Answer
Salam Asad,
Thank you for contacting About Islam with your question.
I will be quite honest with you and say that I am not a scientist and I cannot claim to give an answer to your question based on scientific proofs and facts.
However, all Muslims have a belief and an understanding about how this world was made. You might like to hear this answer from the point of view of just such a person.
Islam is not afraid of science, nor of scientific debate, and Muslims are very happy to engage with people who hold different views than theirs.
One of the criticisms leveled against Muslims is that they are somehow backward and uneducated and that they cannot engage with science at all.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Science is not a threat to the beliefs of Muslims, but rather confirms them in their belief. It is from this point of view, then, that I will attempt to give an answer to your question about creation and evolution.
Some people, you know, find that it helps and encourages their faith to look at facts and figures. They find it inspiring and somehow reassuring to examine all of Allah’s works with a scientific, rational eye.
Other people say that the magnificence of the natural world is a proof of Allah’s greatness. So, you see, in speaking about what Muslims believe about creation and evolution you are appealing to different audiences, different ways of seeing things.
Islam, however, is perfectly clear. Allah created the heavens and the earth and all that is in between them. He is the source of all creation and the reason for it.
Without Him willing it to be so, nothing would exist. This is why, as Muslims, we use the phrase in sha’ Allah in every sentence we utter.
This in sha’ Allah doesn’t mean “maybe” or “perhaps” or “possibly.” It means that nothing happens unless Allah wills it to happen. The sun will not come up tomorrow unless Allah wills it to do so. Night will not follow day unless Allah wills it to do so.
There is in nature an order that Allah has placed. Things don’t just happen haphazardly, without meaning. Allah has placed within His creation a mechanism of order for how things will work. We are born, we grow old and we die. This is the natural way of things.
But it is all underpinned by the fact of Allah as the Creator. There would be no times or seasons without Him. All things depend on their existence from Him.
We read in the glorious Quran that Allah:
{[…] created the heavens and the earth in six days, then he settled Himself on the throne; He manages everything.} (Yunus 10:3)
As Muslims, we go on to read the beautiful “verse of the Throne” (in Arabic, Ayat Al-Kursi):
{Allah there is no god but He, the Living, the Self-Subsisting, the Everlasting. Slumber does not seize Him, neither sleep; to Him belongs all that is in the heavens and the earth. Who is there that will intercede with Him except by His permission? He knows what is before them and what is behind them, and they do not encompass anything of His knowledge except what He wills. His throne extends over the heavens and the earth, the preservation of them does not burden Him; He is the High, the Great.} (Al-Baqarah 2:255)
Over the centuries, scientists have claimed to discover different things. Many of these discoveries have been to the great advantage of humankind. A great mistake, however, is to think that by gaining knowledge of things currently unknown, we are somehow in control of those things.
Discovering something simply means finding out something we didn’t yet know. In making a new discovery, we are not creating anything from nothing. We are understanding something for the first time.
You see how science poses no threat whatsoever to belief. In fact, in discovering things previously unknown, scientists are letting us know more and more about the greatness of the One Who created these things from nothing.
Charles Darwin proposed a theory of how human beings were created. It is precisely that: a theory, an idea. Many scientists liked the idea because it seemed to fill in gaps in their own knowledge about the world.
Science likes to fit things very neatly into boxes.
We should never forget, though, that this theory about human evolution is one of many theories. There are other ideas about how human life and the universe came into being. None of them take away from Allah’s role as Creator.
Putting science against faith, then, is a false notion. Muslims believe that Allah created the universe. Precisely how He did this, in what manner, and in what length of time, are things known to Him alone.
One day in His sight, remember, is not like a day to human beings. Time itself is an invention that we as humans manipulate twice a year with “day light savings”.
As time progresses, scientists will help us to discover more and more about our world. They will shed more and more light on how the world came into existence, letting us see for the first time the means Almighty Allah used to create something out of nothing.
We must never fall into the trap of thinking that seeing things for the first time means that we are in control of those things. We see precisely what Allah chooses us to see.
Not a scientist or a mathematician then, but simply a Muslim knows that the question of creation–or-evolution seems very simple. Allah created all things. Our knowledge of things unknowable depends on Him.
We hope this answers your question. Please keep in touch.
Salam.
Please continue feeding your curiosity, and find more info in the following links: