Please note the following:

1. Those who reject the explicit texts of religion or distort them from their places based on some theories presented by experimental science have gone wrong; like those about whom Allah Almighty has said: ﴿فَلَمَّا جَاءَتْهُمْ رُسُلُهُمْ بِالْبَيِّنَاتِ فَرِحُوا بِمَا عِنْدَهُمْ مِنَ الْعِلْمِ وَحَاقَ بِهِمْ مَا كَانُوا بِهِ يَسْتَهْزِئُونَ﴾[1]; “So when their Prophets came to them with clear signs, they rejoiced in what they had with them of knowledge, and were surrounded by what they mocked”; because experimental science, due to its reliance on the limited and conflicting experiments of scientists, has always been incomplete and subject to change, while religion, due to its reliance on revelation, possesses perfection and sufficient stability. That is why Allah Almighty has said: ﴿قُلْ أَأَنْتُمْ أَعْلَمُ أَمِ اللَّهُ﴾[2]; “Say: ‘Are you more knowledgeable, or is Allah?’” Therefore, the definite reports of religion are more reliable than the theories presented by experimental science, except in the opinion of materialists who deny revelation or consider it to be of the same kind as human experiences that have no connection with the unseen. Here, the difference between a Muslim and an atheist becomes evident. The Muslim takes revelation as a criterion for cognition and evaluates every theory based on it, accepting it if it agrees with it and rejecting it if it contradicts it, However, the atheist takes only sense and experience as criteria for cognition and evaluates every theory based on them, accepting it if it agrees with them and rejecting it if it contradicts them, and therefore, he denies the unseen, disbelieves in the existence of the Creator, and considers everything to be a product of “natural selection”; because he is deluded by his limited and flawed knowledge and naively thinks that he has grasped all the secrets of the world and discovered all its rules and laws, and therefore, he dares to oppose revelation and denies or interprets everything in it that he does not like; like those whom Allah has mentioned in His Book and said: ﴿يَعْلَمُونَ ظَاهِرًا مِنَ الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَهُمْ عَنِ الْآخِرَةِ هُمْ غَافِلُونَ﴾[3]; “They know an outward aspect of the life of the world, but of the Hereafter they are heedless,” and said: ﴿ذَلِكَ مَبْلَغُهُمْ مِنَ الْعِلْمِ ۚ إِنَّ رَبَّكَ هُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِمَنْ ضَلَّ عَنْ سَبِيلِهِ وَهُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِمَنِ اهْتَدَى﴾[4]; “This is the extent of their knowledge. Indeed, your Lord knows best who has strayed from His path, and He knows best who has been guided,” and said: ﴿يُحَرِّفُونَ الْكَلِمَ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَوَاضِعِهِ ۖ يَقُولُونَ إِنْ أُوتِيتُمْ هَذَا فَخُذُوهُ وَإِنْ لَمْ تُؤْتَوْهُ فَاحْذَرُوا ۚ وَمَنْ يُرِدِ اللَّهُ فِتْنَتَهُ فَلَنْ تَمْلِكَ لَهُ مِنَ اللَّهِ شَيْئًا ۚ أُولَئِكَ الَّذِينَ لَمْ يُرِدِ اللَّهُ أَنْ يُطَهِّرَ قُلُوبَهُمْ ۚ لَهُمْ فِي الدُّنْيَا خِزْيٌ ۖ وَلَهُمْ فِي الْآخِرَةِ عَذَابٌ عَظِيمٌ﴾[5]; “They distort the words from their places. They say: ‘If you are given this, then take it, but if you are not given this, then beware.’ And whoever Allah intends to put to trial, you will never possess anything for them against Allah. They are the ones whose hearts Allah does not intend to purify. For them in the world is disgrace, and for them in the Hereafter is a great punishment.”

