It seems appropriate to offer a short reflection on Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution from a Muslim perspective on Darwin’s bicentennial.
The question of whether Muslims believe in evolution is a knotty one, especially when considering the wide variety of thought we see in other faith traditions, whose numbers are significantly smaller. The UNDP’s Arab Human Development Report highlights the serious lack of science education in the Arab world. If there is no basic science education, can we realistically speak of an engagement with scientific theories? The Turk Harun Yahya seems to funded at least in part by America’s Intelligent Design supporters, indicating, more than a rejection of evolution by Muslims, an affinity amongst religious puritans of all faiths.
The fact that Iran has launched a satellite, or that we are worried about Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, indicate that Muslims are not inherently opposed to scientific endeavors. Although it is difficult to find Muslim scholars arguing some of these ideas in English (as opposed to Persian, for example) in the contemporary period, there is a breadth of secondary material that shows how figures like Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani, Muhammad Iqbal, Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah, etc., approached the question of evolution. Afghani, and presumably his compatriots Muhammad Abduh and Rashid Rida, saw no theological issue with evolution.
However, he did suggest very early on that such a theory had damaging social implications for how the weak are cared for within society, presaging what we call Social Darwinism. His concern was that the social good not be lost in scientific advance. From a historical perspective it seems that the deep theological engagement with evolutionary theory does not exist until fairly recently. Once the theological arguments regarding scientific advancement are settled to generally say scientific inquiry is an inquiry into the nature of creation, than the big question that constantly has to be addressed is “does this serve a greater good?”
I would say in the last 100 years or so, the debate as to the value of rationalism and science has been forced into a dominant position. I am not sure where the debate will go, but from what I’ve seen I’m not convinced it’s the best minds, scientific or theological, who are addressing these issues.
