The Stories of The Prophets #31 – The Story of Adam (#19) Adam & the Theory of Evolution

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Al hamdu lillah wa Salatu was Salam or Isla de vida, Amma very, so do your brothers and sisters after martial arts article Alhamdulillah, so many lectures about the Maliki Salaam and what we can learn from the story of Adam. We are now down to the very, very, very last lecture. This is it. This is the finale of the Prophet Adam alayhis salam for our series. And I have saved one of the most difficult topics, if not the most difficult for the last. And frankly, I have been dreading this topic since the very beginning. Perhaps even I confess, I might have gone into too many tangents to kind of delay this one. But the time has come to discuss one of the thorniest and one of the most

problematic issues for modern times. And that is, what do we as Muslims do. In light of the Adamic story, this avy, the almost unanimous consensus of all factions of the scientific community, regarding the notions of man having evolved from previous life forms over the course of many, many millions of years. Now, obviously, this is not a series of biology. And perhaps many of you who are watching this series are not specialists in biology or evolution. And I have a confession to make, neither am I, I am not a biologist. I'm not an evolutionary biologist. In fact, let me also confess that I never really quite liked the science of biology, even as a child, and I have not touched the

subject as an entire discipline since high school, which, by the way is ironic, because my wife is a biology high school teacher, so go figure that but I haven't touched biology, really, since high school. And it's not something I'm going to be teaching you in this series. So if you're not knowledgeable in biology and evolutionary biology, well, firstly, join the club. And obviously, this is not the time replaced to give you a crash course. And neither am I the best teacher for that subject. However, for today's lecture, because we're dealing with Adam, Allah, His Salaam and because we're living in modern times, and because it is my nature, and my Nisha, as well, to really

get involved in these types of issues and be very pragmatic and practical. And as all of you who are aware who know, my lectures, I don't mince my words, I don't speak in platitudes, or throw out slogans, I don't believe in this, it's not, it's not going to solve our problems, we have to demarcate the area of of you know, that is problematic, and then try to attempt to solve it, or at least give some guidelines. So I'm going to this lecture will consist of 10 basic points, right, each one of these deserves a full lecture, but we do not have the time to get into all of that. And before I begin, I want to make my usual disclaimers, because Subhanallah we always have to worry

about any Allah has tested us, for people who, for whatever reason, they love to take those 10 Second snippets and cause an entire social media drama, you know, may Allah eonni deal with those that are insincere amongst them the way that they deserve to be dealt with and expose them for what they really are, and those that are sincere May Allah guide and forgive them, but the point being, we have to be very, very clear. This entire lecture, I will be saying things that are kind of pushing the boundary, what ifs and what not. But I want to make it a very clear disclaimer, that I am at home that believer in the Quran, and I believe in the existence of Adam and I believe in the

entire Quran ik story of Adam Alayhis Salam. So as I preach and teach and as I'm going to be giving these lectures, Please do not misunderstand a 10 second snippet out of context, I'm saying it as emphatically as I can, I believe in the narrative of the Quran, and I believe in Adam Alayhis Salam in his wife Hawa as being the prime modulators of all of the human species. So that is the disclaimer. Now, let us move on. Point number one is going to be 10 points, brothers and sisters point number one.

Most of the Muslims who dismiss evolution should be very careful about the words that they use and what they say. And the fact of the matter is that really any Muslim who has studied the science of evolution who has understood evolutionary biology and the theses and the premises and the evidences, any Muslim who understands the theory of evolution from within the paradigm of science, will never simplistically dismiss it as most people who haven't studied do so. Only

Anyone who understands the evidences and knows the rationale behind the theory of evolution will be in a position to understand why it is potentially problematic. Remember, dear Muslims, our religion, Allah Azzawajal demands of us academic excellence. Allah says what a typical format a Salah could be hearing, do not speak about that which you do not have a knowledge of, if you do not have knowledge of a discipline, don't speak about it as if you are an authority. We don't want other people to find fault with our fates, because we have not presented what needs to be presented in an academic matter. Because we might make a mistake and how we express ourselves. So if you really haven't

studied the theory of evolution, if you don't understand its its premises within the scientific community, then just be quiet about it say, I don't know, Allah knows best. Do not be amongst those who just dismiss it and say, Oh, it's all completely It's a conspiracy theory to do that. No, please be academic understand that there is a potential a potential clash between the religious narrative and between the theory of evolution. And whether you understand or agree with this or not, I will tell you firsthand that, may Allah protect us, but many people are doubting, and maybe even leaving the faith because they cannot understand. And they cannot reconcile between what they think is

science and what the Quran is. And especially when clerics come along, or even, you know, Muslims that are pious and righteous, and they dismiss these concerns, because they haven't studied and they say, oh, all of you guys, you don't know anything. And it's just a theory and this all conspiracy, when they dismiss it without even understanding, then this only compounds the problem, either speak with knowledge, or be silent. Well, life's not a problem, say, I don't know, this is a very good question and go to the experts and the specialist. And we have to understand that the evidences for this theory as posited by the scientific community, from within their own paradigm, they are quite

solid evidences. So if you haven't studied how long, I'm gonna make some scientific terms that I know, I'm going to mess them up, because it's not my field or forte, I haven't studied biology, as I said, from the very beginning. So I'm not teaching you biology. Nonetheless, if you haven't studied the evidences from the for the theory of evolution, from anatomy, from the fact that shared species, excuse me share extremely similar physical features that seem to indicate common ancestry. These are called Hamal, homologous,

