Islamic Perspective on Evolution - Sayed Mohammad Baqer Qazwini

42 المشاهدات· 24/03/23

Ahlul Bayt Center of Toledo
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Ramadan 2019 - "Islamic Perspective on Evolution" - Sayed Mohammad Baqer Qazwini
Night 3 - Ramadan 2019 - 1440 at the Ahlul Bayt Center of Toledo

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Transcript

[0:06]I begin in the name of the Almighty God, the compassionate, the

[0:12]merciful, the one who has created everything in utmost perfection.

[0:16]And may the peace and blessings of the Almighty God be upon

[0:21]his pure and beloved messenger, the peak of his creation, the symbol

[0:26]of humanity, the holy prophet Muhammad sallall.aii.

[0:31]Muhammad and his immaculate progeny of the B peace be upon them.

[0:40]Allah subhana wa ta'ala states in the holy Quran in why is

[0:55]it that you do not long to go to your Lord who

[1:01]has glory and majesty and he has created you in stages.

[1:10]Illuminate your hearts and minds with a very loud salawat.

[1:21]Evolution, it's an issue that is hotly debated today in the religious

[1:30]circles, in academic and scientific circles.

[1:34]And there are many people who are religious who are trying to

[1:37]make sense of this theory.

[1:39]How does this theory impact me and my religious values and beliefs?

[1:45]You find that there are many people today who are using this

[1:54]theory to disprove religion to make the claim that we no longer

[1:58]need to believe in a god, in a creator, in an intelligent

[2:00]designer.

[2:02]Because evolution can explain life for us.

[2:06]This is something that's hotly debated and contested.

[2:11]Therefore, it is very important for us to make some sense of

[2:18]this theory of evolution.

[2:18]See what is the Islamic perspective on it.

[2:22]What is the view of our scholars on evolution?

[2:26]And does it really prove that there is no need for a

[2:31]creator, for an intelligent designer?

[2:36]We will examine this very fundamental issue in our discussion tonight.

[2:40]Before we examine the Islamic perspective on evolution, let's briefly examine the

[2:47]history of evolution, especially with Darwin because Darwin, Charles Darwin, is seen

[2:54]as the father of the evolutionary theory.

[2:56]We find that Darwin who came in the 19th century, he was

[3:04]a biologist, a geologist, a naturalist.

[3:07]He was not the first to talk about evolution.

[3:13]In fact, scientists before him such as Lamar and others had already

[3:19]discussed evolution.

[3:18]But what Charles Darwin did, he developed this theory.

[3:24]And that's why he's considered the father of evolution.

[3:28]When you look at the history of Darwin, it's really an interesting

[3:33]history.

[3:33]Darwin came from a scholarly family.

[3:38]His grandfather was a doctor, a well-known doctor.

[3:39]Now, he was not known to be very bright in his academic

[3:45]studies.

[3:46]In fact, his father would constantly be frustrated with him when he

[3:51]would see that he was not doing so well at school.

[3:53]He would see his son busy with a hobby that his father

[3:59]didn't understand.

[3:58]Darwin had a hobby.

[4:01]He would go and collect insects.

[4:02]He would collect, you know, the eggs of birds and study them.

[4:08]And he would not do so well in school.

[4:11]He was not a genius from that aspect.

[4:14]He did not have a very high IQ.

[4:17]And that's something that really frustrated his father.

[4:21]However, Darwin, even though he did not really have a very high

[4:26]IQ, you know, anything that's extraordinary, but he had one type of

[4:34]intelligence that made him stand out in history.

[4:38]He was very innovative and excessively creative.

[4:39]And it is this innovation that led him to the theory of

[4:45]evolution and natural selection as we shall see.

[4:49]So basically one day one of the teachers of Darwin Hemsow he

[4:52]comes to his father he tells him look your son is not

[4:57]an idiot.

[4:56]Darwin is not an idiot.

[4:58]Trust me I'm his teacher and I know he's pretty smart.

[5:01]Why don't you give him an opportunity?

