In this first part of my article, I aim to briefly respond to the claims of those who defend evolutionary creationism. In the continuation of this article, which I will write in the coming days, I will, God willing, discuss the true nature of this belief in evolution, its purpose, and in contrast, show how living beings were created according to the Quran.
Some evolutionary creationists tend to not accept Adam as an individual, while others tend to not accept Adam as the first human being.
In reality, however, Adam is the first human and the first human messenger. Naturally, he is also an individual.
We already see that he is a messenger in the details of his life story (the verses he received directly from Allah, his special mission, etc.).
Additionally, the following verse completes this
Ali Imran 333
Allah chose Adam, Noah, the family of Abraham, and the family of Imran above all others.
It is also evidenced through various verses that he was the first human. The Quran, which interprets itself, discusses the story of Adam in different chapters. For example, let’s look at Surah Baqarah and Surah Hijr
Surah Baqarah
30. When your Lord said to the angels, "I am appointing a vicegerent on Earth," they said, "Will You place in it someone who will cause corruption and shed blood, while we glorify Your praises and proclaim Your holiness?" Allah said, "I know that which you do not know."
And He taught Adam the names of all things. Then He presented them to the angels and said, "Tell Me the names of these, if you are truthful."
They said, "Glory be to You! We have no knowledge except what You have taught us. You are indeed the All-Knowing, the All-Wise."
Allah said, "O Adam, inform them of their names." When Adam had informed them of their names, Allah said, "Did I not tell you that I know the unseen of the heavens and the Earth, and I know what you reveal and what you have been concealing?"
And when We said to the angels, "Bow down to Adam," they all bowed down except Iblis. He refused and was arrogant and became one of the disbelievers.
Surah Hijr
Now let's look at Surah Hijr, which clearly states that Adam was the first human and tells the same story from a different perspective
We created mankind from sounding clay, from black mud molded into shape.
And the jinn We created before from scorching fire.
And remember when your Lord said to the angels, "I am creating a human being from sounding clay, from molded mud."
"When I have fashioned him and breathed into him of My Spirit, fall down before him in prostration."
So the angels prostrated, all of them together.
Except Iblis; he refused to be among those who prostrated.
Allah said, "O Iblis, what is the matter with you that you are not among those who prostrate?"
He said, "I am not one to prostrate to a human, whom You created from sounding clay, from molded mud."
Evolutionists who try to cherry-pick verses often take the Surah Baqarah account of the creation of Adam, the first human, while ignoring the same event narrated in Surah Hijr. They take the word "appoint" from Surah Baqarah and say, "It talks about appointing, not creating, there." But in reality, Surah Hijr also talks about creation.
When we look at the verses in their entirety without cherry-picking, the true picture emerges clearly.
Surah Hijr
We created mankind from sounding clay, from black mud molded into shape.
And the jinn We created before from scorching fire.
And remember when your Lord said to the angels, "I am creating a human being from sounding clay, from molded mud."
So, we will not ignore one verse while considering the other.
And we will not impose symbolic meanings on the verses.
The Quran repeatedly emphasizes that it contains clear verses
Surah Ma'idah 515
O People of the Scripture! There has come to you Our Messenger, making clear to you much of what you used to conceal of the Scripture and overlooking much. There has come to you from Allah a light and a clear Book.
Surah Yusuf 121
Alif, Lam, Ra. These are the verses of the clear Book.
Surah Ash-Shu'ara 262
These are the verses of the clear Book.
The Quran is not a book of secrets or symbols but a straightforward book containing literal information that everyone can understand. Indeed, by imposing symbolic meanings on the verses and/or cherry-picking verses, you could try to make the book approve any doctrine that comes to your mind. We will take the book as a whole and understand it in its clear, literal sense.
Creation of the First Human and Jinn
First, jinn are created from fire, and then the first human, Adam, is created from clay.
Those who try to impose pagan evolutionary beliefs on the book by giving symbolic meanings to verses and cherry-picking, in their desperation, also cherry-pick and distort the meaning of the following verse
2213
Mankind was one community; then Allah sent the prophets as bringers of good tidings and as warners...
Again, those who cherry-pick and even distort the meaning of the verse, try to impose a meaning on it as if there were no messengers when humanity was one community. However, it is not talking about the first messenger there, but about a later process.
A similar example can be seen here if we consider the book in its entirety
Surah Al-Hadid
Certainly We sent Noah and Abraham, and established among their descendants prophethood and the Scripture. Some of them were guided, but many of them were disobedient.
Then We sent following their footsteps Our messengers and followed with Jesus, the son of Mary, and gave him the Gospel, and placed compassion and mercy in the hearts of those who followed him. But monasticism they invented - We did not prescribe it for them except seeking the approval of Allah. But they did not observe it with due observance. So We gave the ones who believed among them their reward, but many of them are defiantly disobedient.
