The Constant of Evolution

The Constant of Evolution
By: Muhammad Kamran Rifat

The history of the word evolution goes back to 1640’s and was derived from the word evolvere’. It was used in various senses in medicine, mathematics, and general use, including "growth to maturity and development of an individual living thing”. The word’s first modern use in biology, of species, was attested in 1832 by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell. Charles Darwin used the word only once, in the closing paragraph of "The Origin of Species" (1859), and preferred descent with modification, in part because evolution already had been used in the 18c. Homunculus theory of embryological development (first proposed under this name by Bonnet, 1762), in part because it carried a sense of "progress" not found in Darwin's idea. But Victorian belief in progress prevailed (along with brevity), and Herbert Spencer and other biologists popularized evolution.

Evolution had been the talk of the world for ages now and yet no consensus has been reached. There are many theories, definition and information on the topic of evolution but surprisingly the confusion is still there especially with reference to the creation of the universe and the mankind. The theories presented by the evolutionists are being challenged by the revolutionists and those who believe in creationism.  The Darwin’s theory of evolution, the Big bang theory of revolution, comparison between evolution and creation, Alfred Russel Wallace’s theory of evolution and many more but the conflicts remain stand still. The problem perhaps is because of the varied interpretation of one word ‘evolution’ by scientists, biologists, physicists, engineers and others. 

The simplest definition of the word evolution is ‘a continuing process of change from one state and condition to another’. Things looks pretty simple but the more you read the more confused you will be; should you read the point of the biologists like Charles Darwin, an evolutionist, and his ‘Darwin Theory’ of evolution of man from different specie – monkey; the Big Bang theory of evolution, a revolutionist point of view, maintains that the beginning of the universe started after a big explosion in the galaxies; the French natural philosopher Jean Baptiste de Lamarck (1744-1829), one of the leading proponents of acquired characteristics, maintained that giraffes had gained their long necks from the need to stretch and reach leaves at the top of tall trees; the claim of mechanists that humans were mere machines whose activities could be understood purely in terms of physical and chemical processes. So on and so forth.

The first systematic presentation of evolution was put forth by the French scientist Jean Baptiste de Lamarck (1774-1829) in 1809. Lamarck described a mechanism by which he believed evolution could occur. This mechanism was known as "the inheritance of acquired characteristics." In his theory Lamarck argued, legless salamanders evolved from salamanders by inheriting the acquired characteristic of having no legs. Lamarck presented no experimental evidence or observation and his theory fell out of scientific favor. The next significant idea came from the British scientist Charles Darwin.

According to biology, the term ‘evolution’ has been defined as ‘the change in the inherited traits of a population from a generation to the next’. The idea is that these genetic traits are passed on to offspring during the process of reproduction. New traits enter the genetic pool when either a population migrates from one habitat (area) to another and adapts or a species reproduces with another species. During this process, the ‘final outcome’ species that manages to adapt by either means survives, whereas the unfit ones become extinct. This process is called Natural Selection.

The Theory of Evolution based on the process of Natural Selection was first propounded by Charles Darwin in his book ‘On the Origin of Species’ published in 1859. In that book Darwin also maintained that all the species have descended from a common genetic pool. This theory has formed the basis of modern biological thought which explains the diversity of life on Earth.

Within the explanations of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution it has also been explained that the process of Natural Selection ensures that these genetic changes enhance the process of reproduction and they become more common from this generation to the next. Thus, many traits which are proved to be useful are passed on to the offspring. More offspring are produced so that this process can work and ensure that the surviving offspring are the ones which are best suited or adapted to the new habitat or environment.

In this modern theory of evolution, he proposed that all of species of organisms present today, including humans, evolved slowly over billions of years, from a common ancestor by way of natural selection. This idea said that the individuals best adapted to their habitat passed on their traits to their offspring. Over time these advantageous qualities accumulated and transformed the individual in to a species entirely different from its ancestors (e.g. birds from reptiles, whales from bears, humans from apes, etc.).

I do agree with most part of his theory but even as a layman I find it difficult to absorb that human evolved from apes. The point he made is understandable but only if he could have portrayed the transformation and change in one single species over the period of time instead of transformation of a species in to another – this does not seem natural, it could have been more relative. Naturally the changes over time take place in species but they cannot possibly transform in to an altogether different species. It is also a fact that apes existed even when humans existed on the earth in old times. So to say that apes transformed to become human is confusing. Charles Darwin was no wonder mesmerized, like everyone else, by the existence of a lot of different species and whilst he observed their evolution he probably thought that they have all came in to existence because of transformation occurred in species over a period of time. 

