Let’s look at another verse:
في قوله تعالى {وَاللَّهُ خَلَقَكُمْ مِنْ تُرَابٍ ثُمَّ مِنْ نُطْفَةٍ ثُمَّ جَعَلَكُمْ أَزْوَاجًا …….}(11) سورة فاطر،
{Allah created you from dust, thereafter from [Nutfah] little liquid, thereafter He made you pairs (male and female)} Chapter 35:11
Al-Qurtoby said in his interpretation: “The Almighty saying: God created you from dust, then from sperm. Sa3id narrated that Qatada said: It means Adam, PBUH, and he referred to this: He created your origin from dust, then from sperm, he said: meaning that he brought it [the sperm] out from the backs of your fathers. Then He made you pairs, said: marry each of you to the other.” End of quote.
Other interpreters said similar to what Al Qurtoby said. But as thuma was used to connect the three events, their order of occurrence must be as the order in the verse, so the correct order is, first: creation from dust, followed by: creation from Nutfah, followed by: making into pairs, male and female. So al Nutfah cannot be a sperm, because male were not made yet.
If we look in the dictionary for the meaning of Nutfah, we find it means little water. In Muajam Lisan Al Arab, Abu Manthor said: “Arabs name the little water Nutfah, and the lot of water Nutfah, but it is more precise for the little water”. End of quote.
If we look in the verse 8 of Surat Al Sajdah: {Then He made his descendants from lineage of insignificant fluid (8)} Chapter 32. We find that the insignificant fluid is the Nutfah.
Here in the verse: {Allah created you from dust, then from a [Nutfah] little liquid, then He made you pairs (male and female)} Chapter 35:11 We find that Al Nutfah if we take it to mean sperm, it preceded the making of the pairs, male and female, which could not be, so Al Nutfah in this context is not the sperm (or the egg) as it is in other verses related to the embryos in the womb – So it is not the semen, sperm or the fertilized egg, because the male and female were not made yet.
Therefore, the mentioned Nutfah must be an early evolutionary stage of the chain of the creation, which began as a cell from earth elements, and it reproduced according to the verse {Then He made his descendants from lineage of insignificant fluid (8)}. Now, if it did not reproduce by marriage, because the husbands and wives were not made yet, the reproduction must have been by division, and we also conclude this from the verse: (He created you from one Nafs [living being = cell]. Then He made from it its pair) Chapter 38:6 Here Allah created the first living cell and then made it split on itself to create an equal second (its pair), this actually describes the multiplication of a living cell by division.
Therefore, the direct interpretation of the verse indicates the creation from the elements of the earth (the first cell), then from the living cell multiplying by division, and after that reproducing by mating between male and female.
We know that the first creatures came from elements in the earth, it appeared around 3.8 billion years ago, a simple, primitive single cell without a nucleus that multiplies by division. At around 1.9 billion years ago, more sophisticated creatures appeared and although they were single cells, they contained nucleus and devices for storing food and breathing. Around 1.2 billion years ago they evolved into multicellular, thereafter, the started to reproduce by mating rather than dividing. This led to the start of the emergence of new species, and after that, they evolved until the multicellular organisms diversified and branched into many million different species till the homo species appeared a few million years ago.
We go back to the previous verse, and read it in the light of our modern knowledge:
{Allah created you from dust, then from [Nutfah] little liquid, then He made you pairs (male and female)} Chapter 35:11
Notice that this verse listed in sequence the basic stages of the evolution of early living organisms, from dead soil with no life in it to a living cell (unicellular) that multiplies by division, thereafter multiple cells (multicellular) paired into male and female that reproduce by mating.
Verse 59 of Surah Al Omran:
:{إِنَّ مَثَلَ عِيسَى عِنْدَ اللَّهِ كَمَثَلِ آدَمَ خَلَقَهُ مِنْ تُرَابٍ ثُمَّ قَالَ لَهُ كُنْ فَيَكُونُ} سورة آل عمران:59
{To God, the likeness of Jesus is as the likeness of Adam. He created him from dust, then He said unto him: Be! And he was} Chapter 3:59
We know that Isa [Jesus] (A.S.) was not created directly from dust, but the origin of the species was created from dust. As this is one of the likeness between him and Adam, then we can conclude that Adam also was not created directly from dust, and that they are both from the same human species. The verse here also determine that Jesus is from the human race, and this was the answer to the claim which Al Nassara (the Christians in the Arabian Peninsula) raised to the Prophet PBUH.
في قوله تعالى: {لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الْإِنسَانَ فِي أَحْسَنِ تَقْوِيمٍ (4) ثُمَّ رَدَدْنَاهُ أَسْفَلَ سَافِلِينَ (5)} سورة التين.
