Islamic creationism
Encyclopedia
Islamic views on evolution refers to varying Muslim beliefs on how the life
(including humanity
) came to be. Muslims acknowledge God
as the Creator, as explained in the Qur'an
. Other than that, Muslim views on evolution vary. Throughout history some Muslim thinkers have proposed and accepted elements of the theory of evolution, while insisting upon the supremacy of God in the process, thereby adopting a theistic evolution
stance. In modern times, some Muslims, inspired by American advocates of intelligent design
, have rejected evolution.
does not contain a complete chronology of creation. It declares variously that it took "six days" or "eight days" to create the "seven heavens [or firmaments] and earth" but the length of the "days" is not interpreted as literal twenty-four hour periods but as stages or other periods of time to complete (it is rather a relative quantity of time), and therefore is not subject to the same level of debate as some interpretators of the Bible regarding scientific evidence and chronology. This ambiguity leaves the possibility of an old earth. Young Earth creationism
is wholly absent from the Muslim world.
Skeptics point out there is no explicit mention of the extinction of whole species long before the creation of man in the Qur'an, whilst its inspiration is defended on the grounds that it is not a book of science. The Bible is held by Muslims to contain errors and therefore has not presented the same level of difficulty in the Islamic world as in some sections of Christianity outlined above. However, in recent years, a movement has begun to emerge in some Muslim countries promoting themes that have been characteristic of Christian creationists and Bible literalists in the past. A few oppose this citing the lack of compatibility between the two and that the Qur'an contradicts the Bible in numerous passages. Khalid Anees, president of the Islamic Society of Britain
, at a conference, Creationism
: Science and Faith in Schools, made points including the following:
, Big Bang
and Big Crunch
theories:
ary ideas have existed in the Muslim world
ever since they were expressed by the Afro-Arab
biologist Al-Jahiz
(c. 776-869), who first described the struggle for existence, a precursor to natural selection
. Many other medieval Islamic philosophers and biologists later expressed evolutionary ideas, including Ibn Miskawayh
, the Brethren of Purity
, Abu Rayhan Biruni, Nasir al-Din Tusi
and Ibn Khaldun
.
scientist and philosopher al-Jahiz
(c. 776-869) was the first of the Muslim biologists and philosophers to develop an early theory of evolution
. He speculated on the influence of the environment on animals, considered the effects of the environment on the likelihood of an animal to survive, and first described the struggle for existence, a precursor to natural selection
. Al-Jahiz's ideas on the struggle for existence in the Book of Animals have been summarized as follows:
In Chapter 47 of his India, entitled "On Vasudeva and the Wars of the Bharata," Abu Rayhan Biruni attempted to give a naturalistic explanation
as to why the struggles described in the Mahabharata
"had to take place." He explains it using natural
processes that include biological
ideas related to evolution, which has led several scholars to compare his ideas to Darwinism
and natural selection
. This is due to Biruni describing the idea of artificial selection
and then applying it to nature:
In the 13th century, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi
explains how the element
s evolved into mineral
s, then plant
s, then animal
s, and then human
s. Tusi then goes on to explain how hereditary
variability was an important factor for biological evolution of living thing
s:
Tusi discusses how organisms are able to adapt
to their environments:
Tusi then explains how humans evolved from advanced animals:
(828-896), considered the founder of Arabic botany
for his Book of Plants, discussed plant evolution
from its birth to its death, describing the phases of plant growth and the production of flowers and fruit.
Material in Ibn Miskawayh
's al-Fawz al-Asghar and the Brethren of Purity
's Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity
(The Epistles of Ikhwan al-Safa) has been criticized as overenthusiastic. Muhammad Hamidullah
describes their evolutionary ideas as follows:
English translations of the Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity were available from 1812.
In the 14th century, Ibn Khaldun
further developed the evolutionary ideas found in the Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity. The following statements from his 1377 work, the Muqaddimah
, express evolutionary ideas:
Numerous other Islamic scholars and scientists, including the polymaths Ibn al-Haytham and Al-Khazini
, discussed and developed these ideas. Translated into Latin, these works began to appear in the West after the Renaissance
and may have had an impact on Western philosophy
and science.