[5:04]There is a voyage.

[5:07]There's an expedition, a journey that's going to examine some islands, some

[5:12]different places.

[5:12]It's a scientific journey.

[5:16]Let your son go.

[5:15]He is smart.

[5:16]He has that innovation.

[5:18]So finally his father agrees.

[5:24]Darwin goes on this journey.

[5:25]This became the most important journey in the history of modern science.

[5:30]It lasted for about 5 years from 1831 to 1836.

[5:36]It's called the voyage of the beagle.

[5:42]If you examine the history of it, it's called the journey of

[5:47]the beagle.

[5:48]He went there for five years and Darwin collected the specimens that

[5:53]he wanted to go back home and analyze them.

[5:58]Once he studied different geographies, different species of animals, he came up

[6:02]with his landmark idea.

[6:05]He came back home and after a while he wrote his famous

[6:09]book, The Origin of Species.

[6:13]And in this book he talks about evolution, natural selection and how

[6:19]evolution occurs through natural selection.

[6:22]Now once he did that there was an outrage in Europe especially

[6:27]amongst religious people especially Christians because when Darwin came up with this

[6:31]idea he directly challenged the idea of creationism in the Bible in

[6:38]the book of Genesis that the earth was created 6,000 years ago.

[6:43]This is something he challenged.

[6:45]He showed that these species have evolved through thousands, hundreds of thousands

[6:51]and even millions of years.

[6:52]And this made a lot of people uncomfortable.

[6:56]In fact, when he died in 1882, two prominent people avoided his

[7:00]funeral.

[7:01]The Archbishop of Canterbury, he did not make it.

[7:06]The prime minister, Gladstone of England, he also skipped the funeral.

[7:09]They made up their excuses, but they're like, "We're not going to

[7:12]his funeral because they were Christians." And Darwin basically just destroyed our

[7:18]faith.

[7:19]He's, you know, a heretic.

[7:21]Whatever it is, we're not going.

[7:25]He did really shake up the Christian world.

[7:26]Those who believe in the creationism of the Bible.

[7:31]Now after that many people came especially atheists they used his idea

[7:36]to try to negate the existence of God.

[7:41]Now when we talk about evolution my dear brothers and sisters we

[7:45]have to make it very clear that there is a distinction between

[7:49]microeolution and macroeolution.

[7:51]Often times people mix these up especially those who have an agenda.

[7:56]I've seen them.

[7:58]They try to reject the existence of God.

[8:01]They quickly will give you examples of micro evolution to say that

[8:07]evolution is something that I can see in front of me.

[8:11]I can see it under the microscope.

[8:13]I can see something evolving and changing.

[8:17]There's a difference between these two.

[8:19]No one disputes micro evolution.

[8:21]Micro evolution is the evolution that happens within one species.

[8:25]When a species evolves, adapts, that's not something that anyone disproves.

[8:30]This is accepted by everyone.

[8:32]For example, if you've heard of stories of uh some parts of

[8:37]the world where you want to get rid of insects and you

[8:42]spray them with pesticides, right?

[8:43]After a while, you see the new generation of insects, they somehow

[8:49]develop resistance to this pesticide.

[8:52]it no longer works with them because they start to adapt.

[8:57]Another example which was very famous in history, some of you might

[9:03]have read about it is the peppered moth.

[9:04]Basically, right before the industrial revolution in England, there was so much

[9:13]smoke and pollution in the atmosphere that certain types of moths or

[9:18]butterflies started to change their color.

[9:22]Because when the air was pure and everything was light, they wanted

[9:29]to camouflage themselves to be safe from predators.

[9:34]So the color of those moths was light.

[9:36]After the industrial revolution, when the whole environment was polluted, in order

[9:43]not to be visible, they could no longer be bright.

[9:47]They had to be dark.

[9:48]So over a few decades they actually evolved to becoming dark.

[9:55]These are all examples of micro evolution.

[9:56]When we talk about the theory of evolution, we're not talking about

[10:02]this.

[9:59]We're talking about macro evolution.

