Islam And Darwinism

By: Prof. Maqsood Jafri

Islam believes in the theory of creation and Darwinists believe in the Theory of Evolution.  In this article briefly it is discussed that the life on earth is created by God; it is not accidental or by chance.  The atheists and the materialists negate the existence of God and consider human life and even mind to be a form of matter.  Darwin’s theory of Evolution has influenced the minds of people and their character has been influenced as well.  Such people do not believe in divine morals and values. They do not believe in God, soul and Hereafter.  Islam says that God has created this universe and Humans with a specified goal.  In Sura the Heifer in verse 117 the Quran says: “To Him is due the primal origin of the heavens and the earth: when He decrees a matter, He says to it: “Be”, and it is.”  Similarly in Sura Yasin in verse no. 82 the Quran announces: “Verily, when He intends a thing, His command is, “Be”; and it is”.  The Quran has used two words for creation “Khalaq” and “Amr”.  “Amr” is immediate command and immediate creation.  Suppose about the creation of soul the Quran says: They ask you about soul, say; the soul is the command of my Lord” – All humans and the cosmos has been regarded as “Khalq”. The man comes in to being through a proper natural system.  Without sexual intercourse and conception no life can take shape.  But when the Quran refers about the birth of Jesus Christ; it is not natural or usual way of birth.  It is through special command.  Similarly the mothers of Yahya and Ishmael had gone old and barren and could not produce children.  But the Quran mentions about their birth through special command.  The natural laws and usual system of creation is regarded as Khalq.  Hence the Quran in Sura Al-Imran in verse 190 says; “Behold! In the creation of heavens and the earth, and the alternation of Night and Day – there are indeed signs for men of understanding.”  There are many verses in the Quran dealing with the subject of creation.  Then there is also the concept of evolutionary process in creation but it is not in Darwinian sense but in the sense of developing stages of cosmos.  The Quran in Sura The Height in verse 54 announces; “Your Guardian – Lord is Allah, who created the heavens and the earth in six days.”  Then in Sura “the cattle” in verse 2 the Quran says; “He it is who created you from clay; and then decreed a stated term) for you).  An there is in His presence another determined term; yet you doubt within yourselves”.  The six days and stated term indicate the process and stages of creation by God.  The creation of the universe in six days is the Biblical concept as well.  Man is the blend of Matter and Soul.  When God created Adam out of clay he infused his spirit in it.  The Quran very explicitly narrates the story of the creation of Adam.  The materialists do not believe in creation and spirit and regard the universe only the product of blind material forces.  Now let us discuss what Darwin propounded.  Darwinism bases on materialism.  The ancient Greek materialists like Democritus believed in Evolutionary Naturalism.  Besides the British scientist Charles Robert Darwin (1809 – 1882) and the British philosopher Herbert Spencer (1820 – 1903), a number of other eminent philosophers supported the theory of evolution.  Hegel’s theory of cosmic evolution is its offshoot. Nietzsche applied the concept of evolution to ethical theory.  Karl Marx and Engels adopted it to socio – political philosophy.  Thomas Henry Huxlay humanized it.  Henri Bergson became one of its most influential exponents and Samuel Alexander developed it into his novel theory of emergent evolution.  French Zoologist Jean de Lamarck (1744 – 1829), in 1809 presented his pioneering theory of evolution.  Charles Darwin, in his “The Origin of Species” 1859) and “The Descent of Man” 1871), presented his theory of evolution.  He presented the theory of the Mechanism of Natural Selection or survival of the fittest.  Darwinism maintains that living things were not created but came into being by chance.  Darwinism, materialism and communism believe in matter not in spirit.  Darwin himself regarded his theory based on assumptions.  Darwinism has been scientifically rejected.  The defeat of Darwinism in the faces of science can be reviewed under three basic topics:

1-     The Darwinism theory cannot scientifically explain how life originated on Earth.

2-     No scientific finding shows that the “evolutionary mechanism” proposed by the theory have any evolutionary power at all.

3-     The fossil record provided proves the exact opposite of what the theory suggests.

The evolutionists’ claim that the universe started from “first atom” and life started from “first cell”.  Who created the atom and cell, the evolutionists cannot answer.  Inanimate matter must have produced a living cell as a result of coincidence in the belief of the evolutionists.  Modern biologists have rejected this claim.  Life comes from life has been proved.  The theory of “spontaneous generation”, which asserts that non-living materials came together to form living organism has been rejected.  In a lecture at the Sorbonne in 1864, Pasteur said; “Never will the doctrine of spontaneous generation recover from the mortal blow struck by this simple experiment.”  The great evolutionists like Russian biologist Alexander Oparin and American chemist Stanley Miller experimented to prove that a living cell could originate by coincidence but failed and they admitted their failure.  Oparin in “Origin of Life” and Stanley Miller in “Molecular Evolution of life” discuss it in detail.  Jeffery Bada in his book “Earth” admits: “we still face the biggest unsolved problem that we had when we entered the twentieth century: how did life originate on earth.”  The conditions required for the formation of cell are too great in quantity to be explained away by coincidences.  The DNA molecule is so complex that it cannot be accidental or coincidental.  Mechanism of evolution has been also rejected.  No deer becomes horse and no ape becomes man.  It is a fallacious theory having no historical and scientific evidence.

Lamarck and Darwin believed in the transferring of traits of one species to the other.  They maintain that living creatures passed on the traits they acquired during lifetime to the next generation.  Giraffes evolved from antelopes and bears transformed into whales.  However, the laws of inheritance discovered by Gregor Mendel (1822 – 1884) and verified by the science of genetics have nullified the theory of evolutionary mechanism.  Neo-Darwinism advances the Modern synthetic Theory”. Mutations, i.e.; genetic disorders do not cause living beings to develop on the contrary they are always harmful.  The fossil record theory of Darwin, which was a basic contention, has been rejected on scientific grounds.  According to this theory, every living species has sprung from a predecessor.  No “Transitional Forms” have yet been uncovered.  On the contrary, the British Paleontologist, Drerk v. Ager in “The Nature of the Fossil Record” admits that the fossil records shows not gradual evolution but the sudden explosion of one group at the expense of another.  This is just the opposite of Darwin’s assumptions.  Douglas J. Futuyma, an eminent evolutionist biologist in his book, “Science of Trail” announces organism as the creation of some omnipotent intelligence.  Fossils show, writes Harun Yahua, in his book, “The Importance of Conscience in the Quran”, that living beings emerged fully developed and in a perfect state on the earth.  That means, that the Origin of Species, contrary to Darwin’s suppositions, is not evolution, but creation.”  On the wonders of creation the Quran in Sura Rehman aptly announces: “He has created man.  He has taught him an intelligent speech.”  Then in the same Sura in verse 13 God announce; “Then which of the favors of your Lord will ye deny.”

(The writer is an eminent speaker and scholar and can be reached at maqsoodjafri@aol.com).