The Lot Of The Arrogant In The Hereafter

Apart from defining who the arrogant are, Allah also informs us about the end the people with Pharaonic arrogance will meet in the hereafter. One verse reads as follows: When he is told to have fear of Allah, he is seized by pride which drives him to wrongdoing. Hell will be enough for him! What an evil resting-place! (Surat al-Baqara: 206) As we are to understand from the Qur' an, the recompense of those who were too proud to worship Allah, the Almighty, is Hell. The related verses are as follows: ...Those who are too proud to worship Me will enter Hell abject. (Surah Ghafir: 60) That is because you exulted on the earth, without any right to do so; and strutted about. Enter the gates of Hell, remaining in it timelessly, for ever. How evil is the abode of the arrogant! (Surah Ghafir: 75-76) That Hell Fire is the abode of arrogant people is also mentioned in a hadith of the Prophet Muhammad (saas): ... Hell fire said: Inside me are the merciless and the arrogant people... (Muslim) People who feel pride because of what they possess in this world, and become unduly arrogant, commit a serious error. They never consider what will be their outcome in the hereafter. For this reason, at a moment they can never predict, they will suddenly be encompassed by the torment of Hell. In return for their failure to reckon that they would be called to give an account of their deeds on the Day of Judgment, they will be sent to Hell. This is the final abode where they will spend the rest of their existence. The fate of these people, who forget Allah and the Day of Judgment, is stated in a verse as follows: They will be told, "Today We have forgotten you as you forgot the meeting of this your Day. Your refuge is the Fire and you have no helpers. That is because you made a mockery of Allah' s Signs and the life of the world deluded you." Therefore, today they will not get out of it. They will not be able to appease Allah. (Surat al-Jathiyya: 34-35) The underlying reason for the humiliation of these people, who were cast into Hell because they ridiculed the verses of Allah, and immersed themselves into the life of this world, and thus, forgot the hereafter, was arrogance. It is arrogance that propelled them into such a predicament. Indeed, they are not people who had never heard about the life of the hereafter; during their time in this world, they were warned by Allah dozens of times through His messengers and books. Yet, growing arrogant, they ignored all such warnings and turned their backs. They will be punished only because they will deserve it: No, the fact is that My Signs came to you but you denied them and were arrogant and were a disbeliever. (Surat az-Zumar: 59) The Qur' an offers a detailed account of the situation of the arrogant on the Day of Judgment, the eternal existence in Hell, and the torment he will suffer. In this section, we will consider the fate of these people in the hereafter, so that they can serve as an admonition to those who are arrogant towards Allah, or who potentially harbour such rebellious feelings. THEY ARE DEGRADED IN HELL Those who grow arrogant in this world will be repaid in Hell with a humiliating punishment. There, apart from the agonizing physical pain, they will meet an end that will humble them spiritually. In return for having been unjustly arrogant on earth, they will receive eternal degradation in Hell: On the Day when those who were disbelievers are exposed to the Fire, [it will be said]: "You dissipated the good things you had in your worldly life and enjoyed yourself in it. So today you are being repaid with the punishment of humiliation for being arrogant in the earth without any right and for being deviators." (Surat al-Ahqaf: 20) In Hell, Allah subjects them to types of conditions that cause them profound emotional torment. Being cast into fire is surely tormenting; but for the arrogant, what is worse is being herded headlong like cattle into it: No indeed! Truly man is unbridled seeing himself as self-sufficient. Truly it is to your Lord that you will return. Have you seen him who prevents a servant when he goes to pray? (Surat al-' Alaq: 6-10) No indeed! If he does not desist, We will grab him by the forelock, a lying, sinful forelock. (Surat al-' Alaq: 15-16) In the above verses, feeling self-sufficient, that is, arrogant, is described as the main reason for man' s exultation. Again, as the verse mentions, the major factor of this exultation is the endeavour to hinder the believers. In another verse, we learn that those who become arrogant in this world are placed in the reverse situation: "Seize him and drag him bodily into the middle of the Blazing Fire. Then pour the punishment of boiling water on his head. Taste that! You are the mighty one, the noble one!" (Surat ad-Dukhan: 46-49) This is the end of the arrogant who unjustly exulted in themselves. The worldly aims they pursued were temporal. Even if they were to possess the whole world, it will some day cease to exist; when all one cherished in this world will simply disappear. However, the life of the hereafter will last for all eternity. Moreover, Allah is the owner of everything; He has granted everything to humans in the life of this world only to test them. He tests them to see whether or not they will seek His good pleasure and feel grateful. The reward of those who are prone to arrogance is, contrary to their expectations, torment. THEY WILL BE HIDEOUS Good-looks and other physical qualities are among the traits the foremost of which arrogant people boast. That is why, those who boast of their beauty in this world will receive what they most feared; they will look hideous. In Hell, their faces will be turned black: On the Day of Rising you will see those who lied against Allah with their faces blackened. Do not the arrogant have a dwelling place in Hell? (Surat az-Zumar: 60) We pursued them with a curse in this world and on the Day of Rising they will look hideous. (Surat al -Qasas: 42) THEY REMAIN IN HELL FOR ALL ETERNITY The verses make it clear that those who are arrogant towards Allah will remain in Hell for all eternity. And, the reason why they were sent to Hell is precisely for their arrogance. Allah repays them with eternal fire of Hell: As for those who deny Our Signs and are arrogant regarding them, the Gates of Heaven will not be opened for them, and they will not enter Paradise until a camel goes through a needle' s eye. That is how We repay the evildoers. (Surat al-A' raf: 40) Enter the gates of Hell, remaining in it timelessly, for ever. How evil is the abode of the arrogant! (Surah Ghafir: 76) Enter the gates of Hell, remaining in it timelessly, for ever. How evil is the abode of the arrogant! (Surat an-Nahl: 29) It is truly impossible to imagine being destined to remain in the torment of Hell-a place one would not even bear to see-for millions or billions of years, still knowing that it will never end. There exists no greater penalty than being punished with such a torment. Furthermore, this is a kind of torment with such an intensity that will make one desire nothing but to be extinguished. ON THE DAY OF JUDGMENT, THEIR POSSESSIONS AND CHILDREN WILL BE OF NO BENEFIT TO THEM It is obvious that, the arrogant boast of their possessions and children since they fail to remember that it is Allah Who possesses everything. Whatever one possesses, it is a temporary pleasure of the life of this world. The sole criterion that is truly lasting, and appreciated in Allah' s sight, is "taqwa," which means awe or fear of Allah, which inspires a person to be on guard against wrong action and eager for those which please Him. A verse in the Qur' an reads, "The noblest among you in Allah' s sight is the one with the most taqwa." (Surat al-Hujurat: 13) Nevertheless, those who compete in rebelling against Allah, rather than fearing Him, will grasp the extent of their failure on the Day of Judgment, since none of which they had valued in this world will be of any benefit on the Day of Judgment: The Day when neither wealth nor sons will be of any use-except to those who come to Allah with sound and flawless hearts. Paradise will be brought near to those who have taqwa. The Blazing Fire will be displayed to the misled. (Surat ash-Shu' ara' : 88-91) One of the things for which arrogant people boast most is their sons and families. In the Qur' an, Allah informs us that those who forget that their sons and families are created by Allah, will flee from them on the Day of Judgment: When the Deafening Blast comes, the Day a man will flee from his brother and his mother and his father, and his wife and his children: on that Day every man among them will have concerns enough of his own. (Surah ' Abasa: 33-37) As we are to learn from the verses of the Qur' an, family ties will be broken on the Day of Judgment, and those who now boast of their families will receive no help from them: Then when the Trumpet is blown, that Day there will be no family ties between them; they will not be able to question one another. (Surat al-Mu' minun: 101) Neither your blood relations nor your children will be of any use to you. On the Day of Rising He will differentiate between you. Allah sees what you do. (Surat al-Mumtahana: 3) Allah also informs us in the verse quoted below that the hoarding of possessions in the life of this world will offer no benefit to the arrogant in the hereafter: The Companions of the Ramparts will call out to men they recognise by their mark, saying, "What you amassed was of no use to you, nor was your arrogance." (Surat al-Araf: 48) These people, though they considered themselves powerful, because they failed to grasp that Allah possesses everything, will see the truth of this fact in the hereafter. As well, they will come to understand that neither their fortune nor their power would suffice to save them from the fearsome torment of Hell: Who has amassed wealth and hoarded it! He thinks his wealth will make him live for ever. No indeed! He will be flung into the Shatterer. And what will convey to you what the Shatterer is? The kindled Fire of Allah reaching right into the heart. It is sealed in above them. (Surat al-Humaza: 2-8)