The Beauty of the Creator is that every single species is different from the other. Even in humans, like Darwin pointed out in his theory, every individual is different from the other. The Artistry of Allah is such that even the finger prints of one individual are dissimilar from the other, let alone the facial structures, voices and hair etc. The only reason we find a similarity between two different people is because we have already seen a particular person. This is the reason why finger prints have so much importance nowadays and are thought to be the identity verifier of the individual. The voices of individuals are so different from one another that you differentiate and identify a certain person from the voice alone. A blind person uses the distinguished voice for recognition.

So in short the definition of the evolution given by the biologists does hold ground as far as the change in the inherited traits of population from a generation to the next. And Darwin’s theory proves that the evolution exist in this universe and people evolve over the course of time but the only missing link one finds is the changeover of a species in to an entirely different one. Having said that, one has to admit that he gave his best shot at it and the theory is definitely a landmark in science and the way Darwin expressed his opinion on various aspects of life is worth reading. You’ve really got to be strong to survive in the world today.

Continuing on the topic of evolution, I would now discuss Big bang theory to take this discussion to the next stage.

The Big Bang was an event which led to the formation of the universe, according to the prevailing cosmological theory of the universe's early development (known as the Big Bang theory or Big Bang model). According to the Big Bang model, the universe originally was an extremely hot and dense state that expanded rapidly, has since cooled by expanding to the present diluted state, and continues to expand today. Based on the best available measurements as of 2010, the original state of the universe existed around 13.7 billion years ago, which is often referred to as the time when the Big Bang occurred. The theory is the most comprehensive and accurate explanation supported by scientific evidence and observations.

Georges Lemaître proposed what became known as the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe, although he called it his "hypothesis of the primeval atom". The framework for the model relies on Albert Einstein's general relativity and on simplifying assumptions (such as homogeneity and isotropy of space). The governing equations had been formulated by Alexander Friedmann. After Edwin Hubble discovered in 1929 that the distances to far away galaxies were generally proportional to their redshifts, as suggested by Lemaître in 1927, this observation was taken to indicate that all very distant galaxies and clusters have an apparent velocity directly away from our vantage point: the farther away, the higher the apparent velocity. If the distance between galaxy clusters is increasing today, everything must have been closer together in the past. This idea has been considered in detail back in time to extreme densities and temperatures, and large particle accelerators have been built to experiment on and test such conditions, resulting in significant confirmation of the theory, but these accelerators have limited capabilities to probe into such high energy regimes. Without any evidence associated with the earliest instant of the expansion, the Big Bang theory cannot and does not provide any explanation for such an initial condition; rather, it describes and explains the general evolution of the universe since that instant. The observed abundances of the light elements throughout the cosmos closely match the calculated predictions for the formation of these elements from nuclear processes in the rapidly expanding and cooling first minutes of the universe, as logically and quantitatively detailed according to Big Bang nucleosynthesis.

Fred Hoyle is credited with coining the term Big Bang during a 1949 radio broadcast. It is popularly reported that Hoyle, who favored an alternative "steady state" cosmological model, intended this to be pejorative, but Hoyle explicitly denied this and said it was just a striking image meant to highlight the difference between the two models. Hoyle later helped considerably in the effort to understand stellar nucleosynthesis, the nuclear pathway for building certain heavier elements from lighter ones. After the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation in 1964, and especially when its spectrum (i.e., the amount of radiation measured at each wavelength) was found to match that of thermal radiation from a black body, most scientists were fairly convinced by the evidence that some version of the Big Bang scenario must have occurred.

The early hot, dense phase is itself referred to as "the Big Bang", and is considered the "birth" of our Universe. Research showed that it took approximately 10−37 seconds into the expansion, a phase transition caused a cosmic inflation, during which the Universe grew exponentially. There are many other dimensions which are being discussed in the theory but in order to keep things simple I have mentioned the basic theme only.