, Jamal-al-Din al-Afghānī agreed with Darwin that life will compete with other life in order to succeed. He also believed that there was competition in the realm of ideas similar to that of nature. However he was unwavering in his belief that God had to be the one controlling this process as a creator.
Another prominent, yet controversial Islamic Scholar, Ghulam Ahmad Pervez holds and defends the view that there is no contradiction between the scientific theory of evolution and Quran's numerous references to the emergence of life in the universe.
The Ahmadiyya
Muslim Movement's view of evolution
is that of universal acceptance, albeit divinely designed. The movement actively promotes it. Over the course of several decades the movement has issued various publications in support of the scientific concepts behind Evolution and frequently engage in promoting how it contends with religious scripture.
Adnan Oktar
is a prominent Muslim advocate against the theory of evolution. Most of his information is based on the Institute for Creation Research
and the Intelligent Design movement
in the United States. (His predecessor, Said Nursi
, led a similar campaign in the late 1970s). Oktar uses the Internet as one of the main methods for the propagation of his ideas. His BAV (Bilim Araştırma Vakfı/ Science Research Foundation) organizes conferences with leading American creationists. Another leading Turkish advocate of Islamic creationism is Fethullah Gülen
. Due to the lack of a detailed account of creation in the Qur'an
, aspects other than the literal truth of the scripture are emphasized in the Islamic debate. The most important concept is the idea that there is no such thing as a random event, and that everything happens according to God's will. This does not mean that God has to interfere with the universe. Hence such are closer to Intelligent design
than to Young Earth Creationism
.
According to Guardian
some British Muslim students have distributed leaflets on campus, advocating against Darwin's theory of evolution. At a conference in the UK in January, 2004, entitled Creationism: Science and Faith in Schools, Dr Khalid Anees, president of the Islamic Society of Britain stated that "Muslims interpret the world through both the Koran and what is tangible and seen. There is no contradiction between what is revealed in the Koran and natural selection and survival of the fittest."
Maurice Bucaille
, famous in the Muslim world for his commentary on the Qur'an and science, has attempted to reconcile evolution with the Qur'an. He accepts animal evolution up to early hominid species and then posits a separate hominid evolution leading to modern humans. However, these ideas are still different from the theory of evolution as accepted by biologists all over the world.
Little is known about general societal views of evolution in Muslim countries. A 2007 study of religious patterns found that only 8% of Egyptians, 11% of Malaysians, 14% of Pakistanis, 16% of Indonesians, and 22% of Turks agree that Darwin's theory is probably or most certainly true, and a 2006 survey reported that about 25% of Turkish adults agreed that human beings evolved from earlier animal species. In contrast, the 2007 study found that only 28% of Kazakhs thought that evolution is false; this fraction is much lower than the roughly 40% of U.S. adults with the same opinion.
According to Salman Hameed, writing in the journal Science
, there exists a contradictory attitude towards evolution in the Muslim world. While Muslims accept science as fully compatible with Islam, and most accept microevolution, very few Muslims accept the macroevolution as held by scientists, especially human evolution
.
Life
Life is a characteristic that distinguishes objects that have signaling and self-sustaining processes from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased , or else because they lack such functions and are classified as inanimate...
(including humanity
Human Race
Human Race refers to the Human species.Human race may also refer to:*The Human Race, 79th episode of YuYu Hakusho* Human Race Theatre Company of Dayton Ohio* Human Race Machine, a computer graphics device...
) came to be. Muslims acknowledge God
God in Islam
In Islamic theology, God is the all-powerful and all-knowing creator, sustainer, ordainer, and judge of the universe. Islam puts a heavy emphasis on the conceptualization of God as strictly singular . God is unique and inherently One , all-merciful and omnipotent. According to the Islamic...
as the Creator, as explained in the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
. Other than that, Muslim views on evolution vary. Throughout history some Muslim thinkers have proposed and accepted elements of the theory of evolution, while insisting upon the supremacy of God in the process, thereby adopting a theistic evolution
Theistic evolution
Theistic evolution or evolutionary creation is a concept that asserts that classical religious teachings about God are compatible with the modern scientific understanding about biological evolution...
stance. In modern times, some Muslims, inspired by American advocates of intelligent design
Intelligent design
Intelligent design is the proposition that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for...
, have rejected evolution.
Theology
The Qur'anQur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
does not contain a complete chronology of creation. It declares variously that it took "six days" or "eight days" to create the "seven heavens [or firmaments] and earth" but the length of the "days" is not interpreted as literal twenty-four hour periods but as stages or other periods of time to complete (it is rather a relative quantity of time), and therefore is not subject to the same level of debate as some interpretators of the Bible regarding scientific evidence and chronology. This ambiguity leaves the possibility of an old earth. Young Earth creationism
Young Earth creationism
Young Earth creationism is the religious belief that Heavens, Earth, and all life on Earth were created by direct acts of the Abrahamic God during a relatively short period, sometime between 5,700 and 10,000 years ago...
is wholly absent from the Muslim world.
Skeptics point out there is no explicit mention of the extinction of whole species long before the creation of man in the Qur'an, whilst its inspiration is defended on the grounds that it is not a book of science. The Bible is held by Muslims to contain errors and therefore has not presented the same level of difficulty in the Islamic world as in some sections of Christianity outlined above. However, in recent years, a movement has begun to emerge in some Muslim countries promoting themes that have been characteristic of Christian creationists and Bible literalists in the past. A few oppose this citing the lack of compatibility between the two and that the Qur'an contradicts the Bible in numerous passages. Khalid Anees, president of the Islamic Society of Britain
Islamic Society of Britain
The Islamic Society of Britain was set up in 1990 for British Muslims to promote Islamic values.Its youth wing is The Young Muslims UK .-Methods of working:The Islamic Society of Britain directs its work into the following areas:...
, at a conference, Creationism
Creationism
Creationism is the religious beliefthat humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe are the creation of a supernatural being, most often referring to the Abrahamic god. As science developed from the 18th century onwards, various views developed which aimed to reconcile science with the Genesis...
: Science and Faith in Schools, made points including the following:
"Islam also has its own school of Evolutionary creationism/Theistic evolutionism, which holds that mainstream scientific analysis of the origin of the universe is supported by the Qur'an. Many Muslims believe in evolutionary creationism, especially among SunniSunni IslamSunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam. Sunni Muslims are referred to in Arabic as ʾAhl ūs-Sunnah wa āl-Ǧamāʿah or ʾAhl ūs-Sunnah for short; in English, they are known as Sunni Muslims, Sunnis or Sunnites....
and Shia Muslims and the Liberal movements within IslamLiberal movements within IslamProgressive Muslims have produced a considerable body of liberal thought within Islam or "progressive Islam" ; but some consider progressive Islam and liberal Islam as two distinct movements)...
. Among scholars of Islam İbrahim Hakkı of ErzurumIbrahim Hakki Erzurumiİbrahim Hakkı Erzurumi was a Turkish Sufi philosopher and encyclopedist. In 1756 he published his work Marifetname which was a compilation and commentary on astronomy, mathematics, anatomy, psychology, philosophy, and Islamic mysticism...
who lived in ErzurumErzurumErzurum is a city in Turkey. It is the largest city, the capital of Erzurum Province. The city is situated 1757 meters above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 361,235 in the 2000 census. .Erzurum, known as "The Rock" in NATO code, served as NATO's southeastern-most air force post during the...
then Ottoman EmpireOttoman EmpireThe Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
now Republic of Turkey in 18th century is famous of stating 'between plants and animals there is sponge, and, between animals and humans there is monkey'."
Universal creation
There are several verses in the Qur'an which some modern writers have interpreted as being compatible with the expansion of the universeMetric expansion of space
The metric expansion of space is the increase of distance between distant parts of the universe with time. It is an intrinsic expansion—that is, it is defined by the relative separation of parts of the universe and not by motion "outward" into preexisting space...
