The Theory of Evolution in the context of the divine revelations

Conflict with monotheism

The Darwin Theory of Evolution challenged human dignity, describing the human being as a result of the process of evolution spread over many centuries. It suggested that all present-day life-forms on Earth came from a single ancestor. The diversity that is seen in the animal and plant kingdom occurs due to natural selection, migration, extinction, and genetic mutations. In a previous article of this author, the theory was challenged by geneticists.

On the other hand, the Darwin Theory was considered as an offence on human dignity by social scientists, especially the scholars of the monotheistic religions. This theory was utilised as a tool by many scientists in denying any religious belief. As a counter-reaction the monotheistic religions developed an antagonistic approach to anything that represented any notion of “evolution”, whether facts or speculations and beliefs.

The monotheistic religions are based upon divine guidance from Allah SWT (God) revealed through Prophets (Messengers), calling for belief in Him, the Creator, Sustainer and Possessor of everything in the Universe and beyond (Qureshi, 2023). He is the keen observer of all happening and changes in the Universe and passesses on his Commandments through Kun Fayakun (Be and it is). The creation of human beings was the Climax of Creation of the Universe by Allah SWT through Intelligent (or Grand) Design. The Guardian broke a story “Did the dying Stephen Hawking really mean to strengthen the case for God?” (Goff, 2018). Human beings have been created by Allah SWT with his own hands as His Representative on Earth to establish His Rule and Order. They are accountable for his good and bad deeds. Scientifically proven facts related to Darwin theory may never be denied by a religious scholar, however, theories offending human dignity and purposefulness may not be imposed on the people blindly.

The Jewish viewpoint

Judaism accepts all experimentally proven facts and observations of the theory of evolution (Steinberg, 2010). Judaism accepts some of the assumptions and interpretations embedded in the theory of evolution, but rejects other assumptions and speculations which contradict fundamental Jewish beliefs, and which are anyway not scientifically proven; to those Judaism offers different interpretations. Judaism strongly rejects all the extensions of the theory of evolution beyond natural sciences, which endorse the biological assumption of the “survival of the fittest” in commerce and human societies as a whole by justifying claims of social inequality, sexism, racism, Nazism, eugenics, and other moral-social deviations as “laws of nature”.

The agenda of many scientists who promote the theory of evolution is to achieve the goal of understanding the existence of the universe as a random, purposeless, natural development, evolved slowly over billions of years from a common ancestor by way of natural selection, devoid of any supernatural metaphysical power. Jewish faith perceives the development of the universe in a different way: God created the world, with a purpose known to Him; He established natural laws that govern the world; and He imposed a moral-religious set of requirements upon Man. No scientifically proven facts negate these statements.

The Christian viewpoint

A Roundtable was organised by Evolution, a co-production of the WGBH/NOVA Science Unit and Clear Blue Sky Productions (Evolution 2020). The question was: Must we take the first several verses of Genesis literally in order to respect the spiritual authority of the rest of the Bible? Conversely, must the literal nature of the Genesis creation story be discounted in order to reconcile religion with evolution, astronomy, physics, and other sciences?

Ayala, a Penalist was of the opinion as follows: We should take the believers, people who accept the Bible as a revealed book, the chapters of Genesis in the Bible, as literally true with respect to their religious content, not with respect to the examples or historical descriptions that are being used. There is nothing new in this. Let me quote from Saint Augustine. Augustine, one of the great theologians in the history of Christianity, writing about the year 400 in his commentary on the literal meaning of Genesis, said: “In the matter of the shape of heaven, the sacred writers did not want to teach man facts that would be of no avail for their salvation.” Similarly, the Pope, to quote another religious authority and many could be quoted in many different traditions, Jewish or Christian and among different Christian denominations, but to quote from a speech that Pope John Paul II made in 1981:

“The Bible speaks to us of the origins of the universe and its make-up, not in order to provide us with a scientific treatise, but in order to state the correct relationship of man with God and the universe. Sacred Scripture wishes simply to declare that the world was created by God. And in order to teach these truths, it expresses itself in the terms of the cosmology in use at the time of the writer. The Sacred Book, likewise, wishes to tell man that the world was created for the service of man and the glory of God.”