Big Bang theory has been hailed, accredited, being criticized and disregarded at the same time. Some scientists see the theory as a window opening onto the history of the universe. Dr. Russell Cannon supported the Big Bang theory in the following words:
“We’ve known for a long time that the best theory for the universe is the Big Bang—that started in some enormous explosion in a tiny space and it expanded ever since.” Sir Martin Rees, well known Cambridge University astronomer, noted that despite using different statistical techniques and observations, the team arrived at the same conclusion, and that he regarded this as an indication of the results’ accuracy. Dr. Eisenstein and Colless’ team determined a match between the ripples seen in Cosmic Background Radiation and those in the distances between galaxies. It was thus established that the galaxies seeded in places where matter that emerged 350,000 years after the Big Bang concentrated in slightly higher densities. Commenting at a press conference he said, “We regard this as smoking-gun evidence that gravity has played the major role in growing from the initial seeds in the microwave background (left over from the big Bang) into the galaxies and clusters of galaxies that we see around us.”

But those who question the theory like Gene Zimmer, wrote in the research paper ‘Creationism vs Evolution’ that blaming the existence of the universe on some ‘cosmic incident’ is as ludicrous as anything else. What does this even really mean? If there was nothing else there at all, in any form, then how could there have been an “accident”. What? Possibly, “two completely empty universes were moving through space, each minding their own business, when they contacted, and suddenly out of the contradictory natures of the two, our universe begun?” Of course, how could they be moving through space, if first there wasn’t any space, and they really didn’t exist in any form and therefore couldn’t be moving? There has never been an accident anywhere which didn’t involve things, events and situations. Calling it an accident is simply coming up with some abstraction which explains a phenomena one doesn’t understand and is unable to adequately explain, and accepting this notion (of a cosmic accident) betrays one’s intellectual dullness. The truth is that you or no one else has a clue how it all started, where it came from or why. But you think you know. You are convinced you know. You believe you know. And while many people may view this as being true for the religious person, it is also equally true for the modern scientific person (who thinks he is immune from all this – but he’s not at all).

In the same paper he says that, “the notion of everything appearing spontaneously out of nothing is supplied as a scientific theory because nobody has any other reasonable explanation – reasonable meaning that it must be explained without any resort to invisible agents such as God, Divine Will or disembodied beings. The truth is simply that there is no explanation for it within the framework of materialistic science. The spontaneous coming into existence of the universe, all by itself, and for no reason, is as much a fairy tale, derived from the realm of pure imagination, as any religious notions. This would be fine as long as it’s said to be only that, simply a theory, a guess, a product of someone’s overactive imagination, and not pretended to be something else – a scientific fact or fact of reality. But, first, neither you, nor me, nor anyone else was there to observe what actually happened, so I think it best (intellectually best) if we all right now just stop this absurd speculating, or at least stop pretending that our speculations represent anything more than mere personal fancy and opinion. Second, how is believing the idea that everything appeared out of nothing, for no apparent reason and with no apparent cause, more scientific and sensible than the idea that a Supreme Being did it? From a strict application of reason, possible verification, and experience both notions are ludicrous.

By definition, something must be eternal (as we have “something” today and something cannot come from “nothing”, so there was never a time when there was “nothing”). Either the universe itself is eternal, or something/someone outside of and greater than the universe is eternal. We know that the universe is not eternal; it had a beginning (as evidenced by its expansion). Therefore, God (someone outside of the universe) must exist and must have created the universe. Einstein showed that space and time are related. If there is no space there is no time. Before the universe was created there was no space and therefore no concept of time. This is hard for us to understand as we are space-time creatures, but it allows for God to be an eternal being, completely consistent with scientific laws. The question “who created God” is therefore an improper/invalid question, as it is a time-based question (concerning the point in time at which God came into existence) but God exists outside of time as the un-caused first cause. Reference: The Privileged Planet (Gonzalez/Richards)

So far, evolution has been discussed in two aspects one that deals with the origin of the universe and the second one about humans. In both of the theories presented the shades of evolution with respect to the changes occur over the period of time are mentioned in one form or the other. But in the light of science and philosophy either they go far ahead (where they even lose the meaning of evolution altogether) or are restrained. The main question, the philosophical answer of which everyone is looking for is ‘Who created the Universe, the living being and non living things?’ This debate is never ending one unless a consensus achieved among all the philosophers, scientists, evolutionists and revolutionists, to name a few.

It is clearly mentioned in the Holy Quran that Who is the Creator of the Universe and human beings and everything present on this universe. Five times in the Quran, it is said that Allah Has Created the Universe in six days and not only that the sun, the moon, the stars, the skies, the days and nights and to the extent of regulating and governing everything.

