What happened concerning the human being? Here we must report the findings not theories in order to make a comparison with the statements of the Bible and teachings of the Quran. According to firmly established notions provided by study of fossils, bones and teeth of the remains of human being which is identified as of those who existed about four millions ago in Africa. They were human being gifted with intelligence. Because they were not only capable of using tools as certain animals can also but also were capable of making tools. The capacity of invention is achieved by no animal. These first communists were called Australopithecus. I think this designation is not correct as it link to apes from which they obviously differ. However that may be they had morphology similar to us in numerous respects for example, posture, although they were much smaller and had a skull capacity of 500 cubic centimeters. According to the knowledge we have today, they represent the most ancient generation. But it should not be excluded that future discoveries might push back the dates of man’s first appearance on earth. We don’t know when this wave (generation of human being) dried out. May be one six million years before us. We don’t know.
The second wave was Homo erectus which was identified in Africa, Asia, Malaysia and Europe. There size was close to us with larger brain about 900 cubic centimeters in average. They discover the use of fire. They may have existed in a period from five thousand to one hundred fifty thousand years ago.
The third wave was Neanderthal man whose remains were found in Africa, Middle East and Java. There brain was big than today’s man. This wave was it seems of shorter duration between one hundred fifty thousand years to forty thousand years.
Then the fourth and last wave appeared bringing Homo sapiens of today who seemed to evolve very little to date. We have never found a link joining any of these human waves to any animal linage. We have even not found an intermediate between primates and lineage as I have mentioned. This point was clearly emphasizes at international congress of paleontologists in France in 1982. An obvious evolution has occurred. An impartial person is therefore obliged to recognize the happening of such events through the course of time. There have been modifications in humans but in no way does it signify that we were descended from apps. From the Bible I have retained the perfectly valid idea of creation which is emphasized in its text. Never so less the two longest biblical narratives of the Bible described creation as I have described in my book “The Bible, The Quran and Science”. Bible states that creation of various animals is fixed through the ages. Moreover the data in the bible leads to evaluate that creation of the world or appearance of first man on earth dated 57 or 58 centuries ago. In 1987 the Hebrew calendar put it as 5747 years ago. None of this statement is acceptable. However I feel for the Bible it could not have been otherwise. When dealing with these subjects the authors of biblical narratives, who were recognized by believers as inspired by God, committed errors under the influence of myths and superstitions of their time. No light was shed on these errors before modern times. It is therefore not astonishing that 2nd Vatican council in 1965 declared and I quote their declaration “Book of old testaments contain material which is incomplete and obsolete.”
The concept of creation is often discussed by those who emphasize resemblances between man and apps and other supposed ancestors of the point of anatomy and various functions commons between man and apps they say we are descended from the apps. But they forget that these similarities were imposed on man. Man in necessity obliged to live in the same surrounding because he needed oxygen from environment for respiration like animals and have to depend on ground and flesh of other animals for nutrition like animals. These essentially lead to similarity of functions, physiology, biology and a host of common characteristics. Without these functional and physiological resemblances man could not have survived on the earth.
Talking into consideration today’s firmly established data of science, we can’t any difference between since and religious teachings about the creation of the man. This concept is shared by Islam, Christianity and Judaism. But the Islam has brought additional teachings concerning man in the Quran. In my book “What is the origin of man” I have said these teaching were those who impressed the most by a scientific point of view. I even delivered a lecture on this subject in French academy of medicine in 1976. Now I have fully developed these elements into books. When dealing with the origin of man I can’t forget that how the Quran teaches us in a more general sense the starting point of life. I will quote verse 30 from Chapter 21 – Al Anbiya :
أَوَلَمْ يَرَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا أَنَّ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ كَانَتَا رَتْقًا فَفَتَقْنَاهُمَا وَجَعَلْنَا مِنَ الْمَاء كُلَّ شَيْءٍ حَيٍّ أَفَلَا يُؤْمِنُونَ :21/30
“Do the unbelievers not realize that the heavens and the earth were joined together, then We clove them asunder and We made every living thing out of water. Will they still not believe?”
Who does not know today that the origin of life is aquatic? Furthermore I believe that I distinguished in the Qur’an an allusion to human morphology taking place in sequence in different stages as modern science demonstrates. These verses have only become understandable in modern era. The ancient commentators and the today’s translations can not and couldn’t grasp their real meanings which only a scientist can explain. I shall not emphasize on the well known spiritual sense attached with the creation of the man from ground but the Quran tells about the 2nd stage after creation when God gave form to man. In Chapter 7 Al Araaf Verse 11: