Saturday 29 January 2022

5. The Idea of Biological Evolution on Earth


The Process of Creation

A Qur'anic Perspective
by Dr Israr Ahmad


5. The Idea of Biological Evolution on Earth

The widely held belief that Charles Darwin (1809-1882) is the first initiator of evolutionary theory is quite wrong. Somehow this idea has become so popular that for ordinary folk evolution and Darwinism have almost become synonymous. However, the historical fact is that as far as the essential idea of evolutionary development is concerned, one can find it as far back as ancient Greek Thought. Quite a few Greek Sophos including Aristotle have referred to it obliquely. Several centuries later, Muslim thinkers --- Brethren of Purity, Allama Jahiz (d. 225 A.H.) and Ibn Maskawayh (d. 421 A.H.), among others, have maintained it quite explicitly. However, Maulana Rumi (d.1273 A.D.)--- about six hundred years earlier than Darwin --- has exquisitely described the various stages of evolution in his well-known and universally acclaimed Mathnawi. At two places in the long Persian epic, he describes the stages of evolution in clear, unambiguous words and in great detail. In Book III of the Mathnawi, Maulana Rumi says: 

I died as a mineral and became a plant,
I died as a plant and rose an animal,
I died as an animal and I was Man.
Why should I fear Death?
When was I lessened by dying?

Yet once more I shall die as Man, to soar with angels blest;
But even from angelhood I must pass on,
All except Allah doeth perish.

When I have sacrificed my angel-soul,
I shall become what no mind ever conceived.
Oh, let me not exist! For non-existence proclaims in organ tones,
“To Him we shall return” 
(Translated by A. J. Arberry)

The ideal of evolution is very clearly present in these lines. Speaking on behalf of mankind, the Maulana says that he was first present in the geological world of minerals and hard rocks and then after ‘dying’ in that realm he appeared in the botanical world of plants and trees. And then after experiencing ‘death’ from that stage, he arose in the realm of living animals. Continuing the evolutionary thrust, from the animal kingdom he appeared in the human realm. He says that he remains undaunted by physical human death as this cannot take away or lessen his essential being which is likely to move on to two higher stages (which are not relevant to our discussion here but Arberry’s translation of those verses has been given for the pensive reader). 

Further, in Book IV of the Mathnawi, the Maulana presents verses formally under the title “The method and stages of the Creation of Adam (pbuh) from the beginning of creation”. Indeed, the evolutionary idea of the multifarious created  beings has been expressed in very bold and categorical words. His inimitable lines may be quoted here:

The evolution of man.
First he appeared in the class of inorganic things,
Next he passed into that of plants.
For years he lived as one of the plants,
Remembering naught of his inorganic state so different;
And when he passed from the vegetative to the animal state
He had no remembrance of his state as a plant

Again, the great Creator, as you know,
Drew man out of the animal into the human state
Thus man passed from one order of nature to another,
Till “he” became wise and knowing and strong as he is now.

One of the learned Urdu translators of the Mathnawi, Qazi Sajjad Husain, has translated these verses in a way as if the word “he” used in the poetic verses above refers to the soul of man. That is quite erroneous from the point of view of our analysis given above in this treatise. That is simply because the soul is an entity belonging to the sphere of “amr” and as such it has not undergone any descent or evolutionary ascent. In fact, the entire evolutionary process described above in detail pertains to the physical/material part of existence only and had nothing to do with the spiritual component or soul of human beings. Also noteworthy is Rumi’s mention of forgetting the conditions of earlier stages through which a being passes while progressing to the higher realm.

The most profound appreciator of the deep meaning and significance of the Qur`anic themes and the Rumi of our age --- Allama Muhammad Iqbal --- has also expressed the idea of evolution in his poetry. He not only mentions the idea, he also opines about its causes, starting-point and ultimate reaches and the objectives of the evolutionary process. He discusses and expounds these ideas at such a lofty level of sophistication and intellectual vision that people of ordinary mental capacity can hardly comprehend the real import of those verses. It is, however, reassuring to note that an able expounder of the wisdom of Iqbal --- Dr. Muhammad Rafi-ud-Din --- has made his ideas understandable and easy to grasp in an article published in the April 1960 issue of “Iqbal Review”.

 to be continued  . . . .


