Question:
This is a message we received from the sender Muhammad Omar Sultan from Iraq, Nineveh Governorate. He says: “I am the student Muhammad Sultan, a student in the second year of intermediate school. Last year, I studied the origin of man in a history textbook, and the book asserts that man’s origin is an ape and that he transformed over time into a human. Is this correct, or does it conflict with what is mentioned in the Holy Qur’an regarding the origin of apes? Please guide us, may Allah grant you success, so that we may follow the right path. Thank you.”
Answer:
This statement is incorrect—I mean the claim that the origin of man is an ape—rather, the one who says it is, in reality, an ape whose intellect and insight have been distorted; it is fitting that we call him an ape rather than a human, even if he appears in human form.
Questioner:
But couldn’t we say he is literally a transformed ape because he is Jewish?
The Shaykh:
In any case, what I have said is sufficient. This claim—that the origin of man is an ape—is incorrect, and believing it is an act of disbelief (kufr) because it contradicts the Qur’an. For Allah Almighty has clarified that the origin of man’s creation is from clay through the creation of Adam (peace be upon him), who is the father of humanity. Then, Allah made his progeny from a lineage of humble fluid. As for the known apes, they are among the various other species of created beings; they are creatures that originated according to their nature. Allah (Blessed and Exalted be He) created them with these characteristics, just like donkeys, dogs, mules, horses, camels, cows, sheep, gazelles, chickens, and others.
It is not permissible for anyone—in fact, it is not permissible for any Muslim state that identifies with Islam—to include this in its school curricula. Rather, it is mandatory to remove it from schools, because if a student is raised on this from a young age, it becomes very difficult for them to be rid of it. Furthermore, I do not believe it is permissible to include this in schools even if the intention is to refute and invalidate it. It should be invalidated without being part of the curriculum; because establishing a concept and then trying to uproot it is harmful. Preventing its inclusion entirely is better than including it and then attempting to uproot and invalidate it.
The duty of Islamic countries in general is to reconsider their curricula and courses, and to make them derived from the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger ﷺ. This is so that Allah Almighty may restore to the Islamic nation its glory, might, and dignity, and remove from it the nightmare of humiliation that has afflicted it today. It has reached a state that is truly pitiable—I might even say a state that its enemies pity—due to the fragmentation, division, humiliation, and weakness it faces among the nations of the world.
Reality bears witness to this, and the cause is nothing other than their turning away—or many of them turning away—from the Book of Allah, the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and the methodology of the Pious Predecessors (al-Salaf al-Salih), about which Imam Malik (may Allah have mercy on him) said: “The latter part of this nation will not be reformed except by that which reformed its first part.” I ask Allah, by His grace and generosity, to return us all to true Islam in creed, word, and deed—in both methodology and Sharia (Law)—so that we may return to the glory and status that we can only reach by adhering to our religion.