476 bo o k re vi ews

Islam and Biological Evolution: Exploring Classical Sources and

Methodologies
By David Solomon Jalajel (Western Cape, South Africa:
University of the Western Cape, 2009), 196 pp. Price HB £10.95.
EAN 978–1868087020.

The compatibility between Islamic doctrine(s) and the theory(ies) of biological

and human evolution is one of the most important topics facing Islamic culture
today. Indeed, this question is tied to two crucial issues for Muslims today: a) the
role and place of scientific evidence in Islamic thought and theology; b) the
relative authority between scientific knowledge and scriptural references. These

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two aspects of the problem determine how a Muslim thinker considers the
acceptability of evolution (and its consequences)—as in the case of David
Solomon Jalajel in this book.
Recent surveys of Muslims’ (and others’) views on evolution have found
significant variations among respondents, but overall the surveys show that three
quarters of Muslims either completely reject or have fundamental disagreements
with the idea of species having evolved from one another, especially regarding
humans.
Jalajal correctly notes in the opening pages of his book that scholarly writings
on Islam and evolution are quite rare, and most of them betray either an utter
lack of understanding of the scientific aspects of the question, especially by the
traditionalists, or a superficial view of Islamic dogmas and theology. For this
reason alone, this book is a welcome contribution, given that the author devotes
one third of his book to a presentation of the scientific elements of evolution and
another third reviewing the Islamic sources of relevance.
The author, however, has a specific agenda underlying his work, and he
presents that very openly at the outset (pp. 4–5): ‘The aim of this present research
[. . .] is to investigate, within the framework of classical Islamic scholarship, what
an Islamic opinion about evolution might be [. . .] The scope of this study
encompasses the scholarly traditions recognized, at least by their respective
adherents, to be part of Muslim orthodoxy [. . .] It covers the works of the
scholars of the Ash6ari, Maturidi, and Salafi theological schools [. . .]’. He justifies
this limiting of his study by arguing that ‘these traditions represent, for most of
the world’s Muslims, the ‘‘mainstream’’ of Islamic thinking, and therefore have a
greater relevance for determining what a general Islamic perspective on evolution
could be’ (emphasis added). He leaves aside the views of any rationalist scholars,
classical (e.g. the Mu6tazila) or contemporary (what the author calls ‘Islamic
Modernism’), deeming them all ‘heterodox’ (p. 6).
And there lies the main issue I have with this work, namely the fact that the
author limits the possible position(s) on evolution on the basis of what the
‘mainstream’ is, while noting that these ‘orthodox’ Islamic theologies (the word
‘orthodox’ comes back repeatedly in the book) were formulated many centuries
ago. Even on the various aspects of evolution, including biological, he sees no
paradox in relying on the views of scholars of a thousand years ago when
discussing issues that have only become understood in, at earliest, the past
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century, thus completely disregarding the intellectual, scientific, philosophical,
and theological developments that humanity has witnessed in recent times. One
can thus readily imagine ‘what a general Islamic perspective on evolution could
be’ on the basis of that approach.
The book is divided into three parts: a) a review of the Islamic scriptural
statements on various topics directly or indirectly pertaining to evolution; b) a
semi-detailed and scientific presentation of evolutionary biology; c) an attempt to
formulate an ‘orthodox’ Islamic position on evolution, both biological and
human, on the basis of the preceding considerations.
Jalajel’s scholarship is largely without reproach. He does a fine job going back
to the sources, dissecting them for specific information and opinions, assessing
the latter, though purely from a classical Islamic approach. His rigid adherence to