Saturday 22 January 2022

4. The Third Stage of Descent


The Process of Creation

A Qur'anic Perspective
by Dr Israr Ahmad


4. The Third Stage of Descent

The third stage of descent began when, as stated above, planets with extremely high temperature cooled off and so did our planet Earth. The cooling off process produced two results.

Firstly, just as a burning coal after a while gathers ash on the outer surface, similarly a ‘layer’ of clay appeared on the outer surface of the earth. This “crust” of the earth, in due course became the origin and source of all forms of earthly life --- vegetative and biological.

Secondly, the steam or vapors emitted from the earth enveloped the planet and thus constituted its atmosphere. The combination of hydrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere led to the emergence of water which in turn became the source of all forms of life on earth, as the Qur'an asserts: “…..and that We made every living thing of water.” [Al-Anbia, 21:30] Taking the form of clouds, it rained torrentially on earth for a long spell of time. At this stage of creation there was perhaps nothing on earth except water and probably this has been referred to by the Qur'an in the words: “…..and His Throne was on water…..” [ Hud, 11:7]. As a result of the cooling of the earth, its outer crust shrank making its surface at some points high (where we now see mountains and plateaus); while some other areas were turned into deep pits which were filled by rain water and eventually became oceans.

Then with the passage of time, chemical fermentation and evolutionary processes started through the interaction of the stuff of all created objects (i.e. earthen soil or clay) and the source of all living/organic beings (i.e. water). And thus emerged the organic compounds leading to the first tiny living amoeba – the starting point of the biological or living realm that  evolved and passed through a myriad of stages.

Indeed, this completes the third stage in the hierarchy of descents from the Supreme Creator, which in a way also marks the first stage of evolution. This very truth has been beautifully expressed in a Persian couplet of Baydil (Mirza Abdul Qadir Baydil) roughly translated into English thus:

“Two realms (of “khalq” and “amr”) have been consumed in the creation of a prototype of living beings,O spring flower of nothingness! Be mindful of your lofty status”

 to be continued  . . . .

Saturday 15 January 2022

Khalq


The Process of Creation

A Qur'anic Perspective
by Dr Israr Ahmad


The cosmogony of the Qur'an is a specifically creation theory. The Qur'anic account of creation is distinctive in its thoroughness (creation ex nihilo) and in its impact upon both philosophy and science. A Muslim believer sees the cosmos as a contingent, derivative world, a world with creaturely status. The Qur'an affirms that Allah created all things out of nothingness through the Divine word of “kun”. The core of this belief is indeed the world’s ontological dependence upon Allah. Since Allah created the cosmos and time together, His creative and sustaining act must be said to fall outside the temporal dimension, and likewise His “purposing” and “willing”. Even the most alluring analogues to eternal existence --- the “timeless moment” of aesthetico -mystical experience, or extrapolation from experiences of a “specious present” --- shed little or no light upon the concept of a timeless willing or purposing to create. Nor do they illuminate the conception of Allah as sustaining the world from moment to moment --- the eternal and non-temporal supporting a world existing in time. The ‘recession’ of the galaxies, the ‘expanding’ of the universe has seemed to some cosmologists also to imply a “beginning”, a primordial state of immense density, the center from which expansion and dispersion subsequently took place. 

The old paradigm and its classical materialism within the fields of both physics and astronomy have become increasingly outdated. A whole range of phenomena in sub- atomic/astro physics and astronomy are now being seriously considered. Scientists are working in areas that force them to revise their observational methods, to invent new and more flexible models and to develop more subtle mathematical procedures for interpreting their experimental data. Particle physicists cannot see directly into the subnuclear world they wish to explore and must therefore work  indirectly and inferentially. Modern cosmologists have no hope of ever seeing for themselves the creation of the universe, and infer from that they now see what must have taken place at the beginning of time. 
 