, Big Bang
Big Bang
The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model that explains the early development of the Universe. According to the Big Bang theory, the Universe was once in an extremely hot and dense state which expanded rapidly. This rapid expansion caused the young Universe to cool and resulted in...
and Big Crunch
Big Crunch
In physical cosmology, the Big Crunch is one possible scenario for the ultimate fate of the universe, in which the metric expansion of space eventually reverses and the universe recollapses, ultimately ending as a black hole singularity.- Overview :...
theories:
"Do not the Unbelievers see that the skies (space) and the earth were joined together, then We clove them asunder and We created every living thing out of the water. Will they not then believe?"
"Then turned He to the sky (space) when it was smoke, and said unto it and unto the earth: Come both of you, willingly or loth. They said: We come, obedient."
"With power and skill did We construct the Firmament: for it is We Who create the vastness of space."
"On the day when We will roll up the sky (space) like the rolling up of the scroll for writings, as We originated the first creation, (so) We shall reproduce it; a promise (binding on Us); surely We will bring it about."
Pre-modern thought
Primitive EvolutionEvolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
ary ideas have existed in the Muslim world
Muslim world
The term Muslim world has several meanings. In a religious sense, it refers to those who adhere to the teachings of Islam, referred to as Muslims. In a cultural sense, it refers to Islamic civilization, inclusive of non-Muslims living in that civilization...
ever since they were expressed by the Afro-Arab
Afro-Arab
Afro-Arab refers to people of mixed Black African and genealogical Arab ancestral heritage and/or linguistically and culturally Arabized Black Africans...
biologist Al-Jahiz
Al-Jahiz
Al-Jāḥiẓ was an Arabic prose writer and author of works of literature, Mu'tazili theology, and politico-religious polemics.In biology, Al-Jahiz introduced the concept of food chains and also proposed a scheme of animal evolution that entailed...
(c. 776-869), who first described the struggle for existence, a precursor to natural selection
Natural selection
Natural selection is the nonrandom process by which biologic traits become either more or less common in a population as a function of differential reproduction of their bearers. It is a key mechanism of evolution....
. Many other medieval Islamic philosophers and biologists later expressed evolutionary ideas, including Ibn Miskawayh
Ibn Miskawayh
Abu 'Ali Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ya'qub Ibn Miskawayh, also known as Ibn Miskawayh or Ebn Meskavayh was a Persian chancery official of the Buwayhid era, and philosopher and historian from Rey, Iran...
, the Brethren of Purity
Brethren of Purity
The Brethren of Purity were a secret society of Muslim philosophers in Basra, Iraq, in the 10th century CE....
, Abu Rayhan Biruni, Nasir al-Din Tusi
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi
Khawaja Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan Ṭūsī , better known as Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī , was a Persian polymath and prolific writer: an astronomer, biologist, chemist, mathematician, philosopher, physician, physicist, scientist, theologian and Marja Taqleed...
and Ibn Khaldun
Ibn Khaldun
Ibn Khaldūn or Ibn Khaldoun was an Arab Tunisian historiographer and historian who is often viewed as one of the forerunners of modern historiography, sociology and economics...
.
Natural selection
The Mu'taziliMu'tazili
' is an Islamic school of speculative theology that flourished in the cities of Basra and Baghdad, both in present-day Iraq, during the 8th–10th centuries. The adherents of the Mu'tazili school are best known for their having asserted that, because of the perfect unity and eternal nature of God,...
scientist and philosopher al-Jahiz
Al-Jahiz
Al-Jāḥiẓ was an Arabic prose writer and author of works of literature, Mu'tazili theology, and politico-religious polemics.In biology, Al-Jahiz introduced the concept of food chains and also proposed a scheme of animal evolution that entailed...
(c. 776-869) was the first of the Muslim biologists and philosophers to develop an early theory of evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
. He speculated on the influence of the environment on animals, considered the effects of the environment on the likelihood of an animal to survive, and first described the struggle for existence, a precursor to natural selection
Natural selection
Natural selection is the nonrandom process by which biologic traits become either more or less common in a population as a function of differential reproduction of their bearers. It is a key mechanism of evolution....
. Al-Jahiz's ideas on the struggle for existence in the Book of Animals have been summarized as follows:
In Chapter 47 of his India, entitled "On Vasudeva and the Wars of the Bharata," Abu Rayhan Biruni attempted to give a naturalistic explanation
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
as to why the struggles described in the Mahabharata
Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....
