The history of creation

What is Islam? Yes, we know its the religion which requires praying five times a day and prefers its followers to grow beards (men) and wear a hijab (women) and follow Allah. But in theory, in principle, where does it break off from other religions in the world?

In theory, the essence of Islam is monotheism. Believing in Allah and Allah only, as the creator and the sovereign power of the Universe. Following that chain of logic, anyone and everyone who has ever believed in the unique existence of God and His power is a Muslim. And has been since the advent of the world or humankind. For the purpose of this discussion, where I want to talk comparatively about monotheism alongside Islam, I'm going to call it Monotheistic Islam - the fundamental difference between this and Islam being the difference in historical timing (Islam emerging as a religion somewhere around 600 AD) and the fundamental similarity being the belief in one deity being the one and only unassisted creator and ruler of the universe.

According to the Quran, one fine day Allah decided to create a new kind of creature called human beings who would, apart from being made out of clay, be bestowed with a particular organ which would enable the creature to think and decide on his own. This meant this creature would actually have the ability to decide whether to follow God's will or not. Why Allah would do this, deliberately creating a species who might renounce Him, was a mystery to the angels - the superior creation present at that time, who incidentally, were created so that they did God's bidding without question. When the angels asked God why He was doing this God told them that He had His reasons, and that He knew more about the workings of the universe, the worlds and the heavens than they did so they should let Him do His work.

Allah then created the first human being, who He named Adam. Adam was created out of clay, as opposed to angels, who were made out of light/fire/energy, and had the capability to take control of his own actions, and had a spirit blown into Him by God.
Incidentally, although I want to talk more about the evolution of human species and monotheistic islam, I'll digress for a minute to talk about heavenly politics.
Apparently after Adam had been created, Allah taught him things about the universe that the angels were unaware of, and gathered all the angels and ordered them to bow before Adam. At this moment, one of the angels, called Iblis, refused to do that. Iblis had some superiority complex which made him put two and two together and contemplate why he, someone made out of fire, would be made to bow before someone made of mere clay to whom fire was actually harmful. Iblis' disagreement with the creation hierarchy angered Allah who banished him from the heavens (where all of this was taking place by the way) to a dark and dingy place called hell. This in turn angered Iblis who vowed revenge by plaguing this newly created species with thoughts that would corrupt them and turn them against their Creator, and would bring them down by degrading and evil acts. And so things fell into place.

*Minor point to ponder over here (or ask my Islamiyat teacher when I go back home): If angels did everything Allah asked them to, and couldn't think for themselves, how did Iblis stage this whole dramatic refusal to bow before Adam? Oh well, lets continue...*

Anyway, then Allah created Eve (called Hawwa in Arabic) also, and gave Adam and Eve permission to roam freely among the heavens, with the exception of one 'forbidden fruit'.

Anywhoo, the rest is heaven history. Iblis, now the infamous Satan, appeared in the form of a harmless snake (pfft) to Eve and persuaded her to taste the forbidden fruit, which she then persuaded Adam to taste. When this happened, Allah called upon them and told them that they had incurred his displeasure. They begged mercy and forgiveness, and as a compromise, Allah told them He would forgive them if they served a certain sentence. This was that they would not live on heaven anymore, they would go live on this place called Earth, and they would have a clock ticking on them i.e. mortality. If they spent their time doing good deeds, remembering Allah and praying for forgiveness, He would let them come back up to the heavens and live there forever - no clocks. Of course the Earth was subject to Iblis' games and tricks so they'd have to watch out.

Adam and Eve found this a favorable option (like they had any other choice) and thus began mortal life on Earth. Thus also began the first of Islam, or monotheistic islam, i.e. the worship of Allah by human beings as their only Creator and Supreme Ruler. Hence the essence of Islam began with Adam, not with Muhammad.

However, my questions are on a different topic altogether. This account of creation doesn't precisely conflict with scientific accounts of creation and evolution of hominids, (or maybe I don't want them to conflict, since I believe in both) but the Quranic account leaves a lot of specifics out that would help place the creation of Adam into a scientific timeline. For instance, how old was the Earth when Adam was sent down? Was Adam walking on all fours or was he a matured, civilized homo sapiens?

To us Muslims, Adam is the first of the Holy People, or prophets/messengers from Allah and so we call him Hazrat Adam (AS) and respect him as much as we respect Muhammad. But logically speaking, there's a chance that Adam was a little different from a genetic perspective from modern day humans. Look now I'm not saying he was closer to a chimp than he was to us, god no. All I'm saying is that there is a lot of missing stuff in this account that would complement the scientific evolutionary theory if we could figure it out you know?

These are simple questions, not revolutionary ones that require you to take one side or the other. For instance, was there an ice age when Adam came down, or was it before or after an ice age? Were the dinosaurs already there or gone? How far along was the bacterial evolution coming along? Did other human races appear simultaneously in other parts of the world or did Adam, Eve and their children have the monopoly for a couple of millenia?