In verse 27, there is again the phrase "Then We sent Our messengers in succession." But after what? After the corruption that followed Noah and Abraham. So, the expression does not indicate that these were the first messengers, but rather that messengers were sent again.
Similarly, in 2213, the first messengers are not mentioned, but rather the process is described "Afterward, messengers were sent due to this reason, etc."
Again, we see that those who defend evolutionary creation try to cherry-pick some verses while ignoring others.
Adam’s Spouse
235
And We said, "O Adam, dwell, you and your wife, in Paradise and eat therefrom in abundance from wherever you will. But do not approach this tree, lest you be among the wrongdoers."
Surah An-Nisa 41
O mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from one nafs and created from it its mate and dispersed from both of them many men and women. And fear Allah, through whom you ask one another, and the wombs. Indeed Allah is ever, over you, an Observer.
Surah Al-A'raf 719
And , "O Adam, dwell, you and your wife, in Paradise and eat from wherever you will, but do not approach this tree, lest you be among the wrongdoers."
Evolutionists, who do not accept Adam and his spouse as individuals and try to impose symbolic meanings on them, again try to ignore some of these clear verses. For example, they only point to the first verse of Surah An-Nisa and try to ignore the other two verses that mention Adam’s spouse, claiming that he was not actually an individual. Indeed, there is no other way to sustain their doctrines. They will either cherry-pick verses or impose symbolic meanings on them... However, when we look at the book as a whole, it is clear that Adam is an individual, and his spouse is also clearly mentioned multiple times.
Since other people were created after Adam, and jinn existed before Adam, of course, Adam was not alone after he was created; he was the first human and the first human messenger.
Let’s continue providing evidence that Adam was an individual
Ali Imran 359
The likeness of Jesus with Allah is as the likeness of Adam. He created him from dust, then said to him, "Be!" and he was. (Here, Adam is referred to as being created from dust).
Jesus, like Adam, was created without sexual reproduction. In one case, there is no father, and in the other, there is neither a mother nor a father; their situations are similar. In other words, their coming into the world did not follow the classic "mother + father (sex) = birth" formula but instead involved extraordinary creation without the use of sexuality.
Additionally, the names of Jesus and Adam each appear 25 times in the Quran. This is another sign of the similarity between their creations.
Another parallel between them is the direct infusion of the spirit into them, which refers to the insertion of the fundamental revelation
Surah As-Sajda
He is the One who created everything perfectly and began the creation of man from clay.
Then He made his progeny from an extract of a despised fluid.
Then He proportioned him and breathed into him of His spirit. He gave you hearing, sight, and hearts. Yet you rarely give thanks.
Surah At-Tahrim
And Allah has set forth an example of Mary, the daughter of Imran, who guarded her chastity. So We breathed into her of Our spirit. She believed in the words of her Lord and His scriptures and was among the devout.
The word "spirit" (ruh) in the Quran is used in two senses
Ruh = Revelation (divine knowledge)
Ruh = The angel of revelation
After this spirit, meaning revelation, was first instilled in the first human, it was passed on to others through inheritance from mother and father. And since Jesus was born without a father, meaning without sexuality (just like Adam), he too was specially instilled with revelation, that is, spirit
Surah Al-Anbiya, 91 And remember the woman who guarded her chastity. We breathed into her of Our spirit, making her and her son a sign for all people.
In this sense, there is also a parallel between the creation of Adam and Jesus.
THE DURATION OF CREATION
For us, the implementation of "Be" could take trillions of years or just a moment in our dimension of time; it makes no difference.
The Quran explicitly and in detail states that Adam was created directly from clay without parents.
Whether the clay that formed Adam came together with water and took its final shape over millions or billions of years does not matter. Once his form was completed and life was breathed into him, Adam became the first human.
The emphasis here is not on whether the process was short or long for us, but on the fact that there was no other living species or even parents involved.
Creation from nothing only occurred during the Big Bang (or maybe even before that)... Afterward, creation occurs step by step using existing materials. And there are periods, there are cycles.
But to avoid confusing this with evolution, we first need to deeply understand what evolution is.
According to evolution, all living things must evolve from one another, and they must continuously change forever. And they must constantly move toward a higher level, toward perfection (deification).
In this context, even the universe cannot come into existence out of nothing according to evolution; its material has existed from the beginning and will continuously advance on the path to deification forever through change. This belief, which was dominant only in spiritualist circles until the 19th century, was skillfully inserted into the world of science and materialism from the 19th century onward (with a few adaptations, of course). Furthermore, communism is also a pagan belief stemming from spiritualism, similar to evolution.
Here is where the differences in creation according to the Quran show themselves
Matter has not existed forever; it was created out of nothing. It is also separate from Allah. It did not originate from anything else.
The birth, growth, and aging of the universe is not a process of evolutionary development. These are merely phases within itself. Its aging and eventual collapse is the apocalypse, its destruction. Just like the birth, growth, and aging of a human being. Or the stages a human goes through in the womb described in the verses are not evolution but the phases within the same living being.
