There is no doubt that certain individuals in the past have made solid contributions to the way we live our lives today. Their contributions to the scientific world have made our lives very sophisticated and indeed very enjoyable. Imagine a world without telephone; information will spread at very slow pace and lives could be lost when it could be avoided. The same thing applies when you imagine a world without the kind of transportation system we now have; aeroplane, jets, cars, train etc. The world would have been stagnated and even some acts of worship would be very difficult and stressful to perform; for example He].
Now it is very easy for anyone of us to leave Nigeria for Hajj today and arrive in Saudi-Arabia in a very short time which was impossible less than three hundred years ago! Apart from these inventors, some other scientists have made their own contributions too in terms of the theories that they have propounded on which several other theories have been built.
Names like Isaac Newton, John Dalton, Albert Einstein and of course Charles Darwin will easily come to mind. You must have heard or read about them and their achievement. Havent you? As science students, we necessarily have to learn about them and their theories in our early senior secondary school days. What really concerns us here as Muslims is what their theory is and how do these theories affect us and our thinking.
There is no doubt that some of those theories that these people have propounded are dangerous to our belief system. Let us take for an example the Theory of Evolution that was propounded by Charles Darwin. The theory states that all living things [species] were not created by Allaah, rather only came into being by chance.
All species according to him, only evolved from particular species that were similar to them and that they are what they are now as a result of evolution So, man according to him, was sometimes before now not a man, rather he was a monkey who later turned into a man over time! This clearly is against what Allaah has informed us about in His Book AI-Quran where he clearly stated how he created our father Aadam. Allaah says; "And indeed We created man [Aadam out of an extract of clay [water and earth]. Thereafter We made him [the offspring of Aadam] as a Nutfah [mixed drops of the male and female discharge and lodged it] in a safe lodging [womb of the woman]. Then We made the Nutfah into a clot ... [Q23: 12-14] This clearly refutes Charles Darwins baseless evolution theory. But the problem that we usually face as Muslim youths is that because this is what we are being told most of time, we tend to believe it! Believing in such theories leads us into disbelieving in what Allaah has said; consciously or unconsciously.
The way out for us as Muslims is that we first of all know that whatever Allaah and His Prophet [peace and blessings be upon him] say is true and every other persons statement can only be correct if it agrees with what they have said. Allaah says; "But AIlaah says the truth, and He guides to the [Right] way [Q 33:4].
Secondly, we must realise that every human being is bound to commit errors and Allaah alone is perfect and free of any kind of errors whatsoever. Musa said about Allaah My Lord neither errs nor does He forget [Q 20:52] Finally, we should know that to believe that somebody who contradicts Allaahs statement is correct makes one a disbeliever outside the fold of Islam. So, whenever you hear or see anything, the first thing is to place it on the scale of Islam; if coincides with what Allaah and His Prophet [peace and blessings be upon him] says, then it is acceptable. If not, it is rejected.
This article was culled from the publications of Deen Communication Limited