Like most scientific theories, evolution is one that is built up block by block on evidence derived from fossils as much as it is from assumptions chiseled in where evidence is unavailable. However, critics of evolution should keep the following in mind. The gaps in the theory are not very different from gaps in divine scriptures and theological history. Not to mention that evolution makes a lot of sense in issues not so controversial as human genealogy, such as general plant, animal and microbe life on this planet. Evolution and religion are not contradictory, its probably just that out of the hundreds of religions in this world, science hasn't found the one which complements its theories yet. When we find a scientific theory who's gaps are filled by a theology and vice versa, we can be sure we've found the history of creation.




Though this page has been carefully researched, the author does not claim expertise on Islam. Please feel free to question, comment and correct, albeit with respect to people's private beliefs whatever they may be.

The history of MY Islam

In Pakistan, according the A'level private school system which I've studied in, there are 3 subjects that are compulsory for every student to take regardless of what their other main subject combination (pre-med, pre-eng or business) might be.
The first is Urdu - as a second language, because of course, to all respectable Pakistanis living in contemporary society, English is our mother tongue. The second is Pakistan Studies, a mixture of Pakistani history and geography. We learn the best seasons to plant wheat and cotton in, and the best soil mixture and water quantities for these because naturally, farming is what we all want to do when we grow up. We also learn that Lord Mountbatten along with Nehru and Gandhi were old meanies out to reign in all the Muslims of India and treat them like dingy sheep; although Gandhi is depicted as the respectable, sensible meanie, while Nehru and Mountbatten are downright children movies type 100% bad guys.
Lastly, there's Islamiyat. its supposed to be a hybrid of Islamic history and a short but comprehensive syllabus on the main tenets prescribed by Islam - the five pillars, the sayings and practices of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and so on.
Islamic history is amazing to read about. For our O'Level syllabus in Islamiyat, they'll go through the Prophet's entire life, the challenges and oppression he faced, the battles and the conquests, the simplicity and integrity with which he lived a near perfect virtuous life. They also tell us about how four of the Prophet's closest friends/relatives became the next four great people to lead the Muslims after the Prophet's demise: Abu Bakr, Umar, Usman and Ali. No doubt these men led great lives, following the example set by the Prophet as far as they could. Throughout this history, there are numerous challenges from non-Muslims, some of which the newly converted Arabs successfully subdue, some of which they don't. But then you start to see signs of trouble within the Arabs themselves. As soon as 20 years after the Prophet's death, you can see conflicts arising over issues of power, lineage, identity and of course, religion.
The problem is, when we study Islamiyat, or Pakistani history, or even when we hear stories of Islam or the subcontinent from our family as children, all of them have a tendency to try and make it black and white; to clearly show that one side is always all good while one side is always all bad.
Its understandable, to do that in order to make the basics appear simple and digestible to kids. But then along with the black and white comes another tendency, the effort to try and glorify the good side of Islamic history while sweeping the mistakes and conflicts of the not-so-virtuous Islamic rulers under the rug.

WHY?

As children, its all good to hear about white knights and pious heroes on your side. Its good to let this develop a sense of loyalty for all the hurdles that a small revelation in the desert overcame to become the second largest religion in the world. Its good to be proud of it. I have no doubt that the Prophet himself, and his immediate followers were tied to their cause to protect Islam as they were to their own lives, maybe even more so. But there is more to Islamic history than the good old virtuous days. We have had kings, dynasties and caliphates in Europe, Africa and all across Asia who have not been so virtuous; some of who have in fact been far more oppressive of women, slaves and people in general than Islam's worst enemies.

I am pointing this out because this is a major flaw in the way many Muslims around the world are brought up. Not telling us about the bad guys within our own camp maims us of the ability to recognize what went wrong in our glorious history. Today most of all, we need to develop a sense of objective rationality to identify who is wrong and why, be they Muslims or not. We need this in place of the false sense of superiority that we have been bestowed with by the generations before us: telling us that we're great and indefeasible because we are Muslims (It doesn't matter that we may be lazy, or illiterate, or unaware of what the Quran actually says. As long as we're muslims beta we're right and they're wrong, and we will win in the end)

If only we knew what went wrong with us, we could sit and learn from our mistakes. If we really want to be the most virtuous, and followers of the greatest religion in the world, we need to acknowledge the dirt under our own rugs in our own homes before turning up our noses at any mess in the streets.

After the sabbatical

What in heaven's name? I didn't realize its been so long! After all the dedication and persistence I promised to my blog I let it all drift away at the slightest sniff of some sinister smugging...sighhh

Alright alright enough with the tongue twisting. I'm ready to write again, but give me a day or two for some research because now I'm thinking of including a more consistent theme of issues for this blog. Or maybe this is another one of those vague promisey thingies I do whenever I start something, and this collection will eventually fade away into its usual mundane crap about random everyday happenings.

Let the future be the judge of that.