Transcription
Charles Darwin is, of course, best known for his theory of evolution through natural selection. When Darwin's work was first made public in 1859, it shocked Britain's religious establishment. And while today it is accepted by virtually all scientists, evolutionary theory is still rejected by many Americans, often because it conflicts with their religious beliefs about divine creation.
But though we may tend to think of Darwin's theory of evolution as anti-religious, you may be surprised to learn that Darwin's theory and the Holy Quran share some commonalities. Let's start by taking a closer look at the theory. The theory has two main points: first, all life on earth is connected and related to each other. Trace back the separate lines of descent of all organisms that ever lived, and they will converge to a single point of origin—the beginning of life. Charles Darwin was reluctant to publish his views on the origins of life; his only speculations on the subject are known from a private letter to his friend and colleague Joseph Hooker, in which he speaks of a "warm little pond" in which the first molecules of life could have formed. The Holy Quran, written over 1400 years ago, tells us that all life on earth is connected and related to each other when it says, "And we [God] made from water all living things."
Second, this diversity of life is a product of modifications of populations by natural selection, where some traits were favored in an environment over others. And the Holy Quran tells us that the history of creation is a history of both creation and selection when it says, "Your Lord creates whatever He wills and selects." The Holy Quran also tells us that the Prophet Adam was brought to prophecy by selection when it says, "Indeed, Allah [God] selected Adam and Noah and the family of Abraham and the family of Imran above all people."
At the heart of Darwin's theory of evolution is the notion of copying and the variations it creates, meaning that copying results in several evolutionary successive stages. Similarly, the Holy Quran tells us that God created us in successive stages when it says, "What is the matter with you that you do not hope for honor from Allah when He created you in successive stages?"
Charles Darwin believed that humans evolved in Africa and that the root of the human tree was very deeply ingrained there. And in 1962, our roots were shown to be definitively in Africa. Geneticists are able to identify certain genetic sequences or markers in each of us and cross-reference it with a number of ever-growing international databases; where there's a match, there's likely a common ancestor. And genetically speaking, all markers point to Africa. With the mapping of the human genome in 2003, combined with thousands of people around the world submitting their DNA for testing, there's now mounting physical proof that we all started in Africa before migrating around the world. Furthermore, advanced DNA testing combined with recently unearthed discoveries are bolstering the belief that, if you look back far enough, all living human beings are the descendants of a small, innovative, and ambitious set of people on the African continent. And the Holy Quran confirms this when it says, in a very short chapter of only eight verses: "By the fig and the olive, by the Mount of Senyin, and by the secure city [Mecca], We have indeed created the human in the best directed shape. Then We returned him to the lowest of the low, except those who believed and did righteous deeds; for them there is a reward unending. So what causes you to deny the recompense, i.e., Day of Resurrection? Is not Allah the most just of Judges?"
Let's take a look at exactly how this short chapter about figs, olives, and the Mount of Senyin explains the origins of humankind. So let's talk about figs—you know that sweet, mushy fruit that comes from an inwardly blossoming flower. In an article for BBC Earth published on the 17th of January 2017, Mike Shanahan writes that fig trees have not only witnessed history but have shaped it. Wild fig trees first grew in Africa around 80 million years ago. Humans have been eating figs throughout history; figs not only nourish animals, but the year-round presence of bright figs would have helped sustain our early human ancestors. High-energy figs may have helped our ancestors to develop bigger brains. There's also a theory that suggests our hands evolved as tools for assessing which figs are soft and therefore sweet and rich in energy. While the first humans benefited from fig biology, their descendants mastered it. And where exactly does the wild fig tree called *Ficus vasta* grow? In or near the Horn of Africa; it's primarily endemic to Ethiopia.
And now for olives, whose tree has been called the "tree of life." In an article on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's website on the 7th of February 2013, Dr. Guian Beznard of the French National Center for Scientific Research explains that his research has concluded that three main branches of wild olives split from a common ancestral tree at least 1.5 million years ago.
