It should be known that we – May God guide you and us – notice that this world with all the created things in it has a certain order and solid construction. It shows nexuses between causes and things caused, combinations of some parts of creation with others, and transformations of some existent things into others, in a pattern that is both remarkable and endless.
One should then look at the world of creation. It started out from the minerals and progressed, in an ingenious, gradual manner, to plants and animals. The last stage of minerals is connected with the first stage of plants, such as herbs and seedless plants. The last stage of plants, such as palms and vines, is connected with the first stage of animals, such as snails and shellfish which have only the power of touch. The word “connection” with regard to these created things means that the last stage of each group is fully prepared to become the first stage of the next group.
The animal world then widens, its species become numerous, and, in a gradual process of creation, it finally leads to man, who is able to think and to reflect. The higher stage of man is reached from the world of the monkeys, in which both sagacity and perception are found, but which has not reached the stage of actual reflection and thinking. At this point we come to the first stage of man after (the world of monkeys). This is as far as our (physical) observation extends.
SO in the understanding of Ibn Khaldun, does eveolution stand in the way of believing in the creation and genesis in the aqeedah of a muslim. So if I believe evolution to have been the cause of mans creation (and ofcourse with the will of Allah) will it nullify my iman or even make me doubtable?
Would kindly appreciate your response
Wassalam
You must understand that there are many different thoughts that look superficially like each other, each of which has been called ‘evolutionary’ which upon deeper examination have different foundations and different consequences.
I am certainly not saying that a thinker like Ibn Khaldun endorses what we call ‘Darwinian evolution’.
What I am saying is that Muslims have mistakenly taken up Christian creationists’ arguments against Darwin. Although we do not stand with Darwin, neither can we stand with Christian creationists since their tawhid is seriously flawed.
In other words, there is a need for some real thought on this issue by those Muslims who have the requisite grounding both in Ash’ari kalam and scientific thought.