Answer
Salam Dear Hadjila,
Thank you so much for your question and for contacting Ask About Islam.
Since it was formulated by Darwin in 1859, the theory of evolution has drawn the attention of scientists and the general public.
Evolutionists, who took evolution for a scientific doctrine, have striven hard through research but have failed to support any of the assumptions on which it was based. It is not only the “ape-man” link that is missing, but indeed no other intermediate species in the long (imaginary) chain of evolution, starting from the simplest protozoa, could be identified.
If evolution was ever possible, we should have now on earth billions of intermediary species, both in types and numbers. Also if such mutations ever occurred in ancient times, paleontologists should have found among the fossils countless traces of intermediary species. Paleontologists failed to find any.
On the contrary, the oldest fossils of the Cambrian age earth strata proved that a wide variety of living organisms, that represent almost all basic animal divisions (phyla), appeared simultaneously, with no primitive predecessor.
For more on this:
The Collapse of the Theory of Evolution in 20 Questions
Complex living cells, not to say complex species, cannot form from their elements or components by mere chance; nor can they transform to higher-order species by random mutation as Darwin and followers postulate.
Chemically, amino acids and other basic compounds cannot be artificially organized into the smallest unit of DNA. DNA, unique for each type of a living species, cannot be manipulated to produce the DNA of another species. Any such manipulation could only interfere with its functioning but not with its identity. Hence, genetically, evolution is basically impossible.
Thermodynamically, all matter, if left alone, tends to get more disorganized. Hence, chemical molecules could not, on their own, combine to form the more complex organized structures such as a single DNA molecule. Similarly, the living cells of a species cannot spontaneously evolve into a more complex organized species.
Natural selection, one of the pillars of the evolution myth, cannot produce a higher-order species from a simpler one. If a species fails to adapt to its surrounding environment, this would either lead to extinction or to modification of its behavior and function, but could never change its identity to another.
Summing up, the long march of Darwinism, highly applauded by atheists and materialist cultures, has turned out to be pure dogma, far from being a possibility, much less a scientific fact. For almost a century and a half, this dogma, in the false cloak of science, has been captured by atheists and materialist philosophers who propagated its claims and strove to defend it and to turn around or hide its weaknesses until it infiltrated to school curricula, textbooks, and all sorts of mass media.
As outlined above, true scientific research and thought have disproved every bit of the evolution doctrines. Nowadays, the significant number of scientists are creationists, in the sense that they realize and admit that the existence and functioning of the living biota could only be through an external Super Force. This Force works through its intelligence (wisdom), information (knowledge), will, and power.
In contrast, human knowledge is limited to observing the structure and composition of living matter, but not how it was or can be created. Similarly, human intelligence can understand and correlate the properties and functions of the various life systems or components, but it can never explain why these systems and organs work in such way, nor can it enforce them to work differently or change their governing laws.
Neither we nor any other lower-order living species has the power to implant the will in matter for it to become a single living cell, much less for it to evolve into a more complex creature:
{Have you considered the seed? Is it you that create it or are We the creators?} (Al-Waqi`ah 56:58-59)
{Those on whom, besides Allah, ye call, cannot create (even) a fly, if they all met together for the purpose! and if the fly should snatch away anything from them, they would have no power to release it from the fly. Feeble are those who petition and those whom they petition!} (Al-Hajj 22:73)
In the Quran also we find the urging to the faithful to examine the fossils to contemplate on the wisdom and power to create such diverse species.
Adam, like all other creatures, was created and shaped from this earth material by the will, knowledgeable design, and power of Allah:
{When your Lord said to the angels; Surely I am going to create a mortal from dust: So when I have made him complete and breathed into him of My spirit, then fall down making obeisance to him.} (Saad 38:71-72)
The universe at large is believed to have been formed, according to our present knowledge, from a dense high energy mass that was exploded into a huge spreading mass of hot gaseous and solid fragments (smoke), from which were formed glowing stars, and condensed planets that were grouped into galaxies.
Physical evidence of this big bang theory have recently been obtained through analysis of photographs of fragments of spreading smoke 15 billion light years away (i.e., what was there at that time—15 billion years ago—the light from which takes this time to reach us).
This accords with the Quranic references:
{Do not those who disbelieve see that the heavens and the earth were closed up, but We have opened them; and We have made of water everything living, will they not then believe?} (Al-Anbiya’ 21:30)
{Then He directed Himself to the heaven and it is a vapor, so He said to it and to the earth: Come both, willingly or unwillingly. They both said: We come willingly.} (Fussilat 41:11)
To conclude, the exact details of the events so long ago and how the universe evolved during all this time, how it looks now, how it will evolve, and when and how it will end, only Allah knows.
Similarly, how exactly life started on this earth, how Adam was created and what is the essence of life, i.e., the programs that control the functions of all physical and chemical systems, only Allah knows:
{I did not make them witnesses of the creation of the heavens and the earth, nor of the creation of their own souls; nor could I take those who lead (others) astray for aiders.} (Al-Kahf 18:51)
Finally, we thank you for you for your question. May Allah guide you, your brother, and all of us.
Salam and please keep in touch.