We summarize the rules that we mentioned before, as follows:
- The condition of believing in the absence of a conclusive proof which leads to the condition that empirical sensory evidences are not available nor permitted. This applies to the period during and after the revelation of the Quran, it does not apply to religions before Islam, where physical miracles were common practice, the time Islam being the last and final message, was sent to all the people of its time and to all the future generations. The Quran, which is preserved by God, is the living testimony of the truthfulness of the message.
- The rule that: how the creation of the universe and life came about is comprehensible, and mankind can find out the answers by observation, investigation and research.
- The principle of verification, which is the compatibility of our knowledge and scientific advances with what is mentioned in the relevant verses in the Quran.
- Finally, we can only reach the ultimate interpretation of the verses related to the cosmic and to life, after scientific advances reach these facts. In other words, the interpretation of these verses, is the outcome of the interaction between the fixed text and the human knowledge at a specific time.
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Before we begin, we must also clarify the meaning of “creation from clay” which is mentioned several times in the Qur’an. Does such creation means directly from clay, or is it an expression or linguistic term intended to mean that the beginning of the creation of the human species was from clay?
Let us look at the following verse:
في الآية 37 من سورة الكهف { قَالَ لَهُ صَاحِبُهُ وَهُوَ يُحَاوِرُهُ أَكَفَرْتَ بِالَّذِي خَلَقَكَ مِن تُرَابٍ ثُمَّ مِن نُّطْفَةٍ ثُمَّ سَوَّاكَ رَجُلًا (37)}
{His companion said to him while he was conversing with him, “Have you disbelieved in He who created you from dust and thereafter from a Nutfah [little liquid] and thereafter shaped you [as] a man} Chapter 18/37
We understand from this verse that the origin of the creation of the human species, to which this man belongs, was from the soil. We all understand this and none of us said that the creation from the dust in this verse indicates a direct creation of this man from dust. Therefore, we can conclude that whenever this expression is mentioned, we must think about it before ruling, it is either a direct creation from dust Or, that the origin of the creation of the species was from dust, and that a long time passed and many phases took place before the appearance of this specific man.
{هُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُم مِّن طِينٍ ثُمَّ قَضَىٰ أَجَلًا ۖ وَأَجَلٌ مُّسَمًّى عِندَهُ ۖ ثُمَّ أَنتُمْ تَمْتَرُونَ (2)} سورة الأنعام
{It is He who has created you from clay, thereafter determined a term for you, and a term is fixed with Him. Yet you still in doubt!} Chapter 6:2
Here the speech is addressed to all the people, telling them that they were created from Clay. Obviously, we understand that the origin of their creation was from clay, and not that they were created directly from clay.
{ وَاللَّهُ خَلَقَكُم مِّن تُرَابٍ ثُمَّ مِن نُّطْفَةٍ ثُمَّ جَعَلَكُمْ أَزْوَاجًا.. } سورة فاطر
{And Allah created you from dust, thereafter from a Nutfah {little liquid]; thereafter He made you pairs (male and female} Chapter 35:11
Here also although the verse says we were created from dust, it is obvious that it does not mean that we were created directly from dust, again the expression creating from dust is used to indicate that the origin of our species stared from dust. Note that the Al Nutfah [little water / liquid], preceded the creation of male and female, who appeared at a later stage. So the word Nutfah, which was translated by many as a sperm-drop could not be the one that comes out of a male, because male and female were not yet created. So Nutfah which means a little water or liquid, should mean here an intermediate living organism.
:{إِنَّ مَثَلَ عِيسَى عِنْدَ اللَّهِ كَمَثَلِ آدَمَ خَلَقَهُ مِنْ تُرَابٍ ثُمَّ قَالَ لَهُ كُنْ فَيَكُونُ} سورة آل عمران:59
{To Allah, the likeness of Isa [Jesus] is as the likeness of Adam. He created him from dust, then He said unto him: Be, and he was} Surah Al Omran Verse (59)
Here we find that the creation from dust is a likeness between Jesus and Adam عليهما السلام , As we know that Jesus was not created directly from dust, only the origin of his species was, then we can conclude here that Adam –being like Jesus- also was not created directly from dust.
From all of these it can be said that the Qur’an expression “created from dust or clay”, does not necessarily mean that he was created directly from dust, but rather means that the origin of its species was created from dust.
Khalaq: If we go back to the meaning of the word Khalaq [create] in the Arabic language dictionaries, we find the following in مقاييس اللغة لإبن فارس (941 – 1004م) معاجم اللغة
خلق (مقاييس اللغة): الخاء واللام والقاف أصلان: أحدهما تقدير الشيء، والآخر مَلاسَة الشيء.
قدّر (مقاييس اللغة): القاف والدال والراء أصلٌ صحيح يدلُّ على مَبْلَغ الشَّيء وكُنهه ونهايته. فالقدّر: مبلغُ كلِّ شيء. يقال: قَدْرُه كذا، أي مبلغُه.
Khalq: has two original meanings: one is Taqdeer ,
Qadar: is fate, the destiny of something, its future form and nature and its end.
Taqdeer: is to determine the causes and matters by which the thing shall come to be, its nature and its end.