So the point made by Saint Augustine and by the Pope is that it is a blunder to mistake the Bible for an elementary textbook of astronomy, geology, and biology. The sacred writer is using a description of the natural world which will be understandable and will be generally accepted by other people at the time when the sacred text was being written. Clearly, the writer could not have written in terms of science as we know it today.

But again, the important point is that, therefore, these descriptions of historical detail that are used by the Bible need not be taken literally. What has to be taken literally is the religious content of the teachings.

The theory of evolution seemed to go against religious teachings that God made the Earth and created all living things, as they knew them (BBC 2020). Christians believed that God had created humans ‘in his own image’, that humans were superior to all other creatures and had a soul that is immortal. The theory of evolution challenged the idea that God is the designer of the universe and that the beauty, order and complexity of the universe is evidence of this (the design argument).

The idea that living things adapt to their environment was opposed to their belief that God had created the perfect environment for them. The Bible says humans were created on the sixth day of creation, not over a period of millions of years. These scientific theories were first put forward in the 19th century, when Christianity was an important influence on people’s lives and the way they thought. Many people saw them as a direct attack on their faith. Charles Darwin faced criticism from people who could not accept what they saw as his ‘anti-religious’ ideas.

The Genesis creation story is at least 2,500 years old and was written when people lived completely different lives in an undeveloped environment. Answers to very difficult questions, such as how human life began, usually involved God because God was seen as the source and explanation for everything. The study of science was then largely unknown. The Genesis stories should not be compared too closely to scientific theories. These scientific theories are much more recent. Christians have put forward the theory of intelligent design, that everything is planned and designed by God, and that each and every change that takes place is the direct working of God in creation.

The Muslim viewpoint

Hameed (2013) reported a debate on the theory of evolution under Islamic perspective. The event, organised by the Deen Institute, was titled, ”Have Muslims Misunderstood Evolution?”. The speakers included an evolutionary biologist, a biological anthropologist, two theologians and a bona fide creationist. It lasted seven hours, yet almost everyone stayed till the end. Ehab Abouheif is an evolutionary biologist who holds the Canada research chair at McGill University and works on ant evolution. He laid out the scientific case for biological evolution and spoke about the need for Muslims to understand this bedrock principle of modern biology. He used the example of his own personal faith to counter the misconception that one cannot reconcile evolution with Islam.

According to Islamic theistic belief, only Allah SWT is the “Necessary Being” and the “Eternal Being” (Ahmad 2013). In stark contrast, the vast expanse of space and time and the sum total of creation and existence (including human beings) are only “potentialities”, “possibilities” and “contingencies”. While there can be no dispute regarding these two beliefs, the process by which “probability” emerged from “Necessity” and “contingency” from “Eternity” remains a topic of debate and contestation among theologians. What stages did this process pass through? Is there only descent and devolution from the Necessity/ Eternity to the probability/contingency? Or has there been a process of ascent and evolution involved in all this too?

At the present stage in the human intellectual odyssey, human knowledge has reached a point where it has become capable of going beyond merely investigating matters related to the organisation of the Created Order and Intelligent Design; it has now begun to investigate issues related to the event of creation itself. That knowledge which was given to Adam (AS) at the very beginning in the form of “Knowledge of the Names” symbolised a latent potentiality or capacity in the human entity. After having passed through numerous stages of manifestation and exfoliation, the “knowledge of the Names” now stands at the threshold of gaining mastery over the very forces of nature that once threatened the existence of this fragile creature.

