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In order to clarify the stand of Islam towards evolution, it is our duty to show
that there are three attitudes that people have taken towards it.
The attitude of total refusal
The first attitude resides in the total refusal of any change or innovation in any
aspect of life - be it scientific or practical, material or moral. It also means keeping
all old things in their state, and resisting anything that is new, wherever it comes from,
and under whatever aspect it is presented.
This is the attitude of the Catholic church
in Europe in the Middle Ages. It adopted views and theories in the sciences of geography,
astronomy, medicine, biology and so forth. It wrapped these views in enough
sacredness
which made them part of religion itself. This was also the case of the ideas and
traditions it adopted and gave them a religious character. So, it no longer allowed
anybody to oppose it or reach an opposing view through independent research. And damned
was anyone who dared to oppose it.
In his book " Islam, Christianity,
science and civilisation" Professor and Imam Mohammad Abdu mentioned attitudes of
the church and its clergy which arouse one's surprise and perplexity.
De Romnes said: the rainbow is not a war
bow that is in the hand of God which He uses to take revenge on His subjects whenever He
wills. It is the reflection of sunlight in water drops' Then he was brought to Rome and
was imprisoned until he died. Then his corpse and his books were judged and thrown in
fire.
Plage has argued that death existed before
Adam. That is, that animals were affected by death before Adam erred and ate from the
tree. As a result of this statement of opinion a heated and loud discussion arose. The
discussion lead to Iynching and that lead to the promulgation of an imperial order to
execute anybody who held that kind of belief.
The notion of the earth being round led to
a big disturbance in the world of Catholicism, at a time when Muslims were aware of this
fact since the beginning of the Abbassid dynasty, and that did not cause the slightest
disturbance. It was even quoted in the books of Interpretation and all others without any
restriction.
Some Americans discovered that the use of
anaesthesia on women during birth allowed them not to feel any pain. All the clergy arose
and was all upset, because that amounted to freeing women from the eternal curse and
punishment that was cast upon her by the Old Testament during the formative years. Therein
it is said: 'and he said, that is God, to the woman, in order to punish you, I will
increase the hardships of pregnancy, and with pain will you give birth to children.'
In Constantinople Muslims discovered a
medical method of transfusion from under the skin, and a woman named Mary Monajo took it
to Europe in . 1721. The clergy revolted and opposed its use. This kind of opposition
increased at the time of the discovery of vaccination against smallpox.
An inspection court was created in Europe
in order to oppose science and free thinking, when its emergence was feared, especially at
the instigation of the disciples of Averroes and their disciples, and especially in the
south of France and Italy. The man who ordered the creation of such a court is Tour
Kamanda.
This strange court undertook its task in
the best of ways. In 18 years (1481-1499), it sentenced 10,220 (ten thousand two hundred
and twenty) people to be burnt alive, and so they were burnt. It also sentenced 61,860
people to be hanged after reviling them publicly, and so they were publicised and then
they were hanged. It also sentenced 97,023 people to different sentences, which were
executed and all Old Testaments written in Hebrew were burned.
This was the attitude of the church, but
the movement of evolution was stronger, so that the spark which went from the Muslim East
to the Christian r West, kept widening and heightening, until it became an enormous flame
under which nothing could stand. So it is no surprise that the wild crowds revolted
against the church which lined up with ignorance against knowledge, and with folklore
against thought and with kings and nobles against the people, until the people spoke their
minds and said: "Hang the last of the kings with the intestines of the last
priest"
The attitude of total obedience to
evolution
The second attitude, in opposition to the first, is that of total obedience and blind
adaptation to all change and innovation. This obedience does not distinguish between what
is allowed and what is not, and what should be and what should not. This is based on a
western idea the gist of which is that what follows is better than what precedes, and that
anything new is better than anything old, and that today's new born is better than
yesterday's new born. They go much further than this and call for the reform of
everything, and the change of all values, qualities, traditions and regulations. In other
words, life must be turned upside down.
