Rulings of the Scholars on The One Who Believes Man Descended From Apes
There occurs in the Fataawaa Nur Alaa al-Darb (1/83-85) a fatwa of Ibn Baz (rahimahullaah) in response to a question posed about the belief that man used to be an ape in the beginning and then gradually evolved and changed into a man. The fatwa can be found
here.
From the answer:
This statement which the questioner has mentioned is rejected (munkar) false (baatil) saying that is in opposition to the Book of Allaah, the Mighty and Majestic, and the Sunnah of His Messenger (alayhis salaatu was salaam) and the consensus of the Salaf of the Ummah... it is obligatory that a servant believe that the creation of Aadam is other than the creation of apes, and that the origin of [the son of] Aadam is the origin that he is upon now, and his origin is not of apes or other than them. Rather, he is a a human fashioned upon his form that is witnessed. So the statement that his origin is from apes is a rejected saying, a false saying. Rather, if disbelief was ascribed to the one saying it, it would be appropriate, and what is most apparent, and Allaah knows best, is that whoever says it alongside his knowledge of what the legislation came with, then he is a kaafir (disbeliever), because he belies (mukadhdhib) Allaah and His Messenger and belies the Book of Allaah in the creation of Aadam.
And also the fatwa of Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen (rahimahullaah) in response to a questioner who said he studied in a book of history that man's origin is from apes, and with the passing of time he changed into a human. The answer can be found
here.
From the answer:
This statement is not correct, I mean the saying that the origin of man is from apes, however the one speaking with this, he is in reality an ape, deformed in intellect and deformed in vision (insight), so it is befitting that we call him an ape, and he is not a human, even if he is in the form of a human... this saying that the origin of man is from apes is not correct and believing in it is disbelief, because it is rejection (takdheeb) of the Qur'an...