Science and Spirituality: An Islamic View of Creation Life

By Maulana Wahiduddin Khan

Science and Spirituality: An Islamic View of Creation & Life

According to Islamic tradition, life is God's creation - regardless of whether life was specially created or resulted from evolution. Evolution itself is a process of creation as admitted by Darwin in The Origin of Species.

Creation falls into four categories - inanimate matter, plants, animals and human beings. According to Islam, all four are separate creations. Among living things, a number of species co-exist, all having been created separately. There is doubtless some similarity in physical attributes; yet, each has a permanent, separate existence. There is no concept of a missing link in Islam.

Prophet Muhammad said: "God created man in his own image." It does not mean that man is a part of God; the two are separate. Islam believes in dualism. This tradition simply means that man is endowed with certain special qualities. You know that mount-ains cannot walk, but humans can. The ocean cannot hear, but man can. The moon cannot see, but man can. No two trees can enter into a dialogue, but two persons can. No stars can invent a machine, but life in the form of man can. This is the unique quality of human beings.

According to a hadith (tradition of the Prophet Muhammad) God said: "I was a hidden treasure. Then I wanted to be known and I created human beings." Among all the creations man alone has the capability "to know" and conceptualise. God has created man for this purpose. Realisation of God brings divine blessings.

As far as the relationship between science and religion is concerned, the principle of Al-Maruf (the good) applies. It means that Islam regards anything as good, if it is proven to be good, for mankind. The Prophet of Islam was born in Mecca , a desert, where he lived for 50 years. Then he migrated to Madina, a fertile land with date orchards.

The residents of Madina used to pollinate the date plants artificially. The Pro-phet was not familiar with this practice. One day when he saw some people atop the trees, he asked them what they were doing. He was told that they were pollinating the trees. The Prophet said: "I don't think this will benefit them." When people learned of the Prophet's comment, they stopped the practice of pollination. The yield was very low that year.

When the Prophet came to know of this, he said: "If they benefit from artificial pollination, they should continue with this practice. It was only an opinion." Then the Prophet told the date growers to adhere to their own methods, and said: "You know better about your worldly affairs" (Sahih Muslim). According to this tradition, worldly affairs like horticulture, agriculture, engineering, architecture, irrigation and, of course, all the disciplines dealing with life sciences fall into the category of Al-Maruf. Hence, whatever is proved to be good for mankind by scientific research and experience will also be regarded as good in Islam. There is no contradiction between Islam and facts proved by any branch of science, including the biological sciences.

Maulana Wahiduddin Khan is president, Islamic Centre.Please see www.alrisala.org