Lesson video

Hello and welcome to this lesson, on the origins of humanity in Islam.

My name is Miss Kendrick, and in this lesson we're going to be looking at, what the Qur'an says about the origins of humanity.

We're going to look at how, this is understood by Muslims today, as we're going to have a recap, of the theory of evolution as well.

And some of those challenges that science has for religion.

So you're going to need a pen or pencil, a different coloured pen or pencil.

So you can write down, any additions or corrections to your work.

And you're going to need some paper to write on as well.

So if you don't have those things in front of you right now, you need to pause the video, and run and grab them.

You also need to make sure, you have a good working environment.

So try and get rid of any distractions, so turn off any music, turn the notifications off on your phone, so you're not getting messages from people, so that you can just be 100% focused, on what we're learning today.

So we start by looking at creation in the Qur'an, and if you took part in my origins, of the universe in Islam lesson, you will know that the Qur'an, doesn't have a creation narrative, in the same way that we see in Christianity.

But instead verses about creation are scattered throughout the Qur'an.

For example, we have this quotation here which says, "Indeed, your Lord is Allah, "who created the heavens and the earth, "and he created the sun, the moon and the stars, "subjected by his command." So we have the belief from Islam, that Allah created out of nothing, that he's created all things, and that he continues to be involved in creating, and sustaining the world today.

So we're going to focus on Islamic beliefs about humanity.

'Cause we've already looked at creation as a whole, and for many muslims, this is going to answer a lot of questions, about the purpose of life for humans.

What are humans created for, what are they supposed to be doing? So these verses and things like that, are going to be really important to Islamic belief.

So the Islam recognises a general idea, of the development of life in stages over a period of time, human beings are considered to be a special act of creation.

In the Qur'an, it teaches that Allah made everything, the universe and creatures and things like that, then made Adam and then the Qur'an explains, how Allah moulded Adam from clay, and breathed life into him.

So we've got these two quotations showing that.

So the first one, "Who perfected everything, "which he created and began the creation of man from clay." So here we have the belief that Adam was made from clay.

"Then he proportioned him, "and breathed into him from his created soul "and made for you hearing and vision and hearts." So this shows the idea that Adam, is separate from the rest of creation.

He's not just part of everything else that was created, but we've got the idea of Adam, having his soul breathed into him, that makes him different to everything else around him.

It also explains how Allah named the first human Adam, and then taught him the names of all things, like the names of all the animals.

And we also in the creation story, and in many other parts of the Qur'an as well, we have this idea that Adam, is a khalifa over creation.

that means he's a steward over creation, he has a responsibility, to care for all that Allah has made, and all that belongs to Allah as well.

And in Islam, there is the idea, that they will be judged, on whether or not they've been, a good Khalifa's as well.

So again, a very important belief.

So we're going to pause for a moment, So you can answer a couple of questions, based on what I've told you so far.

So let's begin to look at the creation of Eve, and although the first woman, isn't named in the Qur'an, she is traditionally known as Eve.

And there is less detail about the creation of Eve in the Qur'an, but she is said to be created, from the same soul as Adam.

And she's referred to as the mother of humankind.

So we've got two quotations here.

"It is he who created you from one soul, "and created from it, "it's mates that he might dwell in security with her." So, many muslims would say, that men and women are created for one another, they're created to be together, there's a sense of community and the family unit, because men and women, men and women would dwell together, live together.

And this is something that will be touched more, in the families and relationships unit as well.

And then secondly, we've got this idea, of Eve being the mother of all mankind or humankind.

"O mankind, "indeed we have created you from male and female, "and made you peoples and tribes, "that you may know one another." So again, we've got this idea, of the world being populated with humans, and humans living in community with each other, all these different tribes knowing one another.

So again, we're going to pause for a moment.

So you can answer a couple of questions, based on these quotations.

Now, before we look at different Islamic understandings, of these verses about the creation, of men and women in the Qur'an, we need to have a bit of a recap about evolution.

So if you took part in the previous lesson, which looked at christian beliefs, about the origins of humanity, then I went into quite a lot of detail about evolution.

I'm just going to focus on doing a bit more of a recap now, but it's really important, that we know and understand, a bit of the science of evolution, because it is in response to the scientific evidence, that we often find different interpretations, of religious texts.

Whilst Christians and Muslims, try and hold together the science and their beliefs, in the authority of their scriptures.

And so it's really important, that we have a good understanding of what evolution is, and what some of the evidences.

So evolution is a process of random mutation, and natural selection.

So natural selection is the idea, that animals that are more successful, for whatever reason, are more likely to pass on their genetics.

So this might be about an animal, that is bigger than other ones, in a species might survive longer.

And that might mean that, it passes on its genetics more, and so that gene, that makes that animal big, gets increased because they have lots and lots of babies.

And over time, perhaps that animal gets bigger.

And what I say over time, I mean over millions of years, random mutation can have an impact here, mutations happen all the time, red hair technically is a mutation, and some mutations, don't give any benefits to a animal.

Some might have a negative effect, but others might be a positive thing.

And again, if that mutation, makes it more possible for that animal, to adapt to their environment and be more successful, then they're more likely to pass on their genetics.

In which case, you would see, that mutation happen more and more.

So we can see lots of examples just in humans, of mutations, I'm pretty sure blue eyes is a mutation as well.

So animals that can adapt to their environments, are most successful and they pass on their genetics.

So that's part of natural selection, and we can see throughout history, some animals are very adaptable, and don't change very much.

So if you look at the fossils of sharks and crocodiles, then actually there's not very much change, because they are essentially killing machines, okay? So they've been very able to adapt, to their environments without too much change.

Whereas other animals, where they've been unable to adapt, to their environments they've not survived.

So for example, the dodo lived on an island, where it didn't really have any predators.

And then when predators were introduced to the island, then they didn't survive, because they weren't able to protect themselves, or anything like that.

Evolution does take millions of years, so it's not something that humans can observe, but evidence can be found in fossils, and lots of scientists or biologists, will look at animals today, and they'll look at their DNA, and they'll see similarities in their DNA, and similarities in the animals as they look today.

So Darwin, famously started to develop the theory of evolution, when he went to the Galapagos Islands, and saw all of these finches, which are a type of bird, and they had slightly different beaks, and he came to the conclusion, that they were all descended, from perhaps a single pair of finches, but that over hundreds of thousands, millions of years, they had changed their beaks, bit by bit so that they could get different foods.

So you'd get one type of finch, with a really beak big for cracking nuts, and you'd have another type of finch, with a really fine beak for getting insects out of trees.

So looking at the variety of animals today, is one piece of evidence for biologists, for evolution and fossil records, is also a big piece of evidence.

So having given you that recap of evolution, you're going to pause the video, and answer a couple of questions, to show that you understand it.

So what are the challenges for Muslims, when looking at the science of evolution, and looking at their faith.

We've got two questions here, so can evolution fit with the claims of the Qur'an? Because Muslims would say, the Qur'an is the word of Allah, that it cannot be wrong, that it's not being changed, and therefore it is authoritative.

And we've also got another challenge of, if evolution is true, does that mean that humans are not special? Because many scientists would argue, that the only thing that makes humans special, is that maybe you are particularly intelligent animals, or at least we like to think of ourselves, as particularly intelligent.

And perhaps, it's just flick that humans became so intelligent, and maybe another species, would become as intelligent as us, or even more so.

And that is just the luck of the draw.

Many scientists might argue that, that is the only thing that makes humans special.

Whereas religious people such as Christians and Muslims, will argue that humans are special, because they are created by God.

So we're going to look at a couple of different views, from Islam about science of evolution, and how they fit that together, with their views on the Qur'an.

So here, we've got three different views, on evolution from Islam, and the titles I'm giving them here, are traditional, compromise and modern.

So traditionally, many Muslims would say that Allah created, all life full and complete.

And that the Qur'an does not mention evolution.

So these Muslims are essentially rejecting, the theory of evolution, because they're saying in the Qur'an, it just says that Allah makes the animals.

It's not this long process, that happens over millions of years, but he just made them as they are today.

Compromise Muslims, are going to be a little bit in the middle.

They are going to say that non-human animals evolved, but they might argue that humans were created by Allah, like it says in the Qur'an.

So the Muslims who would agree with this view, they're sort of in the middle, and one piece of evidence they might use, for their belief is that in the Qur'an, it talks about animals coming from water.

And this actually fits with the theory of evolution, which says that it's most likely, that the first life developed in the oceans, and maybe specifically in those hot vents you get deep under the sea where you actually see, a surprising amount of life, considering that the temperatures down there, would cook anything on the surface of the earth.

So that seems to fit very well with the theory of evolution, the idea that the first life came from water.

And then finally, we've got a modern view.

So some Muslims would argue that Allah, created all life through evolution.

That evolution was his method of creation.

And here we've got that quotation, that also fits with the compromise view.

We separated them and made from water, every living thing.

So these are three different views on evolution from Islam, and we'll have a variety of different views from Muslims, I'm sure I've not covered everything here.

I've just given you three examples.

So what you're going to do, is answer some questions, to show you understand these different views.

Well done for answering those questions, in a minute, we are going to have a look, at a evaluate question, but first we're going to do some quick fire questions, to make sure we understand, what we've looked at so far.

So which understanding of Islam, would say that animals evolved, but that humans were created whole? One, two, three, that's compromise.

Why may some Muslims except evolution, both the Qur'an and evolution say life began in water.

The other answers don't quite fit.

So they might believe that Allah predestined evolution, but it's not one of the examples I gave you.

It's not clearly outlined in the Qur'an, like it is in a scientific textbook.

And yes, they would believe, that other is clever enough to have invented evolution.

But that is not the best answer here.

Which understanding of Islam, would say that all humans and animals were created whole, as they are today? Traditional, okay.

So, the traditional view rejects the theory of evolution, and would say that the Qur'an, has authority and the Qur'an doesn't mention it.

Why may some Muslims reject evolution? Because the Qur'an suggests Allah made animals whole.

Which understanding of Islam would say, that both humans and animals evolved? That'd be the modern view.

How does the Qur'an say Eve was made? Good, from the same soul as Adam, and from Adam's rib is from Christianity.

So are you going to do now is on the next slide, I've given you a grid, that has lots of different views in it.

I want you to read through the different views, and decide which one fits with which religion, or whether it's humanist and non-religious.

Some of views will fit with more than one, so there might be some written there, which are Christianity and Islam, for example, now you do not have to write all of these out, they are lettered, so you could just write A Christianity, Islam, and that is not necessarily the answer, but what you will need to do, is decide which two arguments you think are strongest.

And those are the ones, I would like you to write out.

So I'll give you a bit of time to do that task.

And then I will show you the answers.

I hope you gotten okay with that task, it's really helpful to see lots of different views, on this topic.

And it's going to really help us, with our evaluate style questions.

So here, I've got a statement.

It says, the theory of evolution proves, that religious beliefs about the origins of life are wrong.

And in different examples, these are going to be worth different amounts of marks.

So the longer questions, are usually 12 or 15 marks, and they will usually have the command, to evaluate or discuss.

You do need to ask your teacher, which example you're sitting, because it's really helpful for you to know, what's expected from each exam board.

This question fits best with AQA and Edexcel, and you will see the command word, discuss for Eduqas, WJEC and OCR.

So we're just going to spend a bit of time, practising and getting those different points of view.

So getting both sides of the argument and explaining them.

So firstly, I want you to think about some reasons, why people might agree or disagree with the statement.

So just a reminder, the statement is the theory of evolution, proves that religious beliefs, about the origins of life are wrong.

So in this question, you can talk about humanists, Christians and Muslims. So pause the video and do this task.

So here, I've got some examples of arguments, you could have on the agree side.

And in a moment, I will get you to pause the video, and add these to your own bullet points.

So firstly, there is plenty of evidence for evolution, such as fossil records.

Science shows that the universe is much older, than the Bible suggests.

So some Christians argue, that if you sort of add up the different years and generations of people in the Bible, that the earth is much younger than the science says.

Humans share 98% of their DNA with chimpanzees, which proves that humans are part of the animal kingdom.

That was one of the arguments from our grids.

It's impossible for someone to be created from dust or clay.

And how is it possible for humans, to have descended from one couple? Sometimes I do get that question, how would it be that all humans, would be descended from Adam and Eve? So you can pause your video for a moment, and add some of these ideas to your bullet points.

It's always good to add in any evidence, that you can think of as well, like Bible or Qur'an quotations.

Just a reminder, that this point at the bottom, Christians and Muslims who accept evolution, will not agree with the statement, because they will say that evolution, has not proved religious beliefs wrong, but that it's compatible with them.

And this is where we've got to be really careful, about how we interact with the question itself, because a liberal Christian or a Muslim, they're not going to say, Oh, yeah, no, the Qur'an or the Bible is just totally wrong, about that matter.

They'll still going to say, that those religious texts have authority, and that they have truth, but they would argue that the truth, of those religious texts are compatible with science.

So they are going to disagree.

So for this statement is, mostly just going to be the humanist view, that will completely agree with the statement.

So I would like you to pause again, and see if you can think of any reasons to disagree.

So why are some Christians and Muslims going to say, that evolution does not prove, that religious beliefs are wrong? Okay, hope you got on okay, with this other side of the argument.

So here's some of my ideas, and please do add them to your work as well.

So many Muslims will say that much of the Qur'an, fits with evolution.

For example, life coming from water, please do always name your religion, and say that that is an Islamic belief, in both the Qur'an and the Bible, the words for day can be translated into period of time, saying that the development of life, could have been a slow process.

Compromise Muslims would argue that animals did evolve, but that humans were created whole.

And liberal Christians would argue the Genesis story, It's a myth that tells a deeper truth about humans.

These are not the only arguments, that might agree with this, disagree with the statement.

That's a common error, always make sure you know, whether you're talking about agreeing or disagreeing, because I often get students writing, some people will agree with this statement because, and then they write the disagree side.

And that's one of the reasons, why you need to proof read your answer, which I think students hate doing, reading over what you've just written, but that's when you pick up on lesser mistakes like that.

Which is so easy to make, when you're just writing and thinking, about what you're going to say next.

So I'm glad I fumbled that sentence, and made that little mistake.

Pause the video for a moment, add this to your work.

And then there's one more task for you to do, so finally, to write your conclusion, you need to make sure, you've got clear judgement on the statement.

So just summarise what you've written, say this side is stronger than the other side, because and explain why.

For this question, It's going to be your opinion, which side do you think is stronger? And when I say your opinion, what I mean is that, you could go with either side of the argument.

Don't write a lovely answer, all about Muslims believe this Christians believe that Humanist believe that and go well, I believe in something completely different so this is my opinion.

You need to say in your opinion which of those arguments that you've talked about, are the strongest, all right? So your conclusion should refer to things you've already written rather than bringing something else completely.

And you need to try and get two reasons to support your judgement as well.

So I'm going to give you a moment to write your conclusion and then we are done this lesson.

Thank you so much for taking part in this lesson.

Well done for all of your hard work.

We did a lot of writing in the end there as well.

Like I always say, it is very good practise to do that.

But now you've done it, you can do your exit quiz and then have a little break.

Thank you again for all of your hard work.