2. The problem with Darwin’s theory lies in its view that the first human being on the earth, Adam was not created from clay as a new creation, but rather he was born from parents shared between him and some other animals. This is a view that we have not rejected, but rather Allah, Who created Adam has rejected it and said: ﴿أَلَا يَعْلَمُ مَنْ خَلَقَ وَهُوَ اللَّطِيفُ الْخَبِيرُ﴾[6]; “Does He Who created not know?! While He is the Subtle, the Aware,” and His rejection of it is His words: ﴿إِذْ قَالَ رَبُّكَ لِلْمَلَائِكَةِ إِنِّي خَالِقٌ بَشَرًا مِنْ طِينٍ ۝ فَإِذَا سَوَّيْتُهُ وَنَفَخْتُ فِيهِ مِنْ رُوحِي فَقَعُوا لَهُ سَاجِدِينَ ۝ فَسَجَدَ الْمَلَائِكَةُ كُلُّهُمْ أَجْمَعُونَ ۝ إِلَّا إِبْلِيسَ اسْتَكْبَرَ وَكَانَ مِنَ الْكَافِرِينَ﴾[7]; “When your Lord said to the Angels: ‘Indeed, I am going to create a human being from clay. When I have fashioned him and breathed into him of My Spirit, then fall down to him in prostration.’ So the Angels prostrated themselves, all of them together, except for Iblis, who acted arrogantly and became one of the disbelievers.” These verses explicitly state that Adam was created from clay as a new creation and not born from parents, to the extent that intending any other meaning from them is considered as leading into ignorance, which is not permissible for Allah. Therefore, interpreting them as Darwin’s theory is interpreting them as a meaning they cannot bear, but rather as a meaning contrary to their apparent meaning. This would be arbitrariness and sophistry, and if we were to consider its possibility, no authority would remain for the apparent meanings of the Quran and its texts would become like poetry and fallacies, and in that lies the distortion and disappearance of religion. It is strange that you say to us: “At least consider the possibility that your understanding of religious texts is incorrect,” while if we were to consider it, then Islam should be bid farewell; because our understanding of these texts is what every intellectual understands from them, for their words indicate their meaning. This is also how the Ahl al-Bayt, the Sahabah, the Tabi‘un, their followers, and other Muslims until the last century understood them. Even you did not understand them any differently before you heard about Darwin’s theory! Do you claim that Darwin is the one who revealed the meaning of these religious texts and that none of the Muslims would have understood them if it were not for this disbeliever?! What about the Ahl al-Bayt, the Sahabah, the Tabi‘un, their followers, and other Muslims who passed away before him and did not understand anything from these religious texts except that Adam was the first human being on the earth and had no parents?! Does your intellect accept that they died without understanding the meaning of these religious texts?! While among them were those whom Allah removed every impurity from them, made them completely pure, and made it obligatory for people to obey them! Furthermore, Adam was not the only living being that Allah created without parents, leaving no room for doubt. Rather, He has created other living beings in this way; as He created Isa and then made him an attestation to this so that there would be no room for the interpretation of doubters; as He has said, narrating from Maryam : ﴿قَالَتْ رَبِّ أَنَّى يَكُونُ لِي وَلَدٌ وَلَمْ يَمْسَسْنِي بَشَرٌ ۖ قَالَ كَذَلِكِ اللَّهُ يَخْلُقُ مَا يَشَاءُ ۚ إِذَا قَضَى أَمْرًا فَإِنَّمَا يَقُولُ لَهُ كُنْ فَيَكُونُ﴾[8]; “She said: ‘My Lord! How can I have a child when no man has touched me?!’ He said: ‘This is how Allah creates what He wills. When He decrees a matter, He only says to it: Be, and then it is,’” and said: ﴿إِنَّ مَثَلَ عِيسَى عِنْدَ اللَّهِ كَمَثَلِ آدَمَ ۖ خَلَقَهُ مِنْ تُرَابٍ ثُمَّ قَالَ لَهُ كُنْ فَيَكُونُ﴾[9]; “Indeed, the likeness of Isa in the sight of Allah is as that of Adam. He created him from soil, then said to him: ‘Be,’ and he was.” Clearly, there would be no similarity between them if Adam had parents. Moreover, He has placed another attestation in the hands of Isa when he said: ﴿أَنِّي أَخْلُقُ لَكُمْ مِنَ الطِّينِ كَهَيْئَةِ الطَّيْرِ فَأَنْفُخُ فِيهِ فَيَكُونُ طَيْرًا بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ﴾[10]; “I create for you (something) from clay in the shape of a bird. Then I breathe into it, and it becomes a bird by the permission of Allah,” meaning without gradual evolution. He has also placed other attestations in the hands of other Prophets, thereby invalidating Darwinists’ account; as one of our companions informed us, he said:

«سَمِعْتُ الْمَنْصُورَ يَقُولُ: أَيْنَ الدَّارْوِينِيُّونَ مِنْ مُوسَى عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ؟! أَلْقَى عَصَاهُ فَإِذَا هِيَ ثُعْبَانٌ مُبِينٌ، وَأَيْنَ هُمْ مِنْ عِيسَى عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ؟! خُلِقَ مِنْ غَيْرِ وَالِدٍ، وَخَلَقَ مِنَ الطِّينِ كَهَيْئَةِ الطَّيْرِ، فَنَفَخَ فِيهِ فَكَانَ طَيْرًا بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ، وَأَيْنَ هُمْ مِنْ صَالِحٍ عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ؟! أَخْرَجَ لَهُمْ مِنَ الْهَضْبَةِ نَاقَةً، لَهَا شِرْبٌ وَلَهُمْ شِرْبُ يَوْمٍ مَعْلُومٍ، أَفَلَمْ يَتَبَيَّنْ لَهُمْ أَنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ؟!»; “I heard Mansoor say: ‘Where are the Darwinists when it comes to Musa ?! He threw his staff, then it became a real serpent! And where are they when it comes to Isa ?! He was created without a father, and he created (something) from clay in the shape of a bird, then breathed into it, and it became a bird by the permission of Allah! And where are they when it comes to Salih ?! He brought out for them a she-camel from the hill; she had a share of water, and they had a share of water, on a known day! Has it not become clear to them that Allah has power over all things?!’”