The Qur’an keeps the needs of ordinary populace in focus and takes into account their intellectual capacities. As a result, the Qur’an relies upon only general pointers to address issues related to specialised philosophical or academic interest, higher gnosis, and subtle spiritual realities. For those with sharpened intellects and heightened spiritual sensibilities these “general pointers” should be sufficient to shed light on such matters as the saying in Persian goes: “For the intelligent, pointers suffice”. The Qur’an repeatedly refers to the legal injunctions, individual and social moral decrees, juridical decisions, and ordained laws set by Allah SWT as the kalimaat or “Words” of Allah SWT, as an Intelligent Design.

Just as the Knowledge and Wisdom of Allah SWT is limitless, it is entirely possible that His “inexhaustibility” is partially reflected in the domain of created order. If this interpretation is accepted then every single created being would represent the manifestation of a Divine Imperative “Be”! Out of the innumerable and limitless creations that Allah SWT has brought into being, the Qur’an explicitly refers to only Prophet Isa AS (Jesus Christ) as being the “Word of Allah SWT”. In Surah Aal-e-Imran [3:39], the Qur’an describes Prophet Yahya AS (John the Baptist) as being one who would “confirm the truth of a Word from Allah SWT”. And a little later in the same Surah [3:45], the Qur’an uses the following words to describe Prophet Isa in the context of the glad tidings that the angel came to give to Maryam AS regarding the virgin birth of a noble child: “O Maryam! Allah SWT sends you glad tidings of a Word from Him.”

It is this very “apportioning” and “guiding” that manifests in the realm of inanimate matter in the form of the “laws of nature” or “physical laws”. Beyond the realm of inanimate matter, in the realm of plants “biological laws” are added to the “physical laws” to “determine” and “guide” this realm of Allah SWT’s creation. Further still, in the animal world, the element of “natural instincts” is added to the aforementioned physical and biological laws to govern the growth and development of the animal kingdom and similar species. Further yet in the human realm, the dimension of ratiocination or the “rules of logic” is added to the aforementioned three elements to “determine” and “guide” the human being and beyond the domain of ratiocination or rationality there is nothing but “Divine Revelation”.

The virgin birth of Isa AS (Jesus) is an illustration of this very process where the Divine Word replaced a missing link in the chain of causation by virtue of which a woman would get pregnant under normal circumstances. According to the normal physical and biological laws the birth of an individual requires both the male and female contribution towards a fertilised ovum which then develops into a human child. Recently, birth of mammals have been made possible through in vitro fertilisation, not needing sexual intercourse and even cloning of mammals through somatic cells not needing male and female gametes. In the case of the birth of Isa AS, the contribution of the father is completely missing meaning that one of the links in the normal chain of the causal factors of human birth is not there and it is this missing link which is replaced by the Divine Word “Be!” Consequently, it is for this very reason that Isa (the son of Maryam) is referred to in the Qur’an as “a Word from Allah”.

Opinion of Dr Israr Ahmad

Dr Israr Ahmad appreciates Charles Darwin (1809-82) for his long and arduous voyage on Beagle and accumulation of fossils, promoting the theory that organisms tend to produce offspring varying slightly from their parents. He identifies the miserable failure of Darwin to explain the mechanism by which new species may arise widely different from each other and from their common ancestors.

Briefly, the theory of Darwin is that it is in the nature of life to vary. The whole organism and its individual organs and functions are subject to minute variations which occur blindly and haphazardly in any and every direction. Moreover, all species of animals have to struggle against a hostile environment, against their enemies and dangers of every kind in order to feed and protect themselves and their offspring.

The absence of purpose is the very essence of Darwinism. Variations arise fortuitously out of the organism and present themselves for selection in the struggle for existence. They are not actively acquired by means of struggle. If there is any purpose in evolution, it is, according to Darwin, apparent and not real.

Darwinists endeavour to explain the emergence of even the most complicated organ such as the eye and the most puzzling function such as the instinct of a bee, as a result of a series of accidents. This position is, of course, completely antagonistic to that of teleological evolutionists like Lamarck, Bergson and Iqbal.