In cosmology, as in particle physics, experimental or observational evidence is being replaced with theory and speculation, which is increasingly removed from what can be measured; cosmology may come to be ruled more by aesthetic preference or prejudice than by the traditional principles of science. In fact, some scientists claim that the new physics has freed itself from the old mechanistic world- view found within Newtonian physics and moved much closer to the world-view of religion. The two basic theories of modern physics --- quantum theory and the theory of relativity --- seem to contain certain features of the theological worldview, in particular the incredible interconnectedness of things and the fundamental unity that underlies the entire universe from the microcosm to the macrocosm.

The above paragraphs go a long way to vindicate that in a part of the realm of light ( noor) --- through the Divine word of Kun --- an explosion of dense matter took place, which according to current cosmological theories marked the origin of the cosmos, the galaxies and planets including the solar system and our earth. For a believer of Qur'anic metaphysical world-view, it is very easy to imagine that the  “Big Bang” was the effect of another word “Kun” of Allah that took place in a part of the sphere of ethereal noor. Heat and fire are the main characteristics of this phase of creation. In the beginning a fireball of radiation at extremely high temperature and density, but occupying a tiny volume, is believed to have formed. According to Steven Weinberg 1933--- a leading astrophysicist, this fire consisted of tiny particles of electrons, positrons and neutrons with extremely high degree of temperature—probably one hundred thousand million degrees centigrade.

This expanded and cooled, extremely fast at first, but more slowly as sub-atomic particles condensed into matter that later accumulated to form galaxies and stars. The galaxies are currently still retreating from one another. What was left of the original radiation continued to cool and has been detected as a uniform background of weak microwave radiation. The important point to note is that at this stage jinns were created by Allah. Both the Qur'an and the hadith describe the jinn as a definite species of living and personalized beings who enjoy a certain amount of free will and will thus be called to account on the Day of Judgment.

As the words noor and naar --- the essential originative substance of angels and jinn --- are phonetically close, similarly jinn have special affinity with angels. That is why Azazeel, on account of his immense piety and great devotional service, associated with angels of lower stature. Generally the jinn, however, cannot rise up to the lofty station of highly elevated angels. The jinns nevertheless do try to eavesdrop some information from the angels when the latter descend on earth for the execution of Allah’s plan and orders. The following parts of three verses of the Qur'an describe these points:

"…..they (devils) cannot listen to the higher group (angels) for they are pelted from every side…. [Al-Safafaat 37:8]

“…..except such as snatches away something…..” [As-Saaffaat, 37:10] 

“…..but he who listens by stealth is pursued by a visible flame.” [Al-Hijr, 15:18]

Since they are essentially created beings (and therefore belong to the realm of khalq), their movement is always in time, though they can travel and move at a tremendously fast speed on account of the subtle and non-dense source of their origination. Thus they can easily and speedily reach the farthest corners of the heavens for which we humans have to spend trillions of dollars. And as a matter of fact human beings have not yet gone as far as the jinn have access to. Lastly, jinn, like angels, can assume various forms. For example angels can appear in the form of human beings as we read in Surah Maryam: “…..and he (Gibraeel) appeared to her in the semblance of a man.” [Maryam, 19:17] Similarly, jinn in addition to human form can take the form of animals and reptiles etc., particularly snakes. 

Going back to the scientists’ and cosmologists’ views about the creation of the universe, the acceptance of Big Bang Theory by them definitely repudiates the time-worn belief based on Newtonian Physics with regard to the eternity of the material universe. Researchers are now almost unanimous in asserting that the physical universe came into being some twenty billion years ago as the result of a ‘Big Bang’. If asked when and where exactly this Big Bang took place, the theoretical physicists simply reply that there was no time and space before the explosion and therefore, the question itself is meaningless. Similarly, they totally avoid and keep silent about the question as to who brought about this Big Bang explosion into motion as this obviously demands a Necessary and self-existent Creator. Moreover, the scientific and naturalistic method is, by its very nature, unable to appreciate the realm of amr and its entities preceding the realm of khalq.

 to be continued  . . . .