{We have created the human being in the best [Taqweem] upright standing; thereafter we reduced him to the lowest of the low} Chapter 95/4
The word Taqweem, is from Qyam or Qam which means upright standing, stood and stand up.
According the early Arabic Muajam, Maqayees Al Lughah: Taqweem from Qawm, have two basic origins, the first means group of people, the second means to stand upright in strength.
Here the verse tells us that God created humans in the best upright standing posture. This is what we know as there are no other creature or animal who have a better standing posture than the human being, and science tells us that this ability to stand on two legs enabled him to free and use his hands in many useful things, including making stone tools and weapons that helped him outperform other creatures much more stronger than him. And no one doubts that the ability of a person to stand on his feet was a very important stage in the history of his evolution.
When the Qur’an states that man was created in the best Taqweem, i.e., best stand and best standing posture, it emphasizes the importance of this quality that distinguishes man from other creatures. But this step has not yet elevated him to the stage of being the honored creature, but rather this stage made him as we have said, able to make some primitive stone weapons, which, although they helped him to hunt and confront other animals that are stronger than him, he used them against others of his own species, so he killed of his own kind and spread fear and evil in the land, that is why the following verse described him that after he was created in best taqweem –standing- {Thereafter We reduced him to the lowest of the low} since we do not know of any other creatures on earth, do evil and kill of its own kind like man.
وفي قوله سبحانه وتعالى: { وَرَبُّكَ الْغَنِيُّ ذُو الرَّحْمَةِ ۚ إِن يَشَأْ يُذْهِبْكُمْ وَيَسْتَخْلِفْ مِن بَعْدِكُم مَّا يَشَاءُ كَمَا أَنشَأَكُم مِّن ذُرِّيَّةِ قَوْمٍ آخَرِينَ (133)} سورة الأنعام
قوله تعالى {كما أنشأكم من ذرية قوم آخرين} نجد هنا معنى هام، إذ نحن – أي النوع البشري – نشأنا من ذرية قوم آخرين، لاحظ هذا الطبري، إذ يقول في تفسيره: “يهلك خلقه هؤلاء الذين خلقهم من ولد آدم {ويستخلف من بعدكم ما يشاء} يقول: ويأت بخلق غيركم، وأمم سواكم يخلفونكم في الأرض من بعدكم، يعني: من بعد فنائكم وهلاككم . {كما أنشأكم من ذرية قوم آخرين} كما أحدثكم وابتدعكم من بعد خلق آخرين كانوا قبلكم” .بينما ذهب ابن كثير الى ان الله تعالى كما أذهب القرون الأولى وأتى بالتي بعدها كذلك هو قادر على إذهاب هؤلاء والإتيان بآخرين، ولكنه لم يتعرض لشرح دلالة لفظ من ذرية قوم آخرين.
The following verse 133 Surah 6 inform us about important step in our creation:
{Your Lord is the Absolute and the merciful. If He wills, He can destroy you and appoint after you whomever He wishes, just as He produced you from the descendants of another people}. Chapter 6:133
In {As He produced you from the offspring of other different people [beings]} we find here a very important meaning, We, the human beings, were raised, produced, from the descendants of other different people.
Al Tabari noticed this as he said in his interpretation: “He destroys those whom He created from the children of Adam and {appoint after you whoever He wishes} and He brings other beings different than you, and nations other than you to take your place in the Earth after you, meaning after your destruction and perish. {As He raised you from the offspring of other beings} As He made you and created you after other creatures (Khalq) [noun] who were before you.” End of quote.
The time Ibn Katheer interpreted this verse, that as God destroyed the old centuries (nations) and brought the ones that replaced them, is able to destroy you and replace you with others, but Ibn Katheer did not interpret or explain {as He raised you from the descendants of another people}.
{ أَلَمْ تَرَ أَنَّ اللَّهَ خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ بِالْحَقِّ ۚ إِن يَشَأْ يُذْهِبْكُمْ وَيَأْتِ بِخَلْقٍ جَدِيدٍ (19)}
If we came from the offspring of the others who were before us, then we are there grandchildren’s, descendants, and will not be called others. The same meaning shows also in the verse {Have you not seen that Allah created the heavens and the earth with truth? If He wills, He can remove you and bring (in) a new creation} Chapter 14:19 Here new creation could mean a new species which is different than us.
The modern human type (the Homo sapiens) from which we are, originated from the offspring of another species that precedes it, we have followed many other earlier human types, including Homo erectus, Neanderthal and others, all of these species became extinct and only us remained, and we and them are all branches of an earlier origin of homo species before all of us. This is what the verse points to, because although we came from them, although we are their descendants, and they are our ancestors, they were other than us, meaning other species, and the difference here is in the type and not in the lineage.
To Be Continued in the Next Episode
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Creation & Evolution Episode 5 of 9