excuse me, these are called H, O, M, o, l, o, G. O us, I'm trying to pronounce this how homoeologous or Hamal homologous one of these two, I don't know the pronunciation. But I'm just reading the book here that I've read a number of books about this in terms of understanding why it's a problem. I have never talked, obviously, virology. So the point is that there is this notion or there is this understanding that species share extremely similar physical characteristics, which indicate a common ancestry, obviously, also have the evidence from molecular biology from DNA from our genetic codes, which again, reflect a type of shared ancestry. And in fact, if you understand how DNA forms you, if

you understand how the DNA structure gives you the information that you need, and how you can easily map out specific species real being related to other species, you can effectively draw out a chart between the various species and see how they have been interconnected. We also have evidences of biogeography. Biogeography is basically mapping out the geographic distributions of various plants and animals. And we can prove that in some areas changes occur. And these changes are reflective of the circumstances of those areas. And this is especially true of remote islands that have been cut off from large Continental, you know, land masses, these isolated islands, perhaps a bird or a

reptile migrated there, you know, centuries or millennia ago. And over the course of a few 100 years, we can actually see divergent species. So the mainland might have a particular type of reptile and an island, you know, so far away might have another type, which we clearly see is related. And each one is not found in the other location. So this is what is called biogeography. So this is another instance of trying to talk about the evidences of why evolution occurs. Obviously, we have evidences or they have evidences from fossils, because fossils indicate the existence of animals that no longer exists. And those animals are the perfect prototypes of different species of

animals. So again, the theory of evolution goes, for example, that foxes and wolves, let's just say, have been descended from another species that no longer exists. So there was one species that walked

On earth, and over the course of time, this species evolved into different animals in such as foxes and wolves. So the point being that we have fossils, and even sometimes the actual DNA can be reconstructed, that demonstrates that there were animals that fit the model of being a prototype of the animals that we have currently. And of course, perhaps one of the strongest evidences that by that evolutionary biologists use to prove evolution is the fact that we have directly observed what is called micro evolution, we can directly observe small scale evolution in organisms with short life cycles. So for example, whether you have, you know, amoeba or cells, or you have even flies or

mosquitoes or whatever, things that have short lifespans, scientists count over the course of a few years, maybe even a few months, literally monitor how a particular species is adapting, maybe the wing is changing, maybe they're developing some type of immunity against a disease out there. And scientists can see that over the course of a number of generations, what happens is a change occurs at the genetic level at the DNA level. And this is called micro evolution. And by the way, this is, you don't even need to be a scientist to know this. I mean, every person who breeds horses breeds, dogs breeds any What are like dogs is the perfect example. Every few years, I know their speed or

not the species, but another type of dogs, let's say is coming up, why how what's going on here? Again, these are breeds of dogs. And the notion being that if you were to continue to do this for 1000s of years, you know, you would get into a different species speciation would occur, a different species being created, after many, many 1000s of micro evolution. So we have not observed what is called a macro evolution, which is to see an animal over the course of many, you know, centuries, or many 1000s of descendants become another animal and other species. The reason why we haven't observed this is because it takes too long, you couldn't do so in one lifetime, you could not even

do so if it was even flies or whatnot, you need many hundreds or 1000s of years of observation to do so. But the point being, if scientists say if we have observed micro evolution, and we have seen market changes between one generation to the other to the other, to understand this and observe it, then to extrapolate this to many hundreds and 1000s of generations, that is essentially macro evolution. So what the claim is, is that a new species doesn't just come about overnight, it actually takes many 1000s of generations for that to happen. And we have observed the first few dozens or so of those iterations. So these are all things that bio biologists mentioned when it

comes to trying to prove the theory of evolution. My point being, if you wish to speak about this topic, first educate yourself, many people, many of our own Muslim brothers and sisters, they dismiss evolution. And I say this with respect without even having a clue as to the actual problem that it poses. In fact, they can't even define evolution, ask them what is evolution, and they will give you these not even high school definition is that oh, this means man are descendants of chimpanzees and apes. No, no scientist says this. This is, of course, the picture is there for you know, kindergarten children of a chimpanzee and a human being. No scientist actually says this. We

are not descendants of apes, even according to the theory of evolution. That's not what evolutionary biologists say. So the point being, first educate yourself and even understand what is evolution evolution is the descent you know, of a species with genetic modifications, that's really what it is, is that genetic modifications occur from generation to generation. So my first point, this is all the first point is one of the longest ones is that and I say this understanding what I'm saying. So please don't take that 10 Snake snippet, you know, a second snippet and misunderstand me, I believe in the story of Adam, but I also say, the theory of evolution overall is good science for

its paradigm, it is a fair attempt to understand the reality based upon the scientific method, that does not mean it is right. That does not mean everything about it is valid, that does not mean it cannot be challenged. That does not mean it explains everything. What it does mean is that it is a valid theory based on the premises of science and no Muslim should just dismiss it with a wave of the hand and say, oh, there is no such thing and not consider it to be something of significance simply because they have not studied. I have not met a single Muslim who is an actual expert in biology and evolutionary biology, except that they understand why the theory of evolution might

potentially be a clash with religious knowledge and understanding. So do not just

mysid because of the term of theory of gravity is a theory light and how light reaches us as a theory doesn't deny the reality of gravity does not deny that light is actually real. And we see light understand the science is a process science is inference science is to see fact a fact be facce facts, and then try to develop a theory that explains the relationship between these facts. It is a theory insofar as it is an inference. And science is an ever changing philosophy. It keeps on updating itself, it keeps on correcting its own paradigm. And given what scientists know about the the facts of evolution. And there are certain facts that are undeniable and given what they know.