This attitude is represented in our societies by two groups of people. The first group is
made up of people who tag and imitate the western camp, and are
in awe of the advance of western civilisation. They motivate everything that it brought,
and are enthusiastic about it. They advocate it in the name of evolution and innovation,
even if that leads to nakedness and decadence and atheism and permissiveness. This is at a
time when westerners themselves have started to revise their attitudes, to
criticise their civilisation and review their concepts in many matters.
These are the ones about whom the Arab and
Muslim men of letters, the late Mustapha Sadiq Al Raafi'i commented sarcastically: they
want to innovate the religion, the language, the Sun and the Moon! Shawqii, also, wrote
the following lines about them:
Do not follow the steps of
the restless gang
For whom everything old is indecent
If they have a chance they would publicly deny
Those of their parents who have died and those who lived to be very old
And the steps of all those who look for what ; old and destroy it
And when they are given a chance to build, they fail
The second group is constituted by
the Marxists who believe in the necessity of evolution, and who adthat whatever results from
evolution is necessarily better than whused to be. They always talk about the evolutionary
aspect of the life of man, and ignore its stable side.
No one can argue with the fact that human
life is subject to much change and evolution, but most of this evolution revolves around
the environment of the human being rather than the human being himself. The essence of man
remains the same. For example, Adam was persuaded by Satan, through the instinct of the
love of immortality and eternity, to eat from the tree. This instinct is still present in
his children and still makes them commit other contraventions.
Another example would be that of the son of
Adam who out of jealousy killed his brother with some such object as a stone. Then, he did
not know what to do with the body, until a crow, which was searching in the ground, showed
him what to do with the corpse of his brother. Thus remains man today, at a time when the
instruments of death have varied and developed and become available to him. He still
envies and kills his brother man, to the point that he can melt a corpse with all kinds of
acid and chemical mixes and leave no sign of it whatsoever!!
The moral obstacle which made Adam regret
and repent after his sin, saying: "Our Lord! We have wronged
ourselves. If Thou forgive us not and have not mercy on us, surely we are of the lost!"(Surah 7, Verse 23) is the same one as that which is more
clearly stated in what the nobler son of Adam said to his brother: "Even
if thou stretched out thy hand against me to kill me, I shall not stretch out my hand
against thee to kill thee, io! If earAllah, the Lord of the Worlds"(. Surah 5, Verse 28.). In some sense, this obstacle is represented
in the regret of the killer after the burial of his brother. It is still present in the
instinct of the humans in spite of the fact, that they have stepped on the surface of the
moon, and in spite of the differences between them.
Instinctive motives have not changed in
man, although the ways of satisfying them may have changed. Man used to eat his food raw,
like animals and birds. Then he learned how to cook it on a fire that is fed by twigs,
wood or coal. Afterwards he invented stoves that used oil and then electricity. But he
still remains as human as he used to be, eating and drinking, he gets hungry and then gets
full, he gets thirsty and then quenches his thirst. He still gets nervous or emotional
when he gets hungry or thirsty, and feels rested and satisfied when he is no longer hungry
or thirsty.
Authentic religious and moral values
relating to the deeply-felt need for Allah, and the recourse to Him at times of distress
and regret after committing a sin, love of truth, trust and virtue, dislike of vice, and
Iying and betrayal, still have their weight and value in the life of human beings and
their behaviour, even if they had sometimes been overcome by unconsciousness, or
contaminated by rust.
So we should not exaggerate the level of
evolution that man has reached, it is an evolution of the environment of man, not of his
essence. It is an evolution of what man uses, not of his reality. It is true that man's
knowledge of the universe and what it includes has changed and widened, but this has not
changed the essence of man.
The moderate attitude is the attitude of
Islam
The third attitude is the moderate attitude, it is the attitude of
weighing, and moderation between the fanatics and the laxist, between those who want to
freeze life and stand in the way of its progress and evolution and those who want to turn
it into chaos. This attitude is neither governed by values or beliefs, and nor is it ruled
by qualities or regulations. It is an attitude which faces evolution with wisdom, and
guides it with truth. Then it leads towards useful evolution, invents it and feeds it.
Thus is the attitude of true Islam, which
joins firmness and leniency in its judgements and recommendations. Firmness in its aims
and goals and leniency in its ways and instruments; firmness in its foundations and
general conceptions and leniency in its branches and details, firmness in behaviour and
religious values and leniency in its materialistic and worldly matters.
