Question
In Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayah 30, it is said:
“And when your Lord said to the angels, I am going to place in the earth a khalifah, they said: What! wilt Thou place in it such as shall make mischief in it and shed blood, and we celebrate Thy praise and extol Thy holiness? He said: Surely I know what you do not know.”
In this ayat, angels are complaining about some cruel creatures. It is possible that they referred to hominids. Some hominids were supposed to be very cruel to each other, basing on some archeological findings.
Don’t you think that this verse supports some evolution theories?
Reply
My dear brother, our primary concern should always be to correctly understand the meaning of the Qur’an. If the meaning, directly or indirectly, supports any particular theory, the theory in question would definitely become quite valuable and if the meaning of the Qur’an negates the theory, it would provide Muslims a basis to ignore the theory. However, it is also quite possible that the correct meaning of a particular verse under consideration neither supports nor negates the theory. Maybe it has nothing to do with it.
In the particular verse under consideration (Al-Baqarah 2: 30) when Allah declares His plans of creating man, the angels express their concern in the words: “wilt Thou place in it such as shall make mischief in it and shed blood”.
In my opinion, the concern of the angels was because Allah, in His declaration, had told them that he had decided to place in the earth a “Khalifah” (obviously, implying man). The word “Khalifah” refers to authority. Thus the declaration of placing a “Khalifah” on the earth implied that Allah had decided on placing a being in the earth, which would be delegated “authority” in opting for right or wrong, for a particular time. The angels, in their question, actually wanting to find out more about Allah’s plans expressed their concern that if the being in question shall be delegated authority, chances are that it shall misuse this authority and opt for “evil” rather than “good”. This, in my opinion, is why the angels said that such a being (because it would be a “Khalifah” – i.e. it would have freedom to opt between right or wrong) shall misuse the delegated authority and “shall make mischief in it and shed blood”.
This, in my opinion, is the correct meaning of the referred verse. If my opinion is correct, then this verse has nothing to do with any evolutionary theories.
As far as the question that whether the Qur’an supports any of these evolutionary theories is concerned, I really do not think that such is “completely” the case. The Qur’an does tell us that the creation of the Universe and that of man was spread over a particular period of time. If this is what “evolution” implies, then the Qur’an definitely supports it. But if, on the other hand, “evolution” is understood to mean that man, as he is today, evolved from another creature – which was close to but not exactly man – then I am afraid that the Qur’an negates such an opinion. The Qur’an clearly states that Adam was the direct creation of God. Although there might have been a number of stages in this creation, but it is clear from this that Adam did not evolve from any other creature.
Hope it helps
UIUK team
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