Evolution in the Light of the Quran

by Dr. Iqbal Ahmed

Introduction: 

Ever since man evolved into a conscious being, he had constantly wondered about his origin. In his

intellectual childhood, the question was answered by biblical teachings. In the west, uptil 19th century, Christian theology formed the basis of Theory of Creationism which states: 

(1) that the World is of short duration, at the most 5757 years old.

 (2) that the World is fixed and not changing.

 (3) that the created species are constant, and do not evolve into other species.

 (4) that the Perfect world is explicable only by omnipotent and beneficent creator.

 (5) that the creation of man was special and apart from other created things.

This was the view held in the west till 1859 when the modern theory of evolution was introduced by Charles Darwin, in his work, titled On The Origin Of Species. There are two basic points to this theory i.e. (a) evolution is taking place on earth (b) and it is driven by natural selection.