Undoubtedly, your Lord is Allah, Who created the heavens and earth in six days, then established Himself on the Throne befitting to His Dignity. He covers the night and day by each other following it swiftly, and made the sun and moon and stars all subservient to His command. Behold! His is the creation and command. Blessed is Allah, the Lord of the Worlds. (Chapter 7, Surah Al-A'raf, verse 54)

Verily your Lord is Allah, who created the heavens and the earth in six days, and is firmly established on the throne (of authority), regulating and governing all things. No intercessor (can plead with Him) except after His leave (hath been obtained). This is Allah your Lord; Him therefore serve ye: will ye not receive admonition? (Chapter 10, Surah Yunus, verse 3)

He it is Who created the heavens and the earth in six Days - and His Throne was over the waters - that He might try you, which of you is best in conduct. But if thou wert to say to them, "Ye shall indeed be raised up after death", the Unbelievers would be sure to say, "This is nothing but obvious sorcery!" (Chapter 11, Surah Hud, verse 7)

It is Allah Who has created the heavens and the earth, and all between them, in six Days, and is firmly established on the Throne (of Authority): ye have none, besides Him, to protect or intercede (for you): will ye not then receive admonition? (Chapter 32, Surah As-Sajda, verse 4)

It is He Who created the heavens and the earth in six days, then seated Himself upon the Throne befitting to His Dignity. He knows what penetrates in the earth and what comes forth from it, and what comes down from heaven and what ascends into it. And He is with you wherever you may be. And Allah is seeing your works. (Chapter 57, Surah Al-Hadid, verse 4)

Quran has used the word ‘Khalaq’ for creation which indeed is evolution as everything happened gradually and step by step without any abruptness. And all of this happened according to a Plan, Process and Mechanism. It was not like that one fine day He thought of Creating the universe and the next moment It was there. No, it didn’t come about in this manner. Quran tells us that all of this was created in six days time, so even if we consider them the six days of our world, although they are not, it is still believable that there was a certain mechanism through which everything evolved. The Process of Evolution is the Sunnah of Almighty – something He prefers, although being Omnipotent it was not a difficult thing for Him to create everything much before the blink of an eye. But He Designed everything through a certain Process and Mechanism – everything evolved over a period of time. Almighty Has His Own Methods, Mechanisms, Will and Scheme of Things. Also had it not been something that came in to being through a process the word ‘Khalaq’ would not have been used.

The six days mentioned in Quran are not the six days that are existent in world having a span of twenty four hours. There are two types of days in the Heavens above; one is called ‘the day of God’ and the other one is called ‘the day of Allah’. The span of one day of God is equal to ten thousand years of this world and fifty thousand years in the case of the day of Allah. The six days mentioned in Quran with respect to six days of Creation are the days of Allah, so it comes around to 300,000 years in which everything evolved from nothing through a process and mechanism.

To understand the word Khalaq which means creation, the best example could be of human being. In the case of human being the few million sperms from the body of the father unites with one egg of the mother. The million sperms of male push and support each other but out of these millions of sperm only one unites with the egg and which sperm will do that it’s only in the Knowledge of the Knower. Every sperm is in itself is a universe. That one sperm and the one egg carry in themselves a complete picture of a comprehensive human being, who is a composition of millions and trillions of different – functionally different set ups. It has various kinds of cells, organs so much so that everything in it is different. But this all is present in once single cell – sperm. One cell takes at least eighteen years time for its development and the egg takes about 13-14 years time for its development. This much time is required for the development of one cell only and after that one month time for each egg.
So the overall universal concept of Creation (Khalaq) is part and parcel of this model and picture. The process of Creation of the universe also started with unicellular organism. That unicellular organism took years in development, just like sperm. During whole of this time it had the entire image which should be there in the mortal Universe. When that unicellular organism got transferred in to a medium in which it had to grow by uniting with another cell (egg), then there it opened itself in the same manner as the cell of a human being opens itself; by multiplying effect it brings about all the qualities and abilities like one become eyes, the other one becomes nose, ear, tongue, heart, liver, arteries, abdomen, brain, kidney and etc. Similarly the unicellular organism had all the qualities. When it interacted with the particular medium, then as per its own development it carried all those shades.