[10:03]When evolution happens at a large scale from one kind of species

[10:11]to another kind, a mutation occurs and one species evolves into different

[10:15]species.

[10:16]This is what has been debated in the last decades or the

[10:20]last century actually.

[10:20]So what is our p perspective on the theory of evolution?

[10:25]Because today you will find many scientists in fact most scientists biologists

[10:29]today believe in evolution.

[10:31]There is overwhelming evidence that species do evolve and that most animals

[10:37]today if not all animals around the world have a common ancestor.

[10:41]Now they could disagree on the details.

[10:44]That single, you know, cell in the oceans and then it evolved

[10:51]into an animal that was aquatic that lived in the sea, then

[10:55]into an amphibian that you would live in the sea and on

[11:00]land, then land animals and so on and so forth.

[11:01]There could be a lot of disagreements on the details.

[11:06]But as for the process of evolution that many of the creatures

[11:11]that we see today go back to a common ancestor, this is

[11:16]something that most scientists today firmly believe in and there is overwhelming

[11:22]evidence that points in that direction.

[11:23]Even though we don't have conclusive evidence, but there is overwhelming evidence.

[11:28]So what is our perspective my dear brothers and sisters in the

[11:32]religion of Islam?

[11:34]Does Islam believe in evolution?

[11:35]And does evolution mean that we no longer need a creator in

[11:41]order to you know create us?

[11:43]Because you have this process of evolution that does things randomly through

[11:49]natural selection through so many you know different ways.

[11:52]What's our perspective?

[11:54]There are two very fundamental points to share with you here.

[11:57]The first is about the process of evolution.

[12:00]Second is about human beings being impacted by evolution and whether prophet

[12:06]Adam evolved from a common ancestor.

[12:09]We'll examine these two points very briefly.

[12:12]The first point there is no doubt that any living creature is

[12:19]impacted by its environment.

[12:21]That's what differentiates living beings from inanimate objects.

[12:26]What's the difference between something that has life and a rock?

[12:29]Put a rock for a million years.

[12:33]It really doesn't transform into something else.

[12:34]It doesn't really evolve into something else.

[12:38]Whereas something that has life is impacted by its environment.

[12:42]It adapts.

[12:44]It changes.

[12:46]At this very basic level, there is no doubt that living beings

[12:50]are impacted by the environment and that there is some adaptation.

[12:55]Now when we examine evolution from a religious perspective, there are many

[13:04]today especially atheists who consider evolution as ammunition in their hands to

[13:09]negate the role of religion and to negate the role of a

[13:11]creator and this is a major fallacy that they commit.

[13:16]We say fine let's say there is conclusive evidence for evolution.

[13:21]How does that negate the exist the the how does that negate

[13:27]the existence of a creator of an intelligent designer?

[13:30]Because the more you study evolution, my dear brothers and sisters, the

[13:36]more you will come to realize how complex of a process it

[13:41]is and the more you see the complexity in evolution, the more

[13:46]you see the signs of a creator who gave you this system.

[13:52]See, in the end, evolution needs a system.

[13:53]It's a mechanism.

[13:55]It needs a designer to create a system we call evolution.

[14:02]It cannot exist on itself.

[14:03]One common example that they share is the lottery.

[14:06]Haven't you heard them?

[14:07]Well, it's very unlikely for somebody to win the lotto, but you

[14:15]can eventually it does happen, right?

[14:16]through the laws of probability, randomly someone eventually wins the lottery out

[14:21]of millions and millions of people.

[14:23]This kind of analogy is very problematic.

[14:29]There's a big fallacy embedded here.

[14:30]Why?

[14:31]Yes, we do accept that when you have a lottery that's functional,

[14:35]the result of that lottery is random.

[14:38]It's governed by the law of probability probability.

[14:42]But who designed that lottery?

[14:43]The lottery is a very complex system.

[14:46]There are intelligent designers who designed it.

[14:48]Yes, the outcome can look random based on the laws of probability.

[14:54]But the lottery was designed by intelligent beings.

