2. The Error That The Qur'an Contains Signs Of The Evolutionary Process

There surely came over man a period of time when he was a thing not worth mentioning. (Surat al-Insan, 1)

The same people also use this verse as evidence for evolution. In translations based on personal interpretation, the expression "when he was a thing not worth mentioning"is expressed as a statement of "previous states before man became man." However, this claim is just as far the truth as the first one.dd

The Arabic part of the underlined section runs as follows:

lam yakun shay'an madhkuran

"lem yekun şey'en mezkuren"

lem yekun: was not

shay'an: a thing

madhkuran: mentioned

Trying to use this expression as evidence for evolution is really forcing the words. In fact, Qur'anic scholars do not interpret this verse as indicating an evolutionary process. For example, Hamdi Yazir of Elmali makes the following comments:

In the beginning were elements and minerals, then vegetable and animal nutrients–"a kind of clay" (Surat al-Muminun, 12) were created out of them in stages. Then, something emerged very slowly and by stages from the sperm that was filtered from them. But that was not something called a human being. Just as mankind is not eternal, nor is his substance; that emerged later. Man came into being long after the beginning of time and the creation of the universe.⁴⁸

Omer Nasuhi Bilmen explains the verse in this way:

These verses announce that Allah created man to see and hear out of a drop of water when he was not, and that He has set a test for him.… Mankind did not exist in the beginning, but was created later as a figured body out of a drop of water, soil, and clay. That person was not known at that time, his name and why he had been created were a mystery to the inhabitants of Earth and sky. He then began to be reminded that he has a soul.⁴⁹

Imam al-Tabari explains the verse as meaning: "Such a long period of time passed since the time of Adam that at that time he was not even a thing that had any worth and superiority. He was nothing but sticky and modified clay."⁵⁰

For this reason, to see the expression of time in this verse as an evolutionary period is purely subjective.