From this unicellular organism some portion became bacteria known as virus, some became bi-cellular, tri-cellular and multi-cellular. The smallest part of the multi-cellular organism turned developed in to Ant, a slightly bigger part turned into fly, a somewhat bigger portion than this developed in to cockroach, the portion larger than this turned in to lizard, so on and so forth. All of this is definitely part of that evolution. And when the unicellular organism got converted in to 18,000 different types of species then all of the species were instructed, based on the same evolutionary process, to further develop their own race. But the system in this also remained the unchanged that one cell has to unite with the other cell and together they will grow. Hence the ant formed ants, fly flies, cockroach cockroaches, lizard lizards and etc.  From these flies those who got better food got bigger in size and those lizards that got good foodstuff turned bigger than the size of lizard family. In the same manner all the species that got better foodstuff, location etc. grew accordingly. The Sunnah of evolution was followed in the development of every creation be it human beings, animals, trees, crops, plants and universe etc. The trees also grow from a seed which uses earth and water as a medium to grow itself; all the crops and plants too were created in the similar fashion. The nature of reproduction is the same, evolution, and there has been no change in it right from the start and there will be no change in it till the very end.

Further to the brief mention of the evolutionary process of a human being, it takes nine months after the mutation of one of the millions of sperm with an egg for it to transform in to a living being. In all of these nine months the changes that occur during the course of pregnancy are gradual and step by step. Every week there is a certain change and it goes on till the child is born. The heart, the hands, the body, heart, stomach, kidneys, legs, face, ear, nose, eyes and others all evolve in a certain manner and there has been no alteration in this step by step mechanism since its inception. The life and soul comes in to a child after the passing of a specific number of weeks. Had Allah Willed a child could have been born in micro seconds being Almighty it is nothing for Him but yet a process of child birth was evolved and every single individual has born through this process of reproduction without any exception. Not just human beings but all the living beings have a process of reproduction. Think about it, was it difficult for Allah to bring a child to life after a man has only thought that he want a child from his wife, not at all. Or it could have just happened by the touch but the mechanism of reproduction was preferred over everything else. Even the test tube method, the achievement of the scientist, takes nine months to transform in to a baby.

The evolution process of a child that starts from coming in to existence, teething, learning to walk and talk, learn the customs and civilization etc. goes on until the death of the individual and even after that. Every single day an individual goes through a change and continues to evolve mentally, physically, emotionally and professionally. For him the world is a platform where he develops himself by going through the different course of events. Considering the verse above which says about the six day creation, one another way of looking at those six days could be six stages that the human being normally goes through in his life span. 1. Birth, 2. Childhood, 3. Adulthood, 4. Middle age, 5. Old Age, 6. Death. Throughout these six stages the one thing that change big time is the wisdom. And it is one thing, other than the physical appearance, through which one determines the level of a certain individual. The evolution of wisdom thus denotes the change in the individual irrespective of the physical appearance and age. In our daily life routine we continue to judge through their wisdom, the more wise a person the more mature we think he is and vice versa.

The above examples are from our daily life and all shows evolution and one does not see a sign of revolution in any of there are plenty of other examples as well. There is no such thing like revolution, it is only an illusion. We name it revolution because we take in to account the current scenario only but if we do consider the situation from its very beginning, the definite conclusion will be evolution. Take the simple example of a car accident, at first instance it might look revolution but if you start unfolding events from the scratch you would know that the whole situation has evolved. Both the person driving car left the place they were at for a specific destination, one of them might have driven fast and the other one slow or the combination of fast and slow speed to reach there. They both would have encountered the traffic signals to reach a certain place together at a particular time and when these small events coincided with the Divine Will, the accident happened. It will thus be called evolution and not revolution.

The definition of revolution itself suggests the same. Revolution is derived from the Latin word revolution, which means ‘a turnaround’; it is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time. All the revolutions that occurred so far on the face of the earth have in fact evolved from a certain situation to reach to the point of break out. Many of them took years of constant developments to reach that point. Like the Glorious Revolution (1688), the French Revolution (1789-99), the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Chinese Revolution (1927-1949), English Civil War, the American Revolution, the Iranian and Nicaraguan Revolution of 1979, the 1986 People Power Revolution in Philippines, the 1989 Autumn of Nations in Europe, Islamic Revolution in Afghanistan, May Coup of 1926 and Freedom Struggle of the Sub Continent etc. Once we look closely in to the course of events from the very beginning till the very end, it will turn out that all of these in fact evolved step by step from a certain situation and broke out only at a certain period of time – which we think are revolution but it is not.

In the same way, when a person murders someone it cannot be called revolution because it has also evolved from particular situation. The murderer normally has a clash of opinion, family feud or some other reason to murder a person. When the clash aggravates and reaches to ultimate level – point of no return, he set upon killing that person. In order to kill the individual he must have moved out from the place he currently is at. He must have reached a particular place where he can get hold of that individual. Once he reached there and saw him, there must have been some arguments and talk – one thing led to the other and then all of a sudden he shot him. He got killed. It is pretty clear that whole situation evolved over a span of time days, months or years right from the start till the very end. These are things that the police find out during investigation and are brought in to the notice of the court as well.

