First of all, let me tell you that while I was associated with students, Amalya Students Federation, and that has been a very long association. Way back in 1946, I was first associated with that as a member. And later on, I was chosen as the patron. And ever since the partition, when this association was revived, Haribuddum Sisales, again, at the request of students, appointed me as the patron.
Throughout this history of association, I have been telling Ahmadi students to take up the khajal, which you have mentioned, for the sake of Islam, and do things which others are doing very defectively. And creating, or they are creating an impression that religion is now being defended ably by those who know the subject, while it is not at all defended ably. In fact, they are creating problems, and the scientists are beginning to mock and laugh at these scientists, who, in the name of rationalism, are presenting certain excuses for the religious ideas to be taken seriously. Why? Because the Christianity has a very defective background in the form of biblical explanations of natural phenomena. And basing themselves on that information, when they try to defend, they fail, however earnest they are in their effort. And some very erroneous ideas are attributed to religion, in the name of science, and no sane man can ultimately accept that.
Now, these creationists, I have read about them, I have read their papers, and I find that their explanations are wrong, definitely wrong, because they are trying to defend biblical concept of Genesis, which is wrong. It is wrong not because Allah had told that, in so many words, to be accepted by mankind for all time to come, but maybe, either, Allah speaks to the people within the relevance of their knowledge, and if a religion is limited for a certain time, in relative terms, the truth is disclosed to them. So, because these religions have outlived their time, so, for a modern man, when he looks back, all they present is not a lasting truth, but a relative truth, enough for them to understand the religious phenomena, and information has been given without much explanation.
The Holy Quran picks up the threat from there, and does three things. Number one, drops the later on additions by human beings, and things were, as things were attributed to Allah by Bible, they were also added upon by people later on. So, with the result that there is a jumble of truth and non-truth, falsehood and truth, all together, and it is very difficult to unwind this whole rigmarole. So, this is why the Holy Quran has adopted this method. It, first of all, it drops all the nonsensical things, which were added later on by other people, and takes the fundamental thing, very clear, on which no objection can be raised. Secondly, it adds certain other things by way of explanation.
And thirdly, it contradicts certain things positively, just not by dropping out, but contradicts them. For example, the concept of creation of man from the rib of, woman from the rib of Adam, and the concept that Adam was first man, this story has been vehemently and totally rejected by the Holy Quran, and another explanation has been put forward by the Holy Quran. So, there are so many things of interest for Ahmadi students. They should take up the Qajar for Islam, basing their views on the Holy Quran, and they will never be defeated, because the Holy Quran is moving ahead of the scientists, and is mentioning things, which so far have not been discovered by scientists. And it mentioned things, which were discovered 1300 or more years after the revelation of the Holy Quran, and now the scientists can understand the theories put forward, or the facts put forward by the Holy Quran. I’ll quote some, a very interesting example, in reference to evolution. But that’s a very long subject, I’m just quoting one example. Don’t follow it up by other questions about evolution, because then the whole evening and many other evenings will be taken up. There are certain mentions in the evolution of man, as described by the Holy Quran, which did not mean anything to me. They did not convey any sense, particularly one reference. And that has been bothering me, right from 1944, when I first took up science, I mean, I started studying zoology and botany. This one, other verses I solved very easily, no problem.
But one verse I could not solve. And that verse said, من سلسالٍ كالفخارة وخلق الجان من قبله من مارج ملاك وخلق الانسان من سلسالٍ كالفخارة God created man from dried up clay, which, what do you say, سلسال, clink, no, no, no. Rattles, which rattles? Rattles is a rattle word. I think one word is missing in my mind, which is more appropriate. Clinging? No, no, not clinging, that’s different. Clatters, clatters, I think is the word for it. It makes a clattering sound. So, in the process of evolution, various stages are found corresponding to some verses of the Holy Quran, which tells a long story of man’s creation. Sometimes it says it was, man was created from mud and sometimes it says man was created from wet, I mean, clay and wet earth and so on. And sometimes it says man was created from mollusks and other stages in the history of life. And sometimes it says man was created from plants, it grew like plants. So, all these are indications of various stages through which life passed. But it also mentioned this clattering clay. So, apparently there are absolutely no justification for it to be there, because it could neither be conceived by man that man was created from clattering clay. No man could conceive.
So, it was puzzling, even as a suggestion by somebody of the time of Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, that at other time he says man was created from wet earth and at other the Holy Quran says from clanking or whatever it is, the clay, which sounds like bed. Dried up, very dried up clay. Now recently I read about the origin of life, particularly the chemical phenomena which might have occurred. So, a noble laureate is also involved in this research. The sum total of that research was this, that we could conceive a situation where through high atmospheric charges, the first chemicals could be made from inorganic matter, that is the organic matter could be created from inorganic matter, which could ultimately be converted into the first bricks of life, that is DNA and RNA etc. Now the scientists making research on this were puzzled about one thing. They conceived of a universe where there was no oxygen and the high electrical charges were there, not to burn things but just to bring about chemical changes. And if in a muddy sea near the ocean bank, this phenomena happened, there was a possibility of the first inorganic material to be formed. But that was a reversible process.
As long as it remained in the sea, it simply could not go forward another step. Because that chemical process which they discovered is a reversible phenomena. For trillions of years, that chemical would go on changing back into the original and then forming a chain which was a reversible chain. So how could life break through that? That was the question involved. Then they discovered certain evidence which told them that what might have happened was this, that this chemical was thrown out into some dry spots from which sea receded. And there was some aluminium and things, some chemicals were present. When this chemical was dried up, and they were dried up to the extent of almost like bricks, and they were baked in the sun like bricks, then that chemical process can take place, which would put them one step ahead, ultimately to turn it into a non-reversible process. From there on, it’s just plain sailing.
So this was the discovery which astounded me. Because it is the only book in the world which mentions a stage in the creation of life which is similar to that dried-up clay. And the explanation has been put forward by the scientists of today. So Muslim students are in fact only the people who are in a position to defend religious values in the sense that there is no clash between the word of God and the act of God. If there is an apparent clash, it has to be sorted out. Who has made mistake? Have you made the mistake of misinterpreting the word of God? Or the scientists have made the mistake of misinterpreting the act of God? But as far as the clash goes, it’s impossible.
