Professor Shoaib A Malik discusses his book Islam and Evolution Al-Ghazālī and the Modern Evolutionary Paradigm. Dr. Shoaib is Professor of the Natural Sciences at Zayed University, Dubai.
Categories: Blogging Theology Youtube, Islam, Science
Professor Shoaib A Malik discusses his book Islam and Evolution Al-Ghazālī and the Modern Evolutionary Paradigm. Dr. Shoaib is Professor of the Natural Sciences at Zayed University, Dubai.
Categories: Blogging Theology Youtube, Islam, Science
I cant agree with some of what he was saying, “its possible for Adam’s descendants may have intermingled with other hominin” citing reasons as the bottleneck of two cant make a population, this is just wrong. We know that Eve pbuh gave birth in twos and those two were prohibited of marrying each other so apparently they knew of this phenomenon from Allah and this is one of the miracles so not everything has to conform with the model we understand from science because miracles are out of the realm of rationale which is why they are miracles.
We know that this world is a test for the children of Adam then are those other hominins that Dr. Shoaib mentioned who are not descendants with Adam not bound by the test? but if they were intelligent enough and looked human enough to interbreed with children of Adam and lived in this world then are they also here to be tested as a different creation from Adam and Eve? We will fall into these absurdities just to reconcile with rationale when we know miracles are done by Allah and are outside of the realm of rationale.
In the Quran it says we created you from a single pair of male and female so putting the possibility that there were other hominins that Adam and eve’s descendants might have intermingled with is against the Quran. If the children of Adam had intermingled with other hominins who are not descendants of Adam then these other hominins are creations from God and we are also their descendants as well so why is Allah addressing the children of Adam only and not the other hominins’ ancestral pair as well in the Quran?
Why is Allah saying we created you from a single pair of male and female and did not add the other pair which the other hominins descended from? according to the possibility dr shoaib put we are not only the children of Adam but also another pair who started the people children of Adam intermingled with. Then we can ask the same question to the first pair who are the ancestors of those hominins that intermingled with children of Adam. Then you can say those ancestors had intermingled with another species as well, then we can ask the same question again and fall into the absurdity if infinite regression.
I hope you can make a video correcting this absurd “possibility” Shoaib put forward because its actually not a possibility and can be easily refuted. Many Muslims in the comment have been mislead by this so called “possibility” and this should have a formal refutation.
One has to be very careful about this issue and it is NOT important for our Salvation. It is true that we have a mystery here which is partially solved through the use of the Abrahamic Religions, which according to Paul, are the only SEED or transmission chosen by GOD to bring forth truth to the Jew and Gentile alike. The Gentile being those of the non-Jewish faith. And he (Paul) declares for that Ummah that Christ is their SEED which is true for several reasons ‘for their Ummah’!
As to other people living before ‘our Adam’ we have conformation in some Islamic sources (talked about by SH. Yasir Qadhi) and some Israeliat sources and more modern verses in the Psalms 81 and in the Gospel of John where HE, the ONE GOD, called them ‘gods’ (VICEGERENTS) to whom the Word came. These were the individuals before ‘our Adam’ and they will, of course, reap what they have sown! Also, as odd as it may sound, we should not think of these ‘beings’ as totally fleshy-types. These also were the ‘creatures’ that the Angels saw creating havoc with the Earth environ and asked if ALLAH really was going to send that creation as in Adam to spread blood like the others did. Hence, ALLAH the ALL-KNOWING said, “I know what you do not know.” The Angels have no forthright knowledge and were acting on only what they saw and what they could comprehend.
Furthermore, we find in the Quran that the sister nations of each other are cursing the one’s that went before as they are being led into the FIRE! The last ones are blaming the first ones for this outrage and want ALLAH to give them double the penalty. But ALLAH says ‘double for you all’! BUT THIS YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND (RIGHT NOW).
But because we are on our own time, as it were, we need mostly concern ourselves with our ‘here and now’ or work with what we can control with ALLAH’s help. Our Adam may stretch back some 50,000 years or so and that is the time of our concern! Better yet, our concern should be the present which is looking rather sad and morose to say the least!