[14:58]When you look at evolution, think of a lottery.

[15:00]Maybe when you see the history of organisms, it looks like there

[15:06]is some randomness involved.

[15:08]Certain creatures becoming extinct, some of them evolving, suddenly there's a mutation.

[15:13]It might seem random, but what about the system that has given

[15:20]life the capacity to evolve?

[15:21]That system, my dear brothers and sisters, is a very complex system.

[15:25]And that in itself proves there must be a designer.

[15:30]Evolution cannot exist without a design.

[15:34]It's a mechanism that allows a living creature to evolve.

[15:38]Life has the capacity to evolve.

[15:43]Where did this capacity come from?

[15:44]Who gave it this design?

[15:45]And that's Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

[15:48]Whether we say God directly created all the species or there was

[15:54]a complex system that led to all these species, we cannot negate

[15:58]the existence of an intelligent designer whom we call Allah or God

[16:03]or anything else.

[16:04]But you see many atheists, they will try to use evolution to

[16:09]negate the existence of God.

[16:10]By the way, Darwin himself was not an atheist.

[16:13]Initially, he did believe in God.

[16:15]Later in life, it seems he got confused whether God existed.

[16:21]So, he became an agnostic.

[16:22]But he never rejected God.

[16:25]He never said there God does not exist or I have evidence

[16:28]that God doesn't exist.

[16:31]He just said, "I don't know.

[16:32]Possibly yes, but I don't know." He at the end of his

[16:37]life apparently did not see evidence.

[16:38]So Darwin did not reject the existence of God.

[16:40]In fact, in a number of his passages, his works, his books,

[16:45]he does seem to accept the idea of having a designer for

[16:49]this system.

[16:49]So that's the first point, my dear brothers and sisters.

[16:54]Assuming we have conclusive evidence for evolution, in no way does it

[16:58]negate the existence of Allah subhana wa ta'ala.

[17:02]If anything, it gives you a window into the system of the

[17:05]almighty God.

[17:06]Because Allah is very clear in the Quran that he creates in

[17:09]stages.

[17:11]Why did Allah create the heavens and earths in six stages?

[17:16]Doesn't the Quran say if Allah wants something, he says be and

[17:22]it is.

[17:22]Allah is teaching us I have a complex system.

[17:24]I work in stages.

[17:28]My system involves many stages.

[17:30]And yes, there could be evolution in those stages.

[17:32]That's part of the system of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

[17:37]In this verse in verse 14, Allah subhana wa ta'ala states, "Allah

[17:48]has created you in stages." Allah is addressing us people.

[17:54]Look, look at the world around you.

[17:57]Look at the universe.

[17:57]Think I have created you in stages.

[18:00]There's a system.

[18:03]Go and explore this system.

[18:05]If anything, evolution demonstrates the intelligence of the designer.

[18:10]How can you, my dear brothers and sisters, create a system that

[18:13]gives you life and allows for life to evolve?

[18:17]Who can do that other than God?

[18:19]Think about this.

[18:21]Who can do this other than Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala?

[18:25]And we know this through artificial intelligence.

[18:28]Sometimes you create a computer and you tell it what to do.

[18:33]It just follows instructions.

[18:33]Doesn't move an iota from your instructions.

[18:37]That in itself shows design.

[18:39]But sometimes you give the program some level of artificial intelligence where

[18:44]the program itself starts to make decisions.

[18:47]I ask you my dear brothers and sisters, which is more complex?

[18:52]Which system requires a more carefully planned design?

[19:00]The one that does have some sort of artificial intelligence.

[19:04]It's much more complex.

[19:07]That is the first point when we discuss evolution.

[19:11]So there's nothing about evolution that contradicts religion, my dear brothers and

[19:14]sisters.

[19:15]In fact, the Holy Quran makes numerous references that the creation of

[19:20]God comes in stages.

[19:22]Secondly, what about the human being?

[19:24]Then what about Adam?

[19:27]When it comes to the creation of Adam, our scholars are split

[19:35]basically into two camps or groups.

