Epigraph

And most of them follow nothing but conjecture. Surely, conjecture avails nothing against truth. Verily, Allah is well aware of what they do. (Al Quran 10:36)

But they have no knowledge thereof. They follow nothing but conjecture; and conjecture avails naught against truth. (Al Quran 53:28)

Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times

Most of the Muslim scholars and commentators of the holy Quran deny biological evolution or at least do not acknowledge it. A few accept it partially.

Those who accept it, like Yasir Qadhi, generally accept it in a limited sense, and invariably try to create an exception for the human species. This will become very clear if you hear all thirty minutes of the above video, or at least for five minutes after 16 minute mark of the video.

Nevertheless, I am, grateful to Qadhi that at least he has opened the discussion for the general Muslim audience. Few others like Dr. Israr Ahmed, in Pakistan, had taken a similar stance a few decades ago.

First a few words about Qadhi.

Yasir Qadhi (formerly known by his kunya Abu Ammaar Yasir Qadhi) (born January 30, 1975)^[6] is a Pakistani American theologian and Islamic scholar.^[7] He is dean of The Islamic Seminary of America and resident scholar of the East Plano Islamic Center in Plano, Texas.^[8] He currently serves as the chairman of the Fiqh Council of North America.^[10]

His ideas about the beginning of humanity in the above video seem to be not only bad science but also bad theology. He is suggesting a Divine trickery that Allah is fooling all of humanity and giving them a false impression about human creation.

A little more of his CV:

Born in Texas to parents who migrated to Pakistan from India after 1947, Qadhi studied Chemical Engineering at the University of Houston, before studying at the Islamic University of Medinah in Saudi Arabia. Qadhi has written books and lectured widely on Islam and contemporary Muslim issues.^[11][12] A 2011 The New York Times Magazine essay by Andrea Elliott described Qadhi as “one of the most influential conservative clerics in American Islam.”^[13] Writing in 2017, journalist Graeme Wood called him “one of the two most prominent Muslim scholars in the United States today.”^[14] He has also consistently been listed in The 500 Most Influential Muslims, most recently in 2022.^[15] He has nevertheless been criticized for his views on women, and for defending high-profile Al-Qaeda supporters and the Taliban.^[16][17]

The above video is ten years old and in the last ten years a lot more evidence for evolution has pilled up in molecular biology and better articulation of the facts of biology in writing and documentaries.

We, the Muslims, cannot pick and choose willy-nilly from the scientific facts of biology, based on our religious biases.

I fully accept the well established scientific facts of biology, except for the metaphysics of atheist scientists, who conclude lack of a Creator from this science. I do not agree with their metaphysics, while agreeing with the biological fact of common ancestry of all the nine million species on the planet earth. Humans have evolved from ape like animals. Our first cousins are chimpanzees and second cousins are gorillas.

It may be that the Muslim scholars are becoming a little open to evolution, given the trend among the Muslim masses.

Many Muslims around the world believe in evolution. In 13 of the 22 countries where the question was asked, at least half say humans and other living things have evolved over time. By contrast, in just four countries do at least half say that humans have remained in their present form since the beginning of time.

In Southern and Eastern Europe, a majority of Muslims in Albania (62%) and Russia (58%) believe in evolution. But Muslims are divided in Bosnia-Herzegovina (50% believe humans have evolved, while 45% take the opposite view) and Kosovo (34% vs. 40%).

In four of the Central Asian countries surveyed, more than half of Muslims say they believe in evolution, including nearly eight-in-ten in Kazakhstan (79%). In Tajikistan and Turkey, by contrast, the predominant view is that humans have remained in their present form since the beginning of time (55% and 49%, respectively).

At least six-in-ten Muslims in Lebanon (78%), the Palestinian territories (67%) and Morocco (63%) think humans and other living things have evolved over time, but Jordanian and Tunisian Muslims are more divided on the issue. About half in Jordan (52%) believe in evolution, while 47% say humans have always existed in their present form. And in Tunisia, 45% say humans have evolved, 36% say they have always existed in their present form, and 19% are unsure. Iraq is the only country surveyed in the Middle East-North Africa region where a majority rejects the theory of evolution (67%).

Muslims’ views on evolution vary in South Asia and Southeast Asia. Muslims in Thailand (55%) and Bangladesh (54%) tend to accept that humans have evolved over time. But Muslims in Malaysia and Pakistan are divided: roughly four-in-ten Malaysian Muslims (37%) believe in evolution, while 45% say humans have always existed in their present form. In Pakistan, 30% think humans have evolved, while 38% disagree and 32% say that they do not know. In Afghanistan and Indonesia, the prevailing view is that humans and living things have remained in their present form since the beginning of time (62% and 55%, respectively).

In countries surveyed in Southern and Eastern Europe, more religiously observant Muslims are less likely to believe in evolution. In Russia, for example, 41% of Muslims who pray several times a day believe in evolution, compared with 66% of those who pray less frequently. Significant gaps also appear between more and less devout Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina (-19 percentage points) and Kosovo (-14). Views on evolution do not differ significantly by religious commitment in the other regions surveyed.

Towards the end in the above video Yasir Qadhi also claims that each generations was a thousand years in the era between Adam and Nuh. There is a lot to digest here.

Now, I want to share a few of my prior posts to share the rest of the story of guided evolution, which does not deny any facts of biology or evolution:

Surah Al Baqara (The Cow): Section 4: Adam and Eve

Meeting the Quranic Adam with Charles Darwin

Video: The Best Argument for Guided Evolution by Alvin Plantinga

The human language is perhaps the best evidence for guided evolution but that is for another day.

We have saved the above video in the Muslim Times as well.