The Fate Of Those Who Were Led Astray By The Arrogant

A particular character trait of the arrogant is their leading others, in addition to themselves, astray. From a verse of the Qur' an, we learn that they do so by "turning away arrogantly":

Among people there is one who argues about Allah without knowledge or guidance or any light-giving Book, turning away arrogantly, to misguide people from the Way of Allah. He will be disgraced in this world and on the Day of Rising We will make him taste the punishment of the Burning. (Surat al-Hajj: 8-9)

While the arrogant are sent to Hell, those who admired them, and thus, followed these insolent people, will also be cast into Hellfire. These are the people who obeyed the arrogant people because they admired their worldly qualities. Although not as arrogant as those who possessed "Pharaonic arrogance," those who followed in their footsteps lacked character and willpower. Another trait of theirs is their failure to put their trust in Allah, and their being driven solely by personal motives. The Qur' an mentions the people of the Pharaoh who were guilty of such vices:

Pharaoh called to his people, saying, "My people, does the kingdom of Egypt not belong to me? Do not all these rivers flow under my control? Do you not then see?" (Surat az-Zukhruf: 51)

In that way he swayed his people and they succumbed to him. They were a people of deviators. (Surat az-Zukhruf: 54)

Such people, who shut their eyes to all forms of violence and injustice, did not consider seeking refuge in their Lord and become His servants. On the Day of Judgment, they will recognise their mistake, but it is often too late. When they stand before Allah, altogether to give an account of their deeds, those who were arrogant and those who followed them will argue with one another:

Those who are disbelievers say, "We will never believe in this Qur' an, nor in what came before it." If only you could see when the wrongdoers, standing in the presence of their Lord, cast accusations back and forth at one another! Those deemed weak will say to those deemed great, "Were it not for you, we would have been believers!"
Those deemed great will say to those deemed weak, "Did we debar you from the guidance when it came to you? No, it is you who were evildoers."
Those deemed weak will say to those deemed great, "No, it was your scheming night and day when you commanded us to reject Allah and assign equals to Him." But they will show their remorse when they see the punishment. We will put iron collars round the necks of those who disbelieve. Will they be repaid for anything but what they did? (Surah Saba' : 31-33)

As these verses also note, those who had become arrogant and those "deemed weak" will accuse one another, but it will be of no avail. In another verse, their situation is stated as follows:

The Fire, morning and night, to which they are exposed; and on the Day the Hour takes place: "Admit Pharaoh' s people to the harshest punishment!"
When they are squabbling with one another in the Fire, the weak will say to those deemed great, "We were your followers, so why do you not relieve us of a portion of the Fire?" (Surah Ghafir: 46-47)

Conclusion

As we have stressed throughout this book, the fundamental character trait of an arrogant person is his failure to remember that he is a weak and mortal being before Allah. Whatever the conditions and circumstances may be, he finds justification to become vainly proud. This supposed justification may be a beautiful house, expensive furniture, a sports car, clothes, his hair style, the colour of his eyes, physical beauty, status, fame, a prestigious family name...

