Dear brothers and sisters in Islam,
I don't know, why it is so difficult for us muslims to understand, that evolution theory, or at least big part of it, is not against quranic teachings. When we think of Allah being creator of everything, we usually imagine everything being created by His word "kun" (meaning "be" ) within no time. Let us think over it again, is it what Quran teaches us? I am afraid not. Quran teaches us, that Allah created this universe in 6 days. And we know from Quran, that a day for Allah can mean thousands of years for us. Now I ask my brothers and sisters, couldn't He create the universe in, say 1 days, or just like we imagine it within no time? Of course He could because we know He has power over everything. What we need to understand is, that He chooses to create things in a process, which unfolds His power even more intensively on us. We shouldn't forget, that time is also His creature. In other words, He chooses to create things in a time-taking process, so that we feel His exalted power. This happens with everything around us, from the blossom of a flower to the birth of a child.
The message we should get from Quran is, that everything, which we see around us was not always there in the present form. It has taken a process of creation, that the things are there, as they are now.
Recently, a brother posted a lecture of Dr. Israr Ahmed on "two forms of knowledge". In this lecture he accepts, that the animal being of man could have been created in a long evolutionary process, till it reached its animal perfection. It then got the status of human being, after "ruh of Allah" was inspired in it. I think, this is one possible explaination. In the question answer session following that lecture, he was asked, if he accepted Darwin's theory of evolution, on which he said, he did not accept all postulates of his theory and that the transformation of one specie to another (like transformation of monkeys into human beings ) would take another "kun" from Allah (that means, it can happen only with the specific permission of Allah). I am personally not very satisfied by this answer, because I believe, Allah can say just one such comprehensive "kun", which would include everything from beginning to end, if you know, what I mean
This post would not be complete without commenting on the work of Harun Yahya on Darwin's theory of evolution. As far as I can see, most of his criticism is on materialism and social darwinism, to which I fully agree with him. I do agree, that material is not eternal but it has a beginning. I also fully agree, that the direct application of evolution theory ( like natural selection of the strongest ) on culture and politics is a human catastrophe. But let us be honest, that Darwin has nothing to do with this misuse of his theory. Harun Yahya does not address the real core of the evolution theory, which, as discussed above is not fully against Quran but most part of it can be acceptable to us, if it is scientifically proved. I am not going into the discussion, how much is scientifically proved and how much is still to be proved. I am just pointing out, that if it get proved, it will be not against quranic teachings.
In the end I would like to point out, that even the history of prophethood has gone through an evolution of its own. It all began from one-rule-shariah, "don't go near this tree" and ended up in the most comprehensive and final deen. An important question to ask is, couldn't all islamic teachings be given to Adam? The answer is, no, because human being had still to go through a cultural evolution. Just recall how primitive human being was in the beginning, that he had to learn from a crow, how to burry his brother, he murdered himself.
I hope, this mail will clarify things and not increase your confusion.
Your brother in Islam,
Saif