COSMIC HISTORY AND BIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE HOLY QURAN

Abstract

Questions related more to existence and origin which attempt to explain how the universe came into existence such as “What is the origin of the universe? How was the universe created? From which material and through which processes was the human being created?” have been important subjects of philosophy, religion and mythology since antiquity. It is unthinkable that the Quran, which is the sacred source of the religion of Islam, would be indifferent to this subject about which humans are most curious and about which they raise serious questions. Therefore, the existence of the universe and biological development of the human being are important subjects in the Quran. In verses, cosmic history and biological development of the human being are frequently handled. However, the subject is not systematically dealt with in the Quran. Researchers studying the Quran’s verses related to this subject do not seem to be very systematic, either. While some thinkers deal only with cosmic start, others focus only on biological development. While some thinkers deal with creation as existence out of nothing, some other thinkers try to prove the evolutionary creation theory and use as reference only the verses that provide evidence for their own views. In this study, without entering these and such discussions, we will try to analyze the cosmic history according to the Quran starting from the first existence of the universe and completed with the human being’s biological development. For this reason, we will make references to cosmic laws proven by modern science only when necessary. However, our aim is neither to prove the consistence between the Quran and science nor to support the argument that the verses precede certain scientific laws. Our main aim is to explain how cosmology is built in the Quran. The reason leading us to such a study is to examine how the Quran, which is the sacred source of the Islamic belief, bases the subject matter from the perspective of the fact that philosophy, science and religion place importance on the issue. Although there is much literature regarding the subject, it is observed that these studies act largely on the basis of proving or rejecting creation from nothing (or ex nihilo) or the evolutionary creation theory and thus overlook systematic integrity and a comprehensive and consistent approach. Therefore, in our study, we will focus on the Quran as the primary and original source. While providing grounds for our study, we will first conduct a conceptual analysis; in addition, we will include analysis of important concepts when necessary. The literature which we refer to while grounding our subject matter is the following: The Holy QURAN, YARAN, Cafer Sadık (2007), Understanding Islam, Pentagon Pres., Edinburg; TASLAMAN Caner (2011), Big Bang ve Tanrı, Print, İstanbul Yayınevi, Istanbul; YAZIR, Elmalılı Hamdi (trsz), Hak Dini Kuran Dili, Simplified by: İsmail Karaçam, Emin Işık, Nusrettin Boleli, Abdullah Yücel, V. 2, Azim Dağıtım, Istanbul; BAŞ, Erdoğan (2009), “Sema” article Diyanet İslam Ansiklopedisi (DİA), Volume: 36; RAZİ, Fahrettin (1991), Tefsir-i Kebir (Mefâtihu’l Gayb), trans. S. Yıldırım, L. Cebeci, S. Kılıç, S. Doğru, Akçağ yay., Volume: 10, Ankara; LEIBNIZE, G. W. (1998), “Principles of Nature and Grace, Based on Reason”, Philosophical Texts, trans. Richard Francks and R. S. Woolhouse, Oxford University Press; WOLFSON, Harry A. Wolfson (1976) The Philosophy of the Kalam, Harvard University Pres, London; YAKIT, İsmail (2003), “Kuran’da İnsan’ın Yaratılışı ve Evrimi”, Kur’an’ı Anlamak, Ötüken yay., Istanbul. KURAN-I KERİM; BÂR, M. Ali (2010), Kuran-ı Kerim ve Modern Tıbba Göre İnsanın Yaratılışı, Trans. Abdülvehhab Öztürk, Diyanet Vakfı yay., Ankara; BUCAILLE, Maurice (1987), Müspet İlim Yönünden Tevrat, İncil ve Kuran, trans. M. Ali Sönmez,DİB yay., İstanbul; BAYRAKTAR, Mehmet (2011), İslam’da Evrimci Yaratılış Teorisi, Kitabiyat, Ankara, 2001; ÇAĞRICI, Mustafa (2013), “Yer” article DİA, Volume: 43; ERDEM, Mustafa (1999), Hz. Adem (İlk İnsan), Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı yay., Ankara; ÖZTÜRK, Mustafa (2004), “Âdem, Cennet ve Düşüş”, Milel ve Nihal, Year 1, Number 2, June; ATEŞ, Süleyman (1975), “Kuran-ı Kerim’e Göre Evrimi Teorisi”, AÜİFD, Volume: XX; ATEŞ, Süleyman (trsz), Yüce Kuran’ın Çağdaş Tefsiri, Yeni Ufuklar Neşr. Volume: 8, Trsz; ULUDAĞ, Süleyman (1994), “Dünya” article, Volume: 10; EFİL, Şahin (2002), İslam ve Batı Düşüncesinde Yaratılış Modelleri, Pınar yay., Istanbul, 2002; ULUKÜTÜK, Veli, (1995), Kuran-ı Kerim’de Yaratma Kavramı, İnsan yay. Istanbul. As a consequence, like scientific theories, philosophic doctrines and original mythologies, the Islamic belief, too, has an acceptance regarding how the existence occurred. This acceptance is primarily expressed in the Quran. The Quran handles both cosmic existence and biological development of the human being. Even though there are certain points the contents of which we are not able to clarify completely, the verses deal with the issue within a systematical integrity. The reason why we cannot clarify certain subjects or verses is the inadequacy of the current science and poverty of our cosmic viewpoint. Therefore, it is not possible to consider these points that we cannot clarify as irrational. The progressing intellectual and scientific process will probably lead us to understand these subjects better. It is frequently emphasized in the Quran that creation occurred in phases. This is contrary to the idea that existence was created completely all of a sudden as proposed by the view of creation from nothing. Even though occurrence of creation in phases evokes the idea of evolutionary creation theory, this is not compatible with the approaches of coincidence and natural selection of the Darwinist evolution. This is because it is seen that God is effective in all phases of creation with his infinite knowledge and power. Besides, it does not seem possible, either, to interpret existence in phases similar

