Islamic Theory of Evolution

Will Durant, an American historian, reminds his readers that medical books authored by Ali Ibni Sina (980-1037) and Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi (844-926) were both used as textbooks in European universities for centuries, and that in 1395 Razi’s book Kitab al-Hawi was among the nine textbooks used by the University of Paris. The same book informs the reader that Avicenna’s Qanun fil Tibb, a science encyclopedia, was a main textbook at Montpelier and Louvain universities until the mid-17th century. We should mention two important Muslim scientists who had immense impact on scientific enterprise in Europe: Abu Bakr ibn Tufayl, known in the West as Abubacer (1107-1185) and philosopher Abu al-Walid Muhammad ibn Rushd who became famous in the West by the name Averroes (1126-1298).

Blind Watch-Watchers or Smell the Cheese

Evolution of species through mutation and cumulative selection, as subscribed by the modern scientific community, provides sufficient evidences for the existence of immanent intelligent design in nature. The theory of evolution provides evidences about an intelligent designer more than a fingerprint on a canvass could provide clues about the identity of a human painter. Inferring the existence and some attributes of an intelligent designer from nature is as equally scientific as inferring the existence and some attributes of an unknown creature from its footprints left on the sand.