"had to take place." He explains it using natural
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...
processes that include biological
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
ideas related to evolution, which has led several scholars to compare his ideas to Darwinism
Darwinism
Darwinism is a set of movements and concepts related to ideas of transmutation of species or of evolution, including some ideas with no connection to the work of Charles Darwin....
and natural selection
Natural selection
Natural selection is the nonrandom process by which biologic traits become either more or less common in a population as a function of differential reproduction of their bearers. It is a key mechanism of evolution....
. This is due to Biruni describing the idea of artificial selection
Artificial selection
Artificial selection describes intentional breeding for certain traits, or combination of traits. The term was utilized by Charles Darwin in contrast to natural selection, in which the differential reproduction of organisms with certain traits is attributed to improved survival or reproductive...
and then applying it to nature:
In the 13th century, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi
Khawaja Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan Ṭūsī , better known as Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī , was a Persian polymath and prolific writer: an astronomer, biologist, chemist, mathematician, philosopher, physician, physicist, scientist, theologian and Marja Taqleed...
explains how the element
Classical element
Many philosophies and worldviews have a set of classical elements believed to reflect the simplest essential parts and principles of which anything consists or upon which the constitution and fundamental powers of anything are based. Most frequently, classical elements refer to ancient beliefs...
s evolved into mineral
Mineral
A mineral is a naturally occurring solid chemical substance formed through biogeochemical processes, having characteristic chemical composition, highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. By comparison, a rock is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids and does not...
s, then plant
Plant
Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...
s, then animal
Animal
Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and...
s, and then human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
s. Tusi then goes on to explain how hereditary
Heredity
Heredity is the passing of traits to offspring . This is the process by which an offspring cell or organism acquires or becomes predisposed to the characteristics of its parent cell or organism. Through heredity, variations exhibited by individuals can accumulate and cause some species to evolve...
variability was an important factor for biological evolution of living thing
Living Thing
Living Thing is the fifth album by Peter Bjorn and John, released on March 30, 2009 in the UK and March 31 in the US. The lead-off single from this album is "Nothing to Worry About."-Reception:...
s:
Tusi discusses how organisms are able to adapt
Adaptation
An adaptation in biology is a trait with a current functional role in the life history of an organism that is maintained and evolved by means of natural selection. An adaptation refers to both the current state of being adapted and to the dynamic evolutionary process that leads to the adaptation....
to their environments:
Tusi then explains how humans evolved from advanced animals:
Transmutation of species
Al-DinawariAl-Dinawari
Ābu Ḥanīfah Āḥmad ibn Dawūd Dīnawarī was a Persian polymath excelling as much in astronomy, agriculture, botany and metallurgy and as he did in geography, mathematics and history. He was born in Dinawar, . He studied astronomy, mathematics and mechanics in Isfahan and philology and poetry in...
(828-896), considered the founder of Arabic botany
Muslim Agricultural Revolution
The Arab Agricultural Revolution is a term coined by the historian Andrew Watson in his influential 1974 paper postulating a fundamental transformation in agriculture from the 8th century to the 13th century in the Muslim...
for his Book of Plants, discussed plant evolution
Plant evolution
Plant evolution is the subset of evolutionary phenomena that concern plants. Evolutionary phenomena are characteristics of populations that are described by averages, medians, distributions, and other statistical methods. This distinguishes plant evolution from plant development, a branch of...
from its birth to its death, describing the phases of plant growth and the production of flowers and fruit.
Material in Ibn Miskawayh
Ibn Miskawayh
Abu 'Ali Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ya'qub Ibn Miskawayh, also known as Ibn Miskawayh or Ebn Meskavayh was a Persian chancery official of the Buwayhid era, and philosopher and historian from Rey, Iran...
's al-Fawz al-Asghar and the Brethren of Purity
Brethren of Purity
The Brethren of Purity were a secret society of Muslim philosophers in Basra, Iraq, in the 10th century CE....
's Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity
Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity
The Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity was a large encyclopedia in 52 treatises written by the mysterious Brethren of Purity of Basra, Iraq sometime in the second half of the 10th century CE...