However, never does he ponder over the significance of the verse, "Every self will taste death" (Surah Al ' Imran: 185) and remember that he will die and be reduced to dust. Everything he once valued will meet the same end; his body, to which he was fondly attached, will first decay, and then be reduced to bones. His new car will become a heap of metal in only a few decades. Probably, in a few years time, no one will remember his enviable fame or status. Moreover, in a hundred years or more, not a soul will remain on earth that will have known him. His failure to grasp these facts, and, moreover, his refusal to contemplate them, is, in actuality, a clear sign of his being one of the people who does not use his intellect.

However, failure to use one' s intellect is not a reason to exonerate a person. That is because, Allah created every soul and shown him the two highways, two goals; a soul can either wholeheartedly submit to his Lord and spend his entire life to earn the rewards of Paradise, or follow his whims and desires and grow arrogant towards Him. Allah increases one' s wisdom if he adheres to the first way; the second way, on the other hand, deprives him of wisdom. As was the case with Iblis, those who grow arrogant have always adopted the second way. Moreover, each warning they receive proves merely to be a further reason for their persistence in denial. One verse follows:

When Our Signs are recited to such a person, he turns away arrogantly as if he had not heard, as if there was a great weight in his ears. So give him news of a painful punishment. (Surah Luqman: 7)

These people, who grow arrogant towards Allah, and turn their faces away from Him because of their arrogance, will receive punishment both in this world and beyond. They will not gain any advantage from this reprehensible attitude. Moreover, it will be a reason for which to be driven to Hell:

Say to those who are disbelievers: "You will be overwhelmed and crowded into Hell. What an evil resting-place!" (Surah Al ' Imran: 12)

Those who are herded headlong into Hell, such people are in the worst position. They are the most misguided from the way. (Surat al-Furqan: 34)

Believers, on the other hand, adhere to the first way. They are respectful and submissive to their Lord. They conduct themselves modestly towards other believers, since they recognise their own weaknesses and insignificance in the face of Allah' s infinite might, and know that"Modesty is part of faith and faith is in Paradise" (Ahmad, Tirmidhi) as the Prophet (saas) has stated. As well, aware that their wealth and qualities are given to them only as a test in this world, never do they dare to regard them as a basis to suppose their superiority over others. The modest are aware of their own shortcomings, weaknesses, their vulnerability even to a microbe otherwise invisible to the naked eye, and their mortality. They also recognise the fact that, like themselves, others are also subjects of Allah. They know that in Allah' s sight, only fear of Allah is the criteria for superiority, and accept no other criteria.

These are the "people of intelligence," as referred in the Qur' an. Allah has granted them "the ability to discern between right and wrong" (Surat al-Anfal: 29) and thus, they have grasped that this world is temporary, and that they need to prepare for the eventuality of Paradise. To this end, they purify their lower-selves of all forms of arrogance.

This, indeed, is the only way to salvation.

The Evolution Misconception

Every detail in this universe points to a superior creation. By contrast, materialism, which seeks to deny the fact of creation in the universe, is nothing but an unscientific fallacy.

Once materialism is invalidated, all other theories based on this philosophy are rendered baseless. Foremost of them is Darwinism, that is, the theory of evolution. This theory, which argues that life originated from inanimate matter through coincidences, has been demolished with the recognition that the universe was created by Allah. American astrophysicist Hugh Ross explains this as follows:

Atheism, Darwinism, and virtually all the "isms" emanating from the eighteenth to the twentieth century philosophies are built upon the assumption, the incorrect assumption, that the universe is infinite. The singularity has brought us face to face with the cause - or causer - beyond/behind/before the universe and all that it contains, including life itself.1

It is Allah Who created the universe and Who designed it down to its smallest detail. Therefore, it is impossible for the theory of evolution, which holds that living beings are not created by Allah, but are products of coincidences, to be true.

Unsurprisingly, when we look at the theory of evolution, we see that this theory is denounced by scientific findings. The design in life is extremely complex and striking. In the inanimate world, for instance, we can explore how sensitive are the balances which atoms rest upon, and further, in the animate world, we can observe in what complex designs these atoms were brought together, and how extraordinary are the mechanisms and structures such as proteins, enzymes, and cells, which are manufactured with them.

This extraordinary design in life invalidated Darwinism at the end of the 20th century.

We have dealt with this subject in great detail in some of our other studies, and shall continue to do so. However, we think that, considering its importance, it will be helpful to make a short summary here as well.

THE SCIENTIFIC COLLAPSE OF DARWINISM

Although a doctrine going back as far as ancient Greece, the theory of evolution was advanced extensively in the 19th century. The most important development that made the theory the top topic of the world of science was the book by Charles Darwin titled The Origin of Species published in 1859. In this book, Darwin denied that different living species on the earth were created separately by Allah. According to Darwin, all living beings had a common ancestor and they diversified over time through small changes.