I dont think you have read my post carefully. In the video Dr. Shoaib said that there is a possibility for other hominins to have interbred with children of Adam and my refutation makes it clear that this is impossible. This “possibility” was put by dr Shoaib because he wanted to reconcile how two people can make human population without dying out as science have concluded two pairs cannot make a population so he brought the possibility of other “humans” who married with the children of Adam. However, I made it clear that this leads to absurdity. How? because we could ask the same thing of the “species” that married with children of Adam, who were their pair of ancestors? just like children of Adam had Adam and Eve as their ancestors then these other human species must have had two ancestral figures as well. Then we can ask the same thing, how did the two ancestors make the population that married with children of Adam? You can say that they had other species as well that intermingled with them just like they intermingled with children of Adam. Then we can ask the same thing about the species or hominins who intermingled with the ones who intermingled with the children of Adam? you see the pattern can keep going infinitely but that is an absurdity so the whole possibility leads to an absurdity which makes the “possibility” and impossibility.
However, there is another way to deny this whole “possibility” without some sophisticated argument. If the children of Adam had intermingled with those other hominins then why is Allah only saying O children of Adam and never once did he add the ancestral figures of the other hominins that allegedly could have coexisted with Adam and married his descendants. If we are a byproduct of children of Adam intermingling with other hominins then we are not just the children of Adam only but we also have another ancestral figure that simultaneously or existed before Adam, which is absurd since there is no mention in the Quran about such thing. Therefore, the “possibility” that there was another hominins species who intermingled with children of Adam is actually an absolute impossibility.
This possibility was put forward to explain how the big population came to be since science has concluded that two pairs cannot make a whole population. This is a problem for the atheist to solve because there is no solution for that other than it being a miracle from Allah which further validates the creationism that we believe in.
Basically, you seem to be correct. Adam (pbh) was that mold upon which the species of man was built! Man as we call him! Yet we have in the fossil records ‘others’ dating back millions of years with somewhat a human form (as we know it). That is they have footprints showing human type locomotion and some fosilized bones showing head, jaw shape and a pelvic display giving notice of walking upright.
And for the ‘believer’ we have one of ALLAH’s Names being AL-Baree’ from the Arabic Bar’aa (?) meaning to Evolve. So, ALLAH is the Evolver from materials already created (the stars) and HE is the Fashioner! Take that for what it is worth!
The problem is or occurs when one tries to fit a square peg into a round hole. There are things beyond our megar conceptions of time, space and what is evolving over eons! The Christians say and rightly so as it appears in their Book (Gospel of John) that here comes the Lamb of God who takes away the SIN of the world. That would take too much time to explain here BUT does Islam have the notion of what the SIN of the world is? It would if that expression is a ‘truism’ spanning the religions. AND IT DOES! The SIN of the world is expressed in the Quran as :
The ‘Sin of the world’ is represented in the Quran Chapter 35 verse 72 as (We did indeed offer the Trust to the Heavens and the Earth and the Mountains; but they refused to undertake it, being afraid thereof: but mankind undertook it. He {the human being} was indeed unjust and foolish {to himself!}. Quran (33:72).
A rose by any other name smells just as sweet! As unjust humans to unjust things!
As to the particular knowledge you might be asking for, well that is really out of my grasp; meaning that what happened so very long ago as to scientific proof can only be found in the Unseen which is closed to us.
The same applies to my forte or the Non-crucifixion of Jesus! The Cross is definitely NOT a universal symbol but it IS A UNIVERSAL CONCEPT! That being so, the knowledge of such must be found in Islam, which it is! But it goes under the name of Jihad al-khabeer meaning the great struggle of the self! Look at how Jesus (pbh) praises the way of the Cross in his own words! Could he praise an instrument of torture and disdain!? But if others were to take ‘it’ the wrong way, they would turn it into what we have today which is basically following man’s desire for neo-paganism! And Paul knew this as he, as is written in the New Testament, declares the Cross to be a Stumbling Block to the Jews and FOOLISHNES (or Stupidity) to the Greeks (Gentiles) {because of what they will turn it into with their philosophy of gods and goddesses}.
Admittedly, this has been off the beaten track but it all blends in or merges into ONE UNIVERSAL TRUTH: There is No god Except ALLAH!