Evolution according to Islam (Earth, tradition, soul, translation, creation)

[Autodidact]

If I understand your argument, tarik, it is that God selects from among the random mutations, using evolution to advance development of new species. But does not survival (natural selection) do the selecting, so that no God is necessary to explain this process?

[not4me]

Originally Posted by tariqkhwaja

A more apparent evidence lies in the very first verse of Surah Nisa', the 4th chapter of the Holy Quran and is as follows:
"... [God] created you from a first soul, and from her created her spouse, and established from them many men and women ..." (translation by author)

The point being that the Quran very emphatically states that the first life on Earth was a soul (the word 'Nafs' translates to soul that every living organism posesses).

And then it makes the statement from her we created her spouse. This is extremely important because by referring to the initial soul as a "her" the Qura'an becomes the ONLY book in the vast array of religious books that states the first organism was not a male but a female.

The use of the word "Zaoj" (meaning spouse) is also very significant. Instead of saying "her spouse" the word "husband" could have worked. But infact, in asexual reproduction a "daughter" cell is created that is not exactly a male (they are referred to as mother and daughter cells when of course in asexual reproduction they do not really have a sex). Thus calling it a partner refers to both the stage where mother produced daughter cells (asexual) as well as the eventual stage where the mother produced a male counterpart in the process of evolution that had sex with a female cell (maybe the mother, maybe another) (sexual).

I can further expand on this but I think this is sufficient for now.

Actually I have another translation:
O mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from one soul and created from it its mate and dispersed from both of them many men and women. And fear Allāh, through whom you ask one another, and the wombs. Indeed Allāh is ever, over you, an Observer.

In Arabic, the word "nafs" is feminine so what's your point, Tariq?

[not4me]

What about the Qur'anic mention of the creation of Adam, how is this compatible with evolution?

[tariqkhwaja]

You are right. You can translate it as "mate" which is, in fact, the perfect way to describe asexual reproduction because, in fact, there are no males and females in asexual reproduction. Yet, simultaneously, in a way you can also call them female because parent and child cells in asexual reproduction are known as mother and daughter cells.

But the key point is that whatever you may call it the Quran never asserts that the first being was a male. It was female (from her her spouse) or did not have a sex (from it its spouse) but it was definetely not male.

Furthermore, the Quran does mention male and females but at the later part of the verse "dispersed from both of them many men and women". Nafs is in essence a female word and its use further supports the Quranic and Scientific coherence on the origin on species.

Finally, similar wording is used regarding our creation not once, twice, but thrice!