A Historical Introduction to Islam, Science, and Evolution: The Book Symposium on ‘Islam and Evolution: Al-Ghazālī and the Modern Evolutionary Paradigm'

ABSTRACT

This book symposium begins with a concise historical overview of the emerging dialogue of Islam and Science. Against this, we trace the historical developments and pertinent discussion of Islam and Evolution, culminating in the release of Islam and Evolution: Al-Ghazālī and the Modern Evolutionary Paradigm. For those unfamiliar with the subject, the introduction provides a breakdown of the monograph and its core thesis. The final section contains a summative review of all the articles – ten in total – featured in this special issue.

KEYWORDS:

• Islam and science
• Islam and evolution
• Islamic theology
• Shoaib Ahmed Malik
• Al-Ghazālī

Acknowledgments

The author thanks the contributors for taking part in this special, as they have been nothing short of excellent interlocutors. He would also like to show his appreciation to the editorial board of Theology and Science, especially Alan Weissenbacher and Ted Peters, for being so welcoming and accommodating to this special issue in the journal.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 William B. Drees, Religion and Science in Context: A Guide to the Debates (Abingdon: Routledge, 2010).

2 For an extensive overview, see Joshua M. Moritz, The Role of Theology in the History and Philosophy of Science (Leiden: Brill, 2017). Also, see footnote 1 in Shoaib Ahmed Malik and Nazif Muhtaroglu, “How Much Should or Can Science Impact Theological Formulations? An Ashʿārī Perspective on Theology of Nature,” European Journal of Analytic Philosophy 18:2 (2022): 5–36.

3 Nikki R. Keddie, An Islamic Response to Imperialism: Political and Religious Writings of Sayyid Jamāl ad-Dīn “al-Afghānī” (California: University of California Press, 1983).

4 Shafey Kidway, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan: Reason, Religion and Nation (Abingdon: Routledge, 2021); Sarah Ahmed Qidawi, “Sir Syed (1817–1898) and Science: Popularization in Nineteenth Century India” (PhD diss., University of Toronto, 2021).

5 Oliver Scharbrodt, Muhammad ‘Abduh: Modern Islam and the Culture of Ambiguity (London: I.B. Tauris, 2022).

6 Simon A. Wood, Christian Criticisms, Islamic Proofs: Rashid Rida’s Modernist Defence of Islam (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2007).

7 Iqbal Singh Sevea, The Political Philosophy of Muhammad Iqbal: Islam and Nationalism in Late Colonial India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012).

8 Mohamed Haddad, Muslim Reformism – A Critical History Is Islamic Religious Reform Possible? (Cham: Springer, 2020); Monica M. Ringer, Islamic Modernism and the Re-Enchantment of the Sacred in the Age of History (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2021).

9 M. Alper Yaycinkaya, Learned Patriots – Debating Science, State, and Society in the Nineteenth–Century Ottoman Empire (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015); Cemil Aydin, The Politics of Anti-Westernism in Asia: Visions of World Order in Pan-Islamic and Pan-Asian Thought (Columbia: Columbia University Press, 2019).

10 For a very brief comparison of the history of S&R and I&S, see Shoaib. A. Malik, “Introduction to the Special Issue on Philosophy of Science and Islamic Thought,” Theology and Science 21:3: 354–358.

11 This can also be understood as Islamisation of Education and/or Science.

12 Leif Stenberg, The Islamization of Science: Four Muslim Positions Developing an Islamic Modernity (Lund: Novapress, 1996); Nidhal Guessoum, Islam’s Quantum Question: Reconciling Muslim Tradition and Modern Science (London: I.B. Tauris, 2011).

13 He shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics with Sheldon Glashow and Steven Weinberg.

14 Choy Heng Lai, ed., Ideals and Realities: Selected Essays of Abdus Salam (Singapore: World Scientific, 1987):179–213.

15 Nidhal Guessoum makes an important distinction between scientific miracles in the Qurʾān (ʾiʿjāz ʿilmī) and scientific exegesis (tafsīr ʿilmī). The former is a discourse about the divine origin of the Qurʾān by claiming that the Qurʾān anticipated modern scientific findings. By contrast, the latter is a hermeneutic activity in which science is used to appreciate certain verses that discuss natural phenomena, though not necessarily to claim it as evidence for its divine origin. See Guessoum, Islam’s Quantum Question, 141–172.

16 The full title is La Bible, le Coran et la Science: Les Écritures Saintes Examinées à la Lumière des Connaissances Modernes (The Bible, the Qu’ran and Science: The Holy Scriptures Examined in the Light of Modern Knowledge).

17 Stefano Bigliardi, “The ‘Scientific Miracle of the Qur’ān,’ Pseudoscience, and Conspiracism,” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 52:1 (2017): 146–171.

18 Vika Gardner, E. Carolina Mayes, and Salman Hameed, “Preaching Science and Islam: Dr. Zakir Naik and Discourses of Science and Islam in Internet Videos,” Die Welt Islams 58 (2018): 357–391.

19 Mira A. Baz, “Online Islamic Da’wah Narratives in the UK: The Case of iERA” (PhD diss., University of Birmingham, 2017).

20 Guessoum, Islam’s Quantum Question, 141–172.

21 Baz, Online Islamic Da’wah Narratives in the UK, 162–163.

22 Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Religion and the Order of Nature: The 1994 Cadbury Lectures at the University of Birmingham (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996); Muzaffar Iqbal, Science and Islam (Abingdon: Routledge, 2018); Nidhal Guessoum, Islam’s Quantum Question.

23 Basil Altaie, God, Nature, and the Cause: Essays on Islam and Science (Abu Dhabi: Kalam Research and Media, 2016).

24 Aasim I. Padela, ed., Medicine and Shariah: A Dialogue in Islamic Bioethics (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2023).

25 Abdallah Rothman, Developing a Model of Islamic Psychology and Psychotherapy: Islamic Theology and Contemporary Understandings of Psychology (Abingdon: Routledge, 2022).

26 Ahmed S. Dallal, Islam, Science, and the Challenge of History (Yale: Yale University Press, 2010); George Saliba, Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance (Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2011).

27 Shoaib A. Malik, “Challenges and Opportunities in Teaching Interdisciplinary Courses on Islam and Evolution: A Theology-Centric Perspective,” Religions MDPI 14:95 (2023): 1–21.

28 To be clear, this is not to say that there were no Islamic responses to evolution prior to the 1980s. There were. In fact, some of the earliest theological responses to evolution were written in the 1880s, a mere 30 years after Charles Darwin published the Origins of Species in 1859. My only point here is to situate the discussion of I&E against the contemporary landscape of I&S while still acknowledging earlier treatments of I&E.

29 Muḥammad Saʿīd Ramaḍān al-Būṭī, Kubra al-Yaqīniyyāt al-Kawniyya: Wūjūd al-Khāliq wa Waẓīfa al-Makhlūq (The Greatest Universal Certainties: The Existence of the Creator and the Function of Creation) (Damascus: Dār al-Fikr, 1997); Yūsuf al-Qaraḍāwī, “Bidāyat al-Khalq wa Naẓariyyat al-Taṭawwur (The Origin of Creation and The Theory of Evolution). Transcript of a Discussion on the Television Program Al-Sharīʿa wa-l-Ḥayā (Sharīʿa and Life).” Al Jazeera, http://www.aljazeera.net/programs/pages/af1ea016–4280–4a0d-838f-8ca05f31c8df (accessed 31 July 2022); Ḥussein al-Jisr, Al-Risāla al-Ḥāmīdiyya fī Ḥaqīqat al-Diyāna al-Islāmiyya wa Ḥaqīqat al-Sharīʿa al-Muḥammadiyya (The Ḥāmidiyyan Treatise on the Truthfulness of the Islamic Religion and the Muḥammadan Sharīʿa) (Cairo: Dār al-Kitāb al-Misrī, 2012); Muhammad S. Nadvi, Evolution or Creation? trans. Maqbool Ahmed Siraj (Bangalore: Furqania Academy Trust, 1998); David Solomon Jalajel, Islam and Biological Evolution: Exploring Classical Sources and Methodologies (Western Cape: University of the Western Cape, 2009); Nuh Keller, Sea without Shore: A Manual of the Sufi Path (Amman: Sunna Books, 2011); Rana Dajani, “Evolution and Islam’s Quantum Question,” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 47 (2012): 343–353; David Solomon Jalajel, “Tawaqquf and Acceptance of Human Evolution,” Yaqeen Institute, https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/tawaqquf-and-acceptance-of-human-evolution#.%20Xgw_HxczbPA (accessed 1 January, 2020); Yasir Qadhi and Nazir Khan, “Human Origins: Theological Conclusions and Empirical.” Yaqeen Institute, https://yaqeeninstitute.org/nazir-khan/human-origins-theologicalconclusions-and-empirical-limitations/ (accessed 1 January, 2020); Abdul Halim Ibrahim and Madiha Baharuddin, “Criticism of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution by Muslim Scholars,” Online Journal of Research in Islamic Studies 1 (2014): 49–62.

30 Fern Elsdon-Baker, Selfish Genius: How Richard Dawkins Rewrote Darwin’s Legacy (London: Icon Books, 2009); Fern Elsdon-Baker, “The Compatibility of Science and Religion?” In Anthony Carroll and Richard Norman, eds., Religion and Atheism: Beyond the Divide (Abingdon: Routledge, 2017): 82–92.

31 One example is Adel Ziadat, Western Science in the Arab World (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1986).

32 Alper Bilgili, “An Ottoman Response to Darwinism: Ismail Fenni on Islam and Evolution,” British Journal for the History of Science 48:4 (2015): 565–582; M. Şükrü Hanioğlu, “Blueprints for a Future Society: Late Ottoman Materialists on Science, Religion, and Art,” In Elisabeth Özdalga, ed., Late Ottoman Society: The Intellectual Legacy (Abingdon: Routledge, 2005): 27–116.

33 At the time of finalizing this special issue, the following timely publication was announced: Bernard Lightman and Sarah Qidwai, Evolutionary Theories and Religious Traditions National, Transnational, and Global Perspectives, 1800–1920 (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2023).

34 Majid Daneshgar, “Uninterrupted Censored Darwin: from the Middle East to the Malay-Indonesian World,” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 55:4 (2020): 1041–1057; Ali Paya, “Science vs. Religion: The Case of a Historical Intellectual Exchange between Two Shi’i Scholars Regarding Evolution,” Theology and Science 20:3 (2023): 328–342.

35 Martin Riexinger, “Responses of South Asian Muslims to the Theory of Evolution,” Die Welt des Islams 49 (2009): 212–247; Sarah Qidwai, “Darwin or Design: Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan’s Views on Human Evolution,” In Yasmin Saikia and Raisur Rahim, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Sayyid Ahmad Khan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019): 214–232.

36 Marwa Elshakry, Reading Darwin in Arabic, 1860–1950 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013).

37 The fact that Muḥammad ʿAbduh felt the need to translate Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī’s work titled Al-Radd ʿalā al-Dahriyyīn (Refutation of the Materialists) clearly indicates the concern of the period. See Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī, Al-Radd ʿalā al-Dahriyyīn (Refutation of the Materialists), trans. Muḥammad ʿAbduh (Cairo: Matbaʿat al-Mawsuʿat, 1935).

38 For an excellent analysis of the history of creationism in America, see Ronald Numbers, The Creationists: From Scientific Creationism to Intelligent Design (Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2006).

39 Uriya Shavit, “The Evolution of Darwin to a ‘Unique Christian Species’ in Modernist-Apologetic Arab-Islamic Thought,” Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations 26 (2015): 17–32.

40 However, al-Qaraḍāwī did state live on a TV show that he was much more open to evolution, including the idea of there being humans before Adam. See al-Qaraḍāwī, “Bidāyat al-Khalq.”

41 Damian A. Howard. Being Human in Islam: The Impact of the Evolutionary Worldview (Abingdon: Routledge, 2011).

42 Anne Ross Solberg, The Mahdi Wears Armani: An Analysis of the Harun Yahya Enterprise (Huddinge: Södertörns Högskola, 2013).

43 Harun Yahya, The Atlas of Creation (Istanbul: Global Publishing, 2006).

44 Even Richard Dawkins received a copy. See Richard Dawkins, “[UPDATED] Venomous Snakes, Slippery Eels and Harun Yahya.” Internet Archive: Way Back Machine, https://web.archive.org/web/20110305181041/http://richarddawkins.net/articles/2833 (accessed on the 26 August, 2023).

45 Important to highlight is how Yahya borrowed a lot of ideas from American creationists intuitions. See the footnotes in Jalajel, Islam and Biological Evolution, 162–163. For an alternative perspective, see Glen Moran, “Harun Yahya’s Influence in Muslim Minority Contexts: Implications for Research in Britain, Europe, and Beyond,” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 54(4) (2019): 837–856.

46 Saïda Aroua, Maryline Coquide, and Salem Abbes, “Overcoming the Effect of the Socio-cultural Context: Impact of Teaching Evolution in Tunisia,” Evolution: Education Outreach 2 (2009): 474–478.

47 Nasser Mansour, “Science Teachers’ Views of Science and Religion vs. the Islamic Perspective: Conflicting or Compatible?” Science Education 95 (2008): 281–309; Nasser Mansour, “Religious Beliefs: A Hidden Variable in the Performance of Science Teachers in the Classroom,” European Educational Research Journal 7 (2008): 557–576; Nasser Mansour, “The Experiences and Personal Religious Beliefs of Egyptian Science Teachers as a Framework for Understanding the Shaping and Reshaping of their Beliefs and Practices about Science-Technology-Society (STS),” International Journal of Science Education 30 (2008): 1605–1634; Nasser Mansour, “Science Teachers’ Interpretations of Islamic Culture Related to Science Education versus the Islamic Epistemology and Ontology of Science,” Cultural Studies of Science Education 5 (2010): 127–140.

48 Anila Asghar, “Canadian and Pakistani Muslim Teachers’ Perceptions of Evolutionary Science and Evolution Education,” Evolution: Education and Outreach 6 (2013): 1–12; Donald Everhart and Salman Hameed, “Muslims and Evolution: A Study of Pakistani Physicians in the United States.” Evolution: Education and Outreach 6:2 (2013): https://doi.org/10.1186/1936-6434-6-2

49 Saouma BouJaoude, Anila Asghar, Jason R. Wiles, Lama Jabera, Diana Sarieddine, and Brian Alters. 2011. “Biology Professors’ and Teachers’ Positions Regarding Biological Evolution and Evolution Education in a Middle Eastern Society,” International Journal of Science Education 33: 979–1000.

50 Yoon F. Lay, Eng Tek Ong, Crispina Gregory K. Han, and Sane Hwui Chan, “A Glimpse of Evolution Education in the Malaysian Context,” In Evolution Education around the Globe, eds. Hasan Deniz and Lisa A. Borgerding (Cham: Springer, 2018): 357–374.

51 Mahsa Kazempour and Aidin Amirshokoohi, “Evolution Education in Iran: Shattering Myths About Teaching Evolution in an Islamic State,” In Hasan Deniz and Lisa A. Borgerding, eds., Evolution Education around the Globe (Cham: Springer, 2018): 281–296.

52 Kamisah Osman, Rezzuana Razali, and Nurnadiah Mohamed Bahri, “Biological Evolution Education in Malaysia: Where We Are Now,” In Evolution Education around the Globe eds. In Hasan Deniz and Lisa A. Borgerding (Cham: Springer, 2018): 375–390.

53 Hasan Deniz, Faruk Çetin, and Irfan Yilmaz, “Examining the Relationships among Acceptance of Evolution, Religiosity, and Teaching Preference for Evolution in Turkish Preservice Biology Teachers,” Reports of the National Center for Science Education 31 (2011): 1.1–1.9; Hasan Deniz, Lisa A. Donnelly, and Irfan Yilmaz, “Exploring the Factors Related to Acceptance of Evolutionary Theory Among Turkish Preservice Biology Teachers: Toward a More Informative Conceptual Ecology for Biological Evolution,” Journal of Research in Science Teaching 45 (2008): 420–443; Deniz Peker, Gulsum Gul Comert, and Aykut Kence, “Three Decades of Anti-evolution Campaign and its Results: Turkish Undergraduates’ Acceptance and Understanding of the Biological Evolution Theory,” Science and Education 19 (2010): 739–755; Ebru Z. Muğaloğlu, “An Insight into Evolution Education in Turkey,” In Evolution Education around the Globe, eds. Hasan Deniz and Lisa A. Borgerding (Cham: Springer, 2018): 263–280.

