Chapter Three: Evolution is a Divine Path

Chapter Three

Evolution is a Divine Path

The Fossil History of Humans:

Many people who reject the theory of evolution believe that the fossil record documents that humans evolved from the great apes we know today, specifically orangutans or chimpanzees. But the fact of the matter is that the evolutionary branches of all modern great apes diverged from the human branch millions of years ago. The orangutan diverged from the human a long time ago, even before the chimpanzee, which is considered to be closer to humans. Nevertheless, the chimpanzee diverged from the human millions of years ago as well. The fossil history has documented that a being scientifically named Ardipithecus, or Ardi for short, existed 4.4 million years ago. He walked upright on two feet in the African forests. His canine teeth are small and more like human teeth than those of chimpanzees. He is now scientifically included in the evolutionary tree of humans. In short, this means that the fossil record documents a series of bipedal upright beings, like the modern human, extending back 4.4 million years or possibly even earlier. Furthermore, humans split from the rest of the great apes about 7 million years ago. Many of these fossils go back millions of years, confirming the existence of anthropoids and the evolution of the modern human and Neanderthal man from one of them. Lucy and the Kenyanthropus are examples of the fossils that date back more than 3 million years.

The fossil record of humans documents that the anthropoid-or the man with an upright body (Homo erectus)-goes back about two million years. Homo erectus was most likely capable of using fire and simple tools, such as stone axes. He also had a social life. The fossil record from Caucasus, Georgia documents an elderly Homo erectus that lived for two years after his teeth had fallen out. This means that others might have fed him or prepared food for him, indicating that the Homo erectus who migrated from Africa is very likely to have had a social life, albeit a simple one.

Family Ties

Our ancestors had already ventured out of Africa 1.8 million years ago-and settled in the Republic of Georgia.

… the skull is humanlike but small. But the remarkable feature is the mouth.

Not only are there no teeth, but nearly all the sockets are smooth, filled in by bone that grew over the spaces. The jaws look like two crescent moons. Although it’s hard to be sure of his age, ”‘it looks like he was maybe about 40, and the bone regrowth shows he lived for a couple of years after his teeth fell out,” says the anthropologist [Professor Lordkipanidze]. “This is really incredible. How did the toothless old man survive, unable to chew his food? Maybe his companions helped him,” says Lordkipanidze. If so, those toothless jaws might testify to something like compassion, stunningly early in human evolution (Ngm.nationalgeographic.com 2005).*

The fossil record also documents the emergence of a branch from Homo erectus around 600-800 thousand years ago called Homo heidelbergensis. This human (or anthropoid) was able to make spears and hunt large prey. He also had a large brain. He migrated from Africa and evolved into the Neanderthal Man, then spread throughout Europe and survived until his extinction, approximately twenty-four thousand years ago.

The fossil record also documents the appearance of the intelligent human (Homo sapiens) around 200 thousand years ago, branching off from either Homo erectus or the Heidelberg Man. Homo sapiens then reached its final, current form about one hundred thousand years ago.

Furthermore, the archeological study of artifacts records both the appearance of skills unique to Homo sapiens and his migration around seventy thousand years ago. This was a successful migration of a small select group from Africa across the Bab-el-Mandeb straits of the Red Sea into the Arabian Peninsula that led to humans spreading throughout the earth. During that time, the water had receded and a group was able to cross. This select group of African Homo sapiens advanced through the southern Arabian Peninsula due to the presence of water springs at the time. These water springs existed since the coast was exposed before seawater covered it due to a rise in the sea level, and the presence of water springs helped them bypass the desert so that they could cross the Arabian Peninsula by the coast line, passing through modern Yemen and Oman until they reached the Gulf region, an area that is currently covered by water.*

At the time, the Gulf region was not yet covered with salt water, but

was a warm valley with rivers entering from the north (modern South-

ern Iraq and Southwest Iran). This valley (the modern Gulf) was a

very suitable place to live. It was warm, and full of rivers, lakes, marsh-

es, and forests. This was very important, as the earth went through a

harsh period of frost and cold at the end of the last Ice Age. Therefore,

this valley was an ideal place for the growth of the first human beings.

It was a place with abundant fresh water, fruits, and food. We could

say that it was the best location at the time for human growth. In this

region, the number of Homo sapiens increased. Although some of them migrated to the rest of the world, a group remained in this valley until

it was flooded and filled with seawater. It is scientifically estimated

that water flooded the Gulf area sometime between 15,000 and 8,000

BC. Following the flood, the select group-or the survivors of the

flood-moved to the uppermost part of modern Southern Iraq and

Southern Iran, following the rivers that were flowing into their fertile

valley, which would later become a gulf filled with salt water.†‡§

After the flood, salt water covered areas of the southernmost part of modern Iraq, which suffered due to the flood for thousands of years, until fresh water and flooded rivers washed away the salt and piled up the sediment, resulting in the formation of lands that could be cultivated adjacent to marshes full of fish. This drove the inhabitants to once again move toward the Gulf and inhabit lands that were either uncovered or formed after the flood. This continued for thousands of years.

In general, we can consider the inhabitants of this valley (the modern Gulf) to have comprised the first human civilization on earth. They started the Sumerian or Akkadian villages in Southern Iraq that preceded the Sumerian-Akkadian civilization that we know. Therefore, we can say that they were the first Sumerians, or those ancestors we read about in the Sumerian clay tablets, in which they extol their ancestors, their civilization, and their supreme moral values.

Furthermore, these early Sumerians-or let us say the ancestors of the Sumerians-spread throughout the rest of the earth, as they moved to Egypt and built the foundations of the ancient Egyptian civilization that predated the Egyptian civilization that we know. According to recent genetic studies, every human on the earth today, except for the ones who stayed in Africa, can be traced back to this small select group that migrated from Africa to the Southern Arabian Peninsula (modern Yemen, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates), then to the fertile basin (the modern Gulf) and to the rest of the world, then to Southern Iraq and to the rest of the world from there. The subsequent natural conditions didn’t help the many who stayed in Africa as much as it helped the few who abandoned it. Certainly, the select group multiplied abundantly and colonized the earth to such an extent that a reverse migration from the fertile valley and old Southern Iraq into North Africa occurred. According to genetic research, the inhabitants of North Africa-from Egypt to the Arab countries of Maghreb, and even Sudan-are migrants from the valley and old Southern Iraq. So this is how the select group gained control and dominance. First, they escaped the conditions of Africa, then the flooding of the gulf and ultimately returned and colonized North Africa.*

Moreover, according to the fossil record, the modern human (Homo sapiens) encountered and coexisted with another human being, the Neanderthal, for almost fifteen thousand years after migrating into Europe. The Neanderthal existed in Africa before Homo sapiens and evolved from the same ancestor, either Homo erectus or Heidelberg man, as was previously demonstrated. However, the migration of Homo erectus out of Africa was through the north, and he reached Far East Asia. The remains of anthropoids that evolved from Homo erectus have even been found in Indonesia and China. The Neanderthal that evolved from Heidelberg man used fire and sometimes buried their dead. Afterwards, about twenty-four thousand years ago, the Neanderthal became extinct, and only the modern, intelligent human remained on the earth.

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Figure 4: Illustrations demonstrating that the valley was filled with water. The times given are approximate.*

The Time of the Adam of Religion and the Scientific Time of Human Fossils on Earth

The time of the Adam of religion-or let us say the date of his existence as a human being living on the earth-is a modest number when compared to the time science gives for the existence of humans on the earth. For example, according to the Old Testament, the time since Adam, or the human on Earth, is within the limits of 6000 to 7000 years.

1This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. 2 Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. 3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. 4 The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters. 5 Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died. 6 When Seth had lived 105 years, he fathered Enosh. 7 Seth lived after he fathered Enosh 807 years and had other sons and daughters. 8 Thus all the days of Seth were 912 years, and he died. 9 When Enosh had lived 90 years, he fathered Kenan. 10 Enosh lived after he fathered Kenan 815 years and had other sons and daughters. 11 Thus all the days of Enosh were 905 years, and he died. 12 When Kenan had lived 70 years, he fathered Mahalalel. 13 Kenan lived after he fathered Mahalalel 840 years and had other sons and daughters. 14 Thus all the days of Kenan were 910 years, and he died. 15 When Mahalalel had lived 65 years, he fathered Jared. 16 Mahalalel lived after he fathered Jared 830 years and had other sons and daughters. 17 Thus all the days of Mahalalel were 895 years, and he died. 18 When Jared had lived 162 years he fathered Enoch. 19 Jared lived after he fathered Enoch 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 20 Thus all the days of Jared were 962 years, and he died. 21 When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. 22 Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters.

23 Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. 24 Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. 25 When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he fathered Lamech. 26 Methuselah lived after he fathered Lamech 782 years and had other sons and daughters. 27 Thus all the days of Methuselah were 969 years, and he died. 28 When Lamech had lived 182 years, he fathered a son 29 and called his name Noah, saying, “Out of the ground that the lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.” 30 Lamech lived after he fathered Noah 595 years and had other sons and daughters. 31 Thus all the days of Lamech were 777 years, and he died. 32 After Noah was 500 years old, Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth (Genesis 5:1-32).

Some people interpret this scripture to mean that the time of humans on the earth does not exceed 7000 years.

Some people claim that fossils prove the existence of human bones that are more than one million years old. However, this table demonstrates that the time of human existence on earth is no more than 6000 to 7000 years. The response to that is a mathematical calculation: we find that the current world population cannot be the fruit of more than 6000 years on earth. If we assume that each family has about three children, and if we deduct a high percentage of people who died naturally or due to natural disasters and wars, and if the history of man is one million years old and the population of mankind started with one man a million years ago, the earth’s space multiplied thousands of times would not be enough for their existence. Perhaps the existing bones belong to mammals that have the shape of a human, but do not have the breath that is from the mouth of God (Fekry 2012 Genesis 5:93-96 Arabic text, translated).

Fekry and others have concluded that the time of humans-or the time since Adam-on the earth was no more than 6000 years, but his calculation of the hypothetical population is certainly very simplistic. He didn’t take into consideration the many issues related to reproduction and survival, such as the primitive, harsh life that humans led in Africa. This was before agriculture, when diseases, predators, and the difficulty of obtaining food and hunting prey would have been enough to limit the number of humans. And in some cases, they were on the verge of extinction. If not for the exposure of humans in Africa to a harsh process of natural selection, which had at times put them on the brink of extinction, the brain would not have evolved this way, in what is considered a short period on the evolutionary time scale.

There are very few religious accounts defining this period. Nevertheless, some Sunni clerics have specified that Adam lived almost 7,000 years ago.

Based on fossils that have been discovered, we now have information regarding the scientific time of humans on earth. If we consider only Homo erectus, the upright man, who had the form of a human, walked upright, had almost no hair, knew fire, and possessed hunting tools, then the time of humans on the earth would be almost two million years. This number doesn’t agree with the previously mentioned religious time since Adam even if it is doubled. Furthermore, scientifically speaking, the Homo erectus species didn’t bury their dead and had a different form than that of the modern human. That wasn’t the case with Adam and his children pbut, whom God taught to bury the dead, as the Quran states:

﴾And recite to them the story of the two sons of Adam, in truth, when they both offered a sacrifice, and it was accepted from one of them but not from the other, the latter said, “I will surely kill you.” The former said, “Indeed, God only accepts from the pious.” … • And his soul allowed him to murder his brother, so he killed him and became among the losers. • Then God sent a crow searching in the ground to show him how to conceal the body of his brother. He said, “O woe to me! Have I failed to be like this crow and conceal the body of my brother?” And he became of the regretful.﴿ Quran “The Table

Spread” 5:27, 30-31.

Even if we only consider Homo sapiens, the intelligent human, we would have about 200 thousand years at most. This period doesn’t agree with the religious time since Adam pbuh either. Homo sapiens was confined to Africa for nearly 100 thousand years and they didn’t bury their dead, considering that the oldest evidence of Homo sapiens burying the dead was about 100 thousand years ago outside of Africa. This was probably the group of Homo sapiens that had migrated to Palestine and then became extinct. According to the religious scripture, Adam, and the other prophets after him, were not in Africa, and they buried their dead.

Generally speaking, we cannot scientifically consider ourselves Homo erectus at all, since there is a significant difference in brain size and mental abilities between them and us. Therefore, Adam is certainly not a Homo erectus. This categorically refutes that Adam pbuh belongs to the time that precedes the existence of Homo sapiens, meaning 200 thousand years ago. Of these 200 thousand years, Homo sapiens lived for more than 100 thousand years solely in Africa, where they led a primitive life and didn’t bury their dead. Moreover, the form of the Homo sapiens didn’t become complete and identical to that of modern humans until about 100 thousand years ago. Therefore, scientifically speaking, the Adam pbuh who is mentioned in religious scriptures could only have physically existed on earth after 100,000 B.C. Yet, in any case, he had an evolutionary human lineage that goes back millions of years, which means that he was definitely born to two parents.

Figure 5: Timeline of Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis, Neanderthal, and Homo sapiens evolution up to the modern human*

The evolutionary dividing line between Homo erectus and modern humans was not sharp.

It extended over several hundred thousand years during the middle of the Pleistocene Epoch. Adding to the confusion about this important transitional period is the fact that some regions were ahead of others in the process of evolving into our species. The evolutionary changes above the neck that would lead to modern humans may have begun in Southern Europe and East Africa 800,000 - 700,000 years ago. Elsewhere in the Old World, this change apparently began around 400,000 years ago or later. The transition to our species, Homo sapiens, was not complete until around 100,000 years ago and even later in some regions (Anthro.palomar.edu 2015).*

The search for Adam pbuh within the timeline of Homo sapiens that could be consistent with religious scripture is limited to the period in which the select group migrated out of Africa to the Arabian Peninsula, and then to elsewhere, about 70,000 years ago.

According to genetic analysis, all modern humans originate from that first group that migrated out of Africa to the Arabian Peninsula about 70,000 years ago, with the exception of a few African tribes that are believed to have descended from the group of Homo sapiens who remained there.

Some human migrations to Asia and Europe date back to a continuous migration between approximately 40,000 to 60,000 years ago. They were groups from the offspring of the first group that migrated out of Africa to the Arabian Peninsula. If we wanted to say that everyone on the earth today is physically from the offspring of the religious Adam pbuh-except for some African tribes-and that Adam is from the offspring of the first group to migrate out of Africa, then Adam pbuh must have been born into that group sometime after its migration to the Arabian Peninsula, and afterwards the small group became extinct except for Adam, and his offspring who survived, reproduced, and migrated throughout the rest of the earth.

We can imagine many scientific reasons for the extinction of these first groups in the Arabian Peninsula, especially since it was only inhabitable in its southern region that contained water springs. These springs were soon thereafter flooded by seawater. This means that when we combine religious scripture and scientific facts, there is no way that Adam existed 70,000 years ago. In fact, according to certain religious scriptures, he must have been a descendant of the group that migrated out of Africa to the Arabian Peninsula. The following religious scripture says that this African group of Homo sapiens made pilgrimage 2,000 years before the existence of Adam. This means that they were people who were instructed to worship God in accordance with their circumstances, capabilities, and comprehension.

Zurara said, “I said to Imam Abu Abdullah pbuh, ‘May God sacrifice me for you. I have been asking you about pilgrimage for forty years and you continue to answer.’ He said, ‘O Zurara, pilgrimage was made to this house 2,000 years before Adam existed, so why would you think that questions about pilgrimage would end within just forty years?’” (Al-Amili 1983, vol 11, 12. Arabic text, translated).

Therefore, factual scientific evidence combined with this text leads us to the conclusion that Adam was born into a family that belonged to the group that had migrated and was instructed to worship God, even though their souls were of a lower type than that of Adam and his children.