Where ‘Determine’ means decide and fix a definite quantities and measures
وقال زهير: (زهير ابن أبي سلمى) (520 – 609 م)
ولأَنْت تَفْرِي ما خلَقْت وبَعـ ـضُ القَوم يخلُق ثمَّ لا يَفْرِي
بمعنى أنك تقدّر ثم تنفّذ بينما غيرك يقدّر ولا ينفّذ
Zuhair Ibn Abi Salmi (520 – 609 AD) a famous pre Islam poet said in a poem:
You execute what you created while others create then do not execute
It is also said that the Arabs called every maker such as the carpenter and the tailor khaleq (noun) because he measure the wood and design it as he wants to make a table. Then he cut it and this (the cutting) is the execution of his creation (planning).
Surah 23, verse 14: {…..So blessed be God, the best of creators (14)} Chapter 23 here we see that God Almighty described himself as the best of creators, this support what we said that Arabs called every maker such as the carpenter and the tailor khaleq.
See also verse {You only worship idols besides Allah and you create a falsehood ……..} Chapter 29:17. Create falsehood was interpreted as create lies, and as create idols [Asnam] meaning sculpt statues [to worship]
From this we understand that creation is the preparation part, design, the part of planning things to come to existence, and the second part is the execution, is not included or covered by the word khalq.
في لسان العرب لإبن منظور الأنصاري، (ت. 711 هـ)، من أهم وأكمل معاجم اللغة.
خلق (لسان العرب): وأَصل الخلق التقدير، فهو باعْتبار تقدير ما منه وجُودُها وبالاعتبار للإِيجادِ على وَفْقِ التقدير خالقٌ
In Lisan Al Arab (Ibn Manthor Al Ansari), he said
“The origin of [the word] Khalq is the determination, it is to determine all what is required for the object to exist and by this, considering such determination as creation.
To explain further, look at this verse 24 from Surat 59
{هُوَ اللَّهُ الْخَالِقُ الْبَارِئُ الْمُصَوِّرُ ۖ لَهُ الْأَسْمَاءُ الْحُسْنَىٰ ۚ يُسَبِّحُ لَهُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ ۖ وَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ (24)} سورة 59
This should be translated as:
{He is Allah, the Creator, the Maker, the Shaper; to Him belong the best names. All that is in the heavens and the earth glorifies Him. And He is the Mighty, the Wise} Surah 59:24
أبن كثير: وقوله : ( هو الله الخالق البارئ المصور ) الخلق : التقدير ، والبراء : هو الفري ، وهو التنفيذ وإبراز ما قدره وقرره إلى الوجود ، وليس كل من قدر شيئا ورتبه يقدر على تنفيذه وإيجاده سوى الله عز وجل . قال الشاعر يمدح آخر
ولأنت تفري ما خلقت وبعض القوم يخلق ثم لا يفري
أي : أنت تنفذ ما خلقت ، أي : قدرت بخلاف غيرك فإنه لا يستطيع ما يريد . فالخلق : التقدير . والفري : التنفيذ . ومنه يقال : قدر الجلاد ثم فرى ، أي : قطع على ما قدره بحسب ما يريده .
Ibn Katheer said: “the verse: هُوَ اللَّهُ الْخَالِقُ الْبَارِئُ الْمُصَوِّرُ {Al Khalq Al Bare’a Al Moswer}, Al Khalq is Al Taqdeer, Al Bara’a is Alfarry which is the execution and bringing what was determined and decided to existence, and not everyone who decide [plane] something is capable to execute it and bring it to existence, only God Glory to Him can. The Poet said in praise to another:
You execute what you created while others create then do not execute
Meaning: you execute what you Khalqt [determined – planed – decided upon], while others who cannot [execute] what they wanted.” End of extract from Ibn Katheer.
In this verse it is clear that Khalq include only the planning and preparation and it does not include the execution.
So Khalaq indicates the act of determining, define in quantities and measurement, and preparation of all what is required of matter and conditions for the created to begin, evolve and progress till its existence, in the shape and nature as predetermined at the time of al Khalq. and for this reason, we understand: {I am creating a human being from clay} that it could mean creating the human directly from clay, and also it could mean planning all substances and conditions required for beginning the creation from clay and progressing through many phases, till it reach in the end a human being.
Now we need also to show that the Arabic letter Thuma which could be translated as “thereafter” has an important meaning and significance in understanding the verses in which it is mentioned,
Thuma, indicate that the action following it, happens after the action before it, with time in between, that is, if we say you stood Thuma you sat down, then the standing must have occurred first and followed by the sitting. It will not be correct to have been sat first, before you stood.
The time if you have ‘Wa’ translated as ‘and’, if you say I stood ‘wa’ and I sat, either order of activity will be permitted and correct.
Thuma make it a must that the activity before it must take place before the activity after it. Imam al-Tabari will explain this in detail in the verse that we will start with for this reason.
Now, after this long introduction, we look next episode at the verses in which the creation of life was mentioned, to see the meanings contained in these verses.
In order not to make this episodes long, we will not be able to look here at all the verses of creation, this took 18 episodes which extended to more than ten hours in videos, and a book of about 250 pages, both in Arabic language, but I will present here a few verses with regard to the creation of life, that are difficult to explain, if we still assume that God Almighty created Adam directly from clay.
In some verses, we will review parts of the interpretations as written by the honorable early scholars. Whom we respect and appreciate the great work they accomplished, may Allah subhanu reward them for their great contribution towards Islam.
We must take into consideration, that at their time, and even till less than couple of centuries before today, the whole world believed that God created Adam directly from clay, which was clearly stated in Geneses in the Old Testament, this was the human knowledge till recently, so the early most respectable scholars interpreted the relevant verses to mean this, especially as we know, the verses were compiled in a way to allow, to some extent, for such interim interpretation, but with little difficulty, as we will see later.
To Be Continued;