Darwinism has passed through several stages and undergone several differentiations and transformations since its birth but its essence and main features have remained the same. Although it is primarily a biological theory, the Darwinists endeavour to use it to answer all questions relating to Psychology, Metaphysics, Logic, Epistemology, Ethics, Aesthetics and even History, Economics and Politics. Indeed, if Darwinism with its radical opposition to teleology and its stress on mechanical selection is really an adequate explanation of a part of the evolutionary process, it ought to be an adequate explanation of the whole of it.

Naturally, Darwinism has deeply influenced all subsequent developments of the human and social sciences. It has yielded many bitter fruits and the bitterest of them all is Marxism and worse still totally materialist interpretation of history, morals and religion.

Thomas Huxley and Ernest Haeckel championed the cause of evolution and defended the views of Darwin both as regards the occurrence of evolution and the factors responsible for its occurrence. Their critics, on the other hand, refuted these views wholesale with the result that Darwinism and evolution came to be identified with each other on both sides.

While the scientists have now accepted the fact of evolution, the controversy about Darwinism still persists although it is perfectly true to say that Darwinism is rapidly losing its ground and its opponents are already on the way to a complete victory. Indeed, if we take into consideration what we hear and read in scientific circles and journals time and again, we have to conclude that even now there is no dearth of serious students of evolutionary science who believe that Darwinism has already collapsed.

“My theory”, said Darwin “will lead to a whole philosophy”. He was right. But the philosophy that results from the theory of Darwin is a terrible shock to man’s justified conviction of his own dignity over the rest of creation, which he thinks he enjoys by virtue of the nobility of his mind and spirit and the sanctity of his reason and free-will. The implications of this theory are that the whole of this wonderful world of life is nothing but the blind and fortuitous play of the ‘reckless’ forces of nature. It is completely devoid of plan or method.

The spirit of man revolts against such ideas and their scientific accuracy instantaneously becomes doubtful. No wonder, therefore, that there were soon many powerful rebels in Darwin’s own camp. Wallace, the proponent of the Darwinian theory of the struggle for existence, ultimately came to believe in a spiritual explanation of evolution. Romanes, a prominent disciple of Darwin, ended as a Christian theist.

Some of the more notable founders of constructive theories of evolution opposed to Darwinism include Lamarck, Etienne Geoffroy, St. Hilaire, Ersner, Kassowtz, W. Haacke, Nageli, De Vries, Driesch and Bergson. Suffice it to say that the commonest and the most prominent feature of all these theories is that a living organism has not to wait passively for natural selection and prolonged accumulation of minute variations. On the other hand, there is a hidden purpose working in and through the organism that enables it spontaneously and of itself to bring forth what is necessary for self maintenance, often what is new and different with an extensive range of possibilities.

The emergence of human consciousness

The emergence of conscious purpose in man itself, as one of his most important characteristics, constitutes evidence in favour of purposive evolution (Ahmad, 2013). The very word evolution implies purpose, since it means growth or movement towards continuously higher stages of development. If the universe has really evolved and developed up to its present stage, does it not mean that purpose, one of the most precious products of its development, was implied in it from the very onset, that purpose of some sort was present at every stage of its development. At the material stage it was entirely unconscious, at the biological stage it was half conscious, at the human stage it became completely conscious and deliberate.

There is a need for a perceptive approach to man’s origin and end that can contextualise man’s perception of self within a framework of comprehensibility and meaning. The scientific evolutionary narrative provides modern man with a terrestrial lineage of development that commences with a single replicating cell and ends with the spectacular transition from animal primate to conscious human. As a result, the Godless Darwinian evolutionary theory has completely recast the mindset and mentality of people wholesale with its hypothetical explanation of man’s origin and by implication on his spiritual and ultimate destiny. That also explains why both Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels highly appreciated the contents of Darwin’s books and Marx even desired to dedicate his book “Das Capital” to Darwin.