Then to extrapolate from it. The theory of evolution is reasonable science. That's all I'm saying. I'm not saying it is correct. I'm saying it is valid from the scientific paradigm. Now, this is the first point. The second point is that some of you are waiting for me to give the alternative to the theory and let me immediately disavow any type of such notion. Roma are not scientists, preachers and teachers of the religion should not be telling engineers and doctors and evolutionary biologists what to research and teach. Let every speciality, stick with his own speciality. And let's learn from the mistakes of the Catholic Church when they thought that they could dictate to the scientists

what to do and what not to do. Our alumna of the past did not tell chemicals, chemists and biology evolved to just to what to say and what not to do. No, that's a separate discipline, and let every discipline do its own research. Neither should a scientist be telling me what I should believe in the Quran and Sunnah. And neither is it my job, nor is it my job is to tell the scientist what to believe, according to science, I can and I should tell the Muslim scientist what to believe about the Quran. Yes, that's my job. My job is to explain the Quran to explain our theology to explain our texts. And then it is up to the Muslim biologist to then try to see what he or she can do. Science

has its rules. theology has its rules. The FCC has its rules, Hadith has its rules, I am not going to tell a biologist, what he should be researching and what he should say about the theory of evolution that is up to him to do. And this leads me to the third point, that if I can speak about the Quran, and theology, then of course, I believe the Quran to be true, then what my job should be. And this is what I'm going to be doing is to tell Muslim biologists and Muslims around the world who want to listen to me what the Quran says and what it doesn't say, and therefore we demarcate the red lines that you cannot go beyond those red lines, it is not my job to propose an alternative to the

theory of evolution, it is my job to say, if we believe in the Quran, which all in Charlotte, my audience does, if we believe in the Quran, this is what we can say, this is what we cannot say, When I pause it, this is what we may say, I am not actually saying that, I believe I'm simply saying, if somebody were to say what I'm going to be giving an example, if somebody were to say this, the Quran allows this belief, to be brutally honest. And to be very clear, I personally do not have even in my own mind an alternative for the theory of evolution, because it's not my forte, it's not my area of expertise. And frankly, for whatever reason, people, you know, are interested in different things

I'm really not that interested in, in trying to find some solution to this. I know many of my colleagues and friends who have an interest in biology, they also have a huge interest in trying to understand an alternative to this theory. Me personally, again, I mean, I am much more interested in classical theology and the CLR and history and, you know, issues of the Quran and out of this is much more interesting to me for whatever reason, everybody has a different brain in mind and different talents. Me personally, it's not something that bothers me at all. And, you know, Allah knows best to, you know, how, what is the reality but I don't find problematic it might with my

faith whatsoever, but I do understand some Muslims do find this problematic and I do understand that they're struggling in what to say. So third point here is that the job of preachers and odema is to explain the Quran about Adam Alayhis Salam and when they do so, they're giving you the rubric, this is what we must believe without exception. This is a gray area open for interpretation and this the shadow is silent on the Quran is silent on so this is what I'll be doing a little bit today in light of my previous lectures, and I hope Inshallah, by the way, that most of you, if not all of you have listened to the previous lectures. By the way, if you're just clicking this one lecture, you know,

wanting to get my opinion on evolution and whatnot, then, you know, Inshallah, it'll be a benefit, but it won't be as much beneficial as if you listen to this entire series and

Then come to this as the final lecture because you need to understand what I'm saying about Adam Alayhis Salam, and what to affirmed about Adam. And what I said is a great area and what you know has been left silent here. So that is the third point that my job and role is to preach the Koran and chronic theology about Adam, and then we leave it to the others now, to to Muslim biologist to do more than this. Now, fourth point.

When it comes to the story of Adam Alayhis Salam, I mean, we have been doing Adam for what 2030 lectures now, it is crystal clear that the Quran presents a very distinct image of human origin. The story of Adam is mentioned half a dozen times, the imagery is so vivid, the narrative is so explicit, the sheer quantity of nouns and adjectives and the piece by piece, telling of the of the story clearly indicates that the intent of the Quran is for us to understand that there was a real person by the name of Adam, and that from Adam, Allah created its mate, and that from the two of them, all of mankind, as we know, originated, this much is crystal clear. No human on Earth exists,

except that his or her ancestry goes back to these this pair and this pair itself, it goes back to one this is very explicit in the Quran and Sunnah. And so the existence of Adam and Eve, and the fact that they are our parents and all of mankind's parents, this is extra explicit from the Quranic narrative. And anybody who reads the Quran must understand that the Quran wants us to believe this, this is the fourth point there is no ambiguity in this. The fifth point that we come to, is that if somebody says, Okay, we believe that this is the intent of the Quran to and the intent of ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada that we understand the story of Adam and his salaam, it's very clear. But what if

the point of the story is to be a story of morality, and not a story of history? What if it is like a fable a legend? What if it is like what we tell our children before they go to sleep, once upon a time in a faraway land, they rule the king. And so it is a fable. By the time the story ends, every child gets a moral from the story. So a group will say that we now have enough knowledge to understand that there is no such person as Adam. That's what they're gonna say. And that, therefore, we have no alternative. But to take this story as a tale, as a symbolic fable, as a metaphor for us to understand that we have a noble origin, that

