Darwinism: The Theory of Evolution And Islam 

Darwinism, more commonly referred to as Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, is the idea that all species evolved by natural selection from a single common ancestor. A common misconception associated with Charles Darwin is that he claimed humans (Homo sapiens) came from monkeys or chimpanzees. However, he merely suggested that humans, monkeys, and chimpanzees must share a common ancestor due to the numerous similarities we have compared to other species. Although Darwinism makes a lot of sense from a scientific standpoint, it contradicts a number of fundamental Islamic and Quranic teachings, which are explained in further detail below.

1. Everything in the universe happens by the Divine Will of Allah (SWT), and everything happens by His Intention, but the reliance of natural selection in Darwinism does not acknowledge this. Natural selection is an umbrella term used to describe how a species changes over time, and is thought to happen because of random genetic mutations in a population. Therefore, it is a completely random process. Because of this emphasis of randomness and chance in natural selection, it fails to accredit Allah (SWT). One only has to consider the incredible precision of our bodies, down to the complex mechanisms of a single cell, to conclude that it is illogical for it to be the result of luck and blind chance.

2. Darwin’s ideas about the origins of man are very different to Islam’s. The Quran has several verses on the creation of man that are fully unsupported by Darwinism. The Quran says that humans are created from clay (6:2), not from a single cell, like Darwin said. Darwinism also leaves room for there to have been other Homo sapiens on Earth before Adam (AS) because they would have evolved from the organisms that preceded them. However, we know from the Quran that Adam and Hawa were the first humans on Earth, and there were no humans on Earth before them.

3. Darwinism states that humans came to be, as a species, through the macroevolutionary process (and natural selection), but Islam states that humans are exempt from all this, and were created and put on Earth in our final form. The Quran states that are the best creations, and that we are “… preferred … over much of what We have created, with [definite] preference…” (17:70). The Quran also says that humans were created “… in the finest form” (95:4). With this in mind, how could humans have evolved over millions of years from a single-celled organism when the Quran clearly states that we were already created in the most perfect fashion?

When speaking about evolution, is important to make one thing clear. The Theory of Evolution draws upon
facts which can be scientifically proven, such as the existence of human-like species that came before us.
genetic modifications, and the microevolution of species. Therefore, as Muslims, we can say that we agree
with the Theory of Evolution as a scientific theory. The difference is that we don’t view it as the absolute truth.

There are also several flaws with Darwin’s theory such as it's inconsistencies with what we can see in the fossil record (the transitional forms of organisms can’t be seen), and the failure to explain the biogeographical distribution of several species. As well as this, humans have many behavioural and cognitive traits that have no
evolutionary advantage. If our entire creation is the result of natural selection and the “survival of the fittest”,
how did we come to have traits that don’t aid our survival?

The biggest flaw in Darwinism is that it argues that natural selection creates the differences in our DNA.
However, this simply isn’t true. According to Dr Lee Spetner, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, “But in all
the reading I’ve done in the life sciences literature, I’ve never found a mutation that added information. All
point mutations that have been studied on the molecular level turn out to reduce the genetic information and
not to increase it. The NTD [neo-Darwinian theory] is supposed to explain how the information of life has been
built up by evolution. The essential biological difference between a human and a bacterium is in the
information they contain. All other biological differences follow from that. The human genome has much more
information than does the bacterial genome. Information cannot be built up by mutations that lose it. A
business can’t make money by losing it a little at a time.” Although genetic mutations do occur, as evidenced
by diseases like sickle-cell anaemia and cystic fibrosis, evolutionists are yet to find a mutation with a beneficial
outcome.

It is also important to note that Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is just that: a theory. The scientific world is
notorious for abandoning theories it once staunchly believed when they are disproved, so the fact that

Darwinism is only a theory might be reason enough for one to disregard it. Although there have been many
arguments made in support of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, its core ideas go against the Word of Allah (SWT),
and if something goes against the Word of Allah (SWT), how can it be true about the World of Allah (SWT)?