Darwin himself had a problem with the myriad creation that reflected, if nothing else, ‘stunning design’. He, for example, well understood the development of the eye as a serious problem for his theory. He wrote: “To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic observation, could have been formed by natural relation, seems, I confess, absurd in the highest degree.” (Quoted by Gould, 1977, p.103)

Let us, at this point, look at the guidance and knowledge provided by the Holy Qur`an. Verse 30 of Surah Al-Anbiya asserts: “We made from water every living thing. Will they not then believe?” (21:30) That all life began from water (as a result of chemical reaction between water and crust of the earth) is a conclusion to which our latest knowledge in biological science points. Apart from the fact that protoplasm, the original basis of living matter, is a liquid or semi-liquid and in a state of constant flux and instability, it is an established fact that land animals, like the higher vertebrates, including man, show in their embryological history, organs like those of fishes, indicating the watery origin of their original habitat. The constitution of protoplasm, as a matter of fact, is about 80 to 85 percent water.

The most profound appreciator of the deep meaning and significance of the Qur`anic themes and the Rumi of our age, Allama Muhammad Iqbal, has also expressed the idea of evolution in his poetry. He not only mentions the idea, he also opines about its causes, starting-point and ultimate reaches and the objectives of the evolutionary process. He discusses and expounds these ideas at such a lofty level of sophistication and intellectual vision that people of ordinary mental capacity can hardly comprehend the real import of those verses. It is, however, reassuring to note that an able expounder of the wisdom of Iqbal, Dr. Muhammad Rafi-ud-Din, has made his ideas understandable and easy to grasp in an article published in the April 1960 issue of “Iqbal Review” (Din, 1960).

The 3 stages of Evolution – Physico-chemical, Biological and Ideological

Dr. Rafi-ud-Din has pointed out three stages of the long process of evolutionary developments viz., firstly physico-chemical evolution, secondly biological evolution and, thirdly ideational or ideological evolution. This, in effect, means that the second stage of the descent of creation coincides with the first stage of the evolutionary process. That is to say, as a result of the “Big Bang”, tiny particles appeared which synthesised together to constitute “atoms” which in turn collectively constituted “molecules”. Combination and recombination of these molecules in due course of time led first to the formation of inorganic compounds and then ultimately to the formation of organic compounds which represents the completion of the first stage of evolution. It must be noted here that we have characterised this stage also as the climax and completion of the third stage of the process of descent which has been expressed eloquently by Mirza Abdul Qadir Baydil in the words “two realms (of “khalq” and “ amr”) consumed”. But since this third stage of the descent of creative impulse was also the first stage of evolution, the biological evolutionary process started from this very phase.

Allah SWT is not immanent in the cosmos in the Neo-Platonic sense; He is a transcendent and a personal Allah SWT to which man can turn directly for guidance. Although Allah SWT is transcendent, the creation is not detached from Him, rather it is an expression, effect or concretization of the Divine performative word of “kun”. The myriad forms of the created universe are differentiated in time and space, and are not part of the process of emanation.

The following two verses of the Holy Qur`an clearly and unambiguously state that before the appearance of Adam (AS), his prefigured primates in the form of “bashar” were created by Allah SWT through a long evolutionary process:

“Behold! Thy Lord said to the angels: “I am about to create man (bashar) from clay.” [Sa`d, 38:71]
“Behold! Thy Lord said to the angels: I am to create man (bashar) from sounding clay, from mud moulded into shape.” [Al-Hijr, 15:28]

The word bashar used in these verses can refer to Homo, the genus of primates of which, according to evolutionary theory, modern humans (Homosapiens) are the present-day representative. The genus Homo is believed to have existed for at least two million years and modern humans first appeared in the Upper Paleolithic. In this sense, bashar can denote hominid (or hominoid), a primate of a group that includes humans (only in the sense of living physical body prior to the breathing of Divine spirit into it), their fossil ancestors, and the bipeds.

There is a very strong insinuation in the Qur’an that Adam (AS) was one chosen bashar and he became Adam (AS) after Allah SWT blew into him out of His spirit, a primordial truth to which atheistic evolutionists turn a blind eye. The Quranic verses, which speak of selection of Adam (AS) from amongst a species of humans, are the following: i) “Allah SWT did choose Adam (AS) and Nuh, the family of Ibrahim, and the family of Imran above all people.” [Al Imran, 3:33] ii) “It is We who created you (in the plural) and gave you shape; then We bade the angels: Bow down to Adam (AS). And they bowed except Iblees; he refused to be of those who bow down.” [Al-A`raf, 7:11].