(The Epistles of Ikhwan al-Safa) has been criticized as overenthusiastic. Muhammad Hamidullah
Muhammad Hamidullah
Muhammad Hamidullah or Muhammad Hameedullah, D. Phil., D. Litt., HI., was a Hyderabadi from Hyderabad State , Muhaddith, Faqih, scholar of Islam and International Law, and foremost a prolific academic author Muhammad Hamidullah or Muhammad Hameedullah, D. Phil., D. Litt., HI., (Urdu: محمد...
describes their evolutionary ideas as follows:
English translations of the Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity were available from 1812.
In the 14th century, Ibn Khaldun
Ibn Khaldun
Ibn Khaldūn or Ibn Khaldoun was an Arab Tunisian historiographer and historian who is often viewed as one of the forerunners of modern historiography, sociology and economics...
further developed the evolutionary ideas found in the Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity. The following statements from his 1377 work, the Muqaddimah
Muqaddimah
The Muqaddimah , also known as the Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldun or the Prolegomena , is a book written by the Maghrebian Muslim historian Ibn Khaldun in 1377 which records an early view of universal history...
, express evolutionary ideas:
Numerous other Islamic scholars and scientists, including the polymaths Ibn al-Haytham and Al-Khazini
Al-Khazini
Abu al-Fath Abd al-Rahman Mansour al-Khāzini or simply Abu al-Fath Khāzini was a Muslim astronomer of Greek ethnicity from Merv, then in the Khorasan province of Persia .-References:...
, discussed and developed these ideas. Translated into Latin, these works began to appear in the West after the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
and may have had an impact on Western philosophy
Western philosophy
Western philosophy is the philosophical thought and work of the Western or Occidental world, as distinct from Eastern or Oriental philosophies and the varieties of indigenous philosophies....
and science.
Modern thought
In the 19th century the prominent scholar of Islamic revivalIslamic revival
Islamic revival refers to a revival of the Islamic religion throughout the Islamic world, that began roughly sometime in 1970s and is manifested in greater religious piety, and community feeling, and in a growing adoption of Islamic culture, dress, terminology, separation of the sexes, and values...
, Jamal-al-Din al-Afghānī agreed with Darwin that life will compete with other life in order to succeed. He also believed that there was competition in the realm of ideas similar to that of nature. However he was unwavering in his belief that God had to be the one controlling this process as a creator.
Another prominent, yet controversial Islamic Scholar, Ghulam Ahmad Pervez holds and defends the view that there is no contradiction between the scientific theory of evolution and Quran's numerous references to the emergence of life in the universe.
The Ahmadiyya
Ahmadiyya
Ahmadiyya is an Islamic religious revivalist movement founded in India near the end of the 19th century, originating with the life and teachings of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad , who claimed to have fulfilled the prophecies about the world reformer of the end times, who was to herald the Eschaton as...
Muslim Movement's view of evolution
Ahmadiyya views of evolution
The Ahmadiyya Movement is the only denomination of Islam that universally accept in principle the process of evolution, albeit divinely guided, and actively promotes it...
is that of universal acceptance, albeit divinely designed. The movement actively promotes it. Over the course of several decades the movement has issued various publications in support of the scientific concepts behind Evolution and frequently engage in promoting how it contends with religious scripture.
Adnan Oktar
Adnan Oktar
Adnan Oktar , also known as Harun Yahya, is an author and Islamic creationist. In 2007, he sent thousands of unsolicited copies of the Atlas of Creation advocating Islamic creationism to American scientists, members of Congress, and science museums...
is a prominent Muslim advocate against the theory of evolution. Most of his information is based on the Institute for Creation Research
Institute for Creation Research
The Institute for Creation Research is a Christian institution in Dallas, Texas that specializes in education, research, and media promotion of Creation Science and Biblical creationism. The ICR adopts the Bible as an inerrant and literal documentary of scientific and historical fact as well as...
and the Intelligent Design movement
Intelligent design movement
The intelligent design movement is a neo-creationist religious campaign for broad social, academic and political change to promote and support the idea of "intelligent design," which asserts that "certain features of the universe and of living things are...
in the United States. (His predecessor, Said Nursi
Said Nursî
Bediuzzaman Said Nursî ,commonly known as Bediüzzaman , which means "The Wonder of the Age" was a Muslim scholar who wrote the Risale-i Nur Collection, a body of Qur'anic commentary exceeding six thousand pages. . He was born in Nurs, a village in the Ottoman Bitlis Province in eastern Anatolia. He...
, led a similar campaign in the late 1970s). Oktar uses the Internet as one of the main methods for the propagation of his ideas. His BAV (Bilim Araştırma Vakfı/ Science Research Foundation) organizes conferences with leading American creationists. Another leading Turkish advocate of Islamic creationism is Fethullah Gülen
Fethullah Gülen
Muhammed Fethullah Gülen is a Turkish preacher, author, educator, and Sufi Muslim scholar living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania . He is the founder and leader of the Gülen movement...
. Due to the lack of a detailed account of creation in the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
, aspects other than the literal truth of the scripture are emphasized in the Islamic debate. The most important concept is the idea that there is no such thing as a random event, and that everything happens according to God's will. This does not mean that God has to interfere with the universe. Hence such are closer to Intelligent design
Intelligent design
Intelligent design is the proposition that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for...
than to Young Earth Creationism
Young Earth creationism
Young Earth creationism is the religious belief that Heavens, Earth, and all life on Earth were created by direct acts of the Abrahamic God during a relatively short period, sometime between 5,700 and 10,000 years ago...
.
According to Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
some British Muslim students have distributed leaflets on campus, advocating against Darwin's theory of evolution. At a conference in the UK in January, 2004, entitled Creationism: Science and Faith in Schools, Dr Khalid Anees, president of the Islamic Society of Britain stated that "Muslims interpret the world through both the Koran and what is tangible and seen. There is no contradiction between what is revealed in the Koran and natural selection and survival of the fittest."
Maurice Bucaille
Maurice Bucaille
Maurice Bucaille , son of Maurice and Marie Bucaille, was a French medical doctor, member of the French Society of Egyptology, and an author. Bucaille practiced medicine from 1945–82 and was a specialist in gastroenterology. In 1973, Bucaille was appointed family physician to King Faisal of Saudi...
, famous in the Muslim world for his commentary on the Qur'an and science, has attempted to reconcile evolution with the Qur'an. He accepts animal evolution up to early hominid species and then posits a separate hominid evolution leading to modern humans. However, these ideas are still different from the theory of evolution as accepted by biologists all over the world.
Muslim societies
Evolutionary biology is included in the high-school curricula of most Muslim countries. Science foundations of 14 Muslim countries, including Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Indonesia, and Egypt, recently signed a statement by the Interacademy Panel (IAP, a global network of science academies), in support of the teaching of evolution, including human evolution.Little is known about general societal views of evolution in Muslim countries. A 2007 study of religious patterns found that only 8% of Egyptians, 11% of Malaysians, 14% of Pakistanis, 16% of Indonesians, and 22% of Turks agree that Darwin's theory is probably or most certainly true, and a 2006 survey reported that about 25% of Turkish adults agreed that human beings evolved from earlier animal species. In contrast, the 2007 study found that only 28% of Kazakhs thought that evolution is false; this fraction is much lower than the roughly 40% of U.S. adults with the same opinion.
According to Salman Hameed, writing in the journal Science
Science (journal)
Science is the academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is one of the world's top scientific journals....
, there exists a contradictory attitude towards evolution in the Muslim world. While Muslims accept science as fully compatible with Islam, and most accept microevolution, very few Muslims accept the macroevolution as held by scientists, especially human evolution
Human evolution
Human evolution refers to the evolutionary history of the genus Homo, including the emergence of Homo sapiens as a distinct species and as a unique category of hominids and mammals...
.
External links
- Science in the Quran, by Ashraf Salmawi
- The Muslim Responses to Evolution by Abdul Majid
- Quran Evolution and Intelligent Design, by Iyad Hijazi & Sylvia Nemmers
- In the Muslim world, creationism is on the rise Boston.comBoston.comBoston.com is a regional website that offers news and information about Boston, Massachusetts and its surroundings. It claims to be one of the most visited regional websites in the United States....