Allah subhanaw taala is explaining to us the importance of obedience, the dangers of disobedience that it believes is an entity we need to be worried about. So it's a symbolic tale. It's not meant to be taken literally, this is an opinion of some thinkers of modern times. And again, because this is public knowledge is not something I'm, you know, inventing or whatnot. But many famous scholars of our times, thinkers, I should say, of our times they held this view, generally speaking, obviously, if you're going to hold this view, then you're not coming from the traditionalist camp of Roma, and that's understandable. And amongst the people who held this view is the famous Indian

philosopher and poet, Muhammad Akbar, Allah as well as the Pakistanis Indian say, Allah Muhammad, that he he posited that the theory or that destroy of Adam is more of a fable, an illusion, then an actual real history. And there are a number of you know, thinkers who said this now, of course, I am coming from obviously, traditional religion, my background, and I cannot accept this, to be honest with respect to Allama Iqbal and you know, inshallah he's forgiven and Allah bless his ranks. I'm not trying to criticize him or those who say it. But I must say, I don't agree with this whatsoever because the problem that is raised is that the very fundamental level of theology, the implications

of saying that the Quran is teaching us a fable are simply too many to ignore. Because the Quran itself tells us in multiple verses that it is the truth, we'll have patrons and now who have been happiness in the help is in the Quran. And Allah azza wa jal tells us the Quran is a clear guidance, and Allah tells us there's no misguidance in the Quran. And Allah tells us it is in simple language, and Allah tells us that the stories of the Quran are true. Lakota cannot feel Qasim able to live above. Allah tells us the stories are not fables, Makana, Hadith Anusara these are not just tales we are telling. Allah tells us you are not there when this happened. When I'm going to be Jana, Bill

Cosby, you could tell him you were not there and I was there Allah saying that I am telling you sorry that Allah was there obviously in his knowledge. The point is that Allah is saying you were not there when whatever happened, but we inspired

Do from the knowledge of the Unseen. So the point comes that as Muslims, we believe that Allah subhanho wa Taala is Rahmani Raheem, and that he is Alhaji the one who guides and that he is the most truthful woman us document Allah Taylor, and that he is the most eloquent. So if we believe that Allah speaks the truth, and that Allah has knowledge of the Unseen and that Allah wishes to guide and that Allah is the most eloquent, think about all of those things right? That Allah speaks the truth he never lies, that Allah of course has ultimate knowledge. No, no entity has knowledge,

except for Allah choose to give knowledge to them, and that Allah wishes to guide and that Allah is the most eloquent, then to claim that the Quran is deceitful, is symbolic, is lying, because really that is what it is that you're going to say that for 14 centuries. Everybody thought that the tail, the tail of Adam was true, because the Quran is telling you it's true until modernity comes along. And we understand that really, it's not true, that it's like a fairy tale that maybe the five year old doesn't know but the 10 year old knows that. Yeah, Mama and Baba are lying when they told me the fairy tale is not a real tale. There is no internal evidence to tell us that it is a fable. The

Quran is very clear. It's a true story. So to claim that it is a fable is to accuse rubella, rubella, the Quran and Allah Zojirushi that's the accusation. I mean, even though the ones who said this, don't say this accusation, but what is the necessary the corollary? You're saying that Allah is lying? Basically, you're saying that this entire tale that was said is a fake tale. It's a fable. It's a mythology. And we don't believe this. The Quran is true, and his stories are true. And Allah is true. So when Allah says something, and it is clear that it is a story because somebody will say, Oh, but aren't there aren't there parables in the Quran? The response is that yes, there are

parables by the way, just wrote a book about the parables of the Quran is literally being released this week or next week. The parables of the Quran. Yes, the Quran has parables. But every time the Quran gives you a parable, it tells you what occurred the door opener we're giving you a parable right? Buddha methadone for semi Rota, I'm giving you a parable. So listen to it right method whom Kamath led so called the narrow their example is like that. So whenever Allah gives a parable, He tells you it is a parable. And you understand there's never an ambiguity. And when Allah tells you a story, he tells you it is the truth. And he tells you this is what happened. There is not a single

passage in the Quran, where people are confused. Is it a parable or is it history? No. Musa Isa, the woods with a man you know, every prophet of old No, Adam, these are stories that are history. They are not parables and fables. So the claim that Adam alayhis salaam is symbolic tale, or the biller, it is actually a claim that the Roma would say, entails gofer, even though the one who says it might be excused because of ignorance, out of Azadi and even Tamia and our Sunni roadmap.

They said that anybody who says that the Quran is symbolic, and that Allah is speaking to us in false truths half truths, that this person has accused Allah azza wa jal of lying or being deceitful. And this is not an accusation within Islam. And they said this, by the way, about the philosopher, the pseudo philosophers of early Islam, medieval Islam, they said that the philosopher according to mainstream Sunni scholars, they committed heresy. Why? Because they said, Heaven and Hell are not real, they are symbolic, Allah is just me giving a fable let the people believe in this is not real. And so our mainstream Roadmaster This is not something that is acceptable. And the same

can be said of those who denied the story of Adam. Here, we saw the fifth point here, we cannot dismiss the entire story as being a fable without accusing the one who revealed the Quran of intentional intentionally lying, intentionally deceiving and we do not believe Allah azza wa jal is like this, and we do not believe his speech is like this. We cannot go the way of Christianity and Judaism because the bulk of the majority of Christians and Jews do not view their holy books as really being fully divine. They view their holy books as having kernels of wisdom and they can pick and choose as they as they please. The majority of Christians do not believe in the story of Adam

and Eve the majority of Jews do not believe in the story of Adam and Eve, only small groups amongst them. They stick to the story and they say everything is true. We on the other hand, as Muslims, our book is not like their book, our Quran is protected, it is preserved it is the speech of ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada and we cannot go the way of Christianity and Judaism and say that oh, our book is symbolic. No, it is truth and it is nothing but true.

