Subtleties and Allusions

1. The Impossibility of Negating Human Birth Without Parents Through Empirical Reason

The pure epistemological verdict is that empirical reason can only establish affirmations, not negations. However, abstract reason, besides affirmation, can also negate what lies beyond and in other words, establish exclusivity. This is because empirical reason reports on matters it has tested, and anything outside its experimental domain is neither within its purview nor under its jurisdiction. For example, medical science has complete experimental knowledge about illness and its curative medicine and can issue verdicts in this regard. But can prayer, charity, maintaining family ties and the like not have unseen effects, and is there truly no other factor besides medicine that can cure illness? Such matters lie outside its domain, and it is in such cases that it is said “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence,” unless one’s knowledge is unlimited, in which case their inability to find something would be definitive proof of its non-existence: “Say, ‘Will you inform God about something He does not know?’”(615)

What has been and continues to be observed according to empirical reason is that humans are born from parents. However, the possibility that there might be another way for a human to be born without parents or without a father can never be negated through empirical reason. Abstract reason, which has the ability to establish exclusivity, makes no verdict in these cases, but rather establishes their possibility.

2. Evolution in Human Creation

The six verses concerning human creation that were referenced in the exegetical discussion indicate that the Qur’an confirms the principle of evolution in the creation of the first human and speaks on this basis in those verses, otherwise the content of the mentioned verses would contradict each other.

Remember:

The mentioned verses present some stages of the formation of the first human, and since these stages are sequential rather than parallel, they do not contradict each other and thus do not provide grounds for objection by those who think differently.

1. The description of human physical evolution is presented as an analogy (tamthīl) rather than a definitive determination (taʿyīn), such that the order is not exclusively related to these stages, rather than future plant and animal stages.
2. Evolution (takāmul) refers to traversing existential degrees according to their natural or innate order.
3. In the principle of evolution, there is no difference between gradual time-bound progression as in natural and ordinary matters, and high speed as in miraculous and extraordinary matters; for example, instantaneous travel (ṭayy al-arḍ) is rational and acceptable, but quantum leaping (ṭafra) is impossible and unacceptable.
4. What is presented in the creation process of that original lineage, meaning the lineage of Adam (a.s.), completely preserves the evolutionary stages.
5. What emerges from Darwinian thought and similar theories is nothing more than an unproven hypothesis.
6. The process of species transformation is different from the phenomenon of species evolution.
7. What is proven through substantial motion (ḥarakat jawharī) is the evolution of species, not their transformation.
8. The aforementioned process, assuming it is proven, is a product of empirical reason and will never give an exclusive verdict; meaning it cannot prove that it is impossible for humans to come into existence through non-experimental means.
9. If such a hypothesis were to become definitive, it could be used as a separate contextual evidence (dalīl labbī munfaṣil) to explain some of the apparent meanings of transmitted evidence.
10. Even if such a hypothesis were proven, it would not contradict monotheism and the need of the moving for a mover, and the created for a creator.

3. The Existential Levels of the Human Being

A human in the womb, who only feeds and grows, is actually a plant and potentially an animal. When born and reaching the stage of hearing, sight, and similar faculties, it is actually an animal and potentially human, and its humanity may remain in potentiality and never reach actuality. Consequently, such an individual would be subject to “Those are like cattle; rather, they are more astray.”(616) Perhaps their humanity reaches flowering and actuality, and “Then We produced him as [yet] another creature”,(617) continuously passing through one stage and reaching a new one, for based on “O man! You are labouring toward your Lord laboriously, and you will encounter Him”,(618) humans are in constant journey, and similarly, their being carried is constant, as there can be no going without being carried, and no movement without a mover and motivator.

4. The Best of Creation

Humans are the best of creatures, because although God has spoken many times about the beautiful and flawless creation of the heavens, earth, and other beings: “Indeed We have adorned the lowest heaven with the finery of the stars”,(619) “Indeed We have made whatever is on the earth an adornment for it”,(620) “He created seven heavens in layers. You do not see any discordance in the creation of the All-beneficent. Look again! Do you see any flaw? Look again, once more. Your look will return to you humbled and weary. We have certainly adorned the lowest heaven with lamps…”,(621) only regarding human creation has He said: “We certainly created man in the best of forms”,(622) “Then We produced him as [yet] another creature. So blessed is God, the best of creators.”(623)