Darwin's theory was not based on any concrete scientific finding; as he also accepted, it was just an "assumption." Moreover, as Darwin confessed in the long chapter of his book titled Difficulties of the Theory, the theory was failing in the face of many critical questions.

Darwin invested all his hopes in new scientific discoveries, which he expected to solve the "Difficulties of the Theory." However, contrary to his expectations, scientific findings expanded the dimensions of these difficulties.

The defeat of Darwinism against science can be reviewed under three basic topics:

1) The theory can by no means explain how life originated on the earth.

2) There is no scientific finding showing that the "evolutionary mechanisms" proposed by the theory have any power to evolve at all.

3) The fossil record proves completely the contrary of the suggestions of the theory of evolution.

In this section, we will examine these three basic points in general outlines:

THE FIRST INSURMOUNTABLE STEP:

THE ORIGIN OF LIFE

The theory of evolution posits that all living species evolved from a single living cell that emerged on the primitive earth 3.8 billion years ago. How a single cell could generate millions of complex living species and, if such an evolution really occurred, why traces of it cannot be observed in the fossil record are some of the questions the theory cannot answer. However, first and foremost, of the first step of the alleged evolutionary process it has to be inquired: How did this "first cell" originate?

Since the theory of evolution denies creation and does not accept any kind of supernatural intervention, it maintains that the "first cell" originated coincidentally within the laws of nature, without any design, plan, or arrangement. According to the theory, inanimate matter must have produced a living cell as a result of coincidences. This, however, is a claim inconsistent with even the most unassailable rules of biology.

"LIFE COMES FROM LIFE"

In his book, Darwin never referred to the origin of life. The primitive understanding of science in his time rested on the assumption that living beings had a very simple structure. Since medieval times, spontaneous generation, the theory asserting that non-living materials came together to form living organisms, had been widely accepted. It was commonly believed that insects came into being from food leftovers, and mice from wheat. Interesting experiments were conducted to prove this theory. Some wheat was placed on a dirty piece of cloth, and it was believed that mice would originate from it after a while.

Similarly, worms developing in meat were assumed to be evidence of spontaneous generation. However, only some time later was it understood that worms did not appear on meat spontaneously, but were carried there by flies in the form of larvae, invisible to the naked eye.

Even in the period when Darwin wrote The Origin of Species, the belief that bacteria could come into existence from non-living matter was widely accepted in the world of science.

However, five years after the publication of Darwin's book, Louis Pasteur announced his results after long studies and experiments, which disproved spontaneous generation, a cornerstone of Darwin's theory. In his triumphal lecture at the Sorbonne in 1864, Pasteur said, "Never will the doctrine of spontaneous generation recover from the mortal blow struck by this simple experiment."2

Advocates of the theory of evolution resisted the findings of Pasteur for a long time. However, as the development of science unraveled the complex structure of the cell of a living being, the idea that life could come into being coincidentally faced an even greater impasse.

INCONCLUSIVE EFFORTS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The first evolutionist who took up the subject of the origin of life in the twentieth century was the renowned Russian biologist Alexander Oparin. With various theses he advanced in the 1930's, he tried to prove that the cell of a living being could originate by coincidence. These studies, however, were doomed to failure, and Oparin had to make the following confession: "Unfortunately, however, the problem of the origin of the cell is perhaps the most obscure point in the whole study of the evolution of organisms."3

Evolutionist followers of Oparin tried to carry out experiments to solve the problem of the origin of life. The best known of these experiments was carried out by American chemist Stanley Miller in 1953. Combining the gases he alleged to have existed in the primordial earth's atmosphere in an experiment set-up, and adding energy to the mixture, Miller synthesized several organic molecules (amino acids) present in the structure of proteins.

Barely a few years had passed before it was revealed that this experiment, which was then presented as an important step in the name of evolution, was invalid, the atmosphere used in the experiment having been very different from real earth conditions.4

After a long silence, Miller confessed that the atmosphere medium he used was unrealistic.5

All the evolutionist efforts put forth throughout the twentieth century to explain the origin of life ended with failure. The geochemist Jeffrey Bada from San Diego Scripps Institute accepts this fact in an article published in Earth Magazine in 1998:

Today as we leave the twentieth century, we still face the biggest unsolved problem that we had when we entered the twentieth century: How did life originate on Earth?6

THE COMPLEX STRUCTURE OF LIFE

The primary reason why the theory of evolution ended up in such a big impasse about the origin of life is that even the living organisms deemed the simplest have incredibly complex structures. The cell of a living being is more complex than all of the technological products produced by man. Today, even in the most developed laboratories of the world, a living cell cannot be produced by bringing inorganic materials together.

The conditions required for the formation of a cell are too great in quantity to be explained away by coincidences. The probability of proteins, the building blocks of cell, being synthesized coincidentally, is 1 in 10950 for an average protein made up of 500 amino acids. In mathematics, a probability smaller than 1 over 1050 is practically considered to be impossible.

The DNA molecule, which is located in the nucleus of the cell and which stores genetic information, is an incredible databank. It is calculated that if the information coded in DNA were written down, this would make a giant library consisting of 900 volumes of encyclopaedias of 500 pages each.

A very interesting dilemma emerges at this point: the DNA can only replicate with the help of some specialized proteins (enzymes). However, the synthesis of these enzymes can only be realized by the information coded in DNA. As they both depend on each other, they have to exist at the same time for replication. This brings the scenario that life originated by itself to a deadlock. Prof. Leslie Orgel, an evolutionist of repute from the University of San Diego, California, confesses this fact in the September 1994 issue of the Scientific American magazine:

It is extremely improbable that proteins and nucleic acids, both of which are structurally complex, arose spontaneously in the same place at the same time. Yet it also seems impossible to have one without the other. And so, at first glance, one might have to conclude that life could never, in fact, have originated by chemical means. 7

No doubt, if it is impossible for life to have originated from natural causes, then it has to be accepted that life was "created" in a supernatural way. This fact explicitly invalidates the theory of evolution, whose main purpose is to deny creation.

IMAGINARY MECHANISMS OF EVOLUTION

The second important point that negates Darwin's theory is that both concepts put forward by the theory as "evolutionary mechanisms" were understood to have, in reality, no evolutionary power.

Darwin based his evolution allegation entirely on the mechanism of "natural selection". The importance he placed on this mechanism was evident in the name of his book: The Origin of Species, By Means Of Natural Selection…

Natural selection holds that those living things that are stronger and more suited to the natural conditions of their habitats will survive in the struggle for life. For example, in a deer herd under the threat of attack by wild animals, those that can run faster will survive. Therefore, the deer herd will be comprised of faster and stronger individuals. However, unquestionably, this mechanism will not cause deer to evolve and transform themselves into another living species, for instance, horses.

Therefore, the mechanism of natural selection has no evolutionary power. Darwin was also aware of this fact and had to state this in his book The Origin of Species:

Natural selection can do nothing until favourable individual differences or variations occur.8

LAMARCK'S IMPACT

So, how could these "favourable variations" occur? Darwin tried to answer this question from the standpoint of the primitive understanding of science in his age. According to the French biologist Lamarck, who lived before Darwin, living creatures passed on the traits they acquired during their lifetime to the next generation and these traits, accumulating from one generation to another, caused new species to be formed. For instance, according to Lamarck, giraffes evolved from antelopes; as they struggled to eat the leaves of high trees, their necks were extended from generation to generation.

Darwin also gave similar examples, and in his book The Origin of Species, for instance, said that some bears going into water to find food transformed themselves into whales over time.9

However, the laws of inheritance discovered by Mendel and verified by the science of genetics that flourished in the 20th century, utterly demolished the legend that acquired traits were passed on to subsequent generations. Thus, natural selection fell out of favour as an evolutionary mechanism.

NEO-DARWINISM AND MUTATIONS

In order to find a solution, Darwinists advanced the "Modern Synthetic Theory", or as it is more commonly known, Neo-Darwinism, at the end of the 1930's. Neo-Darwinism added mutations, which are distortions formed in the genes of living beings because of external factors such as radiation or replication errors, as the "cause of favourable variations" in addition to natural mutation.

Today, the model that stands for evolution in the world is Neo-Darwinism. The theory maintains that millions of living beings present on the earth formed as a result of a process whereby numerous complex organs of these organisms such as the ears, eyes, lungs, and wings, underwent "mutations," that is, genetic disorders. Yet, there is an outright scientific fact that totally undermines this theory: Mutations do not cause living beings to develop; on the contrary, they always cause harm to them.

The reason for this is very simple: the DNA has a very complex structure and random effects can only cause harm to it. American geneticist B.G. Ranganathan explains this as follows:

First, genuine mutations are very rare in nature. Secondly, most mutations are harmful since they are random, rather than orderly changes in the structure of genes; any random change in a highly ordered system will be for the worse, not for the better. For example, if an earthquake were to shake a highly ordered structure such as a building, there would be a random change in the framework of the building which, in all probability, would not be an improvement.10

Not surprisingly, no mutation example, which is useful, that is, which is observed to develop the genetic code, has been observed so far. All mutations have proved to be harmful. It was understood that mutation, which is presented as an "evolutionary mechanism," is actually a genetic occurrence that harms living beings, and leaves them disabled. (The most common effect of mutation on human beings is cancer). No doubt, a destructive mechanism cannot be an "evolutionary mechanism." Natural selection, on the other hand, "can do nothing by itself" as Darwin also accepted. This fact shows us that there is no "evolutionary mechanism" in nature. Since no evolutionary mechanism exists, neither could any imaginary process called evolution have taken place.

THE FOSSIL RECORD: NO SIGN OF INTERMEDIATE FORMS

The clearest evidence that the scenario suggested by the theory of evolution did not take place is the fossil record.

According to the theory of evolution, every living species has sprung from a predecessor. A previously existing species turned into something else in time and all species have come into being in this way. According to the theory, this transformation proceeds gradually over millions of years.

Had this been the case, then numerous intermediary species should have existed and lived within this long transformation period.

For instance, some half-fish/half-reptiles should have lived in the past which had acquired some reptilian traits in addition to the fish traits they already had. Or there should have existed some reptile-birds, which acquired some bird traits in addition to the reptilian traits they already had. Since these would be in a transitional phase, they should be disabled, defective, crippled living beings. Evolutionists refer to these imaginary creatures, which they believe to have lived in the past, as "transitional forms."

If such animals had really existed, there should be millions and even billions of them in number and variety. More importantly, the remains of these strange creatures should be present in the fossil record. In The Origin of Species, Darwin explained:

If my theory be true, numberless intermediate varieties, linking most closely all of the species of the same group together must assuredly have existed... Consequently, evidence of their former existence could be found only amongst fossil remains.11

DARWIN'S HOPES SHATTERED

However, although evolutionists have been making strenuous efforts to find fossils since the middle of the 19th century all over the world, no transitional forms have yet been uncovered. All the fossils unearthed in excavations showed that, contrary to the expectations of evolutionists, life appeared on earth all of a sudden and fully-formed.