So point number five. If you believe in the Quran, you must believe that the Quran is telling you that Adam was a real person and we are the descendants of Adam. We don't go down symbolism Allah did not reveal a symbolic crypto book that is full of Yannick tricks and puzzles No, Allah speaks BT sign in our IBM will be in Allah speaks in simple and clear Arabic point number six. And again, each one of these points that deserves so much more than as usual time is limited.

Point number six. The Quran is not a book of science, it is a book of guidance. And so we should not expect the Quran to teach us anything to do with biology, chemistry, physics, engineering architecture, Allah did not reveal the Quran to teach us science. Allah revealed the Quran to teach us our theology to teach us why we are here to teach us the broad aspects of morality, this is what the Quran is for. So we should not expect the Quran to give us grandiose claims of science. And by the way, and I know this is going to again, generate a lot of discussion in some circles, if you listen to my lectures, and even if you've read my books, and I have a book about the sciences, the

Quran that I wrote panel over 27 years ago, subhanAllah, a long time ago,

even then, 27 years ago, and throughout my entire preaching and teaching, right is that you will never find me to be of those groups who emphasize what is called the scientific miracles of the Quran, I am highly, highly, highly skeptical of this entire genre. And perhaps one day I will give maybe an advanced library chat about this, but I have never ever, you know, since reaching adulthood, obviously, as a teenager, I did you know, go into down this this genre, but as an adult and especially as a student of knowledge, and then now who I am never have given an entire lecture about oh, the Quran predicts based travel on the Quran predicts, you know, this, and the Quran

predicts that I did not buy this back then and I still do not buy it now. And this. And this is I know going to raise a lot of eyebrows. Um, there are a number of experts out there who have spoken about this in a lot more detail than myself.

And this issue of this potential clash with the theory of evolution, and the Quran is actually one of the byproducts if you start going down this this route of saying that the Quran is proven through science, no, the Quran is not proven through science the Quran has is not a book of science. Now it is true that we believe that the Quran will not contain any falsehood, and that there's language in the Quran. That indeed it is interesting. And it is it's very powerful that somebody 1400 years ago in the Arabian Desert would use such language, but to read in so many miracles, you're creating a can of worms because when a non Muslim comes and says okay, well you say the Quran is a book of

science, okay? Well, science is telling us the theory of evolution. And the Quran is telling us Adam and Eve. So what are you going to do then? So I don't go down this entire genre. And this is not the time to get into there. But just FYI, for the record, that I don't ever go around trying to prove the Quran is from Allah via the fact that it is a book full of scientific miracles. No, the Quranic truth transcends scientific paradigm. And we know the Quran to be true, not because it conforms to our understanding of science. No, if we go down that route, then we are, as they say, in English shooting ourselves in the foot. And I do not agree with this, in my opinion, to go down this route,

in the long run will prove to be more harmful than good. And Allah knows best. This is the sixth point. The seven point I mentioned that the Quranic narrative of Adam is very clear that we believe in Adam, we believe in Eve, we believe that the two of them are our ancestors. Okay. But one point about the Quran which is very, very important is

there is no timeline in the Quran. We are not obliged to believe that Adam ID has Salam existed in a particular time or particular location. This is in contrast to many evangelical Christians and other types of Christians and Orthodox Jews who believe that Adam existed 6000 years ago, and they believe that all of human history is only 6000 years old. Now, this is not just highly problematic. This contradicts not theories. It contradicts facts in debatable, Yukine facts. Without a shadow of a doubt. Mankind has been on Earth way more than 6000 years. I mean, we have human structures dating back 15,000 years. We have

paintings dating back 30,000 years paintings on caves, carbon dating more than 30,000 years. And as for species that are humanoid hominid is the term that should be used. hominid ie not exactly us, but like us, they go back almost 2 million years. You know, you have the Homo heidelbergensis, you have the Neanderthals, you have the Denis Sylvans, you have a whole bunch of different hominid species that are not exactly us, and they go back half 1,000,001 million years, stone tools were clearly used 250,000 years ago. And almost all scientists are certain that our exact species us exactly, has been on Earth for at least 100,000 years, actually more than this, but at least 100,000

years. I mean, the aborigines of Australia are the most one of the most interesting case studies because the Aborigines, they had been cut off from the rest of mankind for many, many, many millennia, until Europeans discovered Australia. In the 1700s, the Aborigines, you know, we don't know how they got there. But they were in Australia for not just centuries for millennia. And we can prove, through the artifacts and through the structures left, and through the bones of the Aborigines discovered, buried over there, we can prove that aborigines have been in Australia for 60,000 years, at the very least. So aborigines are human beings, they're still around, right?