Furthermore, the Sumerian history, based on discovered texts, states that the origins of the Sumerians go back to the group that migrated out of Africa, in light of the fact that Sumerians call their ancestors “the blackheaded people”.

After Anu, Enlil, Enki, and Ninhursag Had fashioned the blackheaded people, Vegetation luxuriated from the earth (Kramer (1956) 1981, 149).

We can understand from this phrase that the color of their ancestors was black.

Therefore, Adam was the descendant of the ones who migrated, and he and his children settled in the Gulf valley. Afterwards, a conflict took place, described by the religions as the incident of the murder of Abel and the banishment of Cain to the mountains in the upper fertile valley (the present-day Gulf) or the southwestern part of present-day Iran. The banished group spread throughout Asia, Europe, and the rest of the world. Later on, some descendants who had stayed in the valley followed and lived alongside them. When the valley flooded, a small group of the righteous people who had stayed in the valley left, and began a new life in the central and southern part of present-day Iraq. Perhaps the reason for the Sumerian expression that they were the remaining descendants of humankind, as well as similar religious expressions understood to mean that they were the only ones who survived the flood, is that they were the only group remaining from the descendants of Abel, Seth, and the righteous children of Adam, and that they did not intermarry with the descendants of Cain, the wicked ones from the offspring of Adam.

Furthermore, as for the rest of the people who cannot be said to

be physical descendants of Adam, such as certain African tribes whose origins don’t trace back to the migrant group, they could have been from the children of Adam, in connection with the soul, later on, after Adam pbuh was born. This means that, at a certain time, individuals are born who, while in the womb, had souls transmitted into them from the souls taken out of Adam pbuh in the world of al-Tharr. They represent the offspring of his soul in terms of the creation that occurred in paradise, or the first heaven.

Figure 6: The increase in skull size over time among genus Homo members and its ancestors up to Homo sapiens (the modern human), showing that the general direction of evolution is toward larger brains.*

Figure 7: Map illustrating the exodus of Homo sapiens or the modern human out of Africa to the rest of the earth passing through the fertile valley.*

The Theory of Evolution and the Quran

Evolution is a scientific theory, so when we refer to religious scriptures that agree with it, this doesn’t mean that we intend to prove evolution with them. We only intend to prove that the religious scriptures are consistent with this scientific discovery, and perhaps also prove that religion preceded the theory by demonstrating the unseen knowledge within the religious scriptures. For example, it can be said that the Quran mentioned evolution, as the Almighty said, ﴾And God has caused you to grow from the earth as a plant﴿ Quran Chapter “Noah” 71:17, while humans have only recently discovered this scientific fact. This proves the prescience of the Quran and the messenger Muhammad pbuhap through his unseen knowledge concerning a scientific fact more than one thousand years before its discovery. The same can be said concerning the religious accounts from the progeny of Muhammad pbut, as they mentioned the existence of “Nisnas”, anthropoids that preceded humans, over a thousand years before the recent discovery of this scientific fact. The existence of the Neanderthal man, who is genetically distinct from modern humans, has been proven by genetic research, and the existence of Homo erectus and African Homo sapiens have been proven by discovered fossils.

The Almighty says: ﴾He has created you in stages • Do you not consider how God has created seven heavens in layers • And made the moon a light therein and made the sun a burning lamp? • And God has caused you to grow from the earth as a plant﴿ Quran Chapter “Noah” 71:14-17.

﴾He has created you in stages.﴿ The Arabic word for stage, Tawr, means a distinct, developing state. The Arabic word for mountain is Tawran, as it is distinguished by height and elevation above its surroundings. In addition, the Arabic word for bird, Tāir-and the plural Tayr-is derived from the same root, because birds have distinct tools- wings-that enable them to elevate and rise above their surroundings. Therefore, the Arabic word for stages, Atwār, means distinct, developing, elevated states. So the meaning of ﴾He has created you in stages﴿ is that God created you in the past: it has already been completed, and you went through several distinct, developing states, meaning that we progressively went through developing, physical stages until we reached a body that has a superior intelligence machine, thus the body became competent and Adam’s soul pbuh connected to it. There is no problem with the stages of development being accomplished over billions of years until a suitable body is reached for the soul of Adam pbuh to be lowered and be transmitted into an individual having this suitable body type while in the womb.*

The meaning of ﴾Do you not consider how God has created the seven heavens in layers﴿ is: do you not consider how God created you in stages, similar to how the heavens were created? Therefore, if the stages were not clear to us before, they are exactly like the case of the seven heavens, which are distinct in being one on top the next and more developed than one another in rank. Therefore, this verse leads us to the same conclusion as before, that the body of Adam went through stages of development, just as the heavens are gradually elevated and developed in stages.

I do not think the verse ﴾God has caused you to grow as a plant from the earth﴿ needs any further explanation, for it is extremely clear. The verse says that you are a seed that was planted in this earth, and it sprouted and produced.

God has caused you to grow just like plants, but plants aren’t produced directly, they go through stages and develop, beginning as a small seed planted in the earth that is watered. Then a small plant sprouts from the seed, earth, and water, and it grows and develops, one stage after another, until it becomes complete and starts to produce fruit. This is what has happened with you. The genetic plan of God was planted in this earth and it developed until it reached its conclusion and purpose. God willing, we will demonstrate how this plan provides clear evidence for the existence of God Almighty. Therefore, the theory of evolution proves rather than disproves the existence of God.

The Almighty said: ﴾Verily We created man from an extract of wet clay. • Then We made him a sperm-drop in a firm lodging. • Then We created clinging clot from a sperm drop, and We created a lump from the clot, and We created bones from the lump and We covered the bones with flesh; then We formed him into another creation. So blessed is God, the best of creators.﴿ Quran “The Believers” 23:12-14.

﴾Who perfected everything that He created and began the creation of man from wet clay. • Then He made his offspring out of the extract of a disdained fluid.﴿ Quran “The Prostration” 32:7-8.

The “extract” is the select group that was extracted from others due to its distinction and preference over the others. Therefore, the meaning of the Almighty’s saying ﴾Verily we created man from an extract of wet clay﴿ is that the first human on the earth was created from a distinct, preferred group (extract), and the chain of that extract starts with wet clay ﴾an extract from wet clay.﴿

The Almighty said: ﴾Indeed, God selected Adam, Noah, the family of Abraham, and the family of Imran over the people.﴿ Quran “Family of Imran” 3:33.

﴾God selected Adam﴿: Since Adam pbuh is the first human being in the first heaven, it cannot be said that his soul was selected, because selection must be from a group. Therefore, this selection can only apply to the earthly body to which Adam’s soul was connected. This means that other creatures existed on the earth, and God selected the body of Adam from those human-like beings, since selection can only be done from similar ones. The statement that Adam was selected from them relates to Adam being physically similar to those among whom he was born, and to the first Adamite soul being transmitted among them. It is incorrect to say that Adam was selected from the rest of creation. What reasonable meaning would there be to say that a human being was selected from a group of lions, cows, donkeys, and so on? Does this have any meaning? Would anyone wise say such a thing?!!

The Almighty said: ﴾Have those who disbelieved not considered that the heavens and the earth were a joined entity, and We separated them and made every living thing from water? So will they not believe?﴿ Quran “The Prophets” 21:30

With respect to existence as a whole, the word water in this verse doesn’t mean the water (H2O) that we know on the earth. I have clarified this previously. (Al-Hasan 2010 [The Book of Monotheism], 37-38 - Trans.) Nevertheless, with respect to just the physical, earthly life, the meaning of the verse would be that life on the earth began from earthly water ﴾and We made every living thing from water﴿. This clearly means that the beginning of life was from earthly water. This verse shows that the first seed of life was from the aquatic environment, and the soil or chemical components in the water, and this is completely consistent with the theory of evolution. However, life on the earth doesn’t continue from water, and what is contained within water. It can certainly be said that life continues in water, or by water, but not from water, as the life that was extracted from water, and the soil within it, is just the first life.

The Theory of Evolution, the Islamic Accounts, and the Vicegerency of Adam Over the Anthropoids in his Time

The details of evolution are certainly not mentioned in the religious accounts, but there are some religious accounts that point to evolution, and they clearly show that Adam pbuh was not the first creature who had the modern human body. Rather, there were creatures physically similar to the Adamite human, who weren’t children of Adam pbuh, and they existed before him. Religious accounts call them the “Nisnas”, a name close to the modern scientific names of the evolutionary stages, such as Homo erectus, Homo sapiens and Neanderthal man, while some biologists call them anthropoids.*

What matters to us is that there are many religious accounts of the progeny of Muhammad pbut that confirm this scientific fact that has only recently appeared as a result of fossils and genetic research. This is considered a sign and proof in favor of the progeny of Muhammad pbuh for whoever seeks the truth. How would the progeny of Muhammad pbut have known that there were human-like beings before we existed on the earth unless they pbut were connected to God Almighty? This proves the [divinely appointed] Proof of the progeny of Muhammad, for whoever sees the truth. It also proves the existence of God of whom they talked about, informed us of, and from whom they conveyed these facts. I will refer to only some of these accounts:

Muhammad Ibn Ali al-Baqir (may the prayers of God be upon him) said: “God Almighty created the earth and He created seven peoples therein. They aren’t descendants of Adam. He created them from the soil of the earth and He caused them to inhabit it one after the other, each with his own people, then God Almighty created the father of mankind, and created his offspring from him” (Al-Sadooq 1982, 359, Arabic source, translated).

This religious account shows that God created at least seven types of human-like beings on the earth before Adam pbuh. They aren’t descendants of Adam pbuh, since they preceded him on this earth.

The Prince of the Believers, Ali pbuh, said: “God Almighty wanted to create a creation with His own hands after 7,000 years of Jinn and Nisnas existing on the earth. He wanted to create Adam and remove him from the layers of heaven. He said to the angels, ‘Look at the Jinn and Nisnas inhabitants of the earth that I created.’ When they saw the sins, bloodshed, and immorality they were unjustly committing on the earth, it overwhelmed them. They became angry and deplored the inhabitants of the earth. They couldn’t contain their anger and said, ‘Our Lord, You are the Mighty, the All-Capable, the Omnipotent, the Subjugator, the Great. Your weak, humble creatures are wallowing in Your grip, living on the sustenance You give them, enjoying the health You give them, and they are disobeying You with these great sins, and You don’t deplore them, get angry, or avenge Yourself when You hear and see them. It overwhelmed us and we see it as a great misdeed toward You.’

When He heard what the angels said, He said: ‘﴾I am making a vicegerent on the earth﴿ who will be a Proof of Mine upon my creatures on the earth.’ [Quran Chapter “The Cow” 2:30]. The angels said, ‘Praise be to You. ﴾Will you make therein one who corrupts within it﴿ [2:30] as the Jinn have, and who will shed blood as the Jinn have, those who will envy and despise each other? Make that vicegerent one of us, as we don’t envy or despise each other, we don’t shed blood, and we glorify You with praises and sanctify You.’ The Almighty said: ‘﴾Indeed, I know that which you do not know.﴿ [2:30] I want to create a creature with My hands, and I want to make from his offspring prophets, messengers, righteous servants, and guided Imams, and make them vicegerents among My creation on My earth, who command them against disobeying Me, warn them of My torment, guide them to My obedience, and guide them on the path toward Me. I shall make them a Proof of Mine upon the others, and I will exterminate the Nisnas on My earth, and cleanse it of them’” (Al-Qumi 1983, 359, Arabic source, translated. Also Al-Sadooq 1966, vol 1, 104).

It is clear from this religious account that there were human-like beings that existed before Adam on this earth. Another important matter mentioned in this account is that that Adam pbuh will be lowered to the earth to be a Proof upon human-like beings before their existence on the earth ends. Or at the very least, let us at least say that this would take place before the later Adamite existence (the offspring of Adam pbuh) prevailed over them. As it says, “﴾I am making a vicegerent on the earth﴿ who will be My Proof on the earth upon my creatures and I will exterminate the Nisnas on My earth, and I will cleanse it of them”. When Adam pbuh was first lowered to this earth, there were certainly no conscious creatures on it in order for him to be a Proof upon them, and to instruct them to worship God, except the Nisnas (the human-like beings), and this means that Adam was lowered before the existence of the Nisnas (human-like beings) had ended, or before the later Adamite existence prevailed over them. Therefore, Adam was created as one of them, and he was born from them, and his soul, which was created from wet clay and the breathing, connected to that body. However, he wasn’t at the same existential level as they were since he represented a new step toward a rational, conscious existence on the earth that is instructed to worship God. As for him warning the human-like beings and informing them about God despite their existential level being lower than his, it is similar to when he told the angels about the names, while the existential and cognitive level of the angels was certainly lower than that of Adam pbuh.*

This matter is confirmed by some religious accounts that demonstrate the presence of a prophet alongside people who had a different level of religious knowledge. Rather, they didn’t even know the basics of religion. This prophet teaches them the basics of religion, and there is no problem with Adam pbuh being the subject of these accounts:

Abu al-Hasan pbuh said, “Dreams didn’t exist at the beginning of creation. Rather, they are new.” I asked, “What is the reason for that?” He replied, “God Almighty dispatched a messenger to the people of his time, and he called them to worship and obey God. So they said, ‘If we do that, what will we get? By God, you are not wealthier than we are, nor do you belong to a better tribe.’ He said, ‘If you obey me, God will let you enter paradise, and if you disobey, he will put you in hellfire.’ They said, ‘What are paradise and hellfire?’ So he described them. Then they said, ‘When will we reach that?’ He said, ‘When you die.’ They said, ‘We have seen our dead turn into bones and remnants.’ So they rebuffed and ridiculed him even more. Then God Almighty made them see dreams. They came to him and told him what they saw that they had previously denied. He said, ‘God Almighty wants this to be evidence against you so if you die, that is how your spirits will be. When your bodies decay, the spirits will be punished until the body is resurrected’” (Kulaini 1982, vol 8, 90. Arabic source, translated).

The beginning of creation mentioned in the religious account applies to the time of Adam pbuh. Therefore, the people mentioned in this account are some of the human-like beings that preceded Adam pbuh.

Furthermore, visions during sleep or while awake are ways in which God inspires the prophets. Therefore, visions must have begun with the first of the prophets, Adam pbuh.

Was the Human Being Originally An Ape?!

We are heavenly, our origin is heavenly, and we were created in the first heaven where we had our first test, the test of al-Tharr mentioned in the Quran. Therefore, we are souls, not just earthly bodies. Our father Adam pbuh was created from the wet clay that was raised to the first heaven and placed at the gate of paradise.

Abu Abdullah al-Sadiq pbuh said, “Angels used to pass by Adam pbuh, meaning to pass by his form, while he was wet clay lying in paradise, and they would say, ‘Why were you created?’ (Al-Rawandi 1989, 41. Arabic source, translated).

Then the spirit was breathed into this raised wet clay, and Adam was created. Eve was created from him. Adam and Eve lived in the temporal paradise, which is in the first heaven. ﴾And We said, “O Adam, dwell, you and your wife, in paradise and eat therefrom in abundance from wherever you will. But do not approach this tree, lest you be among the wrongdoers.”﴿ Quran Chapter “The Cow” 2:35. ﴾So We said, “O Adam, indeed this is an enemy to you and to your wife. Then let him not remove you from paradise so you would suffer.﴿ Quran Chapter “Taha” 20:117.