54 Amy Unsworth and David Voas, “Attitudes to Evolution Among Christians, Muslims and the Non-Religious in Britain: Differential Effects of Religious and Educational Factors,” Public Understanding of Science 27 (2018): 76–93; Lia Betti, Peter Shaw, and Volker Behrends, “Acceptance of Biological Evolution by First-Year Life Sciences University Students,” Science and Education 29 (2020): 395–409.

55 Anila Asghar, “Canadian and Pakistani Muslim Teachers’ Perceptions of Evolutionary Science and Evolution Education,” Evolution: Education and Outreach 6 (2013): 1–12.

56 Pierre Clément, “Creationism, Science and Religion: A Survey of Teachers’ Conceptions in 30 Countries,” Procedia: Social and Behavioural Sciences 167 (2015): 279-287. Pierre Clément, “Muslim Teachers’ Conceptions of Evolution in Several Countries,” Public Understanding of Science 24 (2015): 400–421.

57 Michael Stears, Pierre Clément, Angela James, and Edited Dempster, “Creationist and Evolutionist Views of South Af-rican Teachers with Different Religious Affiliations,” South African Journal of Science 112 (2016): 1–10.

58 M. Elizabeth Barnes, Julie A. Roberts, Samantha A. Maas, and Sara E. Brownell, “Muslim Undergraduate Biology Students’ Evolution Acceptance in the United States,” Plos One 16 (2021): e0255588. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0255588; Khadijah E. Fouad, “Pedagogical Implications of American Muslims’ Views on Evolution,” In Evolution Education around the Globe, eds. Hasan Deniz and Lisa A. Borgerding (Cham: Springer, 2018): 15–40.

59 Salman Hameed, “Bracing for Islamic Creationism,” Science 322 (2008): 1637–1638.

60 Jessica Carlisle, Salman Hameed, and Fern Elsdon-Baker, “Muslim Perceptions of Biological Evolution: A Critical Review of Quantitative and Qualitative Research,” in Science, Belief and Society: International Perspectives on Religion, Non-Religion and the Public Understanding of Science, eds. Stephen H. Jones, Tom Kaden, and Rebecca Catto (Bristol: Policy Press and Bristol University Press, 2019): 147–170. Though not mentioned by Carlisle et al., this may be because Shīʿī sources mention of pre-existing human or human-like entities known as the nasnās. In other words, there seems to be a positive scriptural affirmation of such beings. This is discussed in Amina Inloes’ article.

61 Shoaib A. Malik, Islam and Evolution Al-Ghazālī and the Modern Evolutionary Paradigm (Abingdon: Routledge, 2021).

62 Routledge, “Islam and Evolution Al-Ghazālī and the Modern Evolutionary Paradigm,” Taylor and Francis, https://www.routledge.com/Islam-and-Evolution-Al-Ghazali-and-the-Modern-Evolutionary-Paradigm/Malik/p/book/9781032026572 (accessed on the 19 July, 2023).

