So the Christian Apologist Anthony Rogers had a debate with Shabir Ally on the topic of “Salvation according to the Bible”.  As part of that conversation, Shabir Ally made some really interesting comments. Comments that I would have expected to come from an atheist and not a theist.  In fact, Sam Shamoun uploaded a video saying “Shabir Ally is no longer a Muslim” where they point out these comments.

Let’s have a watch and see what Shabir Ally said:

“And that brings us to another question about the pre-scientific view that gave rise to these ideas like Paul thinking that Adam was the first man. Nowadays scientists will not say that Adam was the first man like what we think about when we think of man. If we think Homo Sapiens then Homo Sapiens go back to about two hundred thousand years and some would think that Adam maybe was not even the first Homo Sapien. Maybe he was a Homo Erectus. In any case even if we say, Homo Sapien then as we trace our genes back we realize that there was never a time when there was only one man and one woman that could be called human. They were part of a community that would have comprised some seven to ten thousand people. We can say that God chose one and the Islamic view is that God chose Adam.

The fact that God chose him means he must have been part of the community for god to choose him from out of that community and to make him a prophet to preach to the others. Then the question is about why this earth? They have questioned about the location  You know that our earth is just a small part of our galaxy which is one part a small part of the universe. It’s in a suburb. Like if the son of God is going to come to do something so major why would he do it here on this earth as opposed to let’s say you know in the center of the galaxy even if we can think about the center of the galaxy? and if Jesus came to our galaxy to die what about other galaxies? There could be other earth out there with intelligent life similar to other to ours. People may have been committing sins in on the other stars and planets. In that case they too, if this is the only solution if only blood is going to satisfy God. 

 

So to address what he says about evolution, its great that he is acknowledging what the scientists are saying, and confirming that it is correct, and then trying to see how he can fit that into the Quran.  As Dr. Yasir Qadhi once mentioned, evolution is a silver bullet against the Quran and Sunnah. It’s a huge problem because there is too many statements that explicitly say Adam was made out of clay, that he was made by Gods hands, and so on.  So to try to reconcile them course I think this is silly, but its his perogative.  How does he do this? Probably by throwing out or reinterpreting the hadith in some regard.

 

Now the other part. My mouth just dropped when I heard this. I couldnt believe what Shabir was saying. This is like the meme:

“Gods favorite galaxy”

“Gods favorite Star”

“Gods favorite planet”

Shabir is right. We are in such a backwater part of the universe, nowhere significant if you could consider that the centermost part is more relevant or important in some regard.  We are literally in the middle of nowhere.

This is a harsh reality, a bitter pill to swallow.  Many ancient people used to naively think that we are the center of the universe. That the sun went around the earth. That we are special and that everything was “made for us”.  It’s not surprising that they thought this way.  They looked up and saw the sun going around the earth, they saw when they move their heads that the stars don’t move much, so it is what looks like a solid sky, a firmament.  And that’s exactly what most of the holy books talk about. Gods or a GOD that raised up Firmaments UP above our heads.  Sky that is held up without pillars you can see.  Sun and moon going in orbit.  Two oceans, one up in the sky and one below us.  

So when we started to learn more about the universe, it started to put things in perspective. Hey, we’re not so important after all. We weren’t created by god specially. We evolved. Atheists often bring up these points, and they really fit because the model of a universe that’s dominated by more black holes and emptiness than examples of life really does seem to be a godless universe.

Shabir has somehow reconciled these two ideas and even thought it was worth bringing up in the debate. I’d like to ask Dr. Shabbir if our planet is not relevant enough to send the son of God, couldn’t we also ask, is it relevant enough to send the final messenger of God? Unless Shabir is claiming that there are other final messengers sent to other species and that the Quran is only Allah’s final revelation to humanity and jinns and not to other creatures, but now we are getting into serious Sci-Fi territory. Shabir please do tell us why this wouldn’t apply to Islam as well.  Or do you believe in Muslim aliens, Alien Prophets, and so on?

So I disagree with Sam Shamoun’s title of his uploaded video, as Dr. Ally is obviously still Muslim, but of course, we have the right to ask, what about Islam?  Wouldn’t the same questions apply there too? 

In conclusion, apologists like Dr. Shabir Ally and Dr. Hugh Ross really have to twist and re-metaphor their books in order to make them make sense with science.  It’s a good step in the right direction, but it would be better to be honest and admit that these books are man-made and full of error. We need to be honest and see them as what they are – mythology.

Let’s hope we see more Islamic scholars and apologists starting to put the Quran in the right place, not above science, but interpreted according to it, and to take these books less seriously. The more this happens, the better off we’ll be.