Furthermore, God created us, the children of Adam, in the first heaven in the world of al-Tharr, and he tested us with the first test: ﴾And when your Lord took from the children of Adam-from their back-their descendants and made them testify of their souls, [saying to them], “Am I not your Lord?” They said, “Yes, we have testified.” Lest you should say on the day of Resurrection, “Indeed, we were not aware of this”﴿ Quran Chapter “The Heights” 7:172. Our earthly existence is a foreign one, and it is temporary-not permanent or eternal. We will not even return to the same earth to live after death, as long as we are from those who choose their humanity, and discard the earthly animal state that we are connected to in order for God Almighty to test us. If this is the case, how can the divine human be ascribed to the earthly animal state-the earthly animal state to which his soul was connected to undergo the second test? Therefore, the issue of the origin of our bodies and their evolution from another being on the earth doesn’t change the fact that our origin is heavenly. In addition, attributing evolution of the human body to the modern ape is incorrect, and whoever says it is mistaken. If the human body evolved just like other organisms, its origin can only be attributed to the first seed, as the Almighty said: ﴾And God has caused you to grow from the earth as a plant.﴿ The human body evolved along with the other organisms, and it is incorrect to attribute its origin to any of its intermediate states on its evolutionary path.

Indeed, the human body can be attributed to the last state that preceded its transition to humanity. Physically, there is no difference between that state and us. It is a complete, human, physical state. Therefore, at the level of the Homo sapiens, they have complete bodies and a human form. In fact, the Homo erectus that appeared almost two million years ago looks very similar to us. Even the Ardipithecus (Ardi) that goes back more than 4.4 million years used to walk on two feet, and had small canine teeth, just like us. Scientifically speaking, the human evolved from Ardi, and since we, according to biologists, are the only mammals walking upright on two feet, then Ardi, in particular, is our ancestor. Therefore, as long as this is the case, it cannot be said that the human body evolved from an ape similar to the ones that surround us today. To say so is incorrect and it doesn’t agree with the theory of evolution. Why specifically an ape, for example? If the issue is referring to the intermediate states, why isn’t it said that the human evolved from a fish since it is an intermediate state on the path of evolution? Why isn’t it said that the human evolved from the Homo erectus, who is also an intermediate state on the human evolutionary path, and is much closer to the human state than the ape-like state? Why specifically the ape? Is the use of the ape only an attempt to repulse and aggravate?! Is it an attempt to distance people from science and knowledge and keep them in the depths of ignorance for as long as possible? Nonetheless, scientific research in evolution today refutes that the human being evolved from the chimpanzee. Rather, it states that humans and the rest of the great apes have common origins.

Man Was Created in the Best Form, and it’s Possible, According to the Religious Scripture, for Him to Return to the Lowest of the Low, A Despised Ape!!

Some who claim to have religious knowledge use the verse, ﴾We have certainly created man in the best form﴿ Quran Chapter “The Fig” 95:4 as evidence that the theory of evolution contradicts the religious scripture, since they understand the verse to mean that the human body was created in its current form from the very first moment. Had they read the verse that follows, they would not have entangled themselves in this foolish conclusion, as the Almighty said, ﴾We have certainly created man in the best form. Then We returned him to the lowest of the low.﴿ Quran Chapter “The Fig” 95:4-5 Have they asked themselves: if this verse is referring to the human body, how would it be returned to the lowest of the low, and where is that? Do they believe that the human body is now at the stage of the lowest of the low, after it was previously in the best form? Or do they believe, for instance, that the form of all the children of Adam will change in the future to the lowest of the low so that they will become apes or ape-like beings?!*†

The truth is, it would have been better for them if they didn’t involve themselves in this issue. If only they had learned from the mistakes of their predecessors.

﴾We have certainly created man in the best form﴿: “best form” doesn’t mean physical form and ability. Rather, it means that man was created in the image of God. This image of God is not a physical or ideal image, but is the manifestation of the names of God. As such, the meaning of man being created in the image of God is that he is created in such as way that he shows “the names of God in the creation”, and becomes “God in the creation”. Every human is capable of being like that through the Holy Spirit, which manifests in the human soul. However, there are people who allow the opportunity to pass by, and return to their origin by their own choice:

﴾Say, “Shall I inform you of a penalty from God that is worse than that? It is that of those whom God has cursed and with whom He became angry and made of them apes and pigs and slaves of tyranny. Those are worse in rank and further astray from the sound path.”﴿

Quran Chapter “The Table Spread” 5:60.

This is the truth: God gave the human being-every human being- the master key that opens all doors and proves their humanity. They can open the doors, one after the other, to move from a light to a greater light until they face the light within which there is no darkness. They can also quite simply toss the key on the floor and return to their animalistic, beastly state, thereby becoming the equivalent of an ape, as in the Quranic text: ﴾made of them apes﴿!

There is no injustice in the realm of God. Hellfire is the world for whoever has chosen it and requested immortality in it. The veil will be lifted for them and they will find it blazing with their deeds, injustice and corruption, and filled with the scorpions of their envy and the monsters of their thoughts, crimes, and beastly, animal realities that become clear to them, so they will torture each other with these malicious realities once the cover is exposed. There is no injustice in the realm of God. Whoever requests temporal immortality will be given his wish and will stay where he wants, it is just that the veil will be lifted for him in order to see how it really is. ﴾Do not flee, but return to where you were given luxury, and to your homes, perhaps you will be questioned.﴿ Quran Chapter “The Prophets” 21:13.

In every way, God is just. In fact, He is not only just, but He is charitable and generous to a degree that we cannot comprehend. That is why He doesn’t harm anyone. His most extreme form of punishment is to give man what he has chosen, which is where the cause of man’s eternal doom usually lies. God Almighty states: ﴾And you had already known about those who transgressed among you concerning the sabbath, and We said to them, “Be apes, despised.”﴿ Quran Chapter “The Cow” 2:65. He also states: ﴾Say, shall I inform you of a penalty from God that is worse than that? It is that of those whom God has cursed and with whom He became angry and made of them apes and pigs and slaves of tyranny. Those are worse in rank and further astray from the sound path.”﴿ Quran Chapter “The Table Spread” 5:60 as well as: ﴾So when they were insolent about that which they had been forbidden, We said to them, “Be despised apes.”﴿ Quran Chapter “The Heights” 7:166. The meaning of these passages is that they tossed the keys from their hands and lost the human spirit that God had transmitted into their father Adam pbuh and had encouraged them to obtain. All they have left is the animal spirit, so they returned to their origins: animals and beasts who barely understand a word.*†‡

Jabir said, “I asked Abu Jafar about the knowledge of the knowledgeable one, and he said to me, ‘O Jabir, there are five spirits in the prophets and successors: The Holy Spirit, the spirit of faith, the spirit of life, the spirit of power, and the spirit of lust. Through the Holy Spirit, O Jabir, they learned of what is beneath the Throne all the way down to what is beneath the earth. O Jabir, these four spirits can be affected by impurities, but not the Holy Spirit; it does not engage in distraction or play.’” (Kulaini 1982, vol 1, 272. Arabic source, translated).

Therefore, whoever doesn’t have the spirit of faith within them, or whoever is robbed of the spirit of faith, has three spirits left, or three sides of the spirit. These are the same as the sides of the animal spirit, so they have no distinction over apes and pigs. In fact, their transformation is basically their return to their origins and realities that they didn’t want to move away from. Indeed, they chose willingly to remain in those states. Therefore, God spoke to them in the Quran, telling them to remain as the apes that they are.

﴾We said to them, “Be apes, despised.”﴿

﴾and made of them apes and pigs.﴿

The Almighty said: ﴾Or do you think that most of them hear or reason? They are but like cattle. Rather, they are even more astray in their path.﴿ Quran Chapter “The Criterion” 25:44.

You can understand from these verses that some beings who have human bodies are said by God to be apes, pigs and cattle, or are even more astray in their path. If you want an interpretation of “more astray in their path” using animal examples, I can tell you that there are primitive worms, roaches, beetles, and scorpions. Thus, there is a spiritual or inner evolution, and a being that has the body of a human can spiritually evolve and progress until he becomes a human and has the spirit of faith and the Holy Spirit, or he can devolve until he has just an animal spirit like an ape or even those at the lowest level, such as a worm, whose comprehension doesn’t go beyond its bodily orifices: an orifice for food, an orifice for excrement, and an orifice for sex. Unfortunately, this is what the human can be at times.

There are three spirits: life, power, and lust. Whoever has these three spirits is an animal capable of handling its environment intelligently in accordance with his physical brain, meaning according to its size, composition, and ratio to the material body of the animal. All animals, including the human, are equal when it comes to this. For example, apes can choose appropriate tools for breaking hard fruit, beavers build dams, and the Kea parrot can behave with rather notable intelligence. Some animals also have a social life, so we find them treating each other with compassion. In some animal societies, there are very intricate systems, such as those among bees or ants.

As a result, I believe the question of whether or not the human body evolved from human-like beings, and whether or not this conflicts with the religious text, is complex and worthy of research and scrutiny by the human being himself in order to know the truth.

The Truth About the Creation of Adam

The Beginning of God’s Creation of the Human

God Almighty began the creation of Adam in the first heaven (the heaven of souls). But in order for Adam and his offspring to be fit to be “lowered” to the earth and connect with the bodies, the wet clay had to be “raised” to the first heaven, and the soul of Adam and everyone else had to be created from it. This was necessary since the spirit was transmitted into this raised wet clay, and this raised wet clay became the tool for connection of the spirit with the body. The spirit cannot touch the body because they are in-and from-two different worlds, and are worlds apart. Therefore, a tool had to exist in all of the levels of gradation and in all of the worlds between the physical and the first heaven. Furthermore, when the body is raised, it has these levels so it can move within their boundaries.

Therefore, the wet clay that was raised (that represents everything within the earth) has this range of movement between the bodily world and the spiritual world; or let us say from the bodily world at the beginning of the first heaven coming into contact with the second heaven; or let us say the spiritual world at the beginning of the second heaven (the heaven of the spirit and the kingdom of heaven).

Furthermore, Adam’s creation began from the clay and water of the earth in order for his soul, which was to be created in the first heaven, to carry what is on the earth from strength and lust that would enable him to reproduce and live on every spot of the earth, and to dominate the earth. As such, by the command of God Almighty, the angels took some dust and water of the earth and raised it to the first heaven, and the light (as in non-dense) body of Adam was molded from it therein and placed in the temporal paradise, meaning the end of the first heaven or, in other words, at the door of the kingdom of heaven (the second heaven). This is the first kingdom of heaven, which the angels traverse.

Abu Abdullah al-Sadiq pbuh said, “Angels used to pass by Adam pbuh, meaning to pass by his form, while he was wet clay lying in paradise, and they would say, ‘Why were you created? (Al-Rawandi 1989, 41. Arabic source, translated).

This means he was lying in the paradise that was in the first heaven. Al-Baqir pbuh said, “God created Adam, so he remained as a form that the cursed Iblis would pass by him and say, ‘Why were you created?’” (Al-Qumi 1983, vol 1, 41. Arabic source, translated).

﴾So We said, “O Adam, indeed this is an enemy to you and to your wife. Then let him not remove you from Paradise so you would suffer.﴿ Quran Chapter “Taha” 20:117.

When the earth was ready to receive Adam pbuh, the vicegerent of God, God breathed the spirit of faith into the ideal body of Adam that was in the first heaven. Thus, the first human soul was formed, as in the saying of the Almighty, “When I have proportioned him,” as well as His saying, “And We created you.” This is on the level of the world of souls, or the first heaven.

Afterwards, He breathed the Holy Spirit into Adam as in His saying, “… and I breathed some of My Spirit into him,” and His saying, “And giving you form,” meaning giving you form upon the image of God, as in the Old Testament:

26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness.” 27 So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:26-27)

In the accounts, Imam al-Baqir pbuh was asked about the meaning of God creating Adam in His image. He said:

It is a recently created image that God selected and chose over the different remaining images. He ascribed it to Himself, just as he ascribed the Kaaba and the Spirit to Himself. ﴾And I breathed some of My Spirit into him.﴿ (Kulaini 1982, vol 1, 134. Arabic source, translated. Also Al-Sadooq 1956, 103)

God commanded the angels to prostrate to Him, as when the Almighty said: ﴾Fall down to him in prostration”﴿, and His saying: ﴾Then We said to the angels, “Prostrate to Adam.”﴿ As such, some prostrated, and some were arrogant and were expelled.

﴾So when I have proportioned him and breathed some of My Spirit into him, then fall down to him in prostration."﴿ Quran Chapter “The Rocky Tract” 15:29.

﴾ And We created you, then We formed you, then We said to the angels, "Prostrate to Adam.” So they prostrated except for Iblis. He was not from the prostrating ones.﴿ Quran Chapter “The Heights” 7:11.

Afterwards, God Almighty created the soul of Eve pbuh from the soul of Adam pbuh. The Almighty said: ﴾O mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from one soul and created from it its mate and transmitted from both of them many men and women. And fear God, through whom you ask one another, and the kinship. Indeed, God is always an Observer over you.﴿ Quran Chapter “The Women” 4:1. Imam al-Sadiq pbuh said, “God Almighty created Adam from wet clay and created Eve from Adam.” (Al-Rawandi 1989, 42. Arabic source, translated). Then he brought forth their offspring and tested all of them with the first test in the world of al-Tharr (the world of souls). The test was with one question: ﴾And when your Lord took from the children of Adam-from their backs-their descendants and made them testify to Him of their souls, [saying to them], “Am I not your Lord?” They said, “Yes, we have testified.” Lest you should say on the day of Resurrection, “Indeed, we were of this unaware.”﴿ Quran Chapter “The Heights” 7:172. The verse is clear, ﴾made them testify of their souls﴿, meaning it was a world of souls.

So the one who comes first in the test-and who wins the race-is the first to see and hear, and the first to answer.*†

When this test ended, God wished for what He knew to be fulfilled: the lowering of Adam pbuh to the earth and his test therein. Therefore, Adam’s test pbuh was in the first heaven (the temporal paradise), and he failed it as was destined: ﴾And Adam and his wife ate of it, and their private parts became apparent to them, and they began to fasten over themselves from the leaves of Paradise. And Adam disobeyed his Lord and erred.﴿ Quran Chapter “Taha” 20:121. As a result, he was lowered to the earth, as well as our mother Eve-may the prayers of God be upon them-and may God bestow their intercession upon us in this world and in the hereafter.

The Quranic text is clear: Adam and Eve were created and initially lived in the paradise of the first heaven, which is a temporal paradise, but not on the earth. Rather, it is in the first heaven: the world of souls.

The Almighty said, ﴾We said, “O Adam, dwell, you and your wife, in paradise and eat therefrom in abundance from wherever you will. But do not approach this tree, lest you be among the wrongdoers.”﴿

Quran Chapter “The Cow” 2:35.

The Almighty said, ﴾And “O Adam, dwell, you and your wife, in paradise and eat from wherever you will but do not approach this tree, lest you be among the wrongdoers.”﴿ Quran Chapter “The Heights” 7:19.

The Almighty said, ﴾So We said, “O Adam, indeed this is an enemy to you and to your wife. Then let him not remove you from paradise so you would suffer. • Indeed, you will not be hungry therein or be unclothed. • And indeed, you will not be thirsty therein or be hot from the sun.” • Then Satan whispered to him; he said, “O Adam, shall I direct you to the tree of eternity and possession that will not deteriorate?” • And Adam and his wife ate of it, and their private parts became apparent to them, and they began to fasten over themselves from the leaves of paradise. And Adam disobeyed his Lord and erred.﴿ Quran Chapter “Taha” 20:117-121.

The verses are clear: Adam pbuh was not earthly. He was not created on the earth to begin with. Instead, he was created in paradise, in the first heaven, which is not the eternal paradise; ﴾Then let him not remove you from paradise so you would suffer.﴿. This paradise is not like the earth where the human being can become hungry, unclothed, thirsty, hot or harmed by the sun and the weather if he doesn’t work and collect fruit, or plant and hunt, or raise animals, and take precautions to push away harm. Therefore, it is something other than earthly.