A famous British paleontologist, Derek V. Ager, admits this fact, even though he is an evolutionist:

The point emerges that if we examine the fossil record in detail, whether at the level of orders or of species, we find - over and over again - not gradual evolution, but the sudden explosion of one group at the expense of another.12

This means that in the fossil record, all living species suddenly emerge as fully formed, without any intermediate forms in between. This is just the opposite of Darwin's assumptions. Also, it is very strong evidence that living beings are created. The only explanation of a living species emerging suddenly and complete in every detail without any evolutionary ancestor can be that this species was created. This fact is admitted also by the widely known evolutionist biologist Douglas Futuyma:

Creation and evolution, between them, exhaust the possible explanations for the origin of living things. Organisms either appeared on the earth fully developed or they did not. If they did not, they must have developed from pre-existing species by some process of modification. If they did appear in a fully developed state, they must indeed have been created by some omnipotent intelligence.13

Fossils show that living beings emerged fully developed and in a perfect state on the earth. That means that "the origin of species" is, contrary to Darwin's supposition, not evolution but creation.

THE TALE OF HUMAN EVOLUTION

The subject most often brought up by the advocates of the theory of evolution is the subject of the origin of man. The Darwinist claim holds that the modern men of today evolved from some kind of ape-like creatures. During this alleged evolutionary process, which is supposed to have started 4-5 million years ago, it is claimed that there existed some "transitional forms" between modern man and his ancestors. According to this completely imaginary scenario, four basic "categories" are listed:

1. Australopithecus

2. Homo habilis

3. Homo erectus

4. Homo sapiens

Evolutionists call the so-called first ape-like ancestors of men " Australopithecus " which means "South African ape." These living beings are actually nothing but an old ape species that has become extinct. Extensive research done on various Australopithecus specimens by two world famous anatomists from England and the USA, namely, Lord Solly Zuckerman and Prof. Charles Oxnard, has shown that these belonged to an ordinary ape species that became extinct and bore no resemblance to humans.14

Evolutionists classify the next stage of human evolution as "homo," that is "man." According to the evolutionist claim, the living beings in the Homo series are more developed than Australopithecus . Evolutionists devise a fanciful evolution scheme by arranging different fossils of these creatures in a particular order. This scheme is imaginary because it has never been proved that there is an evolutionary relation between these different classes. Ernst Mayr, one of the most important proponents of the theory of evolution in the twentieth century, contends in his book One Long Argument that "particularly historical [puzzles] such as the origin of life or of Homo sapiens, are extremely difficult and may even resist a final, satisfying explanation."15

By outlining the link chain as " Australopithecus > Homo habilis > Homo erectus > Homo sapiens," evolutionists imply that each of these species is one another's ancestor. However, recent findings of paleoanthropologists have revealed that Australopithecus , Homo habilisand Homo erectus lived at different parts of the world at the same time.16

Moreover, a certain segment of humans classified as Homo erectus have lived up until very modern times. Homo sapiensneandarthalensis and Homo sapiens sapiens (modern man) co-existed in the same region.17

This situation apparently indicates the invalidity of the claim that they are ancestors of one another. A paleontologist from Harvard University, Stephen Jay Gould, explains this deadlock of the theory of evolution although he is an evolutionist himself:

What has become of our ladder if there are three coexisting lineages of hominids (A. africanus, the robust australopithecines, andH. habilis), none clearly derived from another? Moreover, none of the three display any evolutionary trends during their tenure on earth.18

Put briefly, the scenario of human evolution, which is sought to be upheld with the help of various drawings of some "half ape, half human" creatures appearing in the media and course books, that is, frankly, by means of propaganda, is nothing but a tale with no scientific ground.

Lord Solly Zuckerman, one of the most famous and respected scientists in the U.K., who carried out research on this subject for years, and particularly studied Australopithecus fossils for 15 years, finally concluded, despite being an evolutionist himself, that there is, in fact, no such family tree branching out from ape-like creatures to man.

Zuckerman also made an interesting "spectrum of science." He formed a spectrum of sciences ranging from those he considered scientific to those he considered unscientific. According to Zuckerman's spectrum, the most "scientific"-that is, depending on concrete data-fields of science are chemistry and physics. After them come the biological sciences and then the social sciences. At the far end of the spectrum, which is the part considered to be most "unscientific," are "extra-sensory perception"-concepts such as telepathy and sixth sense-and finally "human evolution." Zuckerman explains his reasoning:

We then move right off the register of objective truth into those fields of presumed biological science, like extrasensory perception or the interpretation of man's fossil history, where to the faithful [evolutionist] anything is possible - and where the ardent believer [in evolution] is sometimes able to believe several contradictory things at the same time.19

The tale of human evolution boils down to nothing but the prejudiced interpretations of some fossils unearthed by certain people, who blindly adhere to their theory.

TECHNOLOGY IN THE EYE AND THE EAR

Another subject that remains unanswered by evolutionary theory is the excellent quality of perception in the eye and the ear.

Before passing on to the subject of the eye, let us briefly answer the question of "how we see". Light rays coming from an object fall oppositely on the retina of the eye. Here, these light rays are transmitted into electric signals by cells and they reach a tiny spot at the back of the brain called the centre of vision. These electric signals are perceived in this centre of the brain as an image after a series of processes. With this technical background, let us do some thinking.