They're completely us. They are 100% human beings. They're not a different species. They're us. And we know for a fact that they've been around 60,000 years. Again, we have their records, not not their books, but I'm saying the records that they left behind, meaning the stuff that they left behind the tools, the the bones, we have their civilizations for 60,000 years, how then can mankind be 6000 years old response as Muslims? Who said they're 6000 years old? We didn't say that. That's your narrative, or Christians and Jews. It's not our narrative. And so for us, we have no problems extrapolating Adam allihies salaam to whenever you guys want to whatever scientists, as Muslim wants

to come and say, hey, there was somebody that we can all link back to that half a million years ago, no problem doesn't matter to us. 150,000 years ago, no problem doesn't matter to us. Somebody comes and says, Hold on a sec, shall we know for a fact that a cell was only 2000 years ago. So the man was 3000 years ago, Ibrahim was 4000 years ago. And these are all the prophets any that we know in the in the Quran and whatnot. So Ibrahim is around 4000 years, and this is Yanni. It seems to be the case that Ibrahim is around 4000 years ago. It's the Early Bronze Age and the facts match up. It does look like he was from that timeframe. So if we say that Adam existed 150,000 years ago, what

we're saying is that between Adam and Ibrahim is literally over 145,000 years, right? The response to this is So what So what it does not affect the Quranic narrative at all. The Quranic narrative remains firm, and it doesn't matter if you were to say Adam is 150,000 years, no has 130,000 Ibrahim is 4000. Nowhere in the Quran, does it say that No, and Ibrahim are 100 years apart. 1000 years apart, nothing. We have no definitive knowledge. So whatever people want to believe it is fine from the Quran ik paradigm. And also by the way, one can gently point out that the Hadith mentions that there were 124,000 prophets, right? Well, I mean, the Quran only mentions 25 of them. So where are

the rest of the 130 100? And 115,000 119,975? Where are they now? How come they have been mentioned? One could say there were so many small generations and pockets here and there for 100,000 years. I know. My point is, the notion of Adam Alayhis Salam being 6000 years old is not an Islamic one. It's not a Quranic one, and we do not have to champion it whatsoever. We have no theological issues of extrapolating the time of Adam to be as long as geneticists and evolutionary biologists wanted to be. So that is point number seven, point number eight for us. Point number eight, is that the Quran does not negate the existence of other life beings or forms. We have no problems whatsoever. Unlike

some Christians and some other folks who don't believe in dinosaurs and whatnot or other hominids, they say that these are all fakes or these are all, you know, conspiracy theories. No, we're not a Hamdulillah. We are people of intelligence and alcohol. And we believe in facts. And these are actual bones that we know for a fact these were creatures and these were entities and these were hominids, whatever it might be. And carbon 14 DNA is pretty much a cleaning now that much is my area. I have a degree in Engineering and Chemical Engineering. I have you know

Chemistry and I can tell you that carbon 14 Dating is Yekini. Now, it gives you a variable from this date to that date. But it is definitive, there is no trickery going on here. And when we date a bone to be 100,000 years, roughly, it is roughly 100,000 It wasn't just put a year ago, it is impossible. You know, unless Allah was a miracle, obviously, it is impossible otherwise. So when we discover fossils of other life forms, in fact, recently, they discovered a reptile Amina, they discovered a dinosaurs egg that had been frozen. And so the embryo of the dinosaur was actually still there, you know, we're worried about the white hatchet or whatever, but somehow anyway, it was just they

discovered it was frozen in Siberia, they discovered an actual embryo of the dinosaur, right? This is clearly clearly a living species at one point in time. What do we do with all of these? The hominids, Neanderthals, Denisovans, right? What do we do with all of these, the response? Why does it bother us? Allah says in the Quran, why a Hulu, man attack the moon, and he has created what you do not know. He has created what you do not know. And Allah as Raja reminds us, Walmart will de terminate me Illa kalila, you have not been given anything of knowledge except a very small amount. So we have no problems affirming multiple species, multiple creations besides us, no problem

whatsoever dinosaurs and Dennis Owens and the Undertows. We will say, though, that we believe that our species of Homo sapiens, as human beings, we were blessed in ways that they were not blessed. And we were blessed with intelligence and with speech by hand, that's something we will we will say that our level of intelligence and our capability to speak, it is a gift given to us by Allah that no other species had. Why lever Adam at a smart collapse. So this is something we firmly believe other than this, if there were species that were more intelligent than primates, they could use stone tools, but and they could communicate in basic, you know, grunts or, you know, one word

syllables or whatnot. And they were humanoid, but not human Neanderthals, let's say, right? I'm just saying if they were, that doesn't, it doesn't bother us, theologically. It means nothing to us. Because Allah azza wa jal told us he created what we do not know. And we will affirm facts from biology. And the fact that Neanderthals Neanderthals existed is an undeniable fact, the fact that they were humanoids, hominoids hominids other than us, this is an undeniable fact. So this is the eighth point here. And by the way, go back to one of my previous lectures, I don't know 10 lectures ago, when we talked about this theory of the, the tin and the bin and the rune. Remember those ones,

right when some of our classical scholars posited that there were beasts that were not human beings that were on this earth, and that they cause fitna and facade and that is why the angel said, Oh Allah, why are you creating a new species? Why are you doing this when we are here, and we will praise you and whatnot. So there is a hint in our tradition, even though it is not Quran and Sunnah. But there's hints in our tradition, that perhaps there were species other than mankind before mankind, and they were not exactly us, but there was something like us. So if one were to say that, yes, we believe or not, we believe but it is possible to believe that that is not problematic

whatsoever. This is point number eight.

Point number nine second to last penultimate point number nine.

