Islam and Evolution

Allah has selected Islam as a way of life. Allah says in the Qur’an,
 الْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ وَأَتْمَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ نِعْمَتِي وَرَضِيتُ لَكُمُ الْإِسْلَامَ دِينًا 
“This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favour upon you and have made Islam as your religion.” (5:3) 

Everything we need to know and do to please Allah can be found in the Qur’an and in the life of the Prophet ﷺ. For example, Allah ordered us to pray and therefore we pray; Allah ordered us to give charity and so we give charity. Allah also ordered us to stay away from haram (forbidden) food and therefore we stay away from things like pork and alcohol. There are a certain number of beliefs that we must have in order to be a Muslim and it is really important we study these beliefs. Unfortunately, some people try to use science, history, philosophy and other methods to confuse our pristine belief system. 	 

One of the theories that has been used to confuse Muslims is that of Darwin’s theory of evolution. Part of the theory states that human beings evolved from other species. There are two ways to tackle the theory of Darwinian evolution or human evolution; one from a scientific perspective while the other is from a scriptural perspective. I will begin by tackling it from a scriptural perspective.  

Allah tells us in the Qur’an what to believe regarding our creation. The Qur’an clearly states that Adam was created by Allah, by His own hands. He said, 
 إِذْ قَالَ رَبُّكَ لِلْمَلَائِكَةِ إِنِّي خَالِقٌ بَشَرًا مِّن طِينٍ  
“Your Lord said to the angels, ‘I am going to create a human being out of clay.” (38:71) 
And
,قَالَ يَا إِبْلِيسُ مَا مَنَعَكَ أَن تَسْجُدَ لِمَا خَلَقْتُ بِيَدَيَّ 
[Allah] said, "O Iblees, what prevented you from prostrating to that which I created with My hands?... (38:75) 
So here Allah is saying that Adam was created directly by Him and therefore Adam did not evolve from another species. 

There are plenty of hadith that support the idea of Adam being created by Allah. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said that on the Day of Judgement, mankind would go from prophet to prophet requesting intercession (for help); they would go to Adam and say, “You are the father of mankind, Allah created you with His hand, had the angels prostrate to you, and taught you the names of all things.” [Bukhari and Muslim] 

Another scriptural argument against human evolution is that Adam was created in the heavens and he spent some time there before coming down to Earth. This goes against human evolution because the whole of human evolution takes place on earth. We all know the famous story when Adam and Eve ate from a tree and consequently were removed from Paradise and placed on the Earth. Allah says,
قُلْنَا اهْبِطُوا مِنْهَا جَمِيعًا 
We said: “Get down all of you from this place (the Paradise) ……” (2:38) 

Furthermore, Adam was in Paradise when Allah asked the angels to prostrate to Him. So, if we were to believe in human evolution and believe that Allah created Adam upon the Earth via the process of evolution then is it possible for all of these events to occur in Paradise. Are we to not believe in the verses that state that angels prostrated to Adam and Adam ate from the forbidden tree? Muslims believe that Adam was in Paradise and few events took place there before his coming down to Earth.  

A fourth scriptural argument against evolution is that Adam did not go through the normal standard stages of life. He was created in his man-form and therefore did not go through birth, infancy, youth and then adulthood, as evolution suggests. The Prophet ﷺ said: “Allah created Adam upon His form, his height being sixty cubits …” [Bukhari and Muslim] 
So, Allah created Adam as a complete and well-proportioned man from the moment his soul was blown into him. Again, this hadith clearly contradicts the theory of evolution which assumes the stages of life, beginning from birth and all the way to adulthood. 

There are many more scriptural arguments against evolution, but time does not permit to go through all of them. The Qur’an and Sunnah indicate that Allah created Adam from nothing, without Adam going through the evolution process. Just like we believe and obey all the commandments of Allah, believing in the creation of Adam is also vital. We should make a firm intention to learn and even memorise scriptural arguments against the many confusing beliefs out there. 

There are various scientific arguments against human evolution. Before I share some with you, it is vital that I emphasise that when you are confused about any Islamic beliefs, ask a reliable trustworthy learned Muslim. Allah commands us to do this by saying,
 فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ 
“So ask the people of the knowledge if you do not know.” (16:43) 

Just to clarify from the start, the only problem Muslims have with evolution is the part that states that humans developed from another species, which is also known as human evolution. As Muslims we do not have a problem with believing in dinosaurs, Neanderthals and with concepts like speciation.  

The truth of the matter is that even scientists cannot scientifically prove the link between species, but rather they assume that there is a link and they use faith to connect the dots. No one can prove that one whole species came from another species. For example, there is no proof to show a direct link between a fish species and a terrestrial land species. Some scientists tried to use fossil records to show that one species came from another. But, on the contrary, the fossil records showed fully formed species without having anything in between them and their parent group. So, it is like saying that the sea species and land species existed simultaneously and one did not evolve from the other.  

Some people argue in favour evolution by saying that species that look similar are closely related to each other. For example, some say that dolphins and sharks have a similar body shape and therefore must be closely related. Unfortunately for them, evidence shows that dolphins and sharks are not closely related, and they did not inherit their similar body shapes from a common ancestor. Rather, dolphins and sharks have similar features because they both have similar environments. This theory is known as convergent evolution. So, according to convergent evolution, there are species with similar features that do not have common ancestors. Therefore, the whole argument that if species look similar then they must have a common ancestor has been debunked with convergent evolution. 

According to the evolutionary biologists, evolution has been going on for billions of years. If we go back in time to the first single-celled micro-organism, one can ask the question, how did the first single-celled micro-organism come about? Some will answer by saying that the accumulation of random events gave rise to the first single-celled micro-organism, the origin of life. The simple answer to this claim is that it is impossible for unguided and random chemical processes to give rise to the origin of a genetic code. Moreover, random mutations simply cannot produce the genetic information needed to build such complex structures. So, the belief that randomness leads to advantageous outcomes is false.  

Due to lack of time, I will summarise some of the other arguments against evolution:  

1) Natural selection does not construct genes but rather it conserves genes. This means that this process does not lead to new species. 
2) It is impossible for random association of amino acids to produce functional proteins. 
3) Neo-Darwinism struggles to explain the bio-geographical distribution of many species. 
4) Evolutionary trees from different genes have conflicting branching patterns.   

In conclusion, there are various scriptural and scientific arguments against evolution. Just because some people in society are pushing its theory does not mean we have to believe in it. In fact, we should do more research and know about the topic and put forward our arguments. When you yourself are confused about something, find someone who has studied religion and ask them. It is your religion and so you should know as much as it takes to remove doubt from your head and satisfy your heart. 

May Allah give us the tawfeeq and ability to learn our religion and use it to remove any doubts. May Allah keep our beliefs pure and let us live and die as a Muslim. Ameen.