Evolution theory was already partially developed by the ancient greeks but it were Muslims in the 12th century who started recording proof for it and even made the first statement that man developed from early apes.
Ibn Khaldun wrote in his Muqaddimah, an Introduction to History
"One should then look at the world of Creation. It started out from the minerals and progressed, in an ingenious, gradual manner to plants and animals. The last stage of minerals is connected with the first stage of plants, such as herbs and seedles plants. The last stage of plants such as palms and vine sis connected with the first stage of animals, such as snails and shellfish which have only the power to touch. The word 'connection' with regard to these created things means that the last stage of each group is fully prepared to become the first stage of the next group. The animal world then widens, its species become numerous, and, in a gradual process of creation, it finally leads to man, who is able to think and reflect. The higher stage of man is reached from the world of monkeys, in which both sagacity and perception are found, but which has not reached the stage of actual reflection and thinking. At this point we come to the first stage of man ( after the world of monkeys). This is as far as our (physical) observation extends."
This is just one example out of hundreds of opinions and observations made by Muslim scholars in the early centuries of Islam. When Darwin made his own speculations based on the Muslim Theory of Evolution, it was taken up by the Materialist Movement of the West. Because the Theory of Evolution is not supported by the Bible, and also because Darwin's speculations gave room for a Creator-less creation, Darwin's version of the Theory was taken up by the Atheist. Through this Evolution Theory was seen as equal to Atheism, and Muslims, through loss of their knowledge and their aversion of the Materialist Colonial powers of the West that had conquered them, became to reject the Theory of Evolution. And took up together with the Christian world, the concept of Instant Creation. A concept that goes directly against the language of the Quran and its Message as will be shown in this article
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