Adam’s (AS) being chosen by Allah SWT and similarly creating a multitude of human primates and crowning one individual with the title and status of “Adam (AS)” is quite significant. This essential difference is definitely due to the addition of the spiritual soul — a new and highest metaphysical element, to the animal part of man. And this, of course, was the result of Allah SWT’s breathing into him out of His own spirit and thus infusing in him the metaphysical element of soul. It is in this perspective that we can appreciate verse 75 of Surah Saad in which Allah SWT says that He created Adam (AS) with ‘His two Hands’ (yadayya). This perhaps is a subtle allusion to the fact that as Adam (AS) is a composite being of material/physical body and a spiritual soul i.e. both a`alam-e-Khalq and a`alam-e-Amr were fused together to constitute Adam (AS).

The Honoured Creatures

The children of Adam AS have been honoured by Allah SWT with definite preference over most of the other creatures (Al Quran, 17:70). The Adamic first man is none other than the primordial man by virtue of his being made “in the image” (imago Dei) of a Divine Being. Adam (AS) is thus man in divinis, human in his element of khalq but reflective of Divine qualities and attributes as far as soul (the element of Amr) is concerned. According to an authentic Hadith, a particular soul (which was kept in the repository of souls) is aligned by an angel to each and every embryo developing in the womb of its mother. Thus, the entire progeny of Adam (AS) too consists of both a corporeal and a spiritual element. It is this very spiritual element in man that makes him Allah SWT’s representative and vicegerent on earth.

The crowning of Adam (AS) as vicegerent of Allah SWT on earth was finalised by the Divine Commandment for all angels to prostrate before Adam (AS) thus submitting to his superiority as a deputy of the Lord on earth. This order was rejected and flouted by Azazeel (a jinn, included in the lower cadres of angels on the basis of his devotion and service). Verse 34 of Surah Al-Baqarah reads:

“And behold, We said to the angels: Bow down to Adam (AS); and they bowed down. Not so Iblees, he refused and was haughty; he was one of those who reject Faith.” (2:34).

Addition and infusion of spirit or soul in the progeny of Adam (AS) is subtly referred to in verse 14 of Surah Al-Mominun where, first, the variegated stages of the development of human foetus in a mother’s womb are described in detail and then its formation on an entirely different pattern is stated viz. growing into a human being with a soul equipped with all its capacities and responsibilities.

Opinion of this Author

On the basis of the available literature and guidance from the three monotheistic religions, the following pathway is suggested for genesis of the human beings:

Physico-chemical Evolution (unconscious)

0.00 second ABB: Universe was borne after Big Bang (ABB), as a tiny singularity, a 13.8 billion years ago, leading to an explosive expansion, gradually expanding to the Cosmos, 7-10 trillions F temperature, birth of quarks, cooled down to form protons and neutrons
1 second ABB: The Universe density dropped, neutrinos form
3 minutes ABB: Protons and neutrons fused together, forming deuterium (hydrogen isotope), helium and lithium
0.38 million years ABB: Things cooled enough; hydrogen and helium combined with free electrons, creating the first neutral atoms; photons moved without interference, creating the cosmic microwave background (CMB), first detected in 1965; nothing in the universe gave off light for 100 million years, known as the Cosmic Dark Ages
17 million years ABB: Biochemistry of life begun, during a habitable epoch and life may exist throughout the universe
180 million years ABB: Birth of Stars, Galaxies and Black Holes, Cosmic Dawn
4550 millions years ABB: Birth of Solar System; Earth formed from the accration disc revolving round the sun
10,300 million years ABB: Life emerged on Earth

Biological (Half Conscious)