Let us examine the distinct condition of Adam in these verses and whether or not it concurs with the condition of the earth and the bodies therein. The body of the earthly human, unless partially covered by clothes, is revealed, and it is certainly seen by him and others. If Adam was wearing earthly clothes, they wouldn’t vanish once he disobeyed God. If Adam and Eve were on the earth, and if they were unclothed from the beginning, they would have noticed their condition from the beginning, rather than after disobedience. If clothes were on them on the earth, they wouldn’t vanish from their bodies just due to disobedience.

Therefore, the issue isn’t earthly, and neither is the story. As told by God in the Quran, it doesn’t comply with the condition of the earth and the people in it. However, if Adam and Eve were in a temporal paradise in the first heaven for the disobedience, it is natural for the private parts to appear to them only when they disobey, and not before, because the clothing that conceals the private parts there is the clothing of piety that is worn by the soul as a natural result of obeying God and going against the desires and Satan. The clothing of piety is more important and better than the clothing of the body because God looks at the soul and spirit of the human being, and what it wears, rather than the body of the human and what is covering it.

﴾O Children of Adam! We have bestowed upon you clothing to conceal your private parts, and as an adornment. But the clothing of piety, that is the best. That is from the signs of God, perhaps they will remember.﴿ Quran Chapter “The Heights” 7:26.

During disobedience, this clothing is removed and the private parts of the human being are exposed before his Lord. This means that, from the outset, Adam and Eve (pbut) wore clothes in paradise. They wore the clothing of piety that was removed from them, so they weren’t naked in the beginning in order for their initial condition to be revealed to them. What was actually revealed to them was their condition after disobedience and after the clothing of piety was removed.*

﴾“O Children of Adam! Do not let Satan tempt you as he removed your parents from paradise, stripping them of their clothing to show them their private parts. Indeed, he and his tribe see you from where you do not see them. We have made the satans supporters of those who do not believe.”﴿†

The verse clearly states that the clothing of Adam was removed from him because of his disobedience. ﴾Do not let Satan tempt you as he removed your parents from paradise, stripping them of their clothing to show them their private parts﴿. The clothing was returned by seeking forgiveness: ﴾Their private parts became apparent to them, and they began to fasten over themselves from the leaves of paradise.﴿

The verses clearly show that the fall of Adam pbuh and Eve from the temporal paradise in the first heaven to the earth cannot be said to be a fall from a paradise on this earth to the earth. ﴾We said, “Go down from it, all of you; and when guidance comes to you from Me, whoever follows My guidance, there will be no fear concerning them, nor will they grieve.”﴿ Therefore, it is a fall from the first heaven to the physical heaven, and to the earth specifically. Imam al-Sadiq pbuh clarified that Adam requested to return to the paradise he was in, and God answered him. This clearly shows that it was the paradise he would enter after his soul was separated by death from this body one more time, and he would return to his previous state.

Imam al-Sadiq pbuh said, “When Adam pbuh circumambulated the House for one hundred years, he did not look at Eve. He cried about paradise until he had two great rivers of tears on his cheeks. Then Gabriel pbuh came to him and said, ‘May God prolong your life and may He bring you near to Him.’ So when he said, ‘May God prolong your life’, Adam’s face beamed with joy, and he knew that God was satisfied with him. And when he said, ‘May He bring you near to Him” Adam laughed, because ‘May he bring you near to Him’ means, ‘May He cause you to laugh.’ He stood by the door of the Kaaba clothed by the skins of camels and cows and said, ‘O God, undo my error, forgive my sin and return me to the home that you removed me from.’ ‘Thus, God Almighty said, ‘I have undone your error, pardoned your sin and I will return you to the home that I removed you from.’” (Al-Sadooq 1960, 269. Arabic source, translated).

This is the story of the creation of Adam pbuh from the wet clay that was raised to the first heaven and had the spirit breathed into it. Adam was created in the temporal paradise that is in the first heaven. We are heavenly and our souls were created from the spirit breathed into the raised wet clay in order for us to be tested on this earth, and in order for the souls to be able to connect with the earthly bodies that are the expanse of its test in this physical material world.*

The Meaning of Raising the Dust of the Earth to the First Heaven

Raising here means returning, by one or more steps, in the direction of the starting point or source. This means that, if we picture the human being-and the rest of creation as well-as a manifestation of the divinity in the nothingness that can exist, we will have a particular rank whenever we move away (in terms of knowledge) from the source of the manifestation, and it will have less light and more darkness (which is the nothingness that permeates it).

Let us assume that the world of matter, in which our bodies exist, is composed of 10% light and 90% darkness (nothingness), and that each step that light takes toward absolute darkness (absolute nothingness, absence of knowledge and awareness) represents a whole number. Therefore, to raise a material object (for example, the wet clay of Adam pbuh) by one step is to move it to the parallel world in which the percentage of light is 11% and the percentage of darkness (nothingness) is 89%, meaning to move it to the world that is ahead of the earth.

It must be the case that the worlds are divided in an ideal manner, because their creator is absolute, and as such they must be as close as possible to being absolute, because they represent the first thing to come from him (Muhammad = all of the worlds). To make this easier to understand mathematically, this means that the divisor is the smallest thing imaginable. Therefore, you can imagine that there is a number that is the closest number to zero, but you cannot realize this decimal number. For example, if you say it is 0.0001, then 0.00001 is smaller than it, and so on until you reach a number that you can affirm exists, and know some of its attributes, but never actually know it. If you put this number in the denominator of any fraction, the quotient is the closest thing possible to infinity because the denominator is the closest thing possible to zero. This means that if we were destined to see a person raised before our eyes, we could see him gradually disappear, meaning that we would see a body, then a ghost, before it disappears. However, it never actually disappeared; all that happened is that it moved to a parallel world that is one degree higher in rank than ours toward the light. Alternatively, we can say that it returned to the starting point or source by one or more steps, depending on the state of raising of that material body. In any case, the sum of light and darkness, or existence and nonexistence, outside of the source of light or existence, is zero, which means nothing really exists outside of the source.

For example, let us picture a source of light, with light coming from it in a particular direction. With each step that the light advances forward, some of it condenses to form a screen of matter that some of the light passes through. In this way, the light has formed a number of screens in front of the light source, and some of the light passes through them. The number of these screens is as close as possible to infinity. Between the screens is a vacuum filled with antiparticles (antimatter) equal to the sum of all the “screens of matter” and energy of the light, meaning the sum of matter and energy outside the light source is equal to zero. In other words, nothing really exists outside of the light source. There will be a more detailed discussion of this issue in due course.

The Lowering of Adam to Earth

It has been clarified for us from what came before, that from a religious perspective the human being can be an ape, or even a pig: ﴾Say, “Shall I inform you of what is worse than that as a recompense from God? Those whom Allah has cursed and with whom He became angry and made of them apes and pigs … ﴿ Quran Chapter “The Table Spread” 5:60

It is also clear, according to religious scripture, that the creation of Adam did not begin on this earth.

The meaning of “raising” and its agreement with science has been explained.

Now: we have reached a point in our discussion that will explore the relationship between Adam pbuh and the theory of evolution, so we will now discuss the bodies of Adam and Eve and how their souls connected to the bodies and were “lowered” to this earth for the test.

Let us hypothesize about this first Adamite material body: The first hypothesis is that the soul of Adam appeared in bodily form directly on this earth, especially since he was originally created from wet clay raised from the earth. Biology absolutely rejects this. Data from recent genetic analysis has proven the origin and lineage of the human body. In addition, evidence has accumulated from genetic analysis, fossils, and theoretical research to support the theory of evolution. The second hypothesis, prevalent among the majority of clerics, is that a body was created for Adam pbuh from clay and water on this earth. Afterwards, the spirit entered this body and transmitted human life into it. However, this hypothesis contradicts the Quranic text that clearly indicates that the creation of Adam and Eve began in the temporal paradise in the first heaven. Adam’s fall to the earth then occurred by the command of God, as I have previously explained in detail. Moreover, this hypothesis is completely rejected from a scientific standpoint, and it contradicts biology and genetic analysis for the same reason as the first hypothesis. Whoever adopts either of these hypotheses must remove science, scientific research and facts from their vocabulary. Their thesis is nothing but a delusion that they are pleased with in order to fool themselves. It is a hypothesis that contradicts science in both a general and detailed sense. The origin of our bodies has recently been determined by precise scientific methods. Our bodies didn’t just originate out of thin air for it to be hypothesized that the body of Adam appeared suddenly, only a few thousand years ago.

The third hypothesis is that in the beginning, there was a law that structured the emergence of life from the genetic plan, and that the first seed or genetic plan was purposeful. That purpose was to sculpt an animal body during the long journey of evolution until it became suitable for the soul of Adam to connect to and be transmitted into it while in the womb. The same is the case regarding Eve pbuh:

﴾While He has created you in stages • Do you not see how God has created the seven heavens in layers • And made the moon a light therein and made the sun a burning lamp? • And God has caused you to grow from the earth as a plant.﴿ Quran Chapter “Noah” 71:14-17. The verse clearly says that we went through stages and that these stages are similar to the layers of the heavens, meaning, one stage above the other, with some more developed than others, and some dominant over others. The verse then concludes by clarifying that our creation-us humans-is a process of being made to grow (planting). This word is unambiguous, so the matter at hand is growing or planting. We need only to look at the plants of the earth to see that they start with a dormant seed containing a genetic plan that the seed then begins to implement once suitable conditions are available. A small plant develops, and its very first two leaves might be different than the leaves of the tree that will develop from it.*

﴾God has caused you to grow from the earth as a plant.﴿ He caused us to grow from the earth, and all that our growing needed was a productive genetic plan to reach the destination that God Almighty wants.

This hypothesis is quite suitable for Adam and Eve pbut to enter the test on this earth, yet without having an advantage over others so as to exempt them from the earthly test.

﴾We said, “Go down from it, all of you. And when guidance comes to you from Me, whoever follows My guidance-there will be no fear concerning them, nor will they grieve.”﴿ Quran Chapter “The Cow” 2:38. This means that the soul created from the wet clay that had been raised to the first heaven fell in order to connect to a particular animal body that was ready to receive it. Its earthly test occurred in the way that God wanted. This doesn’t contradict the theory of evolution as proven by biologists, especially regarding the origin of the human species. Rather, it agrees with the theory of evolution and development.

There is no problem with the existence of an organism that developed from clay and water until it reached a physical animal composition having the first three spirits (the spirits of life, power and lust), and then transmitting the the soul of Adam pbuh into it to cause a complete shift from animalism and beastliness to prophetic, messagebearing humanity, culture, and elevated moral values. This also explains in a rational and scientifically acceptable manner the leap of civilization and culture that began in the land of Sumer thousands of years ago.

The matter continued after Adam pbuh, in his offspring, as the spirit of faith and holiness manifested in their souls. It is as if their souls were exactly like mirrors reflecting the spirit of faith and holiness, so their souls became a divine nature that calls them to rise. If humans use this key correctly, they pass the test and rise to the highest ranks and obtain the spirit of faith, and then the spirit of holiness, until they become a manifestation of God on the earth. This includes everyone, even Muhammad pbuhap, the finest of creation: ﴾And thus We have revealed to you an inspiration of Our command. You knew not what is the Book or [what is] faith, but We have made it a light by which We guide whom We will of Our servants. And indeed, you guide to a straight path.﴿ Quran Chapter “The Consultation” 42:52. However, if humans throw this key away and settle for the animal spirits, then they bring about their own destruction, lose their opportunity, and return to their origins of animalism and beastliness. ﴾We said to them, “Be apes, despised.”﴿

Therefore, this is a second stage that came after the stage of Adam’s pbuh creation in the first heaven, which represented the true creation of Adam. This stage is concerned with bringing the soul of Adam pbuh to the earth for the test, a stage of connecting the soul of Adam to a material body in this physical world in order for him and his offspring to be tested. This occurred after the soul of Adam pbuh was lowered to this earth and remained therein for as long as God Almighty wanted, and the souls of Adam and Eve pbut practiced some of the rituals of God on this earth.

Afterwards, God Almighty wanted to connect their souls to two earthly material bodies and make them forgetful of their previous state in order for the test to take place. Therefore, they were born from beings similar to Adam, after the bodies of these people became prepared to receive a soul like that of Adam pbuh. They also gained the ability to receive the divine message through Adam pbuh, who was born among them and dispatched to them.*

It is bizarre for some people to accept that the body of Adam pbuh began directly from clay or dust, yet reject that it began from a living being, even though the living being is much higher in existential rank than inanimate clay.

The Earthly Adam, the Covenant, the Test, and Faith:

The angels raised wet clay from the earth to the heavens as God had commanded them, and He used it to create the form of Adam pbuh in the first heaven, and then the spirit was breathed into it. Thus He created Adam pbuh, or the soul of Adam pbuh, in the first heaven (the paradise of Adam, pbuh). Subsequently, the will of God took place with Adam being lowered to the earth, so that he, or his soul, was lowered to the earth, as was Eve pbuh. His soul then continued to roam the earth and he completed actions he had to complete, such as encountering the covenant stone and carrying it, begging forgiveness, and circumambulating the house with Eve. He stayed this way, a soul roaming the earth, until God wanted the soul to be connected to a body. This body was born bearing the soul of the first human being on this earth, and the same happened with Eve pbuh.

This religious account shows that, in the beginning, Adam didn’t have a material body. Rather, he only had a light (as in non-dense) body, a soul, but after he was caused to lower to the earth, he connected to a body:

Abu Abdullah al-Sadiq pbuh said: “When Adam fell from paradise and ate food, he felt a heaviness in his stomach. So he complained to Gabriel pbuh. Gabriel said, ‘Then bear down,’ so he made him bear down and he excreted, and the heaviness left him.” (Al-Rawandi 1989, 50.

Arabic source, translated)

Then God wanted Adam and Eve to come together physically, and to form the first Adamite family, and to create the first agricultural village. God wanted Adam to plant, and domesticate and raise animals. So the journey of humanity, agriculture and the raising of animals began with Adam.

Abu Jafar pbuh said that the Messenger of God pbuhap said: “When God Almighty had Adam pbuh fall from paradise, He commanded him to eat from what his own hands had planted after having enjoyed the comfort of paradise, so he wailed and cried over paradise for 200 years, and prostrated to God for three days and nights without lifting his head.” (Al-Rawandi 1989, 50. Arabic source, translated)

His 200 years of crying was the time it took for his soul to lower to the earth by the command of God in order for him to live there. This was before his soul was connected to a material body and before he would actually have to plant, or to raise and domesticate animals.

Abu Abdullah pbuh was asked, “Why did God place the stone in the Corner in this position, and not elsewhere? Why is it kissed? Why was it taken out of heaven? And why was the covenant and pledge of the servants placed inside of it, and not elsewhere? For what reason? Please inform me, may God ransom me for you. I have thought deeply about this, and I am amazed.” He said, “You have asked, and thought deeply about this issue and investigated it. So understand the answer, empty your heart, listen closely and I will tell you, God willing. God Almighty placed the black stone, a jewel that was brought from paradise to Adam pbuh, in that corner for the covenant. This is because when God took the offspring from the backs of the children of Adam pbuh, He took the covenant from them in that place, and it was there that God manifested Himself to them. A bird will come down to the Riser in that very same place. The first one to pledge allegiance to him is that bird, and by God, it is Gabriel. The Riser will lean back on that station. This station is the Proof and evidence of the Riser. It will bear witness for whoever comes to him and fulfills their covenant and pledge by which God Almighty obligated His servants. The reason for kissing and touching [the cornerstone] is to renew the pledge and covenant, and to renew the allegiance in order for them to fulfill the pledge to which God bound them within the covenant. So they come to the cornerstone every year and they fulfill that pledge and trust by which they are bound. Have you not noticed that you say, ‘I have fulfilled my trust and pledged my covenant, so bear witness that I have.’ By God, no one fulfills that except our followers, and no one upholds that pledge and covenant except for them. For they come to it and it recognizes and believes them. Other people come to it, and it recognizes them as liars and denies them. This is because no one upholds the covenant other than you. By God it bears witness for you, and by God it bears witness against them regarding their shame, denial and disbelief. It is the overwhelming proof from God against them on the Day of Judgement, and it will come with a tongue that speaks and with two eyes in its first form, recognized by the creation and undenied. It testifies for whoever came to it and renewed the pledge and covenant with it, by upholding the pledge and covenant and fulfilling the trust. And it testifies against whoever denied, disbelieved and forgot the pledge with disbelief and denial.

