping on their
bellies. Scientific evidence has proven that all animals' origin was from water
and the early living creatures were living in water because in the early
Paleozoic era land was not sufficiently protected from the ultraviolet rays
which are destructive to nucleic acid and exposure on land can kill any
organism in minutes. As such life is still restricted to oceans at which depth
all the ultraviolet rays would have been absorbed, though visible light would
still filter through to allow plant photosynthesis.
Enough atmospheric oxygen accumulated in the
atmosphere due to plant photosynthesis and photo dissociation of water vapor
and cosmic rays converted the oxygen (02) into Ozone (03), which eventually
formed Ozonosphere (the Ozone layer) that became a protective shield against
radiation. This gave the opportunity for plants and animals to colonize land. From
marine to terrestrial life, the development of continental deposits gave us a
clear picture of the colonization of land by marine faunas and the subsequent
radiation of amphibians and reptiles. From creeping on their bellies,
environmental changes, due to adaptation, necessitate some animals to develop
legs for easy mobility on land. Though there are some land animals that retains
the "Creeping on bellies" mode of mobility like worms, snakes, and
other insects. Majority of higher animals on land develop legs, which are in
pairs. Oceans flooded covering most of the present-day Asia and Europe. The
first deserts emerged, which are the result of the constant mach of the sun over
the two tropics for over four Billion years. Swamps and coal forest also
developed with overall increase in the global temperature.
This is the era of the dinosaurs, as they
dominate the planet. Some of them even developed wings and took to the sky.
About 180 Million years the first placental mammals appeared and the
temperature cools again concentrating the ice caps in the Polar Regions.
Insects were not left behind, because the spread of flowering plants enhanced
their survival. A great event that is to play a great role in the proliferation
and differentiation of species occurred towards the tail end of this period.
This event is Continental drift. Continental Drift Q 88:17 & 20“ Do they
not look at.....the earth and how it is spread out?”The Oxford English Dictionary
says “Spread” means “to send out in various direction so as to cover or extend
over a larger area of space” God asked us in the above verse to look at the
earth, can't we see how it was originally assembled in a single vast continent
(The Pangaea) before it was spread out into the presents six continent? For
1200 years no body looked carefully enough to realize it until about 1800 when
Alexander Von Humboldt theorized that the land bordering the Atlantic Ocean had
once been joined.
50 years later in 1858, Antonio Snider,
a French scientist suggested the idea of the continental drift after he had
observed the two sides of the Atlantic Ocean. He realizes that the sides can be
made to fit together like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle, the correspondence being
too remarkable for coincidence. A study of the rocks, geological formations,
fossils and living plant and animal on both side of the Atlantic showed
significant correspondence at the same latitude and it seemed evident that the
two shores must once have been connected. In 1912, Alfred Wegener produce an
amazing body of evidence in favor of the view that the American land mass was
once actually in contact with Europe and Africa but later broke away and
drifted towards the west. He further showed that similar relations existed
between Africa, Antarctica, Australia and India in Paleozoic times. It is
believed that South America and Africa began to separate about 100 million
years ago (Cretaceous period) as did North America and Europe, thereby creating
the Atlantic Ocean.
The Indian Ocean began to open up during
the Jurassic era. The Principal movement however, occurred during the
cretaceous and tertiary period when the Indian sub-continent moved north and
collided with Asia. And Australia became separated from Antarctica driving into
the Indonesian archipelago. These movements drastically changed the physical
geography of the continents as God says Q 21:31 "And we have set on the
earth mountains standing firm, lest it should shake with them" Thus, the
westward drift of the American continent generates the compressive forces that
produce the western cordilleran mountain range. And the northward drift of
India crumpled a large area thus forming the Himalayas. The Alpine ranges were
the result of north-south compression between Africa and Europe. And thus
mountain chains maintained the balance the continent had lost after the break
up. These kinds of movements of the continents are achieved because of the
ability of the continental plates carrying them.