63 Shoaib A. Malik, “Why I wrote Islam and Evolution: Al-Ghazālī and the Modern Evolutionary Paradigm,” Kader 19(3) (2021): 968–974; Muhammad Misbah and Anisah Setyaningrum, “Islam and Evolution: Al-Ghazālī and the Modern Evolutionary Paradigm by Shoaib Ahmad Malik, London, Routledge, 2021, 362 pp., $160.00 (Hardcover), ISBN 978-0367364137,” Theology and Science 20(2) (2022): 267–268; Mykhaylo Yakubovych, “Islam, Creationism and Evolutionism: Theoretical Contemplations. Ahmed Malik, S. (2021). Islam and Evolution: Al-Ghazālī and the Modern Evolutionary Paradigm. London: Routledge,” Sententiae 41:2 (2022): 177–180; Shoaib A. Malik, “Introduction to the Symposium on Islam and Evolution,” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 57:2 (2022): 389–392; Safaruk Zaman Chowdhury, “Explaining Evil in the Bio-Sphere: Assessing Some Evolutionary Theodicies for Muslim Theists,” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 57:2 (2022): 393–417; Karim Gabor Kocsenda, “Shīʿī Readings of Human Evolution: Ṭabāṭabāʾī to Ḥaydarī,” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 57:2 (2022): 418–442; Khalil Andani, “Evolving Creation: An Ismaili Muslim Interpretation of Evolution,” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 57:2 (2022): 443–466; David Solomon Jalajel, “Presumptions About God’s Wisdom in Muslim Arguments For and Against Evolution,” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 57:2 (2022): 467–489; Shoaib A. Malik, Hamza Karamali, and Moamer Yahia Ali Khalayleh, “Does Criticizing Intelligent Design (ID) Undermine Design Discourse in the Qurʾān?,” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 57:2 (2022): 490–513.

64 Shoaib Ahmed Malik and David Solomon Jalajel, eds., New Frontiers in Islam and Evolution: Hermeneutics, People, and Places (Abingdon: Routledge, forthcoming). Note that the title of this edited volume is tentative.

65 Shoaib A. Malik, “Do Non-Literal Readings of Adam, Eve and the Fall in Islamic Scripture in Light of Evolution Entail Hermeneutic Scientism?” Theological Puzzles (Issue 4). https://www.theo-puzzles.ac.uk/2021/11/03/smalik/ (accessed on the 19 July, 2023); Shoaib A. Malik, “Is Evolution Even Possible in Islamic Thought?” Theological Puzzles (Issue 7), https://www.theo-puzzles.ac.uk/2022/05/02/malik2/ (accessed on the 19 July, 2023). There is also an open access textbook on Islam and evolution that will be coming out with Routledge in 2024. I also have a micrograph coming out with their Focus on Religion series, which is a pedagogical guidebook for teachers and students. It will be an expansion of Malik, “Challenges and Opportunities.”

66 Nadeem Mohamed, “Book Review: Islam and Evolution: Al-Ghazālī and the Modern Evolutionary Paradigm by Shoaib Malik.” Muslim Views, https://muslimviews.co.za/2022/05/25/book-review-islam-and-evolution-al-ghazali-and-the-modern-evolutionary-paradigm-by-shoaib-malik/ (accessed on the 19 July, 2023).

67 Juris Arrozy, “A Book Review of Islam and Evolution: Al-Ghazālī and the Modern Evolutionary Paradigm by Shoaib Ahmed Malik.” Traversing Tradition, https://traversingtradition.com/2021/05/17/re-examining-evolution-through-the-theological-lens-of-%E1%B8%A5ujjatul-islam/ (accessed on the 19 July, 2023); Sheikh Mohamad Farouq Abdul Fareez, “Understanding Muslims’ Responses to the Theory of Evolution,” The Karyawan: Professionals for the Community, https://karyawan.sg/understanding-muslims-responses-to-the-theory-of-evolution/ (accessed on the 19 July, 2023); Rameez Abid, “Islam and Evolution: Summary and Review of Dr. Shoaib Malik’s Book,” The Thinking Muslim, https://thethinkingmuslim.com/2021/10/20/islam-and-evolution-summary-and-review-of-dr-shoaib-maliks-book/ (accessed on the 19 July, 2023).

68 One can find many videos on YouTube where I talk about I&E. However, the most notable and most accessible is Blogging Theology, “Islam and evolution with Professor Shoaib Ahmed Malik,” Blogging Theology, https://youtu.be/rmRH80lj9UM (accessed on the 19 July, 2023).

69 Shoaib A. Malik, Islam and Evolusi: Imam al-Ghazali dan Paradigma Evolusi Modern. trans. Kardono Setyorakhmadi (Jakarta: Rene Islam, 2023).

70 This will come out with Dār al-Adab Publishers and Distribution.

71 This will come out with Afkar Foundation.

72 This will come out with Ahmadu Bello University Press Limited.

73 This will come out with Albaraka Türk Publishers.

74 He has organized and chaired conferences at The University of Nottingham (UK), The University of Edinburgh (UK), and Leiden University (Netherlands) on themes related to the topic. Additionally, he has presented and taught courses on I&E in various academic settings. Examples include New York University in Abu Dhabi (UAE), Khalifa University (UAE), UIN Sunan Kalijaga (Indonesia), Cambridge Muslim College (UK), University of York (UK), Freiburg University (Germany), Marmara University (Turkey), Bahçeşehir University (Turkey), University of Birmingham (UK), St Andrews University (UK), Viterbo University in conjunction with Wisconsin Medical College (US), Istanbul University (Turkey), Islamic University of Technology (Bangladesh), Universitas Nasional (Indonesia), Hamad Bin Khalifa University (Qatar), and Institute of Discourse Perspectives (Pakistan). Furthermore, he has also worked with seminary leaders and students in various capacities in relation to I&E. Examples include The Muslim Melbourne Seminary (Australia), The Islamic Seminary of American (US), Al Balagh Academy (UK), The World Research for Research in Advanced Studies (India), Madrasah Discourses under the auspices of Notre Dame University (USA), Al-Mahdi Institute (UK), and Al-Mawrid Institute (Canada).

75 The Royal Institution, “Islam and the Modern Evolutionary Paradigm,” The Royal Institution, https://www.rigb.org/whats-on/islam-and-modern-evolutionary-paradigm (accessed on the 19 July, 2023).

76 Projects, “ISSR Annual Book Prize,” International Society for Science and Religion, issr.org.uk/projects/issr-annual-book-prize/ (accessed on the 19 July, 2023).

77 Eve is also a miraculous creation. But she was created derivatively in some relation to Adam. See Malik, Islam and Evolution, 96.

78 For a critical comparison of Malik’s classification of I&E, see Maryam Farahmand, Mostafa Taqavi, and Ali Asghar Ahmadi, “Iranian Scholars’ Contemporary Debate between Evolutionary Human Genesis and Readings of the Qur’an: Perspectives and Classification” Religions MDPI 14:2: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14020143. For a meta-critical comparison of Malik’s classification, see Adam J. Chin, “The Aims of Typologies and a Typology of Aims,” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 58:3: 656–677.

79 Shoaib A. Malik, “Old Texts, New Masks: A Critical Review of Misreading Evolution onto Historical Islamic Texts,” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 54:2 (2019): 501–522.

80 Shoaib A. Malik, “Does Belief in Human Evolution Entail Kufr (Disbelief)? Evaluating The Concerns of a Muslim Theologian,” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 55:3 (2020): 638–662.

81 Shoaib A. Malik, “Al-Ghazālī’s Divine Command Theory: Biting the Bullet,” Journal of Religious Ethics 49:3 (2021): 546–576.

82 Malik, “Challenges and Opportunities,” 9–10.

83 Q. 4:157.

84 Elsewhere, I listed four propositions in which C3 and C4 were combined. For clarity, I decided to separate them in this article. See Malik, “Challenges and Opportunities,” 13.

85 For an excellent treatment on why Sunnī Muslims believe that Adam is a miraculous creation, see Tahseen N. Khan, The Provenance of Man: A Sunni Apologetic of the Original Creation of Ādam (Chicago: Philasufical Publications, 2023).

86 Rachel S. A. Pear, Dov Berger, and Meir Klein, “Religious and Scientific Instruction on Evolution and Origins in Israeli Schools,” Religious Education 115:3 (2020): 323–334; Rachel S. A. Pear, “Agreeing to Disagree: American Orthodox Jewish Scientists’ Confrontation with Evolution in the 1960s,” Religion and American Culture 28:2 (2018), 206–237; Rachel S. A. Pear, “‘Man-as-an-Animal Needs Religious Faith’: Rabbi Soloveitchik on Evolution and Divine Image in The Emergence of Ethical Man,” In Theology and Science: From Genesis to Astrobiology, eds. Joseph Seckbach and Richard Gordon (Singapore World Scientific, 2018); Rachel S. A. Pear, “Differences over Darwinism: American Orthodox Jewish Responses to Evolution in the 1920s,” Aleph 15:2 (2015): 343–387; Rachel S. A. Pear, “Arguing about Evolution for the Sake of Heaven: American Orthodox Rabbis Dispute Darwinism’s Merit and Meaning in the 1930s–1950s,” Fides et Historia 46:1 (2014): 21–39. We also wrote an article together. See Pear, Rachel S. A. Pear and Shoaib A. Malik, “Categorizations of the Interface of Evolution and Religion,” Cultural Studies of Science Education 17 (2022): 625–634.

87 Daniel R. Langton, “Naphtali Levy’s Divine World: Jewish Tradition, Panentheism and Darwinism,” Theology and Science 21:3 (2023), 438–456; Daniel R. Langton, Reform Judaism and Darwin: How Engaging with Evolutionary Theory Shaped American Jewish Religion (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2019); Daniel R. Langton, “Elijah Benamozegh and Evolutionary Theory: A Nineteenth-Century Italian Kabbalist’s Panentheistic Response to Darwin,” European Journal of Jewish Studies 10:2 (2016): 223–245; Daniel R. Langton, “Jewish evolutionary perspectives on Judaism, antisemitism, and race science in late nineteenth-century England: a comparative study of Lucien Wolf and Joseph Jacobs,” Jewish Historical Studies 46 (2014): 37–73; Daniel R. Langton, “Jewish Religious Thought, the Holocaust, and Darwinism: A Comparison of Hans Jonas and Mordecai Kaplan,” Aleph 13:2 (2013), 311–348.

88 S. Joshua Swamidass, The Genealogical Adam and Eve: The Surprising Science of Universal Ancestry (Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2019).

89 Erkki V. R. Kojonen, The Intelligent Design Debate and the Temptation of Scientism (Abingdon: Routledge, 2016); Erkki V. R. Kojonen, The Compatibility of Evolution and Design (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022). Kojonen’s second monograph had a dedicated special issue with Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science. See Erkki V. R. Kojonen, “The Compatibility of Evolution and Design,” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 57:4 (2022): 1108–1123.

90 Gijsbert van den Brink, “Human Death in Theological Anthropology and Evolutionary Biology: Disambiguating (Im)Mortality as Ecumenical Solution,” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 57:4 (2022): 869–888; Gijsbert van den Brink, Reformed Theology and Evolutionary Theory (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2020); Gijsbert van den Brink, “Are we Still Special? Evolution and Human Dignity,” Neue Zeitschrift für Systematicsche Theologie Und Religionsphilosophie 53:3 (2011): 318–332.

91 Stephen Jones, Saleema Burney, and Riyaz Timol, Science Communication, Islam and Muslim Communities: A Research Brief (Birmingham: University of Birmingham, 2023).

92 Research, “Science and British Muslim Religious Leadership,” University of Birmingham, https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/ptr/projects/science-british-muslim-religious-leadership.aspx (accessed on the 19 July, 2023).

93 The reader may want to know why there are various possibilities for Adam’s appearance. See the forthcoming discission of theological commitments and non-commitments.

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Shoaib Ahmed Malik

Shoaib Ahmed Malik is presently serving as a Visiting Researcher at St. Mary’s University, Twickenham (UK). Holding dual expertise in Science and Religion, he has a PhD in Chemical Engineering (University of Nottingham, UK) and a PhD in Theology (University of St Mary’s, Twickenham, UK). His acclaimed work, Islam and Evolution: Al-Ghazālī and the Modern Evolutionary Paradigm (Routledge), earned recognition as the top academic book of science and religion by the International Society for Science and Religion in 2022. Currently, he is engaged in crafting an educational textbook and a micrograph that delve into the nexus of Islam and evolution, both under the imprints of Routledge. Moreover, he is actively involved in curating several edited volumes and special issues. Notably, he is the Chief Editor for Palgrave’s recently inaugurated Islam and Science book series and encyclopedia, thus further enriching the discourse at this scholarly intersection.