Position of Islam to the theory of evolution.

[Al-Ansariyah]

Rasūlullāh ﷺ says in the Hadith narrated by Muslim, “Kha’laqal la‘hu Adama ‘ala Surati.”
In the beginning we know that Allāh ﷻ has created Ā dam ملاسلا هيلع with his own hands. Ā dam ملاسلا هيلع was honoured that he was created with the hands of Allāh ﷻ. A great honour and that is mentioned in the Hadith of AShafa‘a, when the humans would go to Sayyidnā Ā dam ملاسلا هيلع on the Day of Judgement and they would say, “You are the one whom Allāh ﷻ blew his soul into you and you are the one whom Allāh ﷻ created with his own hands and you are the one whom Allah ﷻ made the angels bow down to and made Sujūd.”.Honouring that Allāh ﷻ is giving to Ā dam ملاسلا هيلع [since] he was created with the hands of Allāh ﷻ. Rasūlullāh ﷺ says in the Hadith narrated by Muslim, ‘‘Kha‘laqal la‘hu Adama ‘ala Surati - Allāh ﷻ has created Adam on his image.”


An-Nawawi gives an explanation to this Hadith; he says, what is meant by Allāh ﷻ has created Adam on his image, [here] it is not talking about the image of Allāh ﷻ, it is talking about the image of Adam; Allāh ﷻ created Adam on the image of Adam. You might wonder, what does that mean? What do you mean Allah created Adam on Adams image? That would mean that Allāh ﷻ created Adam as he was, in his adult form that remained with him. In other words, Ā dam ملاسلا هيلع did not go in stages that we go through; of being an embryo and then a foetus and then an infant and then a child and then an adult. “Kha‘laqal la‘hu Adama ‘ala Surati - Adam was created on his image“, [means] he didn’t go through changes of images like we do. We go through different changes of images. From embryo to foetus, it looks very different when you go from the one cell, when it then multiplies, and the embryo is in the early stages and then the foetus. If you look at it, the image could change within days. But with Adam, he was created on that image from day one. And this is diametrically opposed to what the theory of evolution says.

The theory of evolution states, that human beings came through an evolution process, that started with a chemical reaction, and then the one cell: the single cell. And then multiple cells, and then it goes up and up and up, until it reaches to the human being in the end of that long chain. That is completely contradicting to the truth, because Allāh ﷻ has created Adam with his own hands on that image that remained with Adam until he died. But let me say that Islam does not completely disapprove everything in the theory of evolution. Islam disapproves some and approves some. Islam disapproves the part of the theory of evolution, that states, that nature is the creator or that things came out of random. Islam is against the part of the theory of evolution, that states, that human being evolved from a single cell and then it went up to the ape, which they call the closest relative of the human being, and then to the human being. But Islam is not opposed to the part of the theory of evolution that says that species adopt to their environment. We see that around us, that different species learn how to adopt to different environments, but we say that, that happens with the will of Allāh ﷻ.

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