A Brief History of Mankind

By Naseer Ahmed, New Age Islam 28 January 2023 ------------------------------------------------------------ The Broad Outline Of The History Of Mankind From The Quran And From Science Match Very Closely. The Significant Difference In Detail Is Only In One Aspect. While The Quran Speaks About The Creation Of Adam Or Modern Man, Science Considers That Modern Man Evolved From Among The Homo Sapiens. ------------------------------------------------------------ Pre-Historic Man Dahr is the Arabic word for "time" from the very beginning of the Universe. We know from science that time began an estimated 13.8 billion years ago. Human beings came into existence only an estimated 2.5 million years ago and have therefore existed only for a very small period in Dahr. For about 2.43 million years, man’s existence was not even worth a mention. The Quran says about Man (Al-Insan) during this period: هَلْ أَتَىٰ عَلَى الْإِنسَانِ حِينٌ مِّنَ الدَّهْرِ لَمْ يَكُن شَيْئًا مَّذْكُورًا (76:1) Has there not been over Man (هَلْ أَتَىٰ عَلَى الْإِنسَانِ) a period of Time in Dahr(حِينٌ مِّنَ الدَّهْرِ), when he was not a thing ( لَمْ يَكُن شَيْئًا) worth mentioning?( مَّذْكُورًا) What Yuval Noah Harari, a historian says, echoes the same. He says, “There were humans long before there was history. Animals much like modern humans first appeared about 2.5 million years ago. But for countless generations, they did not stand out from the myriad other organisms with which they shared their habitats. The most important thing to know about prehistoric humans is that they were insignificant animals with no more impact on their environment than gorillas, fireflies or jellyfish.” Modern Man and His Exceptionalism Harari says, “Then about 70,000 years ago, according to the most commonly believed theory, accidental genetic mutations changed the inner wiring of the brains of Sapiens, enabling them to think in unprecedented ways and to communicate using an altogether new type of language. We might call it the Tree of Knowledge mutation. Why did it occur? As far as we can tell, it was a matter of pure chance. But it’s more important to understand the consequences of the Tree of Knowledge mutation than its causes. The Cognitive Revolution kick-started history”. By history, Harari means the most distant time in the past from which we begin to see in archaeological and fossil evidence significant achievements of mankind. It is not what we normally understand the beginning of history as a written record of our life which started only around 4000 BC. There is absolutely no doubt about human exceptionalism from the time of the “Cognitive Revolution” (CR), which resulted in us acquiring unique intellectual and cognitive capabilities that enable us to understand at the micro level the nature and attributes of everything, as well as the design, the order, and the rationality built into the natural world at the macro level. This event is called the “Cognitive Revolution” because it happened suddenly, and not as a slow process spread over thousands of years, and ever since, there is little change. Most researchers maintain that the people who drove the Neanderthals to extinction 45000 years ago, settled in Australia 50,000 years ago, and carved the Stadel lion-man 41000 years ago, were as intelligent, creative and sensitive as we are. If we were to come across the artists of the Stadel Cave, we could learn their language and they ours. We’d be able to explain to them everything we know – from the adventures of Alice in Wonderland to the paradoxes of quantum physics – and they could teach us how their people view the world. The above description resonates with the Quranic description of the creation of Adam and his progeny and the exceptionalism of this new creation: (2:30) Behold, thy Lord said to the angels: "I will create a vicegerent on earth." They said: "Wilt Thou place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood?- whilst we do celebrate Thy praises and glorify Thy holy (name)?" He said: "I know what ye know not."(31) And He taught Adam the names of all things; then He placed them before the angels, and said: "Tell me the names of these if ye are right."(32) They said: "Glory to Thee, of knowledge We have none, save what Thou Hast taught us: In truth it is Thou Who art perfect in knowledge and wisdom."(33) He said: "O Adam! Tell them their names." When he had told them, Allah said: "Did I not tell you that I know the secrets of heaven and earth, and I know what ye reveal and what ye conceal?"(34) And behold, We said to the angels: "Bow down to Adam" and they bowed down. Not so Iblis: he refused and was haughty: He was of those who reject Faith. We know God from His names. The Ahadith tell us that there are ninety-nine names of God and I can add many more to that list such as the ultimate Mathematician and Logician . Each of these names is an attribute of God that give us an idea of what God is like. “He taught Adam the names of all things” is therefore a metaphor for giving this new creation the intellectual and cognitive capabilities to know the nature and attributes of all things and learn “the secrets of heaven and earth”. The exceptionalism of this new creation is underlined by making the angels bow to Adam. It does not matter whether we take the story of the creation of Adam literally or metaphorically as long as we understand that the story is describing the coming into existence (suddenly) of such a human being and the exceptionalism of this new creature and its progeny as regards its intellectual and cognitive abilities to make sense of the world. The believers in “evolution” can continue to believe in it and yet remain believers while treating the story is Quran as metaphorical. Spreading out of Adam’s Progeny The Quran says that soon after the creation of Adam, Allah spread out Adam’s progeny far and wide. (4:1) O mankind! reverence your Guardian-Lord, who created you from a single person, created, of like nature, His mate, and from them twain scattered (like seeds) countless men and women;- reverence Allah, through whom ye demand your mutual (rights), and (reverence) the wombs (That bore you): for Allah ever watches over you. (30:20) Among His Signs in this, that He created you from dust; and then,- behold, ye are men scattered (far and wide)! We Learn The Following From The Scientific History Of Man: Between 80,000 and 50,000 years ago, a wave of humans migrated out of Africa. These humans are likely to have been ‘modern’ in terms of their appearance and behaviour. Due to their newly cooperative behaviour, they were more successful at surviving and covered the whole world in a relatively short period of time. As they migrated, they would have encountered earlier, primitive humans, eventually replacing them. Genetically, the six billion (now eight billion) people of today’s world vary very little from these earlier Homo sapiens that ventured out of Africa. The broad consensus now is that all modern humans are descended from an African population of Homo sapiens that migrated around the world but bred with local archaic populations as they did so. Modern humans reached Asia 70,000 years ago before moving down through Southeast Asia and into Australia. The settlement of Australia is the first unequivocal evidence of a significant sea crossing and rates as one of the greatest achievements of early humans. Molecular clock estimates, genetic studies and archaeological data all suggest the initial colonisation of Sahul and Australia by modern humans occurred around 48,000–50,000 years ago. Conclusion The broad outline of the history of mankind from the Quran and from science match very closely. The significant difference in detail is only in one aspect. While the Quran speaks about the creation of Adam or modern man, science considers that modern man evolved from among the homo sapiens. Considering that the CR was sudden and not spread over a long period, and increasing evidence that “evolution” happens only in short bursts, it is unreasonable to assume that the entire population of existing homo sapiens underwent the CR. If the CR took place 130,000 years after the homo sapiens came into existence and thereafter there is no change of any significance over the last 70,000 years, then the most reasonable conclusion is that this was a rare occurrence from a happy coincidence of circumstances the details of which we cannot fathom. Such a rare accident could have happened to only one member of the homo sapiens species who then passed it on to all his or her progeny. When millions of such accidents have brought into being new species which are well adjusted to their environment, and procreation requires at least one pair to start with, science has a long way to go to discover how such happy accidents produce at least one pair of the new species so frequently. As for the believers in the Quran, science supports everything the Quran says on the subject and there is no challenge to even a single verse of the Quran. For a believer, the fact that Science is progressively converging to what the Quran said more than 1400 years ago on every subject, and the fact that not a single verse is proven wrong, is sufficient proof that the Quran is the word of God. The disbelievers will believe that it is a matter of time before scientists find good reasons for why such happy accidents occur so frequently that have resulted in the creation of millions of new species. Scientific inquiry, whether directed or misdirected, can produce outstanding results but not necessarily succeed in proving what we were seeking to prove. The believers pursuing science should also, therefore, approach science with the mindset of disbelievers. Nothing can be achieved by becoming complacent that we know what we need to know from a study of the Quran. Such an attitude cannot lead us to the knowledge of certainty or Ilm al-Yaqin and Ayn ul Yaqin which is to be found in the pursuit of science alone. The dichotomy between Religion and Science is an artificial one created by unevolved beings who understand neither science nor religion. As we have repeatedly seen, Science complements the Quran and there is no dichotomy between them. “Religion without science is blind and science without religion is lame” as Einstein famously said. There is nothing more hideous than an enemy of religion or an enemy of science. It is a sure sign of a diseased mind. ----- A frequent contributor to NewAgeIslam.com, Naseer Ahmed is an Engineering graduate from IIT Kanpur and is an independent IT consultant after having served in both the Public and Private sector in responsible positions for over three decades. He has spent years studying Quran in-depth and made seminal contributions to its interpretation. URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-science/history-mankind-science-sapiens/d/128980 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism