Islamic views on evolution

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Islamic views on evolution are diverse, ranging from theistic evolution to creationism. Muslims believe in a God as the Creator, as explained in the Qur'an. Throughout history some Muslim thinkers have proposed and accepted elements of the theory of evolution, while believing in the supremacy of God in the process. In modern times, some Muslims have rejected evolution, and teaching it is banned in some countries. The main problem with evolution for this particular group is that the Adamic descent of human beings is considered a myth by modern biological anthropology unsupported by empirical evidence. One modern scholar, Usaama al-Azami, has however suggested that both narratives of creation and of evolution, as understood by modern science, may be believed by modern Muslims as addressing two different kinds of truth, the revealed and the empirical.

Theology

See also: Qur'an and science

The Qur'an does not contain a complete chronology of creation, and Muslims scholars do not believe in Young Earth creationism, a doctrine held to by a majority of Americans since 1982 to the present. Islamic views of the Bible vary. In recent years, a movement has begun to emerge in some Muslim countries promoting themes that have been characteristic of Christian creationists. This stance has received some criticism, due to claims that the Qur'an and Bible are incompatible. Khalid Anees, of the Islamic Society of Britain, has discussed the relationship between Islam and evolution:

"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 Sunni and Shia Muslims and the Liberal movements within Islam. Among scholars of Islam İbrahim Hakkı of Erzurum who lived in Erzurum then Ottoman Empire 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'."

Certain verses in the Qur'an are claimed by Muslims to be compatible with the expansion of the universe, Big Bang and Big Crunch theories.

Modern thought

In the 19th century the prominent scholar of Islamic revival, 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. The Islamic scholar, Ghulam Ahmed 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. This view is also held by the Islamic scholar, Edip Yuksel. And Dr T.O. Shanavas in his book, Islamic Theory of Evolution: the Missing Link between Darwin and the Origin of Species, argues that there is no conflict between the Qur’an and the theory of evolution. He extensively quotes from the Qur’an and Pre-Darwin Muslims to support the point. 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.

In Turkey, there were important scholars who strove to accommodate the theory of evolution in Islamic scripture during the first decades of the Turkish Republic and their approach to the theory was positive in terms of defending Islamic belief in the face of scientific theories of their times. Being disloyal to his predecessors, Adnan Oktar, also known by his pen-name Harun Yahya, is a prominent Muslim advocate against the theory of evolution. Yahya is considered a charlatan by many Muslim scholars, and his representative at a conference on Islam and evolution in January 2013 was the object of ridicule during and after the conference. Most of Yahya's information is taken from the Institute for Creation Research and the Intelligent Design movement in the United States. Oktar uses the Internet as one of the main methods for the promotion 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.

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, 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.

Contemporary Islamic Scholar Yasir Qadhi believes that human evolution is against the Qur'an. He grants that it is acceptable to say that Allah placed Humanity perfectly into an evolutionary pattern to give the appearance of human evolution. More recently, Usaama al-Azami has argued that scriptural narratives of creation and of evolution, as understood by modern science, may be believed by modern Muslims as addressing two different kinds of truth, the revealed and the empirical. This, he says, is something tacitly acknowledged even by medieval Muslim scholars, as well as modern scholars and respected institutions of Islamic learning.

Muslim society

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.

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. 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.

External links

• Science in the Quran, by Ashraf Salmawi
• The Muslim Responses to Evolution by Abdul Majid
• Quran Evolution and Intelligent Design, by S. Nemmers
• In the Muslim world, creationism is on the rise Boston.com