Now onto mountains. In an article in the New York Times by Carl Zimmer on May 30, 2013, Zimmer states that, in the hearts of evolutionary biologists, mountains occupy a special place. It's not just their physical majesty; mountains also have an unmatched power to drive human evolution. Our ancestors moved to high altitudes, and there they experienced natural selection that has reworked their biology—like the adjustment of hemoglobin levels, for example. "This is the most extreme example in humans that you can find," said Rasmus Nielsen, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California at Berkeley. Humans have adapted to mountainous environments, just as Charles Darwin predicted.
A BBC News article in March 2015 revealed that a research team led by Professor Brian Villmore from the University of Nevada in Las Vegas had discovered what they called the "most important transition in human evolution"—this is the transition from tree dweller to upright walker. This transition happened and was discovered in Ethiopia.
Human evolution, also known as hominization, is the evolutionary process that led to the emergence of anatomically modern humans, beginning with the evolutionary history of primates, which appeared at least 80 million years ago, and leading to the emergence of *Homo erectus*, or upright man, which was the first creature to stand fully upright—that appeared at least one and a half million years ago.
So what do all these findings in all these articles have to do with that short chapter of the Quran we mentioned? Simply put, the Holy Quran points to Africa and tells us that the history of the upright man's evolution started with the evolution of primates at least 80 million years ago and led to an upright man at least one and a half million years ago. How exactly does the Holy Quran do this? By swearing by the fig, which first grew in Africa around 80 million years ago, and by the olive, which split from its common ancestral tree about 1.5 million years ago, and by the Mount of Senyin, which is found in Ethiopia and now called Choke Mountain, and finally by swearing to Mecca, the land of Islam, that God created the human in the best erected shape. The word *taqīn*, used in the original Arabic of the verse, means erected, which means to raise and set in an upright or vertical position. And God says, after that, "We then returned the human back to the lowest of the low." And now scientists are searching for our ancestors in the Afar Desert of Ethiopia, which coincidentally happens to be the lowest point in Ethiopia, the lowest in Africa, and the lowest point on the planet. This is how a brief chapter of eight verses summarizes millions of years of human evolution in a book revealed 1400 years ago by God himself.
For how could the Prophet Muhammad have known about the link between the creation of humans in an erected shape and the millions of years of evolution that took place between the appearance of the fig and the olive? And how could he have known about the link between the creation of humans in an erected shape and an African Amharic mountain in Ethiopia? Or even about the location of the Mount of Senyin that has, for years, been wrongly translated as the Mount of Sinai in Egypt and that we just recently discovered thanks to satellite mapping? In short, he could not have known.
So where is this mysterious mountain that turns out to be of great significance? The Mount of Senyin is in an Amharic town which is not even known by most Ethiopians. It's now called Choke Mountain and can be found in the Ethiopian Highlands, located in the Amhara National Regional State, East Gojam Zone, northwest of the town of Debra Marcos. Administratively, the area belongs to two Woredas districts: Synan and Macaquel, where Senyun is. It's about 330 kilometers north of the national capital, Addis Ababa, by road. This highland lies at a latitude of 2386 meters above sea level. Many of the rivers of the Upper Nile originate from this mountain range; a total of 59 rivers and many springs are identified in the upper catchments of Choke Mountain. The climate of the Choke Mountain region between February and May is known to be warm; during this period, the average temperature could reach up to 17.80 Celsius. Whereas during the coldest months between June and August, the average monthly temperature reaches 15.60 Celsius.
In Chapter 2, verse 38 of the Holy Quran, God tells us that there is an order for all of mankind to descend when He states, "We [God] said, 'Descend from it, all of you.' And when guidance comes to you from Me [God], whoever follows My guidance there will be no fear concerning them, nor will they grieve." The word "it" here refers to the Paradise where Adam and Eve lived before they sinned. When God said to all mankind in the Holy Quran, "Descend from it," that may mean that the Paradise where Adam and Eve lived before they sinned was on earth and located at a height above sea level. This nicely fits the characteristics of the Mount of Senyin, now called Choke Mountain, in Ethiopia, Africa, and also happens to be the place where humans first evolved. In short, the Holy Quran simply confers the African roots of the human family tree, so long before Darwin even used evolution as a mechanism to explain diversity and the development of species. The Holy Quran itself addressed the emergence, diversification, and origins of life on Earth.