Muslim Scholars on Darwinism
OVER 15 YEARS AGO, in January 2011, I wrote a series of articles refuting claims made by Usamah Hasan and in one of them articles, Part 4: Scholars Verdicts on Belief in Darwinism, I quoted from Fatāwā Nūr ʿālā al-Darb (1/83-85) the fatwā of Ibn Bāz, and also some speech of Shaykh Ibn al-ʿUthaymīn on the matter. Recently, some speech as been circulated regarding this matter, so I wanted to make the following points:
01 In the article from 2011, I cite the response of Shaykh Bin Bāz (رحمه الله) to a question posed about the belief that man used to be an ape in the beginning and then gradually evolved and changed into a man:
This statement which the questioner has mentioned is rejected (munkar) false (bāṭil) saying that is in opposition to the Book of Allāh, the Mighty and Majestic, and the Sunnah of His Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم) and the consensus of the Salaf of the Ummah... it is obligatory that a servant believe that the creation of Ādam is other than the creation of apes, and that the origin of [the son of] Ādam is the origin that he is upon now, and his origin is not of apes or other than them. Rather, he is a a human fashioned upon his form that is witnessed. So the statement that his origin is from apes is a rejected saying, a false saying. Rather, if disbelief was ascribed to the one saying it, it would be appropriate, and what is most apparent, and Allāh knows best, is that whoever says it alongside his knowledge of what the legislation came with, then he is a kāfir (disbeliever), because he belies (mukadhdhib) Allāh and His Messenger and belies the Book of Allāh in the creation of Ādam.
02 I also cite the speech of Shaykh Ibn al-ʿUthaymīn (رحمه الله) regarding the same matter:
This statement is not correct, I mean the saying that the origin of man is from apes, however the one speaking with this, he is in reality an ape, deformed in intellect and deformed in vision (insight), so it is befitting that we call him an ape, and he is not a human, even if he is in the form of a human... this saying that the origin of man is from apes is not correct and believing in it is disbelief, because it is rejection (takdhīb) of the Qurʾān...
03 Regarding what has been circulated about this issue on social media (May 2026), upon the path of ʿArafāt al-Muḥammadī:
The context of my speech is that I was addressing the demand that was being made of me to take my scientific and medical views (on theories of diseases, virology, vaccination) to scholars for evaluation, and I explained that this not the domain of scholars, as these are matters of worldly sciences that are differed over among doctors and specialists.
However, as this was a private and casual conversation with just one person, it is unlike format speech, and a person is forgiven what are slips or shortcomings in speech or action that are unintended (2:286-). In my transcript of my audios which I released after ʿArafāt’s refusal to provide me with the audio he was relying upon, and after I had tried to get them since April 2024, I wrote the following regarding the issue at hand:
I mentioned this here only in connection to viruses and virology, because Darwinian evolution itself is founded upon the notion of the RNA “virus”. Everybody knows that Darwinism is kufr and this is clearly not my intent here, as if to say a scholar does not know Darwinism is kufr. My intent here is that there are details and intricacies regarding the material and scientific aspects, in the field of virology, such as gene-sequencing for example, and how they use software to fabricate sequences, and claim they have found new viruses, which do not exist. So a scholar is not going to comment on these types of details and say whether what I am explaining is right or wrong (from a scientific point of view), he will simply say go and take it to their specialists. And I am saying these words is in response to people who are saying effectively you cannot write about your own field, unless you go and sit with a scholar first. This is an absurd demand to make.
04 One has to understand the circumstances in which people have chosen to join in the social media attacks against me which are ongoing over the last two years:
In his first wave, ʿArafāt took a private audio of mine, specific to just one person to try and covince people that I am misguided and hate the scholars. This was after he became disgruntled and upset that the Covid-19 vaccines were exactly as I had warned, a financial and medical scam for making money through fearmongering, being preceded in that by scholars such as Shaykh al-Luḥaydān.
When I wrote a few articles to defend myself against his fabrications and distortions in October 2024, he revised his plan and came back again in February 2025 in his second wave of attacks using his proxies from various countries including India, Germany, Holland, Pakistan, Switzerland, Australia and elsewhere.
His third wave began in November 2025, when I publicised a lengthy article exposing his lies, though I had withheld it for seven months. Now, we are in the fourth wave after he made explicit tabdīʿ of me without evidence to justify it, only lies, fabrications and gross distortions of intent.
05 So here, when a person of the Sunnah who is not known except for love and defence of scholars over decades and likewise the students of knowledge—I have written in defence of them many times, with Allāh’s tawfīq, both those in the US and UK, against ḥizbīs and deviants such as Munīr Muḥammad, Shadid Muḥammad, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Ḥasan, Ṭāhir Wyatt and others—he is down on the ground being assaulted, made tabdīʿ of, accused of things Allāh knows he is free and innocent of, being attacked by proxies and drones from many different countries, in multiple languages, then this is a very well-chosen, wonderful time for someone to throw punches regarding issues in which I have already explained and clarified my intent, and which they themselves, deep inside, know full well that it is not the case at all that I really believe or assert the things that they are accusing me of.
What it reveals though is that some people just sit and wait for the right opportunity, and in an instant, reveal what would otherwise have remained hidden and never come to the surface. As for myself, I hope to be a loyal and honourable person with Allāh, I defend the people of the Sunnah, and will continue to defend scholars, shaykhs and students as I have always done, with Allāh’s tawfīq. and I ask Allāh to protect me from being a coward, a backstabber, a deserter, a fencesitter, and arrogant and that whenever I genuinely err, I am always quick to correct, āmīn.
Meanwhile, ʿArafāt al-Muḥammadī is complicit in sedition (involving war and bloodshed, with lives lost in fighting), schemed to lie against scholars such as Shaykh Rabīʿ in grave matters of geopolitics to elicit a favourable fatwā, makes oppressive tabdīʿ of Salafīs, praises Ḥaddādī innovators who attack Shaykh al-Albānī (claiming he agrees with the Murjiʾah) and Shaykh Ḥasan bin ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Bannā (describing him as “ignorant” and saying that Allāh’s mercy is not to be invoked for him), sends his students to seek these innovators for knowledge, and we do not hear any upholding of truth, not a single word, not a pip, nor a squeak.
05 Finally, I say the same as what Shaykh ʿAlī al-Ḥudhayfī said in his article: The People of the Sunnah Do Not Revile Their Scholars.