With regard to God taking it out of paradise, do you know what the stone was?” I said, “No.” He said, “The stone was one of the greatest angels near to God. When God took the covenant from the angels, the first one to believe in it and accept it was this angel. Thus, God made him a trustee over all of His creation. He provided him with the covenant, entrusted him with it, and had the creation worship by renewing their acceptance of the covenant and their pledge to which they were bound by God Almighty. Then God put the angel with Adam in paradise, and every year he would remind Adam about the covenant and the renewal of acceptance with him. When Adam disobeyed and was taken out of paradise, God made him forget the pledge and covenant to Muhammad pbuhap, his successor, the covenant to which He bound Adam and his children, and he made him lost and perplexed. When he forgave Adam, He turned this angel into the form of a white pearl and cast it out of paradise to Adam while he was in the land of India. Upon seeing it, Adam felt he recognized it even though he did not know anything about it except that it was a pearl. God Almighty made it speak and it said, ‘O Adam, do you recognize me?’ He said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘Indeed, Satan has prevailed over you and made you forget the remembrance of your Lord.’ Then he turned back into the form he had when he accompanied Adam in paradise and said to Adam, ‘Where is the pledge and the covenant?’ Adam rushed to him and remembered the covenant and cried, and he submitted to him, kissed him and renewed the acceptance of the pledge and the covenant. Then God the Exalted and Almighty turned him into a stone jewel, a shining clear white pearl, so Adam pbuh carried it on his shoulder for the purpose of honoring and glorifying it. Whenever he became fatigued, Gabriel pbuh would carry it for him until he reached Mecca, and he kept the stone as a companion in Mecca and renewed his acceptance with it every day and night.

Then, when God the Exalted and Almighty built the Kaaba, He placed the stone in that place. This is because He, the Exalted and Almighty, took the covenant from the children of Adam, He took it in that same place. And in that place, He provided the angel with the covenant. That is why it was put in that corner.

God moved Adam away from the place of the house and toward Safa, and Eve toward Marwa, and then placed the stone in that corner. When Adam gazed from Safa as the stone was placed, he said, ‘God is great’, and he lauded and glorified God. This is how the tradition began, of saying, ‘God is great’ and facing the corner in which the stone was placed from Safa. God entrusted him above all other angels with the covenant and pledge, because when the Almighty took the covenant regarding His Lordship, the prophethood of Muhammad pbuhap and the successorship of Ali pbuh, the angels rushed, shoulder to shoulder, and this angel was the first to accept the covenant, and there was no one among them who loved Muhammad and the family of Muhammad pbut more than he did. That is why God selected him over the others and provided him with the covenant. He will arrive on the Day of Judgment with a tongue that speaks and eyes that see to testify for all of those who came to him at that place and upheld the covenant.” (Kulaini 1982, vol. 4, 184-186. Arabic source, translated.

Also Al-sadooq 1983, vol 2, 429-431)

The Established Religious Scripture Does Not Oppose the Theory of Evolution

The theory of evolution is a scientific theory supported by a wealth of scientific evidence, including genetic evidence that cannot be rejected by any reasonable person who understands this evidence. As a result, there is no room for argument about the validity of the theory. It is a fact only refuted by ignorant people who don’t comprehend what the theory says. Unfortunately, such people are numerous. I believe that Dawkins, as he has previously stated, and other atheist evolutionary biologists, are glad when men of religion insist that the theory of evolution is incompatible with religion. This is because as evolutionary biologists, they are actually capable of proving its validity beyond any doubt. Thus, when one says that religion and evolution incompatible with one another, this means that there is a major defect in religion, because the men of religion have admitted and insisted that religion conflicts with a theory proven with valid scientific evidence.*

In fact, there is no way that any person can come with an ambiguous or unestablished religious text, claim that it conflicts with the theory of evolution, and consider it evidence of its invalidity. This, in itself, is absolute foolishness. Whoever wants to scientifically disprove the theory should provide scientific evidence that refutes it, and they should refute the evidence that supports the theory. Moreover, if a person wants to prove that the theory of evolution conflicts with the religious text, they should provide established religious text not open to interpretation that conflicts with the theory. Furthermore, they should first prove that the theory is scientifically invalid, and then present an alternative scientific theory supported by evidence. In any case, this cannot be proven, because evolution is itself an established scientific fact and its deniers are simply stubborn and ignorant. The reason for their stubbornness, aside from their ignorance, may be the dual interjection of the ideologies of atheism and faith in this scientific issue. Thus, atheists imagine that proving evolution proves their ideology, whereas believers imagine that proving evolution invalidates their ideology.†

These fanciful ideas are absolutely incorrect. We have proven, and will further prove, that evolution is evidence for faith and for the existence of a god. The truth is, the idea that atheism and evolution are inseparable must be abandoned, because it is incorrect and delusional. Even if each and every aspect of the theory of evolution and abiogenesis is correct, it still doesn’t conflict with the religious text. If amino acids had formed through natural laws that were applicable in a certain time period of the life of the earth, and then gathered correctly to form replicators or a genetic plan, and then it took the correct steps to form the first self-replicating cell-and after that, genetic evolutionary processes, genetic mutations and selection took place over billions of years until the earth’s state came to the existence of an organism with a human body, this explanation for the existence of man still wouldn’t conflict with the religious text to the point that it couldn’t be reconciled with biology and what it presents regarding the emergence and evolution of life on the earth as previously discussed. What was created from the raised wet clay-in the religious text-is the soul of Adam pbuh in the first heaven. Thus, there is no problem with a particular body gradually evolving on this earth and the soul being connected to it afterwards.

Likewise, the cell emerging from nonliving material doesn’t conflict with the religious text. It isn’t a creation from nothing, but rather a process of synthesis from matter, forces, and energies created by a chain of causes that goes back to the original cause: God Almighty. This will be explained further when we discuss the big bang theory.

In addition, the genetic plan is law-abiding (organized). Therefore, it indicates a law-maker (structurer), so not only does it not conflict with the religious text, but it actually proves the existence of God. I will explain this in further detail, God willing.

Therefore, the result is that the religious text by itself doesn’t conflict with the theories of abiogenesis and evolution. So religion cannot be refuted under the pretense that God and religion explain the existence of man on the earth in a way that conflicts with biology, the fossil record, genetic analysis and fossil analysis. It has been made clear that this conflict doesn’t exist at all. Certainly, it can be said that science conflicts with the understanding of the religious text by some people who took it upon themselves to be clerics, including Sunni and Shia Muslims, Christians and Jews. This argument is to be directed at them, and not at divine religion in general, or divine, established religious text. They bear the consequences of their own opinions. Skeptics or atheists cannot hold the opinions of those clerics against the divine religion or the religious text. This is a great lie and a deception that atheists, or those who are skeptical of God’s existence, deceive themselves with, namely that the divine religion and religious text are the same as the opinions of those clerics. If atheists wish to live this lie and deceive themselves with a delusional victory of atheism over religion, that is their business. However, I believe that, in this way they would be no better than the deceptive men of religion that they criticize.

The religious texts not only agree with biology and modern science, but they have also mentioned conscious life forms, some of which of are known today through fossils, meaning the human-like beings like some types of Homo erectus, Homo sapiens and the Neanderthal. These texts have stated that human-like beings existed before humans, and some of them were rational, conscious beings, but less so than humans.

Muhammad Ibn Ali Al-Baqir pbuh said: “Since the creation of the earth, God Almighty has created seven peoples who are not descendants of Adam. He created them from the soil of the earth and caused them to inhabit it, one after the other, each with his own people. Then, God Almighty created the father of this mankind, and He created his offspring from him.” (Al-Sadooq 1982, 359. Arabic source, translated. Also Al-Ayashi 1991, vol. 2, 238).

This religious account and others indicate that conscious, intelligent life forms have evolved on this earth. In this account, there are seven generations that are conscious and intelligent, whose souls are different than Adam, who are not from his children, and who preceded him pbuh on this earth.*

The Prince of the Believers, Ali pbuh, said: “God Almighty wanted to create a creation with His own hands after 7,000 years of Jinn and Nisnas existing on earth. He wanted to create Adam … I want to create a creature with My hands, and I want to make from his offspring prophets, messengers, righteous servants, and guided Imams, and make them vicegerents among My creation on My earth, who command them against disobeying Me, warn them of My torment, guide them to My obedience, and guide them on the path toward Me. I shall make them Proofs of Mine upon the others, and I will exterminate the Nisnas on My earth and cleanse it of them.” (Al-Qumi 1983, vol. 1, 36. Arabic source, translated).

This religious account clearly says that before Adam pbuh there were human-like beings on the earth. It is clear that the seven thousand years are not the units of measurement familiar to us today. We can imagine different time units of measurement that are not familiar to us, because they are in different dimensions outside of the universe in which we live.

Religious Texts That Cause Some to Imagine That They Conflict With Evolution

The Example of Jesus

﴾Indeed, the example of Jesus to God is like that of Adam. He created him from dust, then He said to him, “Be,” and he was.﴿ Quran

Chapter “Family of Imran” 3:59.

Some imagine this text to be sufficient to refute evolution because it conflicts with it. This is how they understand it:

“This verse is responding to whoever said that Jesus was created without a father, so he is a god. So the verse means that Adam was also created without a father, meaning from dust. God said to him, ‘Be,’ and he was, so he was created directly from dust. This meaning of the verse conflicts with the theory of evolution, because the theory of evolution would indicate that Adam was created from a mother and a father, whereas the verse means that Adam was created without a father.”

What is intended from the analogy certainly isn’t congruity. The case of Adam is different than the case of Jesus; Adam wasn’t created from just a mother, as Jesus pbuh was. The similarity is a general one, meaning that what is intended from the verse is that the creation of Jesus involved divine intervention, just like the creation of Adam did. In this case, even if we forgo any other understanding of the verse and say it intends to negate the divinity of Jesus, because he was born from only a mother, by using the creation of Adam from dust without a mother and a father as an example, then it is enough for the meaning of the verse to be the creation of Adam from dust in the first heaven, which is the original true creation of Adam pbuh, and the one preceding his being lowered to the earth. Abu Abdullah Al-Sadiq pbuh said, “The angels used to pass by Adam pbuh, meaning pass by the clay form while he was lying in paradise, and they would say, ‘Why were you created?’” (Al-Rawandi 1989, 41. Arabic source, translated). God didn’t call the incident of Adam’s being lowered to the earth a creation. Rather, he called it a fall to the earth, and it occurred after the creation of Adam from the wet clay that was raised to the first heaven and after the spirit was breathed into it: ﴾We said, “Go down from it, all of you; and when guidance comes to you from Me, whoever follows My guidance, there will be no fear concerning them, nor will they grieve.”﴿ According to this understanding, there is no contradiction between the above Quranic text and the theory of evolution. As such, the body to which the soul of Adam pbuh was connected, after his fall to the earth, came from biological parents. This is sufficient to refute the inference that the Quranic text conflicts with theory of evolution. It can at the very least be said that it is an ambiguous text in this regard. Therefore, how can it be used to prove the existence of a conflict between a religious text and a scientific matter backed by a wealth of accumulated evidence, and taught in universities throughout the world as the only explanation for the existence and evolution of material life on the earth?*

In fact, even if we say that what is intended by the verse is the creation of Adam’s body from dust on this earth, the text still doesn’t conflict with Darwin’s theory because the first cell that evolved was created from water and other elements available in dust (the earth). As a result, the body of Adam pbuh was originally created from dust. This means that a cell was created from water and elements on the earth and it evolved until it formed the material body of Adam. Consequently, it is true that Adam was the first human being created from dust, and not from an Adamite mother and father, because his parents weren’t from his human type, nor did they have the same type of soul or spirit. Therefore, it is true that the birth of Jesus pbuh from only a mother is similar to the creation of Adam-the first human on the earth-from dust without a mother and a father, and this doesn’t conflict with evolution.

To clarify further, we say that the religious text encompasses both statements: that Adam was created from a mother and father, and that Adam was created without a mother and father. This takes into consideration that he was first created from dust in the first heaven and he wasn’t born to a mother and a father. In addition, it can even be said that his earthly body wasn’t born to a mother and father because he was born to parents who weren’t from his type (soul-wise). It can also be said that he was born to a male and female, or a mother and father, considering that his biological body came this way.

Furthermore, it can even be said that the analogy between Adam and Jesus is that they were both born to a mother just as were other humans, and in the same manner. However, they are different than the rest of humans in another way. Jesus was born to only a mother and without a father, and Adam was born to a mother and he had a father, but they didn’t have the same type of soul and human spirit as Adam.

The Society of Adam

According to the religious scripture, Adam is a prophet. Therefore, if the soul of Adam pbuh connected to a biological body that was among a group lower than it in spiritual advancement, how did he live with them? How did he behave with them? Where did this group go?

The Answer: It must be known that in order for the soul of Adam to connect to a body, the body must be prepared to receive it. Consequently, the brain must be suitable in size and quality. The size of the brain must be appropriately sufficient for thinking, consciousness and reasoning. This means that the brain would have an average size of about 1400 ml, similar to our brains. The is also the case with respect to quality. Thus, the composition, cells and cortex of a brain this size must have also evolved appropriately. If this was the case for the group to which Adam pbuh was born, then it is certainly an intellectual group capable of consciousness and even mutual understanding. Therefore, as a prophet, Adam pbuh could have been dispatched to a people of God’s creation after they came to have the capacity to know God at the level of the message with which Adam was dispatched. Thus, the soul of Adam pbuh was lowered and connected to a body, and he called them to the worship of God Almighty. Afterwards, Adam, his wife, and those who believed and supported them, isolated themselves from the rest of the people, just as Abraham pbuh did when he and his wife isolated themselves and emigrated away from their people, after he had called them to God and was rejected by them. However, God wished for Adam pbuh, his progeny, and his supporters to overcome that group, and for that group to become extinct, even if the extinction happened after a period of time.

For example, at the time of Noah pbuh, after this group had attained a certain level of protection specific for Adam pbuh and his progeny for a period of time, the Quran says that God selected Adam pbuh, meaning He selected him from a group: ﴾Indeed, God selected Adam, Noah, the family of Abraham, and the family of Imran over the people.﴿ Quran Chapter “Family of Imran” 3:33. The religious accounts indicate that there had been a prophet dispatched to people who had not known certain spiritual matters before him. They had also not known the manner in which God testifies for his vicegerent on the earth, which is through visions, as mentioned in the Quran. The truth is that this applies to a people who preceded the dispatch of prophets from the children of Adam. These people must have been none other than the ones to whom the first prophet of our humankind-Adam pbuh-was dispatched.

Abu al-Hasan pbuh said: “Dreams did not exist at the beginning of creation. Rather, they were created later.” He was asked, “For what reason?” and he replied, “The reason is that God Almighty dispatched a messenger to the people of his time, and he called them to worship and obey God. So they said, ‘If we do that, what will we get? By God, you are not wealthier than we are, nor do you belong to a better tribe.’ He said, ‘If you obey me, God will let you enter paradise, and if you disobey, he will put you in hellfire.’ They said, ‘What are paradise and hellfire?’ So he described them. Then they said, ‘When will we reach that?’ He said, ‘Once you die.’ They said, ‘We have seen our dead turn into bones and remains.’ So they denied and ridiculed him even more, so God Almighty made them see dreams. They came to him and told him what they saw and of what they pretended not to know. He said, ‘God Almighty wants this to be evidence against you so that if you die, that is how your spirits will be. When your bodies wear out, the spirits will be punished until the body is resurrected.’” (Kulainī 1982, vol. 8, 90. Arabic source, translated).