3. It must be noted that evolutionary creation, even if it is a normal thing in created beings, does not determine how the human being or anything else in particular has been created; because it is always possible to create something in a non-evolutionary and extraordinary way; such as the creation of Isa the creation of the bird from its clay-made shape, the creation of the serpent from the staff of Musa the creation of the she-camel of Salih and so forth. Therefore, it is not possible to judge something specific as having been created evolutionarily or non-evolutionarily except by relying on revelation; because it is a matter that none but the Creator knows. In other words, if the evolutionary formation of something is possible, then its non-evolutionary creation by the power of Allah Almighty is also possible and has happened repeatedly. Therefore, biology cannot determine which things have been created evolutionarily and which have been created non-evolutionarily by the power of Allah Almighty, except through comparison and guesswork by relying on incomplete induction, which only leads to conjecture. The only thing that has the authority to determine it is revelation, which has determined that Adam as the first human being, was created non-evolutionarily by the power of Allah Almighty and did not have parents. Therefore, to hold the view that he was created evolutionarily and had parents is to follow conjecture and guesswork against revelation, and Allah Almighty has said about its people: ﴿إِنْ يَتَّبِعُونَ إِلَّا الظَّنَّ وَإِنْ هُمْ إِلَّا يَخْرُصُونَ﴾[11]; “They follow nothing but conjecture and do nothing but guess.”

4. Evolution can occur in created beings, in the sense that some of their characteristics can change in proportion to their time and place. However, this does not mean that Allah Almighty has not created them, or that He has created them in an unsuitable time or place; because the need of the created for the Creator and the impossibility of infinite regress indicate that Allah Almighty has created everything, and it is clear that by virtue of His perfection, He does not create anything unsuitably; as He has said: ﴿اللَّهُ خَالِقُ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ﴾[12]; “Allah is the Creator of everything,” and said: ﴿الَّذِي أَحْسَنَ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ خَلَقَهُ﴾[13]; “The One Who made well whatever He created,” and said: ﴿وَخَلَقَ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ فَقَدَّرَهُ تَقْدِيرًا﴾[14]; “And He created everything and determined its measure.” The truth is that He has created everything in proportion to its time and place. Therefore, whenever its time or place changes in a way that changes its needs, He changes it by increasing or decreasing so that it is always in proportion to its time and place; as He has informed of this and said: ﴿نَحْنُ خَلَقْنَاهُمْ وَشَدَدْنَا أَسْرَهُمْ ۖ وَإِذَا شِئْنَا بَدَّلْنَا أَمْثَالَهُمْ تَبْدِيلًا﴾[15]; “We created them and strengthened their joints, and whenever We will, We can replace them entirely with others like them,” and said: ﴿وَاللَّهُ يَقْبِضُ وَيَبْسُطُ﴾[16]; “And Allah withholds and gives abundantly,” and said: ﴿يَزِيدُ فِي الْخَلْقِ مَا يَشَاءُ﴾[17]; “He increases in creation what He wills.” This is clearly one of the signs of His existence, wisdom, and power, contrary to what ignorant Darwinists claim.

5. The alternative to Darwin’s theory in our view is what has been indicated by the Quran and the widely-transmitted Sunnah of the Prophet which is that Adam did not have parents but rather was created from clay by the power of Allah Almighty, whether his creation took thousands of years or a short time, like the time at which Isa created something from clay in the shape of a bird. As for other living beings, it is not impossible that they have been created evolutionarily through natural selection, especially at the level of classes or sub-classes. For example, all felines may have branched off from one origin, all canines from another origin, and so forth; because Allah Almighty has not informed us about how these created beings have been created as He has done so about how the human being has been created. Therefore, He knows best how He has created each of them.

As a result, evolution and natural selection may occur in living beings, but not as a universal law that cannot be violated, as Darwinists imagine and deny by it the way Adam was created and even the existence of the Creator sometimes; rather, as one of two methods through which Allah creates living beings, and to the extent that revelation considers its possibility. Therefore, we advise you not to be deceived by Westerners’ propaganda regarding this matter, nor consider what they say to be decisive speech; especially considering that biologists themselves do not agree on this theory, and some of them deny and mock it; such as the mathematician and molecular biologist “David Berlinski,” who wrote the well-known book The Devil’s Delusion in response to this theory, and has dialogues in which he mentions true scientists’ ridicule of evolution, its imaginary hypotheses, and their fatal weaknesses, and such as the biochemist “Michael Denton,” who used to believe in evolution until he began to discover dozens of glaring gaps in it himself with significant progress in molecular biology, then he wrote his well-known book Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, and such as the biochemist “Michael Behe,” who had many doubts about evolution until he wrote his well-known book Darwin’s Black Box, and other independent researchers and scientists, although Darwinists accuse them of having a bias toward religion because of their own bias toward Darwin! ﴿بَلْ زُيِّنَ لِلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مَكْرُهُمْ وَصُدُّوا عَنِ السَّبِيلِ ۗ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلِ اللَّهُ فَمَا لَهُ مِنْ هَادٍ﴾[18]; “Rather, to those who disbelieved, their guile was made fair-seeming, and they were hindered from the path, and whomever Allah sends astray, there will be no guide for him.”