No living being is obliged to evolve from another. Just as Allah created the universe out of nothing, He also created Adam without parents. In other words, there are biological Big Bangs too. And here, whether the creation process took millions of years does not matter; it is the creation without ancestors.
According to evolution, everything must continuously change and transform into a different creature forever. According to the Quran, on the contrary, the creatures Allah created remain stable unless a command is given. Especially in the afterlife (in the presence of your Lord), it is so stable that there is no aging even in paradise forever.
And according to the verses, before humans, there were jinn created from fire. The angels, being aware of the corruption caused by such conscious beings like the jinn, opposed the creation of humans (as seen in Surah Al-Baqarah). This was merely a wrong assumption based on past experiences by the angels.
The verses that state that Adam, like Jesus, was created without sexual reproduction and that the creation in the afterlife will also be directly from clay, as well as the ones mentioning Jesus forming shapes out of clay and creating with Allah's permission, are all parallel expressions. Adam had no ancestors, not even parents. Similarly, the creation in the afterlife, which is described as being like the first creation, is also stated to be directly from clay and without ancestors.
There is countless evidence in the Quran supporting this.
Surah Nuh
And Allah has caused you to grow from the earth like a plant.
Then He will return you to it and bring you forth again.
As seen, the first human (or humans) are directly created from the earth like a plant, and in the second creation for the afterlife, humans will again be created directly from the earth without ancestors, like a plant. But interestingly, evolutionists, who attempt to cherry-pick verses, try to present this verse about sprouting from the ground as evidence for evolution. But as seen, on the contrary, this verse disproves the belief in evolution.
Now, let's look at other examples of verses that evolutionists similarly try to present as evidence for their views but actually prove that evolutionary creation did not happen
Surah Al-Ankabut, 19 Do they not see how Allah originates creation and then repeats it? Indeed, that is easy for Allah.
Surah Al-Ankabut, 20 Say, "Travel through the land and observe how He began creation. Then Allah will produce the final creation. Indeed, Allah is over all things competent."
In verse 2919, there is an emphasis on how the process began with the direct creation of the first human (or humans) from clay (and water), and then this process was continuously repeated through birth. And as a complement, verse 2920 emphasizes the similarity between the creation of the first human and the creation in the afterlife. So, how does creation in the afterlife occur? It happens directly from the earth, without ancestors, as clearly stated in the verses. That is, in the second creation for eternal life, the creation does not involve "mother + father (sex) = birth" but the direct creation of independent individuals from the earth. This verse emphasizes that the creation of the first human (or humans) was also in this way. Surah Al-Ankabut, 20 Say, "Travel through the land and observe how He began creation. Then Allah will produce the final creation. Indeed, Allah is over all things competent."
The verse that emphasizes the similarity between Adam and Jesus also explains this. Sexuality was not used as an intermediary in the creation of the first human. Just like with Jesus
Surah Al-Imran, 59 Indeed, the example of Jesus to Allah is like that of Adam. He created him from dust; then He said to him, "Be," and he was.
And just as in the afterlife
Surah Nuh
And Allah has caused you to grow from the earth like a plant.
Then He will return you to it and bring you forth again.
The creation of Adam, Jesus, and the creation of humans in the afterlife is without ancestors, that is, without the mother + father (sex) event. And it has already happened as we said.
Another example of direct creation from clay without sexuality is the creation events that Jesus was instrumental in
Surah Al-Imran, 49 And He will make him a messenger to the Children of Israel, who will say, "Indeed, I have come to you with a sign from your Lord I design for you from clay, like the form of a bird, then I breathe into it, and it becomes a bird by permission of Allah. And I heal the blind and the leper, and I give life to the dead - by permission of Allah. And I inform you of what you eat and what you store in your houses. Indeed, in that is a sign for you, if you are believers.
Surah Al-Ma'idah, Verse 110 "And remember when Allah said, 'O Jesus, son of Mary! Recall My favor upon you and your mother I supported you with the Holy Spirit so that you spoke to people in the cradle and in maturity. I taught you the Book, wisdom, the Torah, and the Gospel. And when you molded from clay what was like the form of a bird with My permission, and you breathed into it, and it became a bird by My permission. And you healed the blind and the leper by My permission. And when you brought forth the dead by My permission. And I protected you from the Children of Israel when you came to them with clear proofs, and those who disbelieved among them said, ‘This is nothing but evident magic.’"
As can be seen, just as with the creation of Adam, Jesus, and the people in the Hereafter, the miracles described in these verses involving the Prophet Jesus, such as the creation of birds and similar creatures, are also directly from the earth. There is no derivation from another creature, and in these special creations, there is no involvement of parents, i.e., sexuality. It is repeatedly emphasized in the Qur'an that the creation in the Hereafter will occur in the same manner.
(End of the first section)
(My Turkish article translated with machine)
http//emre1974tr.blogspot.com/2011/07/kurana-gore-canllar-birbirinden-ayr.html
