Science and Qur’an on Creation of Life (Part I)
By DrGhayurAyub
London, UK
Living in a modern world of science, how could one balance Islam with science as the two seemingly run on a collision course. At least that's what our traditionalist religious custodians tell us. For example, take the creation of life on earth. The traditionalists give a completely different picture of its origin than what the scientists tell us.
The scientists say that earth came into existence about 4.6 billion years ago, as part of the evolution of the universe. In the beginning, it was like a ball of molten rocks with sizzling temperature and an atmosphere filled with turbulent dust. With the passage of time, the dust turned into clay due to gravitational pull and clay continued to swirl in the air with thundering sound.
In the following one billion years, with a drop in temperature, water condensed making clouds and initiating: 1) Torrential rains, 2) Violent storms 3) and lightning full of radiation. Continuous rains washed the clay making it heavy and pouring it down to settle in the newly formed sea, where it converted into sticky and wet clay composed of organic and non-organic compounds. With further cooling of the earth and slowing down of the torrential rains, the water from sea started to evaporate leaving behind a viscous and gluey clayish substance known to the scientists as `Primordial Soup'
Constant floods of radiation of organic and non-organic compounds for the next 3 billion years resulted in the formation of chains of nucleic and amino acids on the thick, wet, sticky and muddy surface of the 'Primordial Soup'. One billion years later, when the earth cooled down to around 100 Celsius and the radiation continued, two adjacent fluids composed of fat on one side and sulphate on the other, formed a double layered membrane. This membrane folded on itself becoming impermeable and making a cell. This was the beginning of life. It was the non-permeability of the membrane which became an essential point in initiating and maintaining cellular life. To put it simply, had there been no impermeable membrane, there would have been no life.
It is scientifically proven that the life of a cell depends on non-permeability of its wall for certain ionic substances. It is called ‘Sodium pump’ which is governed by physical laws of nature. Destruction of this pump kills the cell. To give an example, antibiotics kill bacteria by destroying the ‘sodium pump’ of their cell walls. When an antibiotic loses this destructive capability, we are told the bacteria has developed resistance. Such is the importance of non-permeability of the cell wall.
A well-known British naturalist, Sir David Attenborough, gives an interesting narration of life on earth. He says that if we consider the duration of the earth as one year, life appeared in the middle of August in the sea. Towards the end of November, the first animal left the water and colonized the land. The backbone animals invaded the land by the beginning of December. On December 25th dinosaurs disappeared and were replaced by mammals. In the early morning of December 31st, apes and ape-like man called hominids appeared. And human or homo sapiens appeared about a minute or two before the end of December.
Now let us see what the Qur’an says about the creation of life on earth and find out if there are any similarities or dissimilarities between the two narrations. To start with, it challenges our intelligence about our existence in pre-life form when it says, “Do not man remember that We created him before, while he was naught (nothing, non-existent)?” (19:67). This verse clearly points to existence in non-life form. What was that non-life form? Qur’an puts it in chronological order by saying:
1. “He created you of dust,” (30:20) corresponding to the initial phase of earth when its atmosphere was filled only with dust.
2. “We created man from sounding (noisy) clay,” (15:26). It corresponds to the phase when the dust turned into dry clay, floating in the air with thundering sound.
3. About the next phase, when the torrential rains poured down on the clay, settling it on the surface of the earth, the Qur’an says, “Allah is He who perfected everything and began the creation of man out of clay”(32:7). This verse points to two things:
• First, it is using the word clay instead of sounding clay, meaning it is not floating but is static at a different stage of evolution;
• Second, to confirm its point,the Qur’an uses the word ‘began’ or ‘Bada’a’ for creation of man after God perfected everything else. It means that human creation happened as part of a continuous process in time, that had a beginning and not just at once.
4. In the next phase, as some of the clay settled in the sea and became sticky in nature in the primordial soup, the Qur’an says, “Indeed, We created man from sticky clay”. (37:11), or “We created the human being from stinking, smooth, (and wet) clay.” (15:26)
5. In the next phase, as fat, which is sweet and palatable, and sulphate, which is salty and bitter, made an impermeable membrane, the Qu’an says, “It is He who has let free the two bodies of flowing water, one palatable and sweet and other salty and bitter. Yet He has made a barrier between them. A partition (membrane) that is forbidden to be crossed”.(25:53). Here, the Qur’an uses the term ‘non-transgressing barrier’ for impermeable membrane.
6. In the next phase, Qur’an talks of the appearance of life in general, “… with water did We create every living thing…(21:30). Then it becomes specific, linking the impermeable membrane or ‘non-transgressing barrier’ with corals. “He has let free the two bodies of flowing water meeting together between them is a Barrier, which they do not transgress. In the same verse it further says, “....Pearls and corals come forth out of the twain.” Scientists, in recent decades, have discovered that coral belongs to the animal kingdom and is intimately linked to algae which is a plant. In this verse, Qur’an has created a close link between the plant and animal life.
7. Then, in a progressive continuity, it talks about animals by saying, “Allah has created every animal out of water.” (24:45). Later, it categorises them and takes them out of the sea and puts them on land by saying,“Of them (is a category which) walks upon its belly, (another which) walks upon two legs, and (a third which) walks upon four. Allah creates what He wills. Allah is Able to do everything (He wants)”
8. Going further, it talks about human life by saying, “He it is Who has created man of water.”(25:54). Then, ingeniously, it links human life with plant life as earlier it linked plant life with animal life by saying, “And Allah has caused you to grow out of the earth like plants” (32:7). In this way, it created a chronological mosaic of three basic forms of life-plant, animal, human-1500 years ago, discovered by science in the last few decades.
Thus far, we have seenthat the Qur’an has talked about pre-life existence in mineral form such as dust, dry clay, wet cla, etc. Then, it cited creation of non-transgressing barrier or membrane linking it with the beginning of life. Going further, it linked life in a mosaic of plants, animals and humans. Who says Islam, which gets nourishment from the Qur’an, is on a collision course with science?
Let’s go further. (To be continued)
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