The Quran does not inform us how the other species came about. The Quran never tells us that Allah azza wa jal sent every one of the species down. And all of the descendants of those are from that species, the Quran does not say so. The Quran does not say that Allah sent down the cow and the chicken and the sheep and the wolf and the lamb, and that all of these are without coming forth from that. Not at all, no.

And so if somebody were to say that, and again, I'm being very careful, listen to my words carefully. If somebody were to believe in evolution of all species, except Adam Alayhis Salam, we have to make an exception is point number 10. But let's remove Adam from the picture. If somebody were to affirm everything that modern evolutionary biologists are saying, if somebody please Don't misquote me, I'm not saying I do. I'm saying if somebody were to believe this, and remove Adam from the equation and say that all other life forms are interlinked together, and everything

single species on Earth is interconnected, and that we all other than Adam and the children of Adam have emanated from one life form. If somebody were to say this, it does not contradict the Quran.

They haven't lost any iota of chronic belief, not a single versus contradicted not a single principle of Islamic theology, nothing. So again, my job is to tell you what a Muslim can believe. And remember, I'm not positing this as true. When I gave a lecture about this topic many years ago, a lot of people misunderstood that I am preaching this No, I am not preaching. I am saying if somebody were to believe this, then it is a legitimate belief from an Islamic standpoint, and it does not conflict with our tradition whatsoever. Now, if somebody doesn't, that's up to them. It doesn't. It's not I'm not saying that they must believe in this. Now, somebody, a number of people

said to me, doesn't Allah say in the Quran, that our mere on Allah Allahu mimma amulet, Idina and and for whom Allah Malecon it's one of the last verses of Surah Yaseen? And they say, doesn't this indicate that Allah created the animals as they are? And go back to this? See, this is not the understanding of the verse go back to the fasciae go back to or to be go back to Josie go back to any of the classical Pepsi's authority, you will understand that this is a misunderstanding what Allah is saying is that

Allah azza wa jal is saying that we it is our power that created these animals, there is no hint that Allah is saying, we created the original animal and all of these animals come from the original No, Allah simply saying, We gifted them these animals, it is our power, our and Allah saying that I created these animals how Allah created is not mentioned. The Quran does not mention how, by the way, if anything, anyone could read in generic statements, Allah says in the Quran, that we created everything from water, right? So if one one were to read in, in and of itself, it's not problematic. So again, point number nine, please understand what I'm saying here. The theory of evolution, as it

stands, is not problematic theologically, if you remove Adam and Homo sapiens human beings from the picture, if a person were to believe every other life form, emanated from a previous life form, and we're to say that Allah use the mechanism of evolution, again, all powers to Allah, one of the things that we differentiate from secularists and from people who deny God is that they say this chaos is coming out of chance, this randomness is just happening. And we would say, No, this is a cause and effect, and Allah created the cause. And Allah created the effect. And Allah links the cause and the effect. So if you were to believe in what is called intelligent design,

for nonhumans, if you were to believe that Allah use the mechanism of evolution, to bring about different species over many millions of years, as Muslims, we don't have any problem with this for all life, except one. And this leads me to my final point. The final point is that given all of the above, we simply cannot affirm the theory of evolution as it stands, when it comes to Homo sapiens. We as Muslims, respect the scientists in there, we're not making fun of them. We're not saying that evil intention. But we have a data point that they don't have. It's really that's all that it is, we have a fact that they will not look at as a fact, we bring to the table of scientific facts, a

theological fact, we don't expect them to believe in that theological fact. But we do. And that theological fact is what we believe that Adam Alayhis Salam existed, that he was the first human being, and that he was the father of all other human beings. It's that simple. Scientists can bring all of the facts to the table that they want. We just add this one fact to the table. With this one fact. Muslim evolutionary biologists should try to understand what alternatives can be given and should see what they can bring to the scientific community as faith based Muslims, but it's not my job to do so. We firmly believe that Adam Alayhis Salam existed, that he is the first human being

that he is the original human being, and that all of mankind is descended from him and his spouse. We don't believe that he existed in any particular timeframe, you could have existed anytime 10,000 years ago, 100,000 years a million years ago, doesn't matter to us. Our theology will not be affected. But we must believe that our creation is not like the rest of the creation. Rather we are special and we do believe this in multiple ways. Allah tells us in the Quran, welcome to karamba bunny Adam, we have honored the Children of Adam, we are not like the rest of the species. Allah gave us what he did not give other species Allah

gave us intellect. Allah gave us language. Allah gave us Bian, Allah gave us metacognition, all of these things are unique to human beings. We are not simply products of chance, we are not simply, you know the result of random mutations and chaos. No, it is simply too perfect of a creation to simply attribute this to randomness. On the contrary, there is a Creator and Allah created everything, and he especially preferred and created us over the rest of the creation, that much is logically undeniable. And the Quran also mentions this now, I wrote a paper along with another doctor Dr. Nasir Han, we co authored a paper about evolution and the Quran and you can Google it,

you know, Dr. So called Dr. Oz. Khan evolution, you will find it on your team's website. And so we co authored a paper, and I will read from that in my concluding remarks, I will read from that paper, and you can read it online the full paper it's a little bit technical language per so if you get lost with that you can read the actual paper because I know that when you speak language is simpler than when you write. So I quote from our own paper, setting aside debates about the rational possibility or probability, there is nothing in Islamic scripture. That explicitly negates the concepts of angiogenesis, Genesis, angiogenesis, genetic mutation and diversification, natural