4500 mya (million years ago): Last universal common ancestor (LUCA)
4000 mya: Single cell life
3500 mya: Photosynthesis
1800 mya: Eukaryotes
1100 mya: Multicellular life
400 mya: Arthropods, Molluscs
200 mya: Dinosaurs
100 mya: Mammals
80 mya: Birds, Flowers, Primates, Homosapien (Bashar) available 2 million years ago

Ideological (Conscious)

50,000 years before the big bang: Creation of human souls and placed in a repository in the Heaven; attached with human bodies during the 4th month of embryonic life.
The creation of human beings was the Climax of Creation of Allah SWT; Human beings comprise a Body (from Earth) and a Soul (from Heaven).
Allah SWT selected a Homosapien (Bashar) from among the available Homosapiens and blew into his body, out of His spirit (Soul, Ruh); hence he became a human being, Adam (AS); Eve AS was created from the rib of Adam AS; birth of human beings continued through the mammalian reproductive physiological process. The the ‘Material Body’ of humans has been described by Allah SWT as: “From the earth We created you, and into it We will return you, and from it We will bring you back again. Al Quran, 20:55”. The ‘Spiritual Soul’ of humans has been described by Allah SWT as: “In fact, to Allah we belong and to Him we will ˹all˺ return. Al Qur’an, 2:156“.

Human creation was not Purposeless: According to the Godless Darwin Theory of Evolution, the creation of the human being was the result of a prolonged process of adaptation and random selection within the animal species, without a purpose. However, the Divine Revelation teaches us that creation of the Universe was made under a great Intelligent Design and the Human Being was created as the Climax of the Creation Process and as the Representative of Allah SWT, the Creator and Sustainer, on Earth. Human beings were provided material as well as divine knowledge to meet the material and spiritual needs of the body and the Soul, respectively.

Material knowledge: Material component of humans, ‘the Body’, is served through material knowledge. Adam AS was given “Knowledge of the Names” symbolising a latent potentiality or capacity in the human entity, now standing at the threshold of gaining mastery over the very forces of nature that once threatened the existence of this fragile creature. Today human knowledge has reached a point where it has become capable of going beyond merely investigating matters related to the organisation of the Created Order and Intelligent Design; it has now begun to investigate issues related to the event of creation itself; the Scientific Knowledge has resolved the material needs of the human body like food, shelter and protection from health hazards.

Divine Knowledge: Spiritual component of humans, ‘the Soul’, is served through divine (ethical) knowledge. Such Knowledge has resolved spiritual needs of the people like satisfaction, happiness and hope for the future. About 124,000 prophets were sent by Allah SWT, the Creator and Sustainer for guidance of human beings, starting with Prophet Adam AS and ending at Prophet Muhammad SAW; to worship Allah SWT, the only one God; take care of rights of their fellow humans as well as other creatures; and to refrain from following Iblees (leader of the devils); the good and evil deeds of the humans would be rewarded accordingly during the Hereafter.

Dominance of the Material Knowledge: A balance is required while fulfilling the material and spiritual needs of the human beings. Lethal weapons and economic policies were developed by humans to conquer thier fellow human beings; in the absence of an effective ethical framework such offences resulted in wars, poverty and economic slavery of a large segment of the Society by an elite minority; ultimately leading to piling up of nuclear weapons and development of terrorism among the oppressed segments of the society. This author has provided a remedy to rectify this situation (Qureshi, 2017).

End of the World and Beyond: Dominance of the Material Knowledge over the Ethical Knowledge, prevailing presently, may be considered as a one-sided approach, which is taking care of the human Body while the needs of his Soul have been ignored. It has prepared the a stage for the End of the World, to be preceded by dominance of Islam over the Globe (Video-1) and arrival of the single-eyed Dajjal Akbar (Video-2), supported with the most advanced technologies, predicted by the monotheistic divine religions, especially, the latest religion, Islam. It will follow with the resurrection of the human beings and the process of accountability and rewards for the good and bad deeds through placement in Jannah or Jahannam.

References