Short answer
No. Evolution is an account of how living things change over time. It begins with life that can already copy itself. That life lives on a planet that already exists, in a universe that already exists, running on laws that already exist. Evolution does not say where the universe came from, why it has laws, or why there is anything at all. Suppose you asked who built a house, and were told how the family inside grew from two people to nine. That is a true story about the family. It tells you nothing about the builder. However much of evolution is true, the universe still needs an explanation for why it exists at all, and its laws were still set. How the first cell arose from lifeless chemistry is also unsolved. Islam teaches that God (﷾) made the universe, and made Adam on purpose, from dust.
Full explanation
What evolution explains, and what it assumes
Evolution says that living things in a group differ from one another. Some of these differences help them survive, so they leave more offspring and pass the differences on. This is called natural selection. Over long periods it produces new forms. Charles Darwin, the nineteenth-century naturalist, wrote the book that set out the theory. It starts from life that already exists. The book's closing lines speak of life first breathed into a few forms or into one. So every question about God (﷾) lies before the first page of that account. Where did the universe come from? Why does it obey laws? Why is there a first cell for the theory to start with? Why is there anything at all?
Explains how species change over time by natural selection acting on variation. The theory starts from life already present: the closing paragraph speaks of life having been first breathed into a few forms or into one, and from the second edition says this was done by the Creator.
| Question | Does evolution answer it? |
|---|---|
| How do living things change over time? | Yes: through variation and natural selection. |
| Where did the universe come from? | No: it starts with a universe already there. |
| Why does the universe obey laws? | No: it assumes the laws. |
| How did the first self-copying cell begin? | No: still unexplained. |
| Why is there anything at all? | No. |
The first cell is still unexplained
How the first living cell arose from non-living chemistry is not a solved problem. In 1953 the American chemist Stanley Miller ran a famous experiment. In a flask, he made some of life's building blocks. That was more than seventy years ago. There is still no accepted account of how a self-copying cell arose. Researchers in the field say so themselves. There is still no compelling account of how the cell's copying and translating machinery began.
Reports that passing electric sparks through a mixture of gases and water produced some amino acids, the famous first experiment on how life's chemicals might form without life.
States that, despite much experimental and theoretical effort, there is still no compelling scenario for how replication and translation began, the processes at the core of every living cell and the precondition for biological evolution.
A code inside every cell
The cell contains a code, and this is not a figure of speech. DNA, the molecule that stores a cell's instructions, is a four-letter sequence read in groups of three. A translation table turns each group into a building block of protein. The cell also has a proof-reading system and repair machinery. Natural selection can only act on something that already copies itself. So it cannot explain how the first thing that copies itself began. Every system of symbols whose origin we have actually watched was written by a mind. Alphabets and computer programs are examples.
The standard textbook account of the genetic code: DNA's four-letter sequence is read three letters at a time; enzymes pair each codon's adaptor molecule with the right amino acid, acting as the translation table; copying is proofread; and dedicated systems repair damaged DNA.
States that, despite much experimental and theoretical effort, there is still no compelling scenario for how replication and translation began, the processes at the core of every living cell and the precondition for biological evolution.
What a Muslim must believe
A Muslim must believe four things. First, God (﷾) created Adam deliberately and directly, from dust. Second, God (﷾) taught him the names of things. Third, his wife was created from that same single person. The Arabic word is minha, which means "from it". Yusuf Ali translates it "of like nature". Fourth, all people descend from the two of them. Adam is not the improved descendant of another creature. He is God's (﷾) own work, placed on earth on purpose. Beyond that, the Qur'an is not a biology textbook, and Muslims hold different views about the rest of the living world. The real dispute was never about how birds' beaks change. It is whether the first man, and the universe he was placed in, were made on purpose. Evolution says nothing about either.
“The similitude of Jesus before Allah is as that of Adam; He created him from dust, then said to him: "Be". And he was.”
“O mankind! reverence your Guardian-Lord, who created you from a single person, created, of like nature, His mate, and from them twain scattered (like seeds) countless men and women;- reverence Allah, through whom ye demand your mutual (rights), and (reverence) the wombs (That bore you): for Allah ever watches over you.”
“Behold, thy Lord said to the angels: "I will create a vicegerent on earth." They said: "Wilt Thou place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood?- whilst we do celebrate Thy praises and glorify Thy holy (name)?" He said: "I know what ye know not."”
“And He taught Adam the names of all things; then He placed them before the angels, and said: "Tell me the names of these if ye are right."”
Sets out the range of positions Muslims hold on evolution. They range from rejecting it entirely, to accepting it for other living things while holding that Adam was created directly, and beyond.
The claim answered
The Blind Watchmaker (1986)
Argues that natural selection explains the appearance of design in living things without a designer, and that Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.
Cited for
Atheists such as the biologist Richard Dawkins argue that natural selection explains the appearance of design in living things. They say there is no longer any need for God.
The response
Grant that natural selection explains how living forms change once there is life to change. It still takes three things for granted. The first is a universe that began. The second is laws that make chemistry possible. The third is a first cell that can copy itself using a code. It explains none of these. Nor is this an appeal to a gap in our knowledge. Every code whose origin we have seen was written by a mind, so the cell's code points to one. Explaining how a family grew is not explaining who built the house.
Where it lands — Whatever evolution explains about living things, the questions of why the universe exists and who set its laws stay exactly where they were.
Perspectives
Darwin removed the need for God
Many atheists say Darwin removed the need for God: natural selection explains why living things look designed, without a designer.
Natural selection explains the appearance of design in living things, so there is no need for a designer.
Rebuttal
Selection works only on life that already copies itself, in a universe whose laws are already set. Darwin's own book starts from life already there. How the first self-copying cell arose is still unexplained, so the theory leaves the deepest questions where they were.
Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.
Rebuttal
Darwin himself had a "horrid doubt": if the human mind grew from the minds of lower animals, why trust its convictions? He raised it about his own sense that the universe is not the result of chance. But if unguided evolution were the whole story, the doubt would reach every conviction, the reasoning behind atheism included.
The Islamic perspective
Evolution describes change in living things that already exist. It cannot tell us why there is a universe, why it has laws, or how life began. The Qur'an teaches that God (﷾) made Adam directly and on purpose.
Evolution begins with something that already copies itself, in a universe with laws already in place. So it cannot explain the universe, its laws, or the first cell.
There is still no accepted account of how the first self-copying cell arose from non-living chemistry.
The cell carries a real code, with a translation table, proof-reading and repair.
Every symbolic code whose origin we have observed was written by a mind. This points to a mind behind the code of life.
The Qur'an says God (﷾) created Adam from dust by His command. It says He made his mate from that single person (Arabic minha, "from it"). It says He spread all people from the two of them.
God (﷾) placed mankind on earth deliberately, as His vicegerent, one who acts for Him on earth. He taught Adam the names of all things.