What was the Angels' Concern About?
May God bless you for your Islamic teaching efforts.
While browsing your homepage, I noticed one question about our ancester Adam PH.
I just want to express about my opinion.
In Surat Al Albaqarah Ayat 30, it is said :
In this ayat, angels are complaining about some cruel creatures . It is possible that they refered to hominids. Some hominids were supposed to be very cruel each other, basing on some archeologic findings.
Don't you think that this verse support some evolution theories.
Reply
I thank you for your encouraging remarks on my work. May Allah guide me to the right path and help me in presenting the correct interpretation of His deen.
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 considerable and if the meaning of the Qur’an negates the theory, it would provide Muslims a basis of correcting their point of view. But it is 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 "Khali’fah" (obviously, implying man). The word "Khali’fah" refers to authority. Thus the declaration of placing a "Khali’fah" in 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 "Khali’fah" – i.e. 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 the 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 Allah. Although there might have a number of stages in this creation, but it is clear from this that Adam did not evolve from any other creature.
I hope this helps. In case any aspect of my answer remains unclear, please feel free to write back to me.
Regards
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