Epigraph:

وَهُوَ الَّذِي أَنشَأَكُم مِّن نَّفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ فَمُسْتَقَرٌّ وَمُسْتَوْدَعٌ ۗ قَدْ فَصَّلْنَا الْآيَاتِ لِقَوْمٍ يَفْقَهُونَ 

It is He who first produced you from a single soul, then gave you a place to stay [in life] and a resting place [after death]. We have made Our revelations clear to those who understand. (Al Quran 6:98)

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

The Quran emphasizes the unity and common origin of humanity by stating that all people were created from a single soul. This concept underscores the interconnectedness of human beings and serves as a reminder of shared ancestry and equality. Several verses highlight this theme:

1. Surah An-Nisa (4:1): “O humanity! Be mindful of your Lord Who created you from a single soul, and from it He created its mate, and through both He spread countless men and women…”
2. Surah Al-A’raf (7:189): “He is the One Who created you from a single soul, then from it made its spouse so he may find comfort in her…”
3. Surah Az-Zumar (39:6): “He created you all from a single soul, then from it He made its mate…”
4. Surah Al-Anaam (6:98): “It is He who first produced you from a single soul, then gave you a place to stay [in life] and a resting place [after death]. We have made Our revelations clear to those who understand.”
5. Surah Al-Luqman (31:28): “Your creation and your resurrection are only like the creation and resurrection of a single soul. Indeed, Allah is All-Hearing, All-Seeing.”

These verses collectively convey that all humans originate from a single source, promoting a sense of unity and mutual respect among people.

Additionally, when all these verses are read collectively, there is no choice left but to believe in evolution, namely the common ancestry of all life forms on the planet Earth.

I have confirmed the most relevant part of all the above verses, نَّفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ a single soul, in 66 different English translations on the following site, IslamAwakened.

A single soul can be interpreted in only two possible ways. Either as prophet Adam, as the creationists will have, or the very first unicellular organism some 3.5 billion years ago, as the evolutionists will have it.

If one believes that the prophet Adam is the first man, it not only implies that God created him from a statue of mud but also that He created Grandmother Eve from his rib, making her a twin sister to Adam. All these are irrationalities in science and biology, theology, and whatever we hold sacred in human relations and marriage.

One can read these verses along with so many other verses of the Quran, but, I propose to read it only with one verse of Surah Hujjarat today:

“O mankind, We have created you from a male and a female; and We have made you into tribes and sub-tribes that you may recognize one another. Indeed, the most honorable among you, in the sight of Allah, is he who is the most righteous among you. Surely, Allah is All-knowing, All-Aware.” (49:13)

So, now we know we go from a single soul to a couple, and we all came down from a single couple. The plot thickens! Is it Adam and Eve? Let us go back to the first three verses quoted above:

1. Surah An-Nisa (4:1): “O humanity! Be mindful of your Lord Who created you from a single soul, and from it He created its mate, and through both He spread countless men and women…”
2. Surah Al-A’raf (7:189): “He is the One Who created you from a single soul, then from it made its spouse so he may find comfort in her…”
3. Surah Az-Zumar (39:6): “He created you all from a single soul, then from it He made its mate…”

The spouse came from the single soul. Did Eve come from the rib of Adam as the Bible states? The Quran solves the mystery. The above verses have been mistranslated traditionally. A more precise translation should say:

1. Surah An-Nisa (4:1): “O humanity! Be mindful of your Lord Who created you from a single soul, and from her He created her mate, and through both He spread countless men and women…”
2. Surah Al-A’raf (7:189): “He is the One Who created you from a single soul, then from her made her spouse so he may find comfort in her…”
3. Surah Az-Zumar (39:6): “He created you all from a single soul, then from her He made her mate…”

Here is the punch line of my article: Eve did not come from Adam’s rib according to the holy Quran. The male spouse came from the female mother cell at the start of sexual multiplication in evolutionary history.

The pronouns used in these verses are for her, and in these three verses, we get six testimonies from the All-Knowing that the first single soul was a female, and in other words, not Adam. The verse of Surah An-Nisa is always read at the time of Muslim marriage or Nikah, so most Muslims are familiar with it, I am going to quote the relevant clause from there in Arabic now وَخَلَقَ مِنْهَا زَوْجَهَا.

This clause means: And from her He created her mate. Both مِنْهَا and زَوْجَهَا are female pronouns and not male or gender neutral.

I rest my case.

Now, I need to establish common ancestry of all the 9 million species on planet earth from science: Summarizing Fool Proof Evidence for Evolution, Namely Common Ancestry, If You Are Still on the Fence.

For those who want to read more about transition from asexual to sexual reproduction in our evolutionary history: Biology of the Single Soul of the Holy Quran.