Mr. Khan Yasir has repudiated convincingly the fashionable hypothesis concerning immediate human origin. (Radiance, 24-30 May 2009) He has quoted Darwin himself who sheepishly concedes where he is the most vulnerable. “We do not find intermediate varieties.”
“I have created jinns and men in order that they may worship and serve me,” God says in the Qur’ān, 51:56. The additional reference to jinns is not without significance. Just as God is the Creator of the jinns, He is the Creator of mankind too. However, Darwin’s hypothesis is silent on the issue of the ‘evolution’ of the jinns; it does not envisage any invisible category of created beings.
In the very first Revelation, God is introduced as the Creator of all things in general and of mankind in particular. The specific material from which man comes into being is Alaqa. The selection of this material from among the materials mentioned in various places in the Qur’ān is again not without significance. Alaqa is a term taken from the science of sex and procreation. This term denotes sexual exclusiveness as a distinguishing mark of a species. Alaqa will not be formed if man has sex with any other species, including monkeys, and so a human baby will not be born. Khalaq alinsana min alaq seems to imply that God has created man as a distinct species.
Polytheism reduces the importance of one true God. So does the hypothesis of evolution. A believer cannot but feel dubious of both.
U Muhammad Iqbal
Hasthinapuram, Tamil Nadu