[19:37]The vast majority of our scholars believe that Adam was created instantaneously.

[19:42]He did not have parents.

[19:45]Allah created him fully formed from clay.

[19:48]And the verses of the holy Quran seem to indicate that if

[19:51]we take them literally that's what they indicate that Allah created prophet

[19:56]Adam directly when he wanted to create a caiff to represent him

[20:00]on earth.

[20:02]However does this mean that Adam is the first human being?

[20:07]No.

[20:05]Adam is not the first human being or humanlike figure.

[20:09]The Quran makes references that before Adam there were other human-like creatures

[20:16]and so do our from the B peace be upon them.

[20:20]If you remember the conversation that Allah has with the angels Allah

[20:26]informed the angels I want to create a caiff on earth.

[20:30]What did they do?

[20:32]They objected.

[20:32]What was their objection?

[20:38]They said, "Oh Allah, how would you create a type of creation

[20:44]that's going to spread corruption and spill blood on earth?" Why did

[20:48]the angels say that?

[20:50]How did they know humans would do that?

[20:51]Because they had seen the creatures before Adam.

[20:56]Adam looked like them in his physical form.

[20:59]So they thought this is just a continuation of those creatures.

[21:02]And those were wild.

[21:05]They were barbaric.

[21:05]They used to kill one another.

[21:07]Why do that again?

[21:09]And how can this be your khalifa?

[21:11]Allah says, "No, I know what you don't know." See, even the

[21:13]angels hint that there was something before Adam that looked like him.

[21:19]Now, when you look at our hadith, it's fascinating.

[21:21]We have numerous hadith from the imams of B that before Adam,

[21:26]there were humanlike figures.

[21:29]One hadith states, "Before this Adam, there were 1,000 Adams." In another

[21:36]hadith from Albakis he says before you this current human race six

[21:45]forms of humans came six eras stages of human creation and you

[21:53]are the seventh and the last of them and you have been

[21:57]given the full intellect because this current human race has achieved the

[22:03]highest intellectual capacity.

[22:04]to know right from wrong and also to have intelligence.

[22:08]So the of are very clear that before us there were humans.

[22:14]So if today you find some people finding you know the fossils

[22:20]of a humanlike figure that predates to 2 million years ago, 3

[22:24]million years ago there's nothing about that that would contradict religion.

[22:28]In fact, religion is saying that before you human beings, there were

[22:32]humanlike figures.

[22:35]No doubt about that.

[22:36]Now, did Adam evolve from them or God directly created him?

[22:42]That's the point of discussion.

[22:44]These scholars say no.

[22:45]Adam is an exception.

[22:47]Even if we accept there is evolution, there's a common ancestor for

[22:50]all these other beings.

[22:53]Not Adam.

[22:52]Adam is an exception.

[22:55]It seems that the Quran says God created him directly.

[22:58]And this is something that Allah subhana wa ta'ala did because Adam

[23:03]was his representative on earth.

[23:04]But in no way does that mean that we reject evolution.

[23:08]When it comes to Adam only we say it seems from the

[23:14]Quran if we take the verses literally that Allah subhana wa ta'ala

[23:18]created him directly.

[23:18]And by the way, today if you look at the human race,

[23:22]because there were other humanlike figures like the Neanderthalss, other types of

[23:29]homo sapiens, but they all went extinct.

[23:32]If you look at the human race today, you find that we

[23:37]go back to an identical ancestor not too long ago.

[23:42]Because our hadith indicate that prophet Ibra, prophet Adam.

[23:46]He existed on earth somewhere 6 to 7,000 years ago.

[23:51]If you add up the numbers in our hadiths, it gives you

[23:56]a figure of about 7,000 years.

[23:58]Before him, there were humanlike figures.

[24:00]Yes, but they went extinct.

[24:03]So all these people came from Adam as the Quran seems to

[24:08]suggest.

[24:09]Yes, there is nothing in science that contradicts this.

[24:11]In fact, science confirms this.

[24:15]I want you to research something which is very important.