It is clear from the above religious account that the people mentioned in it didn’t know anything about a spiritual connection with the heavens. If they had had a religion and had practiced worship, it would have been at a level lower than the Adamite level that we are familiar with, whereas Adam was a prophet and his progeny had knowledge of these issues and passed them down to one another. Therefore, it is impossible for a people from the children of Adam not to know about visions, or heaven and hell, even if it was just in a general sense. The same is the case with regard to the calls of Adam and the successors. This means that the issue is exclusive to Adam, and that the people whom he called were people being called to the worship of God Almighty based on the religious Adamite method for the very first time.

Imam Ali pbuh said: “God Almighty said, ﴾I will make a vicegerent on the earth﴿ who will be My Proof upon my creatures on the earth … and I will exterminate the Nisnas on My earth and cleanse it of them.” (Al-Qumi 1983, vol 1, 36. Arabic source, translated).

How Were the Livestock Lowered?!

﴾… And He lowered for you eight mates of livestock …﴿ Quran Chapter “The Troops” 39:6.

This verse means that God brought their ideal form down to this physical world. Religiously speaking, this text means that the process of evolution was initially governed by the law of the genetic plan, and at times by its law-abiding mutations. According to the above text, evolution is governed in its path, progress and purposes by laws producing the forms that God Almighty-the Creator of these laws-wants.

Some accounts mentioned that the dog was created from the saliva of Iblis and clay. This is the same as the previous issue [with Adam]. It doesn’t conflict with the theory of evolution, because what is meant isn’t the creation of the material body of the dog, but rather, according to the religious text, the soul of the dog, meaning its ideal form. As I have explained in The Allegories, the clay was taken from the navel of Adam’s body, created from the raised clay, before the spirit was transmitted into it and before the soul was created from it. I have clarified the reason for that, and also that it caused the dog, a predator, to be an animal that is tame toward humans after Adam pbuh was lowered to the earth.*

In general, this is an issue of the unseen, which cannot be proven using the material world. Believing it requires faith to begin with, so whoever requests evidence is actually requesting evidence for the truth of faith. Nevertheless, there is a scientific issue that points to what I have clarified, and it serves as an indicator that is perhaps more beneficial to believers than to others. The issue that concurs with what I have presented is that, scientifically speaking, the dog is almost the oldest animal to become habituated to life with humans, and humans didn’t domesticate the dog, as they did with other animals. In fact, the dog is self-domesticated, meaning it had a tendency to incline toward humans. One generation after another, it evolved to become a friendly animal that is completely obedient to the human. The summary of the theory of dog domestication is that it started with a group of wolves separating from the others and lingering near the discarded leftovers around primitive human residential communities thousands of years ago, since the leftovers contained material that could be used as food for those wolves. Naturally, a wolf with the tameness trait gets closer to the human and gets more food than the frightened wolf. More food means a better chance of surviving and passing genes to the next generation. In this way, natural selection established the traits of friendliness and closeness to humans in these animals across generations until they became domesticated, and today we refer to them as dogs. This indicates the truth that is unseen.

Behavioral biologist Raymond Coppinger and Lorna Coppinger (2001) have taken Morey’s model of the dog’s self-domestication a step further. They envision the following scenario for dog domestication. First, agriculture created human settlements, a way of living that contrasted with nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle. In every human village, there will be discarded products such as bones, carcasses, grains, fruits, as well as human waste. The Coppingers argue that this human dump site became the first niche for some wolves. These wolves would frequent the garbage dump to gain access to the new food source. Those wolves that were less frightened by humans tended to be more successful in making a living this way because they would waste less energy evading humans when they saw them approach. Such wolves by definition were more tame, thereby leading to the early association of wolves and humans, which ultimately led to the domestication of dogs. (Wang 2010, 164-65).*

God Almighty says: ﴾O children of Adam, We have lowered clothing to conceal your private parts and as adornment …﴿ Quran Chapter “The

Heights” 7:26.

To lower clothing means to bring down its material, which is plants, animals or chemical substances. These would not have existed on the earth or in this physical world if their ideal form had not been brought down, so they were formed in this world in that form. It also means to lower the ability and knowledge that enabled humans to manufacture and develop clothing until reaching the stage of manufacturing special fabrics using nanotechnology.*

Note: The Bible, Old and New Testaments, and the Torah stories in particular, contradict the theory of evolution. The creation of Eve from the rib of Adam is one example of this contradiction that will be discussed later.

21 So the lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. (Genesis 2:21-22)

However, we believe that the Old Testament has been subjected to distortion. For this reason, conflict between the Old Testament text with the theory of evolution doesn’t mean that the divine religion is invalid.

Research on the Relationship Between Incest and Evolution

Those who claim to represent religion have floundered when trying to identify the spouses of the sons of Adam pbuh. Most of them not only say that brothers married sisters, but also that Eve was created from the rib of Adam. This is present in Judaism and Christianity and it has been passed on to the Sunni school of thought. Therefore, what they have done in the first instance is to make humanity a product of the marriage of Adam to a part of his own body, and then they made it a product of incest between brothers and sisters. This issue is used by the atheist proponents of evolution to argue against the claimants of faith who support the idea of direct creation. Scientifically, it is known that higher apes avoid incest, so how would God create a human being who would, at the beginning of creation, practice incest?!

This argument cannot be directed against the Imams of Ahl al-Bayt pbut since they have rejected this slander of Adam and his children. However, some Shiites who have interpreted the Quran have unfortunately adopted this slander under the pretext of it agreeing with what they imagine the the literal of the Quran to be, and that is mentioned in some of the religious accounts, even though the Imams pbut clarified how a contradiction should be resolved. So, how did these Shia overlook the matter of taqiyya and the rule that guidance lies in opposing them, which the Imams pbut confirmed, when it comes to these contradictions? We will respond to this issue by examining opinions and clarifying the truth.*

The Jews and Christians

The Jews and the Christians believe that the progeny of Adam pbuh are a product of incest and of the marriage of brothers to sisters, and that Eve was created from the rib of Adam’s body. This perverted belief originated from them and then passed on to the Sunnis and some of the Shia.

The Old Testament (the Torah) states the following concerning the creation of Eve:

21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. (Genesis 2:21-22).

Antonios Fekry states the following in his interpretation of this Old Testament verse:

God made Eve from the rib of Adam. The rib is adjacent to the heart and underneath the arm so that he can surround her with his love and protect her with his arm. She is not made from his head so that she will not act conceitedly toward him. She is also not made from his foot so that he will not step on her. Notice the way of God: God took a rib from Adam, that is to say, God deprived him of something, namely one of his ribs. Yet, what did He give him afterwards? An equivalent support. As such, for everything God deprives us of, He compensates us with multiple blessings. (Fekry 2012, 152-161. Arabic source, translated).

Priest Tadros Yaqoub states:

He told us about His creation of Eve as a sole wife of Adam. He brought her for him from his side, after he made him fall asleep … So Adam saw that she was a bone from his bones, and flesh from his flesh. And he called her woman because she was taken from man. (Yaqoub 2012. Arabic source, translated).

It is mentioned in the Old Testament (the Torah), concerning the offspring of Adam:

17 Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch. (Genesis 4:17).

Explaining this Old Testament verse, Antonios Fekry says:

Cain’s wife was his sister. God allowed this in the beginning in order to establish offspring. Enoch was the third-generation descendant of Adam from Cain’s side. He had almost the same name as Enosh, the seventh-generation descendant of Adam from Sheth’s side. (Fekry 2012, 152-161. Arabic source, translated).

It will be explained how these corrupt ideologies contradict established biological facts, as well as how they place the human at a level beneath chimpanzees, gorillas, and other animals that avoid incest.

Claims made by Sunni Clerics

Many Sunni clerics and commentators agree with the Christian and Jewish belief concerning the creation of Eve and the lineage of Adam. In their view, Eve, the wife of Adam pbuh, was created from his rib, and the sons of Adam married his daughters. In other words, they believe Adam mated with himself, and that the prophets, the successors, and the lineage of Adam are a result of incest. This is an example of their pronouncements and statements on the subject:

The woman was created from a crooked rib: Question: The Prophet pbuh said, “Treat women kindly, for the

woman was created from a rib.” Sheikh Shaib al-Arnaut, in his research and commentary on the

book Riadh Al-saliheen [The Gardens of the Righteous] by Imam Al-Nawawi, says the following about this hadith: “This statement is an analogy, as it was stated in the second religious account, ‘the woman is like the rib’. It does not mean the woman was created from the rib of Adam, as some have imagined. In the authentic Sunna, there is nothing of the sort.’”

Honorable Sheikh, this is exactly what Sheikh al-Arnaut said, although the prophet pbuh literally and explicitly says the woman was created from a rib. I think evidence of that is in God Almighty’s saying: ﴾O mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from one soul and created from it its mate﴿ Quran Chapter “The Women” 4:1, and His saying: ﴾It is He who created you from one soul and created from it its mate﴿ Quran Chapter “The Heights” 7:189 and: ﴾And of His signs is that He created for you from your souls mates﴿ Quran Chapter “The Romans” 30:21, and: ﴾And God has made for you from your souls mates﴿ Quran Chapter “The Bee” 16:72. The commentators have said that this is referring to women. Thus, Eve was created from the rib of Adam pbuh.

Honorable Sheikh, is what Sheikh al-Arnaut said true or false? What are your instructions concerning the hadith he used as an argument: the woman is like a rib? If you straighten her, you break her. If you enjoy her, you do so, although there is crookedness in her?

Answer 1: It appears from the hadith that the woman, Eve pbuh, was created from the rib of Adam. This does not contradict the other hadith in which the woman is likened to a rib. The point to be derived from this is that it is ‘likening’, and that she is bent like a rib, because the rib is her origin. This means that the woman was created from a bent rib, so it cannot be denied that she is bent. Moreover, if the husband wanted to straighten her, that would lead to discord and separation, which would break her. If he were patient with her poor state, weakness of mind, and other aspects of her ‘crookedness’, the relationship would last and the companionship would continue. This is explained in hadith commentaries, including those by Al-Hafith Ibn Hajar, may God have mercy on all of them. This shows that denying the creation of Eve from the rib of Adam is incorrect. God supports, and may the prayers and blessings of God be upon our Prophet Muhammad, his progeny and his companions. The permanent committee for scientific research and issuing fat- was: President: Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah bin Baz Vice-president: Abdul Aziz Aal Al-Sheikh Member: Abdullah bin Ghadyan Member: Saleh Al-Fawzan Member: Bakr Abu Zaid (Alifta.net 2016)

Concerning the marriage of brothers and sisters (incest), Ibn Kathir said:

It has been said that God Almighty allowed Adam pbuh to wed his daughters to his sons because it was necessary. However, it was said that within each womb, there was a male and a female, so he would wed the female of one womb to the male of the other. The sister of Abel was praiseworthy, and the sister of Cain was lowly. Therefore, he wanted to keep her for himself, and not for his brother. Adam refused unless they offered a sacrifice. The one whose sacrifice was accepted could have her, so they both offered a sacrifice and Abel’s was accepted, while Cain’s was not. Their issue was as God Almighty said in His book.

Commentators have interpreted this as follows: The companions of the Prophet said: “Every child Adam sired had a maiden born with him. He would wed the son of that womb to the maiden of the other, and would wed the maiden of that womb to the son of the other. He had two sons named Cain and Abel. Cain was an owner of plants, and Abel was an owner of cattle. Cain was the older of the two brothers and had a sister who was better than Abel’s sister. Abel asked to marry Cain’s sister, but Cain refused, saying, ‘She is my sister, she was born with me, and she is better than your sister.’ Thus, his father commanded him to wed her to Abel, yet he refused. They made a sacrifice to God Almighty to determine which one was more worthy of the maiden. Adam pbuh was absent from among them. He had gone to Mecca in order to see that place. God Almighty said, ‘Do you know that I have a house on earth?’ He said, ‘O God, no.’ God said, ‘I have a house in Mecca, so go to it.’ So Adam said to the heavens, ‘Protect my children faithfully,’ but they refused. He asked the earth, and it refused. He asked the mountains, and they refused. So he asked Cain, and Cain said, ‘Yes. You will go, return, and find your family in a condition that will please you.’ So when he set off, they offered the sacrifice. Cain was proud of his sacrifice, and he said, ‘I am more worthy of her than you. She is my sister, and I am older than you, and I am my father’s successor.’ When they offered the sacrifice, Abel offered a fattened animal, and Cain offered a bundle of grain. He found fine grain inside it, so he ate it. Fire then came down and consumed the sacrifice of Abel, while it left the sacrifice of Cain. Cain became angry and said, ‘I will kill you so that you will not marry my sister.’ Abel said, ‘God accepts from the pious ones.’

Ibn Abbas said, “It was commanded that a woman be prohibited from marrying her twin brother, while it was also commanded that he wed her to another brother. In each womb, he had a man and a woman. He had a praiseworthy woman and another who was ugly and lowly. Thus, the brother said of the lowly one, ‘Let me marry your sister, and I will let you marry my sister.’ He said, ‘No. I am more worthy of my sister.’ So they offered a sacrifice, and the lamb was accepted, and the grains were not, so the owner of the grains killed the owner of the lamb.” (Ibn Kathir 1999, Interpretation of Quran Chapter “The Table Spread”, Verses 27-31, 112, Arabic source, translated).

It will be explained that these ideologies are corrupt and go against science, and that those who believe in them have deviated from the truth. It will also be demonstrated how they placed the human at a level beneath other animals.

Statements of Some Shia Clerics

Some of the Shia clerics have followed in the footsteps of Sunni scholars. They have no problem saying that mankind is a product of sibling marriage (incest). I will relay some of their statements:

In Tafsir Al-Mizan [Interpretation of the Scales], Muhammad Husayn Al-Tabatabai said:

Concerning the procreation of the second generation of humans: The first generation of mankind–Adam and his wife–procreated

by mating. Eve gave birth to sons and daughters (brothers and sisters). Is it the case that their lineage is through mating with each other incestuously, or is it by a different path? This is the literal saying of the Almighty: “dispersed from both of them many men and women”, based on the approximation above, that the existent lineage of humans indeed goes back to Adam and his wife, without any other male or female sharing that with them. The Quran only mentioned both of them dispersing. If others did likewise, He would have said ‘dispersed from them and from others’, or have mentioned it with alternative wording. It is known that the restriction of the concept of lineage with Adam and his wife necessitates their sons mating with their daughters.

The Islamic verdict is that incest is forbidden, as it is stated in the texts. However, this is a verdict for human benefit and avoidance of harm. It is not a formative one that cannot change. It is in the hands of God Almighty, He does whatever He wishes, and He rules however He wishes. Therefore, it is acceptable that He allows it for a day due to a necessity, and then forbids it subsequently, when it is no longer necessary, in order to avoid spreading obscenity in society. (Al-Tabatabai 1997, vol 4, 144-145. Arabic source, translated).

Al-Tabatabai inferred that people are a product of incest between the sons and daughters of Adam pbuh, by using an apparent meaning of God Almighty’s saying, ﴾dispersed from both of them, many men and women﴿, because the verse didn’t mention any origin for the lineage other than them!