We find this firmness in the authentic
texts, whose authenticity is certain and based on evidence as we find leniency in the
texts that are based on hypotheses in their authenticity and evidence. We also find
leniency in the areas that the texts left open to the research of the scholars in
compassion and ease for us.
This firmness is also found in the main
beliefs, the basic obligations, and the virtues, the reasons of the forbidden acts and the
general conceptions of the Islamic Law and so forth for all aspects of Islam which do not
change with the change of time, contexts or states. We find leniency in the details of the
branch judgements which do not allow more than one view, or more than one innovation, and
where Allah has not made it difficult for his subjects. Whoever innovates in these areas
and succeeds earns double reward, and whoever innovates and errs then he earns a single
reward. This is the context in which our scholars have said: it is here that the formal
legal opinion changes according to place, time, custom and state.
And we find greater leniency in worldly
matters: the technical and artistic matters concerning ways and means. It is in this
context that the Prophet (PBUH) said: "You are in a better
position to know about worldly matters'"(. Quoted by Muslimin Sahlih Al Jaami', no. 1482, second edition, Al Maktab
Al Is]aamii.)
Muslims have to master these matters
and they need to excel in them, and there is no harm for them to adopt them from other
people if they do not have them.
The Prophet (PBUH) used to lecture at the foot of a palm tree in Al Madina, when the
number of Muslims grew and they settled, he called a nonMuslim carpenter, and asked him to
manufacture a three step mimbar for him. He used it for his preaching and never said that
it was manufactured by a nonMuslim and therefore he was not going to use it.
In the Ahzaab expedition, Salman suggested to the Prophet to dig a trench around Al Madina
to protect it from infidel conquerors. He liked the suggestion and applied it, and never
said that that was brought by a Magi so he was not going to listen to it.
The same can be said about his companions
who governed after him. They established systems and actions that did not exist during His
time, such as establishing the books, listing the estates, collecting the Qur'an in books
and distributing them over the provinces. They also established the specialisation of
judges in the justice area only, and the introduction of a postal system, along with other
matters whose benefits are doubtless. These are also innovations which did not disturb
Islam in the least, especially that they were established by the Rightly Guided caliphs
whose tradition is considered as part of the religion, and is followed and clung to by
all.
God Willed it that His last words to
humanity be comprised in this religion, after it reached its maturity and deserved that He
Sends to it the Whole and Eternal Message. It comes as no surprise that He Included within
it ease and leniency that help to face evolution and fit every context, nation and
generation. He also included within it values, ideas, moral, intellectual and legal
foundations which lead to growth, action and progress. He also included within it what is
sufficient to create a civilisation that is divine and human at the same time, where both
religious and worldly matters are in harmony, and where science and faith, or civilisation
and morality are also harmonious.
Islam neither reffises evolution which
includes knowledge, wisdom, truth and goodness, nor does it accept evolution which
includes in its process deviance, delinquency and failure. It confronts everything with
the Book which Allah has Revealed with truth and justice. Allah has not neglected His
subjects nor has He made them aimless, He Gave them a standard with which they can
evaluate everything in life.
Islam advisagainst inertia adaction, a
continuous and indefatigable action, which is meant to be wise and purposeful, not an
excited and destructive action. Islam intends this action to be like that of the river
that is flowing smoothly and safely in its bed, not that of the flow that has no bed,
rules nor limits. The river and the torrential stream both flow with drinking water. But
the river spreads life, greenness, and wealth wherever it flows, whereas the stream brings
destruction and kills plants and crops.
Islam means for man to be active and to
work, under the condition that his action be towards a goal fitting the humanism that is
noble in the eyes of Allah, and that it be in a peaceful context that can neither destroy
nor be destroyed. The martyr Sayyid Qotb said rightly: "Action must be within a
framework that is steady and around a firm focus".
Islam accepts an evolution that is wise and
sound, which is governed by the values of truth, goodness and virtue and is controlled by
the requirements of the justice that Allah has included in His book and that He included
in the message of His Prophet. But chaotic action is like stupid inertia. Both of them are
unacceptable to Islam.
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