The brain is insulated from light. That means that the inside of the brain is solid dark, and light does not reach the location where the brain is situated. The place called the centre of vision is a solid dark place where no light ever reaches; it may even be the darkest place you have ever known. However, you observe a luminous, bright world in this pitch darkness.

The image formed in the eye is so sharp and distinct that even the technology of the 20th century has not been able to attain it. For instance, look at the book you read, your hands with which you hold it, then lift your head and look around you. Have you ever seen such a sharp and distinct image as this one at any other place? Even the most developed television screen produced by the greatest television producer in the world cannot provide such a sharp image for you. This is a three-dimensional, colored, and extremely sharp image. For more than 100 years, thousands of engineers have been trying to achieve this sharpness. Factories, huge premises were established, much research has been done, plans and designs have been made for this purpose. Again, look at a TV screen and the book you hold in your hands. You will see that there is a big difference in sharpness and distinction. Moreover, the TV screen shows you a two-dimensional image, whereas with your eyes, you watch a three-dimensional perspective having depth.

For many years, tens of thousands of engineers have tried to make a three-dimensional TV, and reach the vision quality of the eye. Yes, they have made a three-dimensional television system but it is not possible to watch it without putting on glasses; moreover, it is only an artificial three-dimension. The background is more blurred, the foreground appears like a paper setting. Never has it been possible to produce a sharp and distinct vision like that of the eye. In both the camera and the television, there is a loss of image quality.

Evolutionists claim that the mechanism producing this sharp and distinct image has been formed by chance. Now, if somebody told you that the television in your room was formed as a result of chance, that all its atoms just happened to come together and make up this device that produces an image, what would you think? How can atoms do what thousands of people cannot?

If a device producing a more primitive image than the eye could not have been formed by chance, then it is very evident that the eye and the image seen by the eye could not have been formed by chance. The same situation applies to the ear. The outer ear picks up the available sounds by the auricle and directs them to the middle ear; the middle ear transmits the sound vibrations by intensifying them; the inner ear sends these vibrations to the brain by translating them into electric signals. Just as with the eye, the act of hearing finalises in the centre of hearing in the brain.

The situation in the eye is also true for the ear. That is, the brain is insulated from sound just like it is from light: it does not let any sound in. Therefore, no matter how noisy is the outside, the inside of the brain is completely silent. Nevertheless, the sharpest sounds are perceived in the brain. In your brain, which is insulated from sound, you listen to the symphonies of an orchestra, and hear all the noises in a crowded place. However, if the sound level in your brain was measured by a precise device at that moment, it would be seen that a complete silence is prevailing there.

As is the case with imagery, decades of effort have been spent in trying to generate and reproduce sound that is faithful to the original. The results of these efforts are sound recorders, high-fidelity systems, and systems for sensing sound. Despite all this technology and the thousands of engineers and experts who have been working on this endeavour, no sound has yet been obtained that has the same sharpness and clarity as the sound perceived by the ear. Think of the highest-quality HI-FI systems produced by the biggest company in the music industry. Even in these devices, when sound is recorded some of it is lost; or when you turn on a HI-FI you always hear a hissing sound before the music starts. However, the sounds that are the products of the technology of the human body are extremely sharp and clear. A human ear never perceives a sound accompanied by a hissing sound or with atmospherics as does HI-FI; it perceives sound exactly as it is, sharp and clear. This is the way it has been since the creation of man.

So far, no visual or recording apparatus produced by man has been as sensitive and successful in perceiving sensory data as are the eye and the ear.

However, as far as seeing and hearing are concerned, a far greater fact lies beyond all this.

TO WHOM DOES THE CONSCIOUSNESS THAT SEES AND HEARS WITHIN THE BRAIN BELONG?

Who is it that watches an alluring world in its brain, listens to symphonies and the twittering of birds, and smells the rose?

The stimulations coming from the eyes, ears, and nose of a human being travel to the brain as electro-chemical nervous impulses. In biology, physiology, and biochemistry books, you can find many details about how this image forms in the brain. However, you will never come across the most important fact about this subject: Who is it that perceives these electro-chemical nervous impulses as images, sounds, odours and sensory events in the brain? There is a consciousness in the brain that perceives all this without feeling any need for eye, ear, and nose. To whom does this consciousness belong? There is no doubt that this consciousness does not belong to the nerves, the fat layer and neurons comprising the brain. This is why Darwinist-materialists, who believe that everything is comprised of matter, cannot give any answer to these questions.

For this consciousness is the spirit created by Allah. The spirit needs neither the eye to watch the images, nor the ear to hear the sounds. Furthermore, nor does it need the brain to think.

Everyone who reads this explicit and scientific fact should ponder on Almighty Allah, should fear Him and seek refuge in Him, He Who squeezes the entire universe in a pitch-dark place of a few cubic centimetres in a three-dimensional, colored, shadowy, and luminous form.

A MATERIALIST FAITH

The information we have presented so far shows us that the theory of evolution is a claim evidently at variance with scientific findings. The theory's claim on the origin of life is inconsistent with science, the evolutionary mechanisms it proposes have no evolutionary power, and fossils demonstrate that the intermediate forms required by the theory never existed. So, it certainly follows that the theory of evolution should be pushed aside as an unscientific idea. This is how many ideas such as the earth-centered universe model have been taken out of the agenda of science throughout history.

However, the theory of evolution is pressingly kept on the agenda of science. Some people even try to represent criticisms directed against the theory as an "attack on science." Why?