In truth, this verse is speaking literally about the souls in the first heaven, or the paradise where Adam pbuh was created. Therefore, even if we were to say that the verse indicates restricting the lineage to Adam and Eve, it would still be referring to souls. It clearly shows that the soul of Eve was created from the soul of Adam pbuh. This creation means that her soul was split from the soul of Adam pbuh, rather than Eve’s body being created from a part of Adam’s pbuh, as stated in the Old Testament and as certain Sunni clerics believe.

The creation of the earthly Adam pbuh, or his being lowered to earth, came after the creation of his soul.

As such, the soul of Adam pbuh was created in the heavens from raised wet clay, and the spirit was breathed into it.

Then Eve’s soul pbuh was created from Adam’s pbuh. Afterwards, the rest of the souls of Adam’s children pbuh were created from both of them, including the souls of the wives of the two sons of Adam, as the verse clearly shows. The Almighty said:

﴾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 God, through whom you ask one another, and the kinship. Indeed God is ever over you an Observer.﴿ Quran Chapter

“The Women” 4:1.

Generally, the literal meaning of the verse cannot be used as evidence that mankind is a product of marriage between brothers and sisters (incest), as claimed. Even those who don’t accept what I have just presented-despite the fact that it is very clear-concerning the meaning of the verse, and that it is speaking literally about the souls, ﴾created you from one soul and created from it its mate﴿, must admit that what we have presented is a another way to understand it. As such, the literal meaning has now become ambiguous for them, and they cannot use it as a source for their belief, since ideology cannot be derived from that which is ambiguous.

In addition, we quote a statement of another Shia cleric, Nasser Makarim Shirazi:

How did the marriage of Adam’s children take place? The Almighty said: ﴾dispersed from both of them many men and

women﴿. We learn from this phrase that the spreading of the lineage of Adam and their reproduction was only through Adam and Eve with no third entity intervention.

In other words, the existent human lineage goes back to Adam and his wife, without any other male or female sharing that lineage with them.

This implies that the children (brothers and sisters) of Adam intermarried, because if human lineage had multiplied by their marrying of others, the saying of the Almighty ﴾from them﴿ would be incorrect.

This issue has been discussed in several hadith as well. There is nothing to wonder about. According to the inference made in a collection relayed from Ahl al-Bayt pbut, this marriage was permissible, as there was no verdict yet that it was forbidden for a man to marry his sister.

It is self-evident that something is only forbidden if God Almighty forbids it. Therefore, there is nothing against Him allowing something at a certain time due to urgent necessity and particular interests and then forbidding it at a later time.

However, it has been stated in other hadith that the sons of Adam did not marry their sisters, so this puts a heavy responsibility on those who see it this way and have this belief.

If the case is such that we must follow what agrees with the literal meaning of the Quran, then when these hadith contradict each other, we must choose the first belief, because it agrees with the literal of the present verse, as I have previously explained. There is another possibility here that states the children of Adam married from the remaining humans who preceded Adam and his lineage. In this and certain other religious accounts, Adam was not the first human to inhabit the earth.

Scientific studies and investigations reveal today that mankind has lived on the earth for an extremely long time, whereas Adam did not appear on the earth so long ago. Thus, we must accept the theory that says that other humans lived on the earth before Adam, while the disappearance of the last of them coincided with the appearance of our Adam. So what could stand in the way of the children of Adam having married the last of the preceding human species that was at the final stages of its extinction?

However, this possibility also contradicts the literal meaning of the present verse (This research needs further expansion for which there is no room here.) (Al-Shirazi 2000, vol 3, 82. Arabic source, translated).

They say that a collection of religious accounts state that mankind is a product of incest. They assigned more weight to the religious accounts of incest because they agree with what they imagined the Quran to mean. They took the verse to refer to the bodies and to pertain exclusivity to Adam and Eve. On the other hand, it is obvious from what it literally means that it is referring to the soul, rather than the body. As it says, ﴾He created you from one soul and created from it its mate﴿. At the same time they overlooked the fact that, whether intentionally or not, the religious account to which they assigned more weight agrees with the belief of the opponents of the progeny of Muhammad pbuhap. Many of the religious accounts of Ahl al-Bayt that agree with the opponents were only issued out of taqiyya, and there is also the rule that guidance lies in opposing those who oppose Ahl al-Bayt. Therefore, what should have been done was to assign no weight to the religious account of incest because it agrees with those who oppose the progeny of Muhammad pbuhap, the Jews and Christians-the people of false ideologies. During conflict, guidance lies in opposing them. Therefore, the religious accounts refuting incest should have been accepted.

In addition, I have found that Al-Tabatabai used the account of “Al-Ihtijaj” as evidence to draw his conclusions:

In “Al-Ihtijaj”, Al-Sajjad pbuh described the marriage of Abel to Loza, the sister of Cain, and the marriage of Cain to Aqlima, the sister of Abel. He was asked if they had children together, and he replied, “Yes.” He was told, “That is what the Magi do.” He then said, “The Magi did this after God had forbidden it. Do not disregard it, as it is among God’s verdicts. Did God not create the wife of Adam from him, then allow him to marry her? That was a part of the divine laws at their time. God forbade it afterwards.”

I say: What is mentioned in this hadith concurs with the apparent meaning of the Quran. However, there are other hadiths that contradict it, stating that they married women of paradise and Jinn who were sent down to them. I have recognized the truth in them where this issue is concerned (Al-Tabatabai 1997, Vol 4, 150-151. Arabic source, translated).

If we look closely at the account of Al-Ihtijaj, we find it mentions that Eve was created from a part of Adam’s body. This means they believe this as well, because the religious account they have relied on clearly says that Eve was created from a part of Adam’s body, just as the Old Testament and the Sunnis state.

Ali Ibn al-Hussain pbuh said: “When God forgave Adam, Adam had sexual relations with Eve.

Adam had not done that since they were created, and only did so on the earth after God forgave him. Adam would sanctify the House and its holy surroundings, so if he wanted to approach Eve he would leave the premises and take her with him. Once he went past the premises, he would approach her where they resided. They would then wash out of respect for the House and return to the courtyard of the House. Adam had twenty males and twenty females born from Eve, a male and female in each pregnancy. From the first pregnancy, Eve gave birth to Abel and a girl named Aqlima. From her second, she gave birth to Cain and a girl named Loza. Loza was the most beautiful of Adam’s daughters. When they came of age, Adam feared there would be a conflict between Abel and Cain, so he called to them and said, ‘I want to wed you, Abel, to Loza, and you, Cain, to Aqlima.’ Cain said, ‘I do not agree with that. Would you wed me to Abel’s ugly sister and wed Abel to my beautiful sister?’ Adam said, ‘I will decide this between you by drawing lots. If Cain’s lot is cast upon Loza, I will wed him to her. If it is cast upon Aqlima, I will wed him to her.’ They both agreed to that, so they cast lots. Abel’s was cast upon Loza, Cain’s sister, while that of Cain was cast upon Aqlima, Abel’s sister. Thus, Adam wed them, as God willed.

God forbade the marriage of siblings after that.’ He was asked if they had children together, and he replied, ‘Yes’. He was told, ‘That is what the Magi do today.’ So al-Sajjad said, ‘The Magi did this after God had forbidden it. Do not disregard it, as they are among God’s verdicts. Did God not create Adam’s wife from him, then allow him to marry her? That was a part of the divine laws at their time. God forbade it afterwards.’” (Al-Tibrisi 1966, vol 2, 43-44. Arabic source, translated).*

We will mention clear religious accounts from the progeny of Muhammad pbut wherein they reject marriage between siblings and they don’t accept anyone saying that the children of Adam practiced it in spite of the fact that animals avoid it, as has been scientifically proven today in the communities of chimpanzees and gorillas, who for the most part avoid incest. So how can those who call themselves men of religion attribute incest to humans?!

Does it make sense that they reject evolution because they oppose the idea that humans and chimpanzees have a common ancestor, or that the distant origin of the human body is an ape, while at the same time placing the modern human-particularly Adam and his children-at a level far lower than the apes, in such a way that the mating of brothers and sisters, typically avoided by chimpanzee and gorilla communities for millions of years, would be practiced and accepted, according to them, by humans? Indeed, we are not talking here about just any human, but rather Adam, the prophet of God, and his children, the successors pbut.

The Incest Argument and Agreement between Religion and Evolution

I am putting forth the argument and the reply in order to shed light upon the truth and minimize room for objection.

Essentially, the incest argument that is used against evolution is as follows:

If evolution were true, then Adam or one of his Adamite fathers preceding him might be a product of incest, as there was no divine law forbidding it, so incest would become prevalent in those communities as would be expected in the absence of a divine law forbidding it.

If that is the case, why wouldn’t incest become prevalent in those communities, as would be expected in the absence of a divine law forbidding it?!

Those who don’t believe that humans are a product of incest between Adam’s sons and daughters can argue that science and religion agree with each other, but the religious scholars can’t, because they consider incest as natural and they consider incestuous marriage in Adam’s time to be lawful. So neither the Jewish or Christian scholars, or the majority of Sunni and Shia scholars or interpreters, can use this argument, because they believe that all of mankind is a product of incest. According to their ideology, the sons and daughters of Adam married each other, and mankind is the product of this mating that contradicts the biological composition of the body that rejects incest.

In the eyes of the progeny of Muhammad, this statement is perverted and false. The Imams of the progeny of Muhammad pbuh have made its falsehood clear, and there are religious accounts in which they pbut clear Adam and his progeny of this perversion, saying that incest was forbidden under the laws of Adam pbuh.

Abu Abdullah pbuh said: “Seth was born to Adam, and his name was ‘The gift of God’. He was the first Adamite successor on the earth. Japheth was born to Adam after Seth. When they reached adulthood, God Almighty wanted to reach the lineage that you see today and to forbid the marrying of brothers and sisters that had been written by the pen, so on a Thursday afternoon, God sent down a woman from paradise who was called Nazla. God Almighty commanded Adam to wed her to Seth. He did so. On the afternoon of the following day, He sent down a woman, called Manzala, from paradise. God Almighty commanded Adam to wed her to Japheth. He did so. A boy was born to Seth and a girl was born to Japheth. God Almighty commanded Adam to wed Japheth’s daughter to Seth’s son, when they came of age He did so. In due course, the finest of prophets and messengers were born among their descendants. God Almighty, protect us from what they say about the matter of brothers and sisters.” (Al-Sadooq, Man Laa… 1983, vol. 3, 381, Hadith 4337. Arabic source, translated).

Certain religious accounts mention that the wives of Adam’s righteous sons were women from paradise. They describe the souls of these women as being connected to their bodies, just as the soul of Adam was connected to the earthly human body, which was the beginning of the journey of Adam and his offspring on the earth. However, this soul was created in heaven from raised wet clay, and breathed into, before it was lowered and connected to the body.

The reply to the argument: It has been made clear from the above that those who can present this argument are the ones who believe in what the Imams pbut said: humankind is not a product of incest or unlawful marriage. It suffices to say that there is no evidence that a divine law forbidding incest was absent among those first people-before the time of Adam pbuh-among whom Adam pbuh descended. There could have been primary divine commands for those nations that suited their level of awareness. Certainly the Nisnas, or the nations of humans before the time of our father Adam pbuh, had divine commands, at least simple ones befitting their state. No one can affirm that forbidding incest was not a part of their divine law. In fact, there was certainly a prohibition of incest and, according to the accounts, it was applied as well. This law applied to Adam, and to his children as well as his ancestors, who also had divine commands. In terms of a scientific response to the argument, it has been proven that biological evolution, in general, tends toward preventing incest by selecting the gene that leads to its prevention. In other words, bodies whose genetic plan has a gene that repulses the body from practicing incest would be more capable of surviving. Evolution has clearly and evidently succeeded in preventing it in some cases in nature, and Hominidae is one of these. We believe that development of the genetic plan follows certain laws in order to attain bodies that abstain from incest. If we take a look at the great ape closest to the human, the chimpanzee, we find that when the female reaches adolescence, she leaves her family in order to go and mate with a male from another family. Doctor Jane Goodall, a highly renowned specialist in chimpanzee communities said:*

No Consortships, either observed or inferred, have involved mothers and sons or maternal siblings. No male has ever been observed to try to take his mother or sister on a consortship. Because the fatherdaughter relationship is not known, there are likely to be occasions when such pairs go off together. But again, the fact that the older males tend to be less sexually interested in young females of their own community can reduce the likelihood of incestuous consortship of this sort. (Goodall 1986, 470).

Young females were sometimes reluctant to respond to the courtship of much older males and they suggest that this could be another mechanism for minimizing incestuous mating. (Goodall 1986, 469).

At Gombe there are permanent transfers, or immigrants (females who have left their natural community to join neighbouring ones), and temporary transfers, or visitors (females who visit neighbouring communities for relatively short periods, usually during consecutive periods of estrus, then return to their original social groups). In addition, certain peripheral females may continue to move back and forth between communities. (Goodall 1986, 86).

In free-living chimpanzees Jane Goodall has observed incest taboos. Mothers do not allow their sons to copulate with them, sisters do not copulate with their brothers and females do not copulate with older males in their familial group. Though none of these chimpanzees are biologically related, they have grown up in this family group and show no sexual behavior toward one another. (Cwu.edu 2015).

If the individuals of a chimpanzee community avoid incest, and if the incest-avoiding phenomenon exists in the animal kingdom, then what would have prevented it from being prevalent among the Adamite Hominidae communities, or have prevented them from having completely abstained from incest before Adam pbuh, especially since there is a biological deterrent to incest?!

The bodies built by a genetic plan having a gene that results in incest-avoidance will be successful in nature and favored by natural selection. In other words, one possessing this gene would be more fit for survival because the genetic plan that doesn’t contain this gene would be prone to extinction and dying out. This is due to recessive lethal genes, whose effect will clearly surface through incest or inbreeding. Bodies built on a genetic plan that doesn’t contain the incest-avoidance gene would be less capable of raising offspring than others, because incest leads to a catastrophic increase in the possibility of matching recessive, lethal genes, which would result in the death of the offspring. The genetic plan that allows incest would consequently lose the race of evolution and survival to the genetic plan that prevents it. With time, the genetic plan that builds bodies that avoid incest will be the one that survives, which is why it is normal for female chimpanzees and gorillas to leave their families upon reaching adolescence in order to mate with outsiders and individuals from other families.

A lethal gene is one that kills its possessor. A recessive lethal, like any recessive gene, doesn’t exert its effect unless it is in double dose. Recessive lethals get by in the gene pool, because most individuals possessing them have only one copy and therefore never suffer the effects. Any given lethal is rare, because if it ever gets common it meets copies of itself and kills off its carriers.

There could nevertheless be lots of different types of lethal, so we could still all be riddled with them. Estimates vary as to how many different ones there are lurking in the human gene pool. Some books reckon as many as two lethals, on average, per person. If a random male mates with a random female, the chances are that his lethals will not match hers and their children will not suffer. But if a brother mates with a sister, or a father with a daughter, things are ominously different. However rare my lethal recessives may be in the population at large, and however rare my sister’s lethal recessives may be in the population at large, there is a disquietingly high chance that hers and mine are the same. If you do the sums, it turns out that, for every lethal recessive that I possess, if I mate with my sister one in eight of our offspring will be born dead or will die young. Incidentally, dying in adolescence is even more ‘lethal’, genetically speaking, than dying at birth: a stillborn child doesn’t waste so much of the parents’ vital time and energy. But, whichever way you look at it, close incest is not just mildly deleterious. It is potentially catastrophic. Selection for active incest-avoidance could be as strong as any selection pressure that has been measured in nature.

Anthropologists who object to Darwinian explanations of incestavoidance perhaps do not realize what a strong Darwinian case they are opposing. Their arguments are sometimes so weak as to suggest desperate special pleading. They commonly say, for instance: ‘If Darwinian selection had really built into us an instinctive revulsion against incest, we wouldn’t need to forbid it. The taboo only grows up because people have incestuous lusts. So the rule against incest cannot have a “biological” function, it must be purely “social”.’ This objection is rather like the following: ‘Cars don’t need locks on the ignition switch because they have locks on the doors. Therefore ignition locks cannot be anti-theft devices; they must have some purely ritual significance!’ Anthropologists are also fond of stressing that different cultures have different taboos, indeed different definitions of kinship. They seem to think that this, too, undermines Darwinian aspirations to explain incest-avoidance. But one might as well say that sexual desire cannot be a Darwinian adaptation because different cultures prefer to copulate in different positions. It seems to me highly plausible that incest-avoidance in humans, no less than in other animals, is the consequence of strong Darwinian selection.

Not only is it a bad thing to mate with those genetically too close to you. Too-distant outbreeding can also be bad because of genetic incompatibilities between different strains. Exactly where the ideal intermediate falls is not easy to predict. Should you mate with your first cousin? With your second or third cousin?

Patrick Bateson has tried to ask Japanese quail where their own preferences lie along the spectrum. In an experimental set-up called the Amsterdam Apparatus, birds were invited to choose among members of the opposite sex arrayed behind miniature shop-windows. They preferred first cousins over both full siblings and unrelated birds. Further experiments suggested that young quail learn the attributes of their clutch-companions, and then, later in life, tend to choose sexual partners that are quite like their clutch-mates but not too like them.

Quail, then, seem to avoid incest by their own internal lack of desire for those with whom they have grown up. Other animals do it by observing social laws, socially imposed rules of dispersal. Adolescent male lions, for instance, are driven out of the parental pride where female relatives remain to tempt them, and breed only if they manage to usurp another pride. In chimpanzee and gorilla societies it tends to be the young females who leave to seek mates in other bands. Both dispersal patterns, as well as the quail’s system, are to be found among the various cultures of our own species (Dawkins 1989, 293-94).

The result is that our bodies are biologically built to avoid incest. This is a natural outcome of evolution and survival of the fittest genes in the competitive race between them. It has been proven by experimentation that some animals avoid incest-invalidating the ideology of the Jews, Christians and the Sunni jurists, as well as the Shia clerics who adhered to their doctrine-proving the truth stated by the progeny of Muhammad pbut over a thousand years ago.

Does Anyone Do Justice to the Progeny of Muhammad pbut?

For anyone searching for the truth, it would suffice to look at the accounts concerning this fact from the progeny of Muhammad pbut, which are over a thousand years old, and have been subsequently been proven by modern science. Indeed, they pbut opposed the prevailing falsehood of their time, that mankind is a product of incest and the marriage of siblings. While the rest of the Muslim sects say that humankind is a product of marriage between brothers and sisters, we find that the progeny of Muhammad pbut demonstrate clearly that this is incorrect. Instead, Adam’s two sons pbuh married women to whom they were not related to a degree that would forbid their marriage.

Sheikh Al-Sadooq, in the chapter “Explaining How the Offspring Began” of his book Illal Ash-Sharai [The Reasoning of Islamic Law], said:

Abu Abdullah pbuh was asked how the offspring of Adam pbuh began, since some people say that God Almighty inspired Adam pbuh to wed his daughters to his sons, revealing that all of humankind is the product of marriage between brothers and sisters.

Abu Abdullah pbuh said: “God Almighty is far above that. Whoever says this is actually saying that God Almighty made His finest creation, His beloved ones, prophets, messengers, vicegerents, believing men and women, and Muslim men and women, all come from a forbidden act, and that God Almighty did not have the ability to create them from something permissible, yet he took their pledge on what is permissible and pure. By God, I learned that an animal copulated with his sister after she changed beyond recognition. When her identity was revealed and it became known to him that she was his sister, he shredded his own genitals with his teeth and dropped dead.”

Then he pbuh was asked about the creation of Eve, as he was told that some people say that God Almighty created Eve from Adam’s lowermost left rib.

Abu Abdullah pbuh said, “God Almighty is far above that. Whoever says this is actually saying that God Almighty did not have the ability to create a wife for Adam from anything other than his rib. The people of falsehood say that Adam was copulating with a part of his own body, since she was created from his rib. What is the matter with those people? May God judge between them and us! When God Almighty created Adam from clay and commanded the angels to prostrate to Him, He caused Adam to fall asleep, and then created a creature for him and placed her in the pit between his haunches so that the woman would be obedient to the man. She then began to move. When Adam noticed her, she was called upon to step away from him. When he looked at her, he saw a beautiful creature that resembled him, apart from her being female. He spoke to her and she replied in his language. He said to her, ‘Who are you?’ She said, ‘A creature of God, as you can see.’ So Adam said, ‘O Lord, who is this beautiful creature whose company I am enjoying?’ God replied, ‘This is my servant, Eve. Would you like for her to be with you, keep you company, talk to you and comply with your wishes?’” He said, ‘Yes Lord, and for that I will thank You and praise You for as long as I live.’ God Almighty said, ‘Ask Me for her hand in marriage, for she is My servant and she may also satisfy your desires.’ Then God cast lust upon Adam after He had given him knowledge. Adam said, ‘O Lord, I ask You for her hand in marriage. Tell me, what would please You?’ God said, ‘It would please Me if you were to teach her My religion.’ Adam said, ‘If that is what You wish, O Lord, then I shall do it.’ God said, ‘That is what I wish. I wed you to her, so bring her close to you.’ Adam asked her to come close, and she said, ‘No, you come close to me.’ So God Almighty commanded Adam to go to her, and he did. Had it not been for that, women would have been the ones approaching men and asking them for marriage. This is the story of Eve pbuh.” (Al-Sadooq 1966, Vol 1, 17-18, Arabic source, translated).

In another hadith, Abu Abdullah pbuh was asked how the lineage of Adam pbuh began, as some say that God Almighty inspired Adam pbuh to wed his daughters to his sons, and that all of humankind is the product of marriage between brothers and sisters.

Abu Abdullah pbuh said, “God Almighty is far above that. Whoever says this means that God Almighty made His finest creation, His beloved ones, prophets and messengers, believing men and women, and Muslim men and women come from a forbidden act.Whoever says this is actually saying that God Almighty made His finest creation, His beloved ones, prophets, messengers, believing men and women, and Muslim men and women come from a forbidden act, and that He did not have the ability to create them from something permissible, yet He took their pledge on what is permissible and pure. By God, I learned that an animal copulated with his sister after she changed beyond recognition. When her identity was revealed and it became known to him that she was his sister, he shredded his own genitals with his teeth and dropped dead. Another beast unknowingly copulated with his mother and did the exact same thing. So how would a human, with all of his humanity, virtue and knowledge, do that? What happened is that one generation of these creatures you see went astray from the knowledge of the progenies of their prophets and sought knowledge where they were not supposed to, until they reached a high level of perversity and ignorance. You now see how things were in the past, since the beginning of creation, and the things that have always been.”

Then he pbuh said, “Woe to them! How could they stray so far from what the clerics of al-Hijaaz and Iraq agree upon that God Almighty commanded with the pen, two thousand years before the creation of Adam, writing on the preserved tablet everything that will be until the day of resurrection? It is written in all the scriptures of God: from that which is forbidden is for brothers to marry their sisters. Among these scriptures, we have the four well-known scriptures in this world: The Torah, the Gospel, the Psalms and the Quran. God sent all of them down from the preserved tablet to His messengers, may the prayers of God be upon them all. He sent the Torah to Moses pbuh, the Psalms to David pbuh, the Gospel to Jesus pbuh, and the Quran to Muhammad pbuhap and to the prophets pbut. None of these books permit that. I honestly say: the only purpose of whoever says that, or anything similar to it, is to strengthen the arguments of the Magi. However, no one will accomplish that, may God fight them.” (Al-Sadooq 1966, Vol 1, 17-18, Arabic source, translated).

The Claim that Eve was Created from the Rib of Adam-Scientifically Confronted

From a scientific standpoint, Eve being created from a part of Adam means that she would have his complete genetic plan, meaning that she would be a male. As such, a miracle would be required here in order to change the gender-determining Y chromosome to an X chromosome in order for the result to be a female (XX) and not a male (XY).

Moreover, since those who make this claim say that the lineage is restricted to Adam and Eve, then all humans should be identical in everything, and the only difference between them would be their gender. This means we should all be a single clone with nothing setting us apart except our gender identification. This is unless they admit that genetic mutations and evolution are true and say that evolution resulted in a change in the genetic plan, meaning that genetic mutation and alteration of traits of the offspring occurred after Adam and Eve.

In fact, their theory is a dead end and this is their only way out. However, it requires them to acknowledge the theory of evolution. Yet, this would make them contradict themselves and refute their theory that Eve was created from Adam, since they cannot say they only acknowledge evolution within the confines of the human body, because speciation or diversity is an inevitable result of the accumulation of mutations and selection over time. Therefore, whoever accepts mutations and a alteration of traits cannot deny that they inevitably result in speciation over time. It is irrational to accept one quarter or one half of evolution; you either accept it entirely or deny it entirely. There is no logical reason behind the foolish statement that evolution can only happen within one species, yet it cannot lead to the emergence of new species. Whoever states this only does so as a result of ignorance in the fields of genetics and evolutionary biology.

Finally, there are those who say that the genetic plan of the part that was taken from Adam was completely changed, and that Eve was then created from it. This means that if you take the chemical material from which the genetic plan of Eve was built from any other place on the earth, it would make no difference. So what would be the reason for and wisdom behind taking a part of Adam, then demolishing it and rebuilding it again? Would it not have made more sense to take the primary substances from any place on the earth, and build the genetic plan of Eve without needing to demolish it?

As a matter of fact, there is no reasonable solution for this issue except what I have explained in the interpretation of the verse: what occurred in heaven, is in the paradise of Adam pbuh, and it pertains to the soul, not the body.

Human Nature and Incest

Those who say that mankind is a product of marriage between siblings (incest) believe that this obscene act-of which the Imams pbut have disapproved-doesn’t conflict with human nature.

Al-Tabatabai states:

The evidence that human nature does not conflict with incest from the aspect of instinctive aversion is that, according to recorded history, it was practiced among the Magi for long periods of time. Furthermore, it is said to be legitimate and common in Russia, as well as common-though illegitimate-in Europe. (Al-Tabatabai 1997, Vol 4, 145, Arabic source, translated).

In other words, Al-Tabatabai is saying that, if a group of people legalized and practiced a certain act for a long time, that constitutes evidence that it doesn’t conflict with human nature or instinctive aversion.

I do not believe that I need to comment further regarding evidence at this level of nonsense. Nevertheless, I do want to draw attention to the spread of same-sex marriage (homosexuality and lesbianism). This has taken place particularly in the modern era, to the point where it has been legalized in the civil law of many countries throughout the world. So if a group of people practice homosexuality and lesbianism legally in certain countries, does that mean it doesn’t oppose human nature when it comes to instinctive aversion, using Al-Tabatabi’s method of inference?!

Research on the Pregnancy of Mary pbuh with a Male (Jesus pbuh)

There are several issues raised by atheists concerning the birth of Jesus pbuh to Mary without a father. Among the most important arguments are:

How did an ovum with a complete number of 46 chromosomes form, despite the fact that it normally has half the number of chromosomes?!

How did an ovum that has a complete set of chromosomes become stimulated to divide, even though when cloning embryos in a laboratory, if the nucleus of an ovum is replaced with a nucleus having complete chromosomes, it requires external stimulation in order to begin dividing and growing?

How did it result in a male, despite the fact that it is an ovum of a female? Normally, a female has a pair of X chromosomes (XX) and no Y chromosome that can result in a male. In other words, a female cannot produce a male. The determiner of the male sex is the male, because he carries the XY pair of chromosomes.

Before we begin to respond to these questions, we must briefly clarify how the sex of a fetus is determined. A normal human has 46 chromosomes. A female has the two sex chromosomes XX, whereas a male has the two sex chromosomes XY. Therefore, a normal female is usually designated as 46,XX, while a normal male is usually designated as 46,XY.

The division of chromosomes during reproduction produces two groups of sperm: types X and Y. The ovum is usually type X because the female doesn’t have a Y chromosome.

At the time of fertilization, the sperm and the ovum come together to form the fetus.

If sperm Y unites with ovum X, the result will be a male. If sperm X unites with ovum X, the result will be a female. There is a genetic mutation called androgen insensitivity syndrome that affects androgen receptors in the fetus with the chromosomes 46,XY. This mutation reduces the effect of the male sex gene, and therefore a feminine reproductive system forms. The condition of a person afflicted with this syndrome depends on the type of mutation involved and the extent to which it affects the androgen receptors. Therefore, this person could either have both male and female genitalia-albeit incomplete-or just one of the two. For the most part, they have female characteristics. Thus, if a fetus who has the chromosomes of a male (46,XY) suffers from complete androgen insensitivity syndrome, he will be completely female externally. In fact, it is usually difficult to diagnose this syndrome early on without a thorough examination. The unborn child will have female external genitalia. Therefore, he will usually be a female, but without a uterus or ovaries. In other words, she will be a female with an incomplete female reproductive system and she will have an atrophic male reproductive system buried deep within the abdomen. What concerns us here is that this syndrome clearly indicates the possibility that an XY fetus can exist without the Y chromosome having any effect,, such that he becomes a complete female with complete reproductive organs. Therefore, the issue of a male being produced from the cells of this female without male intervention is normal and consistent with science because she has the chromosomes 46,XY. With regard to Jesus’ pbuh birth from Mary pbuh, we are not saying that it is completely normal for this to occur. However, none of the arguments mentioned above are logically or scientifically impossible. Indeed, some of them can be easily explained scientifically. For example, it is true that a female doesn’t carry a Y chromosome that determines the male sex of the fetus. However, in the case of androgen insensitivity syndrome, a type of genetic abnormality, the unborn child has X and Y sex chromosomes, while his external appearance is that of a female. What we are saying is that this syndrome can be so extreme in a particular fetus that she will be a female with complete reproductive organs, yet still have X and Y chromosomes.

This refutes the argument that a female can produce only a female on her own.

It is theoretically possible for an ovum to have a full complement of chromosomes, especially in a an abnormal situation, such as when a female has the chromosomes 46,XY.

As for the issue of stimulating the ovum to divide, it can happen by means of the radiation that surrounds us, and bombards our bodies from every direction. Sometimes, when the radiation has enough energy, it can cause cellular abnormalities and genetic mutations in the cells of some people, resulting in the development of cancer. Stimulating the ovum to divide with an external stimulus is actually done in laboratories during cloning. After the nucleus of the ovum is replaced with a cell nucleus that has a complete set of chromosomes, the ovum is artificially stimulated to divide using an external stimulus in the laboratory.

Therefore, all of these arguments have been refuted and have been thoroughly explained through science.

In addition, there is Klinefelter syndrome, a condition in which there is an increase in the number of female sex (X) chromosomes. It is usually denoted as 47,XXY, meaning that the affected individual has an extra X chromosome. There are severe variants of Klinefelter syndrome such as 49,XXXXY. In this case, the mother’s affected ovum would have an additional doubling of the already doubled X chromosomes. Therefore, her affected son would have twice the number of already doubled X chromosomes. Another condition is mosaic Klinefelter syndrome,in which there is a mixture and mosaic of chromosomes and this individual would have chromosomes 47,XXY/46,XX. Of the last two conditions,especially the latter rarely-occurring one, we can assume that it combined with androgen insensitivity syndrome, and resulted in a female with complete female reproductive organs who simultaneously carries a Y chromosome that does not affect her gender. the latter condition is extremely rare, and we can assume that it is combined with androgen insensitivity syndrome. The result of the combination of these two syndromes would be a female with complete reproductive organs who simultaneously carries a Y chromosome that does not have any effect on the sex of the fetus.