Re: Apologetic Islamic take on Evolution … Or unkind dismissal?
Sure it important, but that wasn’t the intent of the Koran. The intent of the Koran was to establish moral guidance, ethical behavior, a just society. It is NOT a science text.
But of course our origins are important. As YOU said, God gave us hints and then told us to go out and seek out the details. Harness the powers of our intellect to find the details to things God only hinted at in the Koran.
Sure I consider why Allah SWT said he created Adam from clay. But there are a multiple of interpretations that can be made of it. none of those interpretation however need contradict facts of evolution. Any interpretation you make should be in light of FACTS. Evolution is a FACT, and you cannot interpret Islam without factoring in the FACT of evolution.
Islam is about MORAL and ETHICAL TRUTH. Its is not about Scientific truth. Scientific truth is something we are instructed to seek out ourselves. If you are trying to teach a child morality, say for example, I want to teach a child that there is a moral imperative for Muslim to get married and have children… Will I explain to him WHY marriage is such an important institute and why we are told to have children, or should I tell him about the birds and the bees and technical details of child birth? Obviously if my objective is moral guidance, technical details are not as important as the message itself. The Koran is giving us lessons of Morality, the technical details are not important within that context, but are important as a whole. So while God did no elucidate on the details of creations, He does instruct us to go beyond and find answers on our own through discovery.
The term Makhlooq means that “Thing.” So what is that thing. That we are not told EXACTLY what that thing is, leaves the door open to discovery.