Evolution, the Sunnah of Allah, also can be seen in the revelation of Holy Quran. It was not impossible for Him to reveal the whole Quran, which has only six thousand six hundred and sixty six verses, in one instance but once again the preference was given to process. Holy Quran was revealed in 23 years, in the form of divine revelations, through the Apostle of Allah Muhammad (PBUH). In doing so, the evolution of the people, to whom the verses of the Holy Quran were to be read, was given a due consideration. As believers progressed in their understanding of the religion Islam, the verse or verses of the Quran would be revealed.

Even the worships in Islam are applicable on an individual gradually and upon reaching certain level of maturity, age and wisdom. Like Prayers, which becomes obligatory at the age of ten years, Fasting; at the age of twelve, Zakat; when you have in possession a predetermined amount of money, ornaments etc. and Hajj; when you have the desired ability, wisdom, health and age. All these pillars of Islam are applicable turn by turn and with the evolution as Muslim after embracing Islam over the course of life.

The great Sufi Hazrat Ali Hajveri (R.A), popularly known as Data Gunj Baksh, journeyed constantly for 63 years and in all those years he braved many challenges and nothing deterred him in his quest for knowledge. Every time a challenging situation appeared he faced up to it and restart his journey but never stopped in his mission. Ultimately he reached a point when his resolve and persistence paid off and he evolved as a great Sufi of his time, when his bona fide voyage coincided with the Divine Will. Even in the recent times he is being hailed and acknowledged as a great Sufi and his name will live till the day judgment as a Blessing and Reward from Allah for his true journey and quest. Life indeed is a journey and constant process of progression and those who remain persistent in their journey certainly get dividends as per the Divine Will.

Man himself has evolved over the centuries; from being a cave man to reach this stage of living in state of the art houses and enjoying modern facilities, all this happened through a process and over the course of centuries – step by step. He used to travel by foot and then on the camel and horses and gradually came the cars and aero planes. It was not a sudden progression, rather it took centuries to reach this stage and all was possible because of the evolution of wisdom. The civilizations over the centuries have also developed. Human being used to cut wood to light the fire, for heating and cooking, and now we have gas for the same purpose. The cave man never thought about reaching the moon but now it has been achieved. They used to fight with sticks and swords in the yesteryears but now they have the latest arms and ammunitions. They used to throw huge stones on the opposition back then and now we have bombs, missiles, nuclear bomb, anti aircraft guns and etc. He used to send people with a message and now it reaches the other corner of the world by just one click via email. So on and so forth. The bottom line is that the man himself has developed and the change was gradual. Most of the latest technology we see nowadays in fact evolved from scratch to this modern level. In nutshell all of the greatest discoveries, innovations and inventions are indeed evolution of a thought. One can see the reflection of evolution everywhere around us and in just about everything.

All major work places, governments, educational institutes and even houses run on specific mechanism and process. Without following and implementing process the worldly system would derail and become lifeless. The process is the like the life blood for every system to exist. Wherever in the processes are strong their evolution is sturdy too and those who lack are suffering. Noting in the world happens abruptly even the rain, windstorm and snow storm. All of these cannot happen without the respective clouds. One cannot imagine a rainfall without clouds, even in the case of the artificial rain method invented by the scientist.

There is a mechanism in which the human body works and if there is any disturbance in this mechanism the person will become sick. The heart, the lungs, the stomach and the kidneys etc. all have a designated function and process. If any untoward change comes in the process because of any reason, the person will fall sick. Similarly the Universe has a certain system and process through which everything in it works. There is certain mechanism through which the sun and moon arise at stipulated time; the night follows the day, the four seasons, the climate and etc. The Sun, the moon, the days and the nights are in constant process of evolution; in fact they evolve every day. Just like we have people in the world to look after the mechanism, systems and scheme of things at various places, the System of the Universe is Administered by the Creator Himself, Allah.

Even the Big Bang theory and the Darwin theory and many others all are the evolution of a thought through continuous and untiring effort. So, it is unjust on the part of the scientist to relate the existence of this universe with some Big Bang – a revolution.

Edward F. Blick in his book, published in 1988, ‘Special Creation vs Evolution’ observes the same and writes that creation denotes the existence of a divine Creature Who Has exercised His Creative abilities, Creating this world and the life-forms we see. Life is a product of intelligence contrivance. Thus, apparent design in biology would constitute evidence of a Designer. It is self-evident and universally recognized truth: concept and design require and intelligent designer. So, while recognizing design in biology is not based upon religious premise (but upon empirical observation and logic), it certainly has theological implication. Do we find apparent design in biology? Yes. In fact, apparent design pervades the biological realm. When we apply the general principles of detecting design in living creatures, we find it reasonable to infer the existence of a Creator.

What differentiates Man from all other observable phenomena in the entire physical universe is his awareness, and consciousness, and the resultant abilities to reason, imagine, recall, consider, value, admire, believe, find meaning, plan, choose, intend and initiate action, to mention a few. The mind of Man is what needs to be recognized as the prime factor for the Man. It is this alone which enables societies to exist, and also anything else man has created or developed. It is a natural tendency of man to find meaning and believe which sometimes result in troubles for him and others as well. But he should never stop finding meaning and asserting belief as this is what the man does best. What he needs to stop doing is forcing his opinions and believes on the others. So in all fairness the scientists and all the researchers in various forms should continue to do what they do best – research. A time will come when they will find out how the universe was created and the Big Bang theory will transform in to completely different theory.

The only consistent thing in life is change...we are forever evolving, and to resist change is to deny that life is new in every moment.

There are certain groups of people who argue that the growth of human race happened because of the incest relationship. Their argument is true but to call it incest is uncalled for because even if we do not take Adam (A.S) as the first ever human being still it is certain that whoever Adam was, he still and his better half were the first ones regardless of the manner they were born. And there was only one progressive and natural evolutionary process for the growth of the human race and no other method was available. So given the circumstances it was adopted during those times. It is also a fact that in those times the word brother and sister never existed. It was just the word male and female or any other word of the similar connotation which was used in those times.

For their multiplication, so that they could make their homes in this world, this natural process was a necessary compulsion and the need of the hour as well. There is no doubt that in all the human races up till Hazrat Noah (A.S) one does not see a sign of obligatory observance of the relations. In the era of Hazrat Ibrahim (A.S) a little bit discussion on the subject began but the real recognition of the relationships in perfectly complete and meaningful manner was introduced by Islam. Before that the relationships were never discussed and defined in such an explicit manner in any of the religion other than Islam.

Rest, this thing (incest) has been happening quite commonly in the past especially during the era of Kings, they would marry their own sisters on the pretext of keeping the wealth from distribution. Otherwise, if they were married outside, the kings would have to give them a share in wealth. A common practice was that when an emperor would die, leaving one son and a daughter, then according to the prevailing customs of distribution of wealth they both would be given their share. So, the sister would also be eligible for share in the wealth if she was to be married in any other family and to keep the wealth in one hand the brother would marry his sister. This was the common trait of the kings, prince and rich people.

Raja Dahir married his own sister, to keep away the wealth from subdivision, and it is being said that she was very beautiful too. This was the primary reason why Muhammad Bin Qasim came after him from the land of Arab to the land of the Subcontinent. He already had the news that the Raja of the area of Sind married his own sister and he was ready to break and put hold to that jinx, when he got information that in the same area a Muslim woman too got molested in the similar manner. Although this particular incident became the trigger factor but basically he came after Raja Dahir because of his wrong doing.
In the same context there is at least one notable incident which happened in United States of America where the brother and sister having the same father but different mothers; one born in USA and the other in any other country, lived together for three to four years. After that they decided to get married and went to the registration office to submit their identity and details, only at that moment they realized that their father is the same. The Supreme Court of America had to take a special step and they both were barred from meeting each other for one year and were under constant observation of the government guards, in order to prevent them from seeing each other even in the respect of brother and sister, because for the last few years they have been living together and sharing the same bed. During these times they must have had a relationship which is otherwise only allowed as husband and wife and not as brother and sister and it is strictly forbidden by the religion Islam. But in doing so they were ignorant of the reality and it is part of the deterioration of the moral values in their society, knowingly or ignorantly.
Hence, we will have to accept that from wherever the inception of human being started; there must have been a first couple for the growth of the human race. Otherwise, we will be forced to believe, which would be inappropriate, that through revolution ten couples were created and they all cross matched with each other. Historically too we do get indications that it all started with one Adam and one Eve. Even if don’t take them in the pre historic era and keep them in the historic age, from here onward also there will be no doubt in the concept of human beings and man has evolved from a pair and this fact also gets support from all the authenticated evidences from the world. The same is also mentioned in both Torah and Injeel and authenticated by the Holy Quran.

We will also have to accept this logically as well that there was just one hen and an egg in the beginning. The origin is definitely like that but you will have to give this fact due consideration that in order to prevent the disruption in any of the Processes it was a compulsion for the Nature, and of course the recognition of the relationships came with time however, at that particular time there was no such word like brother and sister. Now it is only the sanctity of these words which we keenly observe, otherwise according to the form all are the same. The appearances of mother, sister, daughter and wife are all the same but the only thing that propels us to differentiate between them is the sanctity of these words. It is because of these words only that I treat and see mother as a mother; sister as a sister; daughter as a daughter and wife as a wife. It is my own way of thinking, which originates from the mind, and this thought process is the blessing of these words alone. We could never look upon our sister as we do in the case of our wife although the form of both are the same but it is the words that count here and mind reacts accordingly. These are all manmade sanctities. As a result, the man now understands the sanctity of a certain relationship and the non sanctity of the other according to these man defined relations. Because of this fact the feeling that they were doing something immoral during the natural evolutionary process of multiplication of human beings never really occurred to them.

When the number of human beings on the earth increased to a desired level then probably the thought was given to the introduction of relations. And it seems like such thing happened in the era Hazrat Ibrahim (A.S) but now it is impossible to do some research in this regard now but it is pretty obvious that this point was never talked about in the era of Hazrat Noah (A.S). Hazrat Idrees (A.S) gave few sermons and they were primarily on the subject of humanity and one fail to find any evidence pertaining to the talk on relationships in His sermons. However, if you study religion Islam and the entire history of mankind or at least in the light of the historic human being then you will conclude that it is the first religion and the first belief system which established and defined the relationships with utmost clarity, profundity and perfection. Leaving aside the relations of mother, sister and daughter, Islam also earmarked as to who can become wife of the individual and who cannot, these restrictions are so lucidly described that no room is left for any doubt. The concept of respect and regard, which developed on the basis of these relations, is one of a kind and a much sought after example in the universe and it is next to impossible to improve it; this perfection is the present as well as hallmark of Islam.

Today, if we want to tread on the similar lines and go back in the pre historic age or at the most the early historic age then today you may break these sanctities just like Europe and the other countries of the same kind. There, they have no concern what so ever with these sacred relations, defined by the religion Islam, and the illicit relationships like incest, role play and swapping are quite common in these countries. Necessarily these acts don’t give results every time because they have trained their residents in such a manner that they cover it up with medicines and contraceptives, otherwise the ratio in which they do sex and if in the same rate they are allowed conception then what will happen is unimaginable. The respect for the values in its true sense is now nonexistent in their culture and they have simply imposed limitations on everyone through their system. In the famous one hour blackout in the New York City of the world’s most civilized and so called enlightened country back in 2003, there were 11,000 successful rape attempts and 19,000 reported robberies; these are the ones which were notified other than whatever happened in that hour never made it to the news. So much for an enlightened and civilized country, in Pakistan we don’t have electricity for up to twelve hours in a day still there are only few incidents of robbery and burglary.

In reality, it is just their governmental system which has put constraints on the people but in that one hour when the system failed due to the blackout and no check of any sort was in place then whatever happened is to take a note of. Their behaviors became barbaric just because of leaving aside the sacredness. They have literally ignored the characteristics and features ordained by the religion Islam; that the wife of the son will be daughter in law for the rest of the life for the father and he cannot for any reason and under any circumstances establish any other relations with her other than that, in the same manner with whoever your father got married to will be your mother and remain such for the rest of the life, period. These all are sanctities which have given much greater benefit to the mankind. Till the time these sanctities were given due respect and regard and were observed and maintained properly, there was a lot of stability and peace – something special both inside and outside the universe. Now we are once again returning to the phase of negating these sanctities and as a result we encountering instability; in the West it has already taken grounds while in the East it is finding roots fast, no doubt about it. 

A renowned Sufi said, “The practical shape of the condition imposed by the religion Islam by which the wife of the son is forbidden for the father can be understood in this form; that for Mureed (seeker) all the women related to his Murshad (mentor) are unlawful and for Murshad (mentor) all the women related to Mureed (seeker) are unlawful.” Who will be able to overwhelm this and who will reach to this height of sanctity? Whoever will achieve that, will certainly be at par with the renowned Sufi otherwise no matter how much people claim to be, they will only be claims.