When these plates moved apart or away from
each other in the oceans it created a long, sinuous chains of volcanic
mountains called the mid-ocean ridges and a new sea floor is created at the
sites of these ridges. But if the movement occurred on land, deep valleys known
as rift valleys formed like the Great Rift Valley that extends from Syria to
Mozambique. In the case where plates did not move apart but collide or push
against each other, regions called convergent plate margins formed. Along these
margins one plate is usually forced to dive below the other, triggering the
melting of the surrounding lithosphere, creating curve chains of volcanoes
known as arc. If two continental plates collides it tend to raise the crust by
faulting, folding or arching up layers of rock and mountain building occurs as
I gave the example above of the Himalayas. The continental drift theory is
backed up by several facts. Chief among them are: the biological proofs that
tropical plants once grew in green land and that glaciers once covered the equatorial
regions of Africa and Brazil. It also includes the distribution of marsupials
in the southern hemisphere and the curious occurrence of distinct species in
South America, South Africa, Australia and India. There is also the discovery
of reptilian fossils in frozen Antarctica. It was also proven beyond doubt that
the magnetic poles of the earth (North and South) were in quite different
positions with regard to continents. A study of magnetic rocks at various
period of geological history showed there had been outflows of Basalt and other
igneous rocks containing magnetic materials. Those magnets show inconsistent
rotation and drifting that point directly to movement of the continents
carrying them.
Today the movement of the continents is
calculated by firing laser beams at a satellite and then measuring with extreme
accuracy the length of the time it takes for the beam to bounce back to earth.
Using this technique it has been possible to show that an investigative site in
Maryland is moving away from one in England at the speed of 1.7 cm per year.
Also measuring signals from distant quasars in space by measuring differences
in the time of receiving two identical signals at two different sites and then
comparing those differences in a similar experiment at a later time, it is
possible to measure the speed at which those two sites are departing from one
another. It is calculated that most of the Continents drifted only about one
inch (2.5 cm) a year, depending upon the area of the world. This small movement
has in 100 million years, separate Africa and South America in a corresponding
distance of 3000 miles. Based on this some scientist have believed that in the
future the California coast may tear away from the main land and drifted north
towards Alaska, while Africa and North America may move further apart enlarging
the Atlantic Ocean. And Australia, drifting north, may collide with Asia. In
the last day of creation (The sixth day) and certainly the most important,
because it is here that God’s supreme experiment comes to fruition.
The
six-day (period) ended with the creation (or more appropriately the evolving)
of man. Man came into existence when 99.5% of the evolutionary process has
passed. Using isotopic dating the earth was estimated to be about five billion
years old. And by the method of fluorine test and radiocarbon dating, the
oldest fossils indicate that life began on this planet about 3 billion years
ago. Man had only appeared in the scene some 5 or 6 million years ago. God says
Q 76:1 "Has there not been over man a long period of time when he was
nothing-not even mentioned?"Indeed! Considering few million years out of 5
billion years of earth creation or the 15 or more billion years estimated for
the break-up of the original primeval matter (the big bang) is like a blink of
the eye, almost negligible. The evolution of man, like any other form of life
follows through the same evolutionary process. That is originating from that
first living cell created in water. God says Q 25: 54 "It is he who has
created man from water. Then has he established the relationship of Lineage and
marriage: for thy lord has power (Over all things)."Through the
evolutionary process of Descent (Lineage) by means of reproduction (marriage)
the first living cell gave rise to marine animals from which land animals
emerged.
The first of the land animals were the
amphibians, then the reptiles, birds and finally mammals, the last of the major
class of animals from where man finally evolved. Mammals arose from Therapsida,
an order of reptiles that became extinct. In the history of all group of
animals there seems to be brief periods of rapid evolution during which a new
major type arise. The resulting major type then evolve more slowly, most of
them eventually becoming extinct, until one or more of the surviving type again
gave rise to a new group of major types. The process of parental stock breaking
up into such group is called Adaptive Radiation (which God refers as lineage
and marriage). There was four such period is the history of mammals. 1. The
radiation of mammal-like reptiles into a number of sub-classes of mammals. Only
two of those survive today. 2. The radiation of marsupials produces a great
variety of pouched mammals, which are now mostly extinct.3. The primitive
placental mammals’ radiation into a number of major types of which most are now
extinct. 4. Finally there was the fourth radiation of placental mammals into
the modern orders most of which survive today. The modern order is the Theria,
which have about 26 major group of which about ten are now extinct. Man
belonged to one of the existing groups, which is the primate. In this group are
also monkeys and apes. Direct evidence of paleontology and genetics and the
indirect evidence of comparative anatomy led the scientific conclusion that the
Anthropoid ape family and the Hominidae represent divergent lines of evolution
derived from a common ancestral stock and that only towards the terminal stage
of the hominid line did the brain expand to the large size of the terminal
specie Homo sapiens (You and me). Therefore science and religion are both
right, if only we could overcome our bias and look at the facts.