The reason is that the theory of evolution is an indispensable dogmatic belief for some circles. These circles are blindly devoted to materialist philosophy and adopt Darwinism because it is the only materialist explanation that can be put forward for the workings of nature.

Interestingly enough, they also confess this fact from time to time. A well known geneticist and an outspoken evolutionist, Richard C. Lewontin from Harvard University, confesses that he is "first and foremost a materialist and then a scientist":

It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, so we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door. 20

These are explicit statements that Darwinism is a dogma kept alive just for the sake of adherence to the materialist philosophy. This dogma maintains that there is no being save matter. Therefore, it argues that inanimate, unconscious matter created life. It insists that millions of different living species; for instance, birds, fish, giraffes, tigers, insects, trees, flowers, whales and human beings originated as a result of the interactions between matter such as the pouring rain, the lightning flash, etc., out of inanimate matter. This is a precept contrary both to reason and science. Yet Darwinists continue to defend it just so as "not to allow a Divine Foot in the door."

Anyone who does not look at the origin of living beings with a materialist prejudice will see this evident truth: All living beings are works of a Creator, Who is All-Powerful, All-Wise and All-Knowing. This Creator is Allah, Who created the whole universe from non-existence, designed it in the most perfect form, and fashioned all living beings.

THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION IS THE MOST POTENT SPELL IN THE WORLD

It needs to be made clear that anyone free of prejudice and the influence of any particular ideology, who uses only his reason and logic, will clearly understand that belief in the theory of evolution, which brings to mind the superstitions of societies with no knowledge of science or civilization, is quite impossible.

As has been explained above, those who believe in the theory of evolution think that a few atoms and molecules thrown into a huge vat could produce thinking, reasoning professors, university students, scientists such as Einstein and Galileo, artists such as Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra and Pavarotti, as well as antelopes, lemon trees and carnations. Moreover, the scientists and professors who believe in this nonsense are educated people. That is why it is quite justifiable to speak of the theory of evolution as "the most potent spell in history." Never before has any other belief or idea so taken away peoples' powers of reason, refused to allow them to think intelligently and logically and hidden the truth from them as if they had been blindfolded. This is an even worse and unbelievable blindness than the Egyptians worshipping the Sun God Ra, totem worship in some parts of Africa, the people of Saba worshipping the Sun, the tribe of the Prophet Ibrahim worshipping idols they had made with their own hands or the people of the Prophet Musa worshipping the Golden Calf.

In fact, this situation is a lack of reason pointed to by Allah in the Qur'an. He reveals in many verses that some peoples' minds will be closed and that they will be powerless to see the truth. Some of these verses are as follows:

As for those who disbelieve, it makes no difference to them whether you warn them or do not warn them, they will not believe. Allah has sealed up their hearts and hearing and over their eyes is a blindfold. They will have a terrible punishment. (Surat al-Baqara: 6-7)

…They have hearts they do not understand with. They have eyes they do not see with. They have ears they do not hear with. Such people are like cattle. No, they are even further astray! They are the unaware. (Surat al-A'raf: 179)

Even if We opened up to them a door into heaven, and they spent the day ascending through it, they would only say, "Our eyesight is befuddled! Or rather we have been put under a spell!" (Surat al-Hijr: 14-15)

Words cannot express just how astonishing it is that this spell should hold such a wide community in thrall, keep people from the truth, and not be broken for 150 years. It is understandable that one or a few people might believe in impossible scenarios and claims full of stupidity and illogicality. However, "magic" is the only possible explanation for people from all over the world believing that unconscious and lifeless atoms suddenly decided to come together and form a universe that functions with a flawless system of organization, discipline, reason and consciousness, the planet Earth with all its features so perfectly suited to life, and living things full of countless complex systems.

In fact, Allah reveals in the Qur'an in the incident of the Prophet Musa and Pharaoh that some people who support atheistic philosophies actually influence others by magic. When Pharaoh was told about the true religion, he told the Prophet Musa to meet with his own magicians. When the Prophet Musa did so, he told them to demonstrate their abilities first. The verses continue:

He said, "You throw." And when they threw, they cast a spell on the people's eyes and caused them to feel great fear of them. They produced an extremely powerful magic. (Surat al-A'raf: 116)

As we have seen, Pharaoh's magicians were able to deceive everyone, apart from the Prophet Musa and those who believed in him. However, the evidence put forward by the Prophet Musa broke that spell, or "swallowed up what they had forged" as the verse puts it.

We revealed to Musa, "Throw down your staff." And it immediately swallowed up what they had forged. So the Truth took place and what they did was shown to be false. (Surat al-A'raf: 117-119)

As we can see from that verse, when it was realized that what these people who had first cast a spell over others had done was just an illusion, they lost all credibility. In the present day too, unless those who under the influence of a similar spell believe in these ridiculous claims under their scientific disguise and spend their lives defending them abandon them, they too will be humiliated when the full truth emerges and the spell is broken. In fact, world-renowned British writer and philosopher Malcolm Muggeridge also stated this:

I myself am convinced that the theory of evolution, especially the extent to which it's been applied, will be one of the great jokes in the history books in the future. Posterity will marvel that so very flimsy and dubious an hypothesis could be accepted with the incredible credulity that it has.21

That future is not far off: On the contrary, people will soon see that "chance" is not a god, and will look back on the theory of evolution as the worst deceit and the most terrible spell in the world. That spell is already rapidly beginning to be lifted from the shoulders of people all over the world. Many people who see the true face of the theory of evolution are wondering with amazement how it was that they were ever taken in by it.