Last, look at the following verses:
{وَهُوَ الَّذِي أَنْشَأَكُمْ مِنْ نَفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ فَمُسْتَقَرٌّ وَمُسْتَوْدَعٌ قَدْ فَصَّلْنَا الْآيَاتِ لِقَوْمٍ يَفْقَهُونَ (98)} سورة الأنعام
{And it is He who produced you from a single living being, then a settled [stable] place and storage. We have detailed the signs for a people who [are able to] comprehend} Chapter 6:98
{خَلَقَكُمْ مِنْ نَفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ ثُمَّ جَعَلَ مِنْهَا زَوْجَهَا}
{He created you from a one being, then from that (being) He made its pair} Chapter 39:6
{مَا خَلْقُكُمْ وَلَا بَعْثُكُمْ إِلَّا كَنَفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ إِنَّ اللَّهَ سَمِيعٌ بَصِيرٌ(28)} سورة لقمان
{Your creation and your resurrection are only as (the creation of) a single being. Allah is Hearing and Knowing} Chapter 31:28
The three verses refer to one Nafs, nafs in Arabic language indicate a living being, and from it the exit of the air as breath, it can refer to a person, like Nafsy and Nafsk: myself and yourself.
The word in the Quran used to refer to the soul as it leaves the body on death, it also a person, human, Angels, Jinn and to Allah Subhanu when He refers to himself. We can take it that Al Nafs could mean a living being.
Now, these verses talking about creation from a one being, then from that (being) God made its other (another one equal and similar). Majority of interpreters took these verses to refer to Adam and from him God created his wife. Taking this from the Israelites, namely from Geneses in the Old Testament. But the verses themselves did not say that.
In the following verse:
{ هُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُمْ مِنْ نَفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ وَجَعَلَ مِنْهَا زَوْجَهَا لِيَسْكُنَ إِلَيْهَا فَلَمَّا تَغَشَّاهَا حَمَلَتْ حَمْلًا خَفِيفًا فَمَرَّتْ بِهِ فَلَمَّا أَثْقَلَتْ دَعَوَا اللَّهَ رَبَّهُمَا لَئِنْ آَتَيْتَنَا صَالِحًا لَنَكُونَنَّ مِنَ الشَّاكِرِينَ (189) فَلَمَّا آَتَاهُمَا صَالِحًا جَعَلَا لَهُ شُرَكَاءَ فِيمَا آَتَاهُمَا فَتَعَالَى اللَّهُ عَمَّا يُشْرِكُونَ (190)}
{He it is Who created you [people] from a single being, and from it He made its mate, that he might reside with her; so when he covers her she bears a light burden, and passed (unnoticed) with it; but when it became heavy, they both prayed to Allah, their Lord: If Thou gives us a good child, we shall be of the thankful. But when He gives them a good child, they set up with Him associates in what He has given them; but high is Allah above what they associate (with Him)} Chapter 7:189
في تفسير ابن كثير: وأما نحن فعلى مذهب الحسن البصري ، رحمه الله ، في هذا [ والله أعلم ] وأنه ليس المراد من هذا السياق آدم وحواء ، وإنما المراد من ذلك المشركون من ذريته ; ولهذا قال الله : ( فتعالى الله عما يشركون ) :
In Ibn Katheer Interpretation, he said: “We are with the school of Al Hassan Al Basri (Allah have merci on him) in this (Allah Knows best) that it is not meant here to refer to Adam and Eve, but it is meant to refer to the infidels from his descendants.”
Same was said by Al Qurtoby and Al Tabari, both said that this verse does not refer to Adam and his wife, but to Al Mushrekeen from Adam’s descendants.
It is worth mentioning here, the Quran did not tell the story of creating the wife of Adam from one of his ribs. If we put aside these verses, which does not really tell such story, there is no verse in the Quran, to indicate that Eve [Hawa’a] was created from Adam. Adam’s wife appeared without any introduction, in the verses when Adam was entering al Jannah. When Adam, not his wife, was lured by the devil to eat from the forbidden tree. If Adam’s wife was created by such miraculous creation as said in the Old Testament, then the Quran would have mentioned it, but the fact that it is not mentioned in the Quran, suggest to us, it is more likely that Adam’s wife creation was ordinary, born from her parents, as the human species were already existing.
So there is no reason why we should refer these verses to the creation of Adam and his wife, we only do so because we have a presumption that Eve was created from Adam’s rib, but if we never heard of this before, we will understand this verse to indicate that the origin of our creation came from a first living being and out of it came its equal. When our science tells us life started from a first cell which divided to produce another one, divided into two parts of a pair, divided creating another exactly similar second, surely we will understand these verses to mean this. What support this meaning is the following verse:
{مَا خَلْقُكُمْ وَلَا بَعْثُكُمْ إِلَّا كَنَفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ إِنَّ اللَّهَ سَمِيعٌ بَصِيرٌ(28)} سورة لقمان
The verse addressed to all people: {Your creation and your resurrection are only as [the creation and the resurrection of] one [single] being. Allah is Hearing and Knowing} Chapter 31:28
Meaning the creation of all of you, and the resurrection, is as creating only one being. One living cell, will progress and evolve to produce all living things.