Saturday 8 January 2022

3. The Second Stage of Descent: Khalq


The Process of Creation

A Qur'anic Perspective
by Dr Israr Ahmad


3. The Second Stage of Descent: Khalq

The second stage of descent (of the realm of amr) to the realm of khalq (i.e. physical creation) is the first station of primal material creation of which present-day cosmologists and astrophysicists have started to have some vague and quasi-speculative clue.

The modern science of nature expressly limits itself to the corporeal domain alone, which it isolates from the entire realm of ‘being’ while considering objects in their purely spatial and temporal dimensions, as if supra-sensible realms with its differing levels were non-existent and those realities were not intelligible at all.

The second stage of descent of the creativity of Allah is the beginning of the realm of khalq with which modern scientific and cosmological theories are concerned and typically concur. Researchers have mapped out physical realities, ranging from the micro (sub-atomic) realm of quarks and electrons to the macro (universal) realm of planets, stars and galaxies. Physicists have shown that all matter is ruled by the four basic forces of gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces. The universe exploded into existence around 15 billion years ago. Then 4.5 billion years ago, the disintegrating fragments of an exploding star, evolved into our solar system. 
 
Modern science seems unable to synthesize and summarize its body of knowledge into a comprehensive whole, possibly because it lacks elements of the sacred and the revealed guidance that are as really and truly experienced within man as they are manifested within the external world of Nature. Even in the realm of khalq, there is the creation of jinn who are non-physical and therefore invisible. Jinns, though incorporeal and invisible, are creatures of 'alam-e-khalq’ and the material out of which they were shaped is fire. In the Qur'anic ontosophy, the stage of the creation of jinns is temporally prior to the creation of humans and is of utmost importance as the jinn (Azazeel by name) who refused to prostrate before Adam pbuh, was called Satan (literally meaning ‘eternally  pessimist’) by Allah (swt) --- the archenemy of Adam pbuh and his progeny till Doomsday.

Among a few of the cosmological beliefs that lasted for long was that of a static universe. With the discovery of the general expansion of the universe, it seemed natural that if the universe is ever-expanding then as much as we move backward in time, the universe should be more condensed until we arrive at an infinitely dense and small point from which the universe originated, which is substantially the same as the concept of Big Bang Theory. Although Hubble’s discoveries supported this picture but they were not, in their own, sufficient to convince scientists to accept the Big Bang Theory. The Steady State Theory, for instance, while accepting the expansion of the universe, attempted to suggest an interpretation that nevertheless avoided any “beginning” or “end” of the cosmos. Hermann Bondi (1919-2005), Thomas Gold (1920-2004) and Fred Hoyle (1915-2001) were the originators of this theory in 1948, and for about two decades it was considered the leading competitor to the Big Bang Theory. According to the Steady State Theory, if the universe is expanding forever, there is no need for the initial Big Bang. To justify their theory, it was postulated that the density of matter remains constant through continuous creation of “new matter”. The universe would, therefore, look more or less the same at all times and one could say that it is not static but is in a steady state. 
 
Today, however, in view of the available evidence in support of the Big Bang Theory, especially from the COBE satellite, almost all cosmologists have debunked the Steady State Theory. The Big Bang Theory provides a mathematical description for the evolution of the cosmos, according to which the universe started from an infinite density and very high temperature and then expanded, thinned out, and cooled. As stated above, in this stage of naar (fire) the self-conscious and freedom-enjoying beings created by Allah (swt) were jinns. As the Qur'an says:

“Whereas the jinns We had Created, (long) before that, out of the fire of scorching winds.” [Al-Hijr, 15:27]

 to be continued  . . . .