Özet

Evrenin nasıl meydana geldiği felsefenin, dinin ve mitolojinin önemli konularından biridir. Evrenin orijini nedir? Evren nasıl yaratılmıştır? İnsan hangi maddeden ne tür süreçlerden geçerek meydana gelmiştir? Kuran-ı Kerim'in de insanların en çok merak ettiği ve ciddi sorular yönelttiği bu konuya ilgisiz kalması düşünülemezdi. Bu sebeple Kuran-ı Kerim'de evrenin oluşumu ve insanın biyolojik gelişimi önemli bir konudur. Ayetlerde kozmik tarih ve insanın biyolojik gelişimine sıkça yer verilir. Ancak Kuran-ı Kerim'de konu sistematik bir biçimde ele alınmaz. Kuran-ı Kerim'in bu konu ile ilgili ayetlerini ele alan araştırmacılar da çok fazla sistematik görünmemektedirler. Bir kısım düşünürler sadece kozmik başlangıcı ele alırken diğerleri sadece biyolojik gelişime odaklanmaktadır. Bazı düşünürler yaratılışın yoktan meydan geldiğini ele alırken diğer bazı düşünürler evrimci yaratılış teorisini ispatlamaya çalışmaktadırlar ve sadece kendi görüşlerini destekleyen ayetleri referans olarak kullanmaktadırlar. Biz bu çalışmada bu ve benzeri tartışmalara girmeksizin Kuran-ı Kerim'e göre evrenin oluşumundan başlayarak insanın biyolojik gelişimiyle tamamlanan kozmik tarihi incelemeye çalışacağız. Bu sebeple sadece yeri geldiğinde çağdaş bilimin ispatladığı kozmik yasalara göndermeler yapacağız. Amacımız Kuran-ı Kerim ve bilim arasındaki uyumu ispatlamak olmadığı gibi ayetlerin bir kısım bilimsel yasalara öncülük ettiği savını desteklemek de değildir