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‘orthodoxy’, however, leads to a number of difficulties, particularly on what
constitutes Islamic dogmas on anything that relates to evolution, how those are
ascertained, and how they can then be merged into a coherent Islamic perspective
on evolution.
In Part I, for instance, one can note a number of such rigid positions. He not
only defines the Sunnah as ‘revealed knowledge from God’ (pp. 12–13, emphasis
added), but insists on the adoption of literalism in the interpretation of the
scriptures: ‘The principle in operation here is that a text should always be
understood on its apparent meaning as long as it is possible to do so’ (p. 31).
Thus Jalajal is often found to have to do acrobatics to justify the validity and
literal meaning of some scriptures, for example concerning Adam’s sixty cubits of
height (in the famous Aadı̄th).
He implements his methodology most tellingly on the subject of the creation of
the heavens and the earth, where instead of starting from the definitive
knowledge we now have from cosmology, he relies on the classical exegesis of
verses and Aadı̄ths and attempts to construct cosmological scenarios. This leads
to bizarre discussions of, for example, whether the mountains were created on
the second ‘day’ (‘second interval of time’, as he explains), of what ‘the light’ is in
those verses and whether it ‘was created on Wednesday’ (p. 41), etc.
One can thus see how this whole approach inexorably leads the author to a
creationist standpoint. He states: ‘The following is apparent from the textual
evidence: Adam was created by God directly from earth. Both Adam and his wife
were created by God without the agency of parents . . .’. He insists that: ‘These
are the conclusions that have been reached by all orthodox commentators . . .’
(pp. 49–50). Undoubtedly, that is what happens when one makes ‘orthodox
commentators’ the main reference on such scientific issues.
Part II of the book is, contrary to what the author intended, much less
significant, for a few simple reasons: a) the presentation of evolutionary biology
is far from didactic enough to be of good use to any reader who does not have the
prerequisite background for that knowledge (this can be seen in the abundance of
complex terminology: locus, nucleotide bases, genotype, phenotype, gene flow,
gene drift, alleles, hybridization and speciation, etc.); b) the review is largely
incomplete in several important ways, including the total absence of all
non-Darwinian evolutionary theories (for a brief review, see Guessoum, Islam’s
478 bo o k re vi ews
Quantum Question: Reconciling Muslim Tradition and Modern Science
[London: I. B. Taurus, 2011]), the vital idea of evolutionary convergence
(Simon Conway-Morris, Life’s Solution: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely
Universe. [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003]), and the crucial
role that genetics now play in both providing very strong additional evidence for
biological and human evolution and for explaining the transformation (intra-
and inter-species) that occurred over the long past. Similarly, the chapter on
‘chance and determinism’ contains some interesting ideas, but the author
surprisingly fails to mention quantum mechanics at all, without which any
discussion of the topic is hopelessly deficient.
In Part III, Jalajel attempts to engage in an alternately critical and constructive
discussion of the issues that evolution purports to raise for theology (generally or

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specifically Islamic), issues such as why there seems to have been a huge waste of
animals and species (extinctions) in the evolutionary history of the earth, and
why evil exists in the world. His answer to the first issue is that humans,
especially Muslims, cannot imagine and hence question God’s creation and plan,
and that species of animals are nations like humans, and God replaces nations by
others as He wills. On the problem of evil, he restates the Ash6ari theory of
human acquisition of actions: ‘although God creates actions that can be
described as evil with respect to the people who carry them out, evil cannot be
attributed to God. It is attributed to the one who acquires it’ (p. 144). He applies
this to the problem of evil by citing, among others, Ibn Abı̄ al-6Izz: ‘God wills sin
to exist by [H]is ordinance, but [H]e does not love it nor is [H]e pleased with it,
nor does [H]e command it’ (p. 146). I doubt that this line of reasoning can be a
convincing argument on the subject.
To conclude, let me summarize the position that Jalajel presents as an
‘orthodox’ Islamic stand on evolution, having reviewed the classical sources and
the various aspects of the scientific theory. He does not reject biological
evolution, though he falls short of accepting its results: ‘Islam can accommodate
the claim that God created the many species of animal and plant life on Earth
though gradual stages . . .’ (p. 149). But in the last few pages, he declares:
‘Whether evolution is scientifically true or false—and whether any theory about
evolution turns out to be valid or invalid—has no implications for a Muslim’s
beliefs one way or the other’ (p. 157).
Furthermore, he insists that Adam be regarded as a miraculous creation. In his
‘orthodox’ view, first we only observe general patterns in God’s action in the
world, not any rigid laws of nature, hence God can break them or suspend them
whenever He wishes, and secondly ‘Science can never hope to be able to
determine the manner in which a single human being, Adam . . . was specifically
created . . . What the sacred texts say about the creation of Adam has led classical
scholars to the conclusion that his creation was unique, even miraculous’ (p.
150). He adds: ‘there is no reason to assume that the creation of Adam had to
follow the same pattern as the creation of other life forms’. Needless to say, this
fully contradicts not only the whole scientific perspective on the subject, but tons
of empirical evidence as well.
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Interestingly, and not realizing that he has adopted creationism himself, he
asks in the last few pages: ‘why then have some Muslims turned so strongly to
Creationism?’ (p. 158). He replies: ‘Creationism is the result of Western
influence’ (p. 158). He justifies this answer by the fact that Muslim creationists
have often imported anti-evolutionary arguments from Western sources. Jalajel,
however, fails to note the breadth and scope of Muslim creationism existing
today, even among the intelligentsia, and how their arguments are rooted in
classical sources and literalistic methodologies, based on ‘orthodox’ dogmas that
they cling to. Indeed, this book is a perfect example of such.
Nidhal Guessoum
American University of Sharjah, UAE

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E-mail: nguessoum@aus.edu
doi:10.1093/jis/etr069
Published online 2 September 2011