If there were a creature better than the human being, God would have spoken about it in the same way. Indeed, a being that is created by “the best of creators” will be the best of creation. This human shares a body with animals and a spirit with angels; however, the expression “best of forms” and similar phrases have not been used either for animals or for angels. It is possible that some angels are among the ‘exalted ones’ (ʿālīn) who are in the realm of the ‘world of command’ (ʿālam al-amr), not in the domain of the ‘world of creation’ (ʿālam al-khalq). Consequently, they are not conventionally considered created beings, but rather commanded ones. Possibly, if the verse “We have given them an advantage over many of those We have created”(624) has a broader meaning, and if the intended meaning of creation in the verse of preference includes its comprehensive meaning that encompasses the world of command, rather than its specific meaning that stands in contrast to the world of command, then it refers to those commanded (not created) divine angels. Of course, all these matters mentioned require proof.

In any case, the mentioned honor and praise is specific to a body that serves the spirit and exclusive to a spirit that properly manages and nurtures the body. In this state, it will be superior to angels, but if the spirit becomes corrupted, it will be like cattle or even lower: “Certainly We have created for hell many of the jinn and humans: they have hearts with which they do not understand, they have eyes with which they do not see, they have ears with which they do not hear. They are like cattle; rather they are more astray. It is they who are the heedless.”(625) The Qur’an expresses the human’s descent to the natural world as “then We relegated him to the lowest of the low”(626) and the human’s return to God as “O man! You are labouring toward your Lord laboriously, and you will encounter Him.”(627) If someone, after descending to the natural world, takes the path of ascent again, they become the “best of creation” (aḥsan al-makhlūqīn) and of “best stature” (aḥsan taqwīm). Therefore, God did not describe Himself as “the best of creators” regarding either the creation of countless stars and their amazing luminous beauty that adorns the sky, or regarding the most beautiful creatures on earth like the peacock. However, Bilāl al-Ḥabashī is included in “best stature” and is among the examples of “best of creation,” because the entire system of creation has a “central jewel” (wāsiṭat al-ʿaqd) and focal point called the human being, who is the “trustee of God” (amīn Allāh). Otherwise, one day this whole system, with all its beauty and wonder, will collapse. Therefore, “best of creation” is specific to those who are entrusted with divine revelation and who are trustees of God and His revelation.

Whoever properly performs prayer and other religious duties is a trustee of prayer and religious law, and if they properly serve the Qur’an, they are a trustee of divine revelation, and the heavens and earth are submissive before them. For this reason, the prophets (a.s.) and the infallible saints (a.s.) take precedence over all others in being of the “best of creation” and “best stature.”

Yes, if a human becomes a bearer of the divine trust (amīn Allāh), they become superior to the heavens and earth and become a teacher to the angels, as He said: “Indeed We presented the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, but they refused to bear it, and were apprehensive of it; but man undertook it. Indeed he is most unfair and senseless”(628) “And He taught Adam the Names, all of them; then presented them to the angels and said, ‘Tell me the names of these, if you are truthful.’ They said, ‘Immaculate are You! We have no knowledge except what You have taught us. Indeed You are the All-knowing, the All-wise.’ He said, ‘O Adam, inform them of their names,’ and when he had informed them of their names, He said, ‘Did I not tell you that I indeed know the Unseen in the heavens and the earth, and that I know whatever you disclose and whatever you were concealing?’”(629) And if one does not honor their mission regarding the divine trust, they will be an example of “The example of those who were charged with the Torah, then failed to carry it, is that of an ass carrying books”(630) and their affair will reach a point where God commands His angels to seize them and cast them into the fire: “Seize him, and fetter him! Then put him into hell. Then, in a chain whose length is seventy cubits, bind him”(631)

5. Removing Improbability

The Qur’an, in response to those who ask out of improbability who will bring humans back to life again, says: “It is He who originates the creation, and then He will bring it back—and that is more simple for Him. His is the loftiest description in the heavens and the earth. And He is the All-mighty, the All-wise”(632)(633)

In this excellent debate, relying on the opponent’s belief in God’s creation of the system of existence, it is portrayed thus: if an origin can clothe “nothingness” with existence, it can gather the scattered parts of any being, and re-creation is easier than the initial creation.

God says regarding the creation of humans: “Has there been for man a period of time when he was not anything worthy of mention?”(634) Or in response to Zakariyyā (a.s.) who said: “My Lord! How shall I have a son, when my wife is barren, and I am already advanced in age?”(635) He said: “So shall it be. Your Lord has said, ‘It is simple for Me.’ Certainly I created you before when you were nothing”(636) Meaning that previously when you were nothing, God created you; but now you have a soul that never dies and a body that only…