[24:17]It's called the identical ancestors point.

[24:21]Research about this.

[24:23]The identical ancestors point indicates that all humans today, all the people,

[24:32]7 billion people on earth today, they go back to the same

[24:35]parent, to the same ancestor about 3 to 5,000 years ago.

[24:41]And this is something that really surprised the scientists.

[24:44]They did not think that the identical ancestor was that close in

[24:51]history.

[24:51]They thought this was something like, you know, tens of thousands years

[24:55]before that.

[24:57]But all people today come from parents from people who existed 3

[25:02]to 5,000 years ago.

[25:02]And this is in line with our hadith that speaks about prophet

[25:08]NIH especially with the flood that many people were killed and only

[25:13]a few who were with him their progeny survived.

[25:15]Prophet N was about 5 to 6 thousand years ago and the

[25:21]identical ancestors point seems to confirm that all the humans that you

[25:25]see today they go back to that common identical ancestor.

[25:29]This is the first view that most scholars have.

[25:33]Even though evolution can be proven, we make an exception for prophet

[25:41]Adam.

[25:39]But we recognize that there were humans before him or humanlike figures

[25:45]before him.

[25:44]The second view which is not very common.

[25:47]There are some Muslim scholars who do believe no evolution could also

[25:51]impact the humans.

[25:53]Even human beings can have a common ancestor with other animals.

[25:58]And they have cited some verses in the Quran to say maybe

[26:03]this is a possibility.

[26:06]They have cited this very verse in Allah has created you in

[26:15]stages.

[26:16]And then verse 17 states Allah has caused you to grow from

[26:22]the earth.

[26:24]Just as the vegetation grows you.

[26:28]Allah speaking to humans.

[26:29]You've grown from the earth through a process.

[26:32]Some of these scholars are saying this could be a re a

[26:37]reference to evolution because clay is the birthplace of life of life.

[26:42]Science has confirmed this.

[26:44]Clay has all the ingredients necessary for life.

[26:47]And by the way, the composition of your body, the elements in

[26:50]your body are those same elements found in what?

[26:53]In clay.

[26:55]Now this could have happened over millions of years that Allah created

[26:59]clay and then the first life was formed from it.

[27:03]Then after millions of years Allah created the human being.

[27:06]This is possible.

[27:08]Like I said it's a minority of scholars who believe in that.

[27:10]But it nonetheless is a possibility.

[27:12]In any case my dear brothers and sisters whenever we talk about

[27:16]evolution we have to be very clear.

[27:19]There's nothing about evolution that disproves the existence of God.

[27:26]If anything, it shows the complexity of God's creation.

[27:29]One final note, my dear brothers and sisters, just like we have

[27:35]physical evolution in life, we have spiritual evolution as well.

[27:38]And the month of Ramadan is that time of the month where

[27:43]we progress and we evolve.

[27:45]You've all heard of the hadith from Im Ali Alisam in which

[27:50]he states if your two days are equal, your yesterday and your

[27:54]today are the same.

[27:56]You did not achieve any progress.

[27:57]You're a loser.

[28:00]You've lost.

[28:02]You have not achieved anything.

[28:03]Make it a point in the month of Ramadan to develop a

[28:06]program where every day, my dear brothers and sisters, you progress.

[28:14]We only have 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 years.

[28:15]That infinite life is determined by these years.

[28:19]Make sure that every day is better than the previous day.

[28:25]Every day, even though you take small steps, but there is a

[28:29]new spiritual achievement because the imam says if your two days are

[28:32]equal, then really that is a great loss.

[28:37]We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to bless us in this holy

[28:42]month of Ramadan.

[28:42]My dear brothers and sisters, we have about four or five minutes

[28:48]till the adan.

[28:46]So if you have any questions,

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Islamic Perspective on Evolution - Sayed Mohammad Baqer Qazwini

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التالي

Islamic Perspective on Evolution - Sayed Mohammad Baqer Qazwini

Transcript

التالي

استكشاف المزيد

اختيار طريقة الدفع

لغة