All of us started from the creation of one single being. Yes, we can understand this to mean Adam, but then there are no other verses to support that his wife was created from him, and in all the mentioning of Adam in the Quran, he was not called Nafs, God called him Adam, Bashar and Insan (to be made into Bashar).
On the other hand, if we look at these verses, without any preconception or bias, we simply will understand them to refer to the first living cell that appeared on our planet, which had the ability of multiplying by division. Which is what our scientists tell us how life emerged on Earth some 4 billion years ago.
So the one Nafs refers to the first living cell that appeared on this planet, then it divided into two cells, as the reproduction was in the first stages by division, as is still till today in the case of bacteria, and when the first cell was divided into two cells, it created its other half of a pair, which is identical to the first. This is exactly what happened to the first cell on earth.
As for the reference to the verse:
{يَاأَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اتَّقُوا رَبَّكُمُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُمْ مِنْ نَفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ وَخَلَقَ مِنْهَا زَوْجَهَا وَبَثَّ مِنْهُمَا رِجَالًا كَثِيرًا وَنِسَاءً وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ الَّذِي تَسَاءَلُونَ بِهِ وَالْأَرْحَامَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَلَيْكُمْ رَقِيبًا(1)} سورة لنساء
{O, mankind! reverence your Lord, Who created you from a single being and from it created its pair and dispersed from them numerous men and women…} Chapter 4:1
We know that between the single cell, and the numerous men and women dispersed in the land, there is a very long time long time which could extend to billions of years, same as the time it took from the first creation from dust till our appearance and spreading of people on earth, as in the following verse: {And of His signs is that He created you from dust; then, suddenly you are human beings dispersing [throughout the earth]} Chapter 30:20
{وَمِنْ آيَاتِهِ أَنْ خَلَقَكُم مِّن تُرَابٍ ثُمَّ إِذَا أَنتُم بَشَرٌ تَنتَشِرُونَ (20)} سورة الروم
{And it is He who produced you from a single living being, then a settled [stable] place and storage. We have detailed the signs for a people who [are able to] comprehend} Chapter 6:98
{وَهُوَ الَّذِي أَنْشَأَكُمْ مِنْ نَفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ فَمُسْتَقَرٌّ وَمُسْتَوْدَعٌ قَدْ فَصَّلْنَا الْآيَاتِ لِقَوْمٍ يَفْقَهُونَ(98)} سورة الأنعام
The single living cell, the first cell of which all living things evolved, had in its nucleic acid RNA [later became DNA], the DNA are the most important vehicle of life and evolution. DNA needed for their success to settle in a safe protected place, (Mustaqr مُسْتَقَرٌّ) that was in the core of the cell, which developed a double strong wall to protect the DNA which sets deep in its Nuclei. Scientist called this cell, Eukaryotic cell.
The verse also described it as store, as a stable place where you store things of value, the DNA is kind of a book written in it all the building information of the creature, a precisely scheduled building plan with executive abilities, a record of all important past and new experience, and many more, all stored in a fantastic arrangement of thousands of 4 nucleotide writing all information and data, always in pair (Double helix).
Conclusion:
It is clear from these episodes that the direct interpretation of the verses that we reviewed do not indicate that the creation of the human species was an immediate creation risen directly from clay. Rather, creation was through a progressive stages that had a start, duration and completion. And these verses can be interpreted – without imposing a specific predetermined meaning on them, such as the creation of Adam directly from clay – could be interpreted with ease in accordance with their straight forward direct meaning, to find that they point to a directed evolutionary creation, in line with the evolution concept in its general outline, and that the human kind, the homo sapience, Al Bashar, were completed by possible direct intervention, which explain our conscious and advanced cognitive abilities.
The Qur’anic marvel on the subject of human creation is evident in the verses that indicates with ease and clarity that the creation of man was evolutionary over a period of time until the appearance of the Homo sapiens species with its ability to reason and communicate through language.
We said that the Qur’anic text is miraculous because it did not follow the prevailing knowledge during the time of its revelation in the 7th century, and disagreed with the Books that preceded it. if it was from other than God Almighty it would not had differed from the prevailing concepts and would not had disagreed with the religions of those who came before it. It is a miracle, because it preceded the modern scientific advances in the subjects of the creation of life and the creation of the universe.
There was no time to cover the subject of the creation of the universe here in these episodes; however, a detailed study can be found at the website of Almudarabah and in the episodes of “The Qur’an and contemporary science” on this channel, which were published in Arabic language, waiting for translation in the future Insha’Allah.
Allah said in Surat Fasalat:
{سَنُرِيهِمْ آيَاتِنَا فِي الْآفَاقِ وَفِي أَنفُسِهِمْ حَتَّىٰ يَتَبَيَّنَ لَهُمْ أَنَّهُ الْحَقُّ ۗ أَوَلَمْ يَكْفِ بِرَبِّكَ أَنَّهُ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ شَهِيدٌ} (53) سورة فصلت
{We will show them Our signs in the horizons and within themselves, until it become clear to them that this [The Quran] is the truth. Is it not enough that your Lord is witness on all things} Chapter 41:53
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