selection, the existence of hominid species, or a common ancestor for all biological life on Earth, excluding only the descendants of Adam. Moreover, one can certainly imagine a scenario where hominid species were gradually evolving on Earth. And right at the point in time, when evolutionists would predict the emergence of modern humans, God miraculously inserted the Children of Adam and Eve, Adam and Hawa and the children of Adam. Let us suppose that these Adamic species are biologically and atomically, physiologically and genetically indistinguishable from the would be species one would have predicted to have emerged. Based on the preceding population of species in evolutionary

history, they appear to occupy the exact same position on the phylogenetic tree. The occurrence of such a scenario is theologically plausible, and would be impossible to disprove empirically, since it is a metaphysical assertion. This is not to affirm that such a senior scenario did take place. Indeed, there are ongoing arguments that may continue to be entertained about the logical integrity, numerical probability and empirical substantiation of many of the aforementioned evolutionary concepts. But it simply represents one of a number of possibilities, and a clear reason why there should be no consternation amongst Muslims on this subject, as the theological conclusions stand

independent of the empirical data. This example can be understood with analogy to a set of dominoes. And I gave this analogy almost a decade ago, when I debated somebody in England about the tea revolution. I gave this in a public talk and now I put it in this paper here, representing the sequence of events in evolutionary history. Just as one domino topples the next one. One species gives rise to the new species. As selection pressures continue to diversify populations and favor advantageous genes. The dominoes branch out forming divergent branches of the phylogenetic tree. However, the final domino of one branch representing humans is not toppled by the preceding Domino,

but instead is placed down in a manner indistinguishable from it had it been knocked down. An onlooker arriving at the scene, and surveying the evidence would surely conclude that this domino was affected by the exact same process that caused all of the others to topple. But in this case, it was a miracle. It was something that was atypical and this is what potentially one could one could argue once again, I am not saying this is what happened. I'm saying it is possible that it happened that if somebody wanted to say that, indeed, the entire process of evolution took place, and a species like ours was about to emerge, it was just the right time. But right before the species

actually emerged, Allah subhanho wa Taala sent down Adam and how up and they fit into the puzzle perfectly, because that is how Allah creates things, their DNA match the DNA of such a species, everything fits exactly because that's what Allah would do. It's not a deception here. It is rather the perfection of Allah's creation. If somebody were to argue this, Now later on, you try to piece it together as scientists are doing and they find the final domino falling down, they would logically conclude the dominant before

It caused this domino to fall, they wouldn't know that Allah azza wa jal miraculously placed that domino, or Adam and Islam at the right time in place. That is one theory out there are one alternative. And of course, there are others could be positive as well. In the end of the day, brothers and sisters, I do not have a clear cut alternative. And it is up to Muslim evolutionary biologist to help us out here. What I can say unequivocally is that I believe in the Quran. And I believe in the Quran, not because it proves science, but because it is a miracle, because it is the speech of Allah because of its message because of his language because of its impact. I believe the

Quran to be true, if I believe it to be true, and I am a rational person, I understand science, then I also believe that Allah has knowledge is infinite, and the knowledge of scientists is finite. And so indeed, I respect science. But I also know that what they posit about the origins of man is a plausible theory. It's not fake. It's not wrong. It's plausible. It's not certain, it's not definitive, but neither is it, something that we dismiss, however, the ironic story is your cainy it is in debatable, it is 100% So if the theory of evolution is 99% 95%, and the origin is 100%, well then for me, I will take the Quran and I will say I don't know what to say about the theory of

evolution, I leave it to Allah subhana wa Tada. I know that for some people, what I have said, is not going to be good enough for them. I say go and research, go and read the Quran, ask Allah for hedaya and do what you can. But for me as a believer, it has never presented any major problem for one simple reason. And with this, I conclude, Allah tells us in the Quran, so little calf, Allah tells us, mash had to him help us somehow it will all the water hollowcore and fusi him. Allah says, you were not there to see how I created the heavens and earth. And you were not there to witness your own creation. This is a very, very powerful verse. Allah says I didn't call you to witness your

own creation, what I call call and force him. You don't know how you were created. You're trying to piece together based upon the evidences of a million years ago of half a million years ago of 200,000 years ago, and your attempts might be good and solid, but they are not definitive. Allah's knowledge is definitive. So we are trying they are trying, but in the end of the day, their attempts are human and the Quran is divine. So because my belief in the Quran transcends its relationship with science, I firmly believe that there can never be an explicit clash between your Keeney definitive science and between explicit Koran. And we thank Allah that the theory of evolution, even

though it is fairly solid, it is not 100% it is not something that is your teeny, and what the Quran tells us about Adam is your cleaning. So as a Muslim, I prefer the clean over the one and I put my trust in Allah subhanho wa Taala that Allah knows best. And perhaps one day in sha Allah and he when we're in Jannah insha Allah when we have eternal time, and we're able to think and talk and whatnot, perhaps one day we will understand and see and put all of this together. But in this world, we have to believe in the Quran and we have to accept what ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada says, and I conclude by reminding ourselves what Allah told us so that is raw wema booty to Manila in me Illa kalila you

have been given nothing of knowledge except a very, very small amount Allah azza wa jal Knows Best with this your brothers and sisters, we conclude our series on our father Adam Alayhis Salam and we will inshallah to either move on to the next Prophet next week in the night either until then set up while what a hammer to Allah He wabarakatuhu

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