When and how did life appear on earth? Is there an end to it, or will it continue forever? The origin and ultimate destiny of human life on earth has always been at the center of the quest for knowledge, self-identity, and a relationship with the Creator and with others. These questions are now even more important due to the accumulative diversity of answers available to contemporary humanity. In addition to the centuries-old responses of religions and philosophy, now science also claims to provide answers to these questions. This one-day course explores—in an analytical and critical manner—various facets of these questions and answers. Rooted in both the primary sources of Islam and the historical trajectory of scientific knowledge, the course is divided into three 60-minute lecture sessions, each followed by 30 minutes for Q&A.
Session I: 10:00—11:30 am: Understanding the Questions
Origin or Evolution? Evolutionary Origin? Origin and Evolution?; Understanding the Reach of
Evolutionism: From Biology to History to Religion; The Question of Human Destiny; The Muslim
Encounter with Evolutionism
Session: II: 12:00-130 pm: Origins and Evolution in an Islamic Mirror
Constructing the Mirror: Epistemological Considerations; What is at stake? Ontological relationships; The
Qur’an and Prophetic Teachings; Muslim Philosophical and Theological Discourse
Session III: 3:00-4:30 pm: Origins and Evolutionism as Seen in the Mirror
Muslim Responses Examined; Origin and Destiny of Human Life; Concluding Summary
Session IV: 5:00-6:30 pm: Question and Answer Session
Session I: 10:00—11:30 am: Understanding the Questions
Origin or Evolution? Evolutionary Origin? Origin and Evolution?; Understanding the Reach of
Evolutionism: From Biology to History to Religion; The Question of Human Destiny; The Muslim
Encounter with Evolutionism
Session: II: 12:00-130 pm: Origins and Evolution in an Islamic Mirror
Constructing the Mirror: Epistemological Considerations; What is at stake? Ontological relationships; The
Qur’an and Prophetic Teachings; Muslim Philosophical and Theological Discourse
Session III: 3:00-4:30 pm: Origins and Evolutionism as Seen in the Mirror
Muslim Responses Examined; Origin and Destiny of Human Life; Concluding Summary
Session IV: 5:00-6:30 pm: Question and Answer Session
Essential and Supplementary Readings
Essential Readings:
Muzaffar Iqbal and Naseer Ahmad, “Allah Most High”, Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qur’an, Volume 1, pp. 3-33
Muzaffar Iqbal and Naseer Ahmad, “Ādam, upon him be peace, Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qur’an, Volume 1, pp. 99-118.
Marwa Elshakry, Reading Darwin in Arabic, 1860-1950 (University of Chicago Press, 2013) (https://www.amazon.com/Reading-Darwin-Arabic-1860-1950-Elshakry/dp/022637873X)
Whitall N. Perry, The Widening Breach: Evolutionism in the Mirror of Cosmology (Fons Vitae, 1995). https://www.amazon.ca/Widening-Breach-Evolutionism-Mirror-Cosmology/dp/1870196139
Muzaffar Iqbal, “Darwin’s Shadow: Context and Reception in the Western World,” Islam & Science, Vol. 6 (Winter 2008) No. 2, pp. 99-152, http://www.cis-ca.org/jol/vol6-no2/MI-6-2-web.pdf
Muzaffar Iqbal, “Darwin’s Shadow: Evolution in an Islamic Mirror,” Islam & Science, Vol. 8 (Summer 2010) No. 1, pp. 11-32, http://www.cis-ca.org/jol/vol8-no1/MI-8-1.pdf
Martin Lings, The Eleventh Hour: The spiritual crisis of the modern world in the light of tradition and prophecy, Archetype; 2 edition (Jan. 1 2010), Chapter 3 (‘And from Him that hath not…’), pp. 15-44.
https://www.amazon.ca/Eleventh-Hour-spiritual-tradition-prophecy/dp/1901383016
Supplementary Readings:
Michael J. Behe, Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution Paperback, 2nd rev. ed. (Simon and Schuster, 2006), https://www.amazon.ca/Darwins-Black-Box-Biochemical-Challenge/dp/0743290313
William A. Dembski, No Free Lunch: Why Specified Complexity Cannot Be Purchased without Intelligence (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2001), https://www.amazon.ca/Free-Lunch-Specified-Complexity-Intelligence/dp/0742512975
Muzaffar Iqbal, Book Review of The Widening Breach, published in Iqbal Review, Vol. 31 (1997) No. 53 (http://www.cis-ca.org/reviews/breach.htm)
Muzaffar Iqbal and Naseer Ahmad, “Allah Most High”, Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qur’an, Volume 1, pp. 3-33
Muzaffar Iqbal and Naseer Ahmad, “Ādam, upon him be peace, Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qur’an, Volume 1, pp. 99-118.
Marwa Elshakry, Reading Darwin in Arabic, 1860-1950 (University of Chicago Press, 2013) (https://www.amazon.com/Reading-Darwin-Arabic-1860-1950-Elshakry/dp/022637873X)
Whitall N. Perry, The Widening Breach: Evolutionism in the Mirror of Cosmology (Fons Vitae, 1995). https://www.amazon.ca/Widening-Breach-Evolutionism-Mirror-Cosmology/dp/1870196139
Muzaffar Iqbal, “Darwin’s Shadow: Context and Reception in the Western World,” Islam & Science, Vol. 6 (Winter 2008) No. 2, pp. 99-152, http://www.cis-ca.org/jol/vol6-no2/MI-6-2-web.pdf
Muzaffar Iqbal, “Darwin’s Shadow: Evolution in an Islamic Mirror,” Islam & Science, Vol. 8 (Summer 2010) No. 1, pp. 11-32, http://www.cis-ca.org/jol/vol8-no1/MI-8-1.pdf
Martin Lings, The Eleventh Hour: The spiritual crisis of the modern world in the light of tradition and prophecy, Archetype; 2 edition (Jan. 1 2010), Chapter 3 (‘And from Him that hath not…’), pp. 15-44.
https://www.amazon.ca/Eleventh-Hour-spiritual-tradition-prophecy/dp/1901383016
Supplementary Readings:
Michael J. Behe, Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution Paperback, 2nd rev. ed. (Simon and Schuster, 2006), https://www.amazon.ca/Darwins-Black-Box-Biochemical-Challenge/dp/0743290313
William A. Dembski, No Free Lunch: Why Specified Complexity Cannot Be Purchased without Intelligence (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2001), https://www.amazon.ca/Free-Lunch-Specified-Complexity-Intelligence/dp/0742512975
Muzaffar Iqbal, Book Review of The Widening Breach, published in Iqbal Review, Vol. 31 (1997) No. 53 (http://www.cis-ca.org/reviews/breach.htm)
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Instructor Bionote
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Muzaffar Iqbal is the founder-president of Center for Islamic Sciences (www.cis-ca.org), Canada, editor of Islam & Science, a semi-annual journal of Islamic perspectives on science and civilization, and General Editor of the forthcoming seven-volume Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qur'an (www.iequran.com) the first English-language reference work on the Qur'an based on fourteen centuries of Muslim reflection and scholarship.
Dr. Iqbal received his Ph.D. in chemistry (University of Saskatchewan, Canada, 1983), and then left the field of experimental science to fully devote himself to study Islam, its spiritual, intellectual and scientific traditions. Born in Lahore, Pakistan, he has lived in Canada since 1979. He has held academic and research positions at University of Saskatchewan (1979-1984), University of Wisconsin-Madison (1984-85), and McGill University (1986). During 1990-1999, he pursued his research and study on various aspects of Islam in Pakistan, where he also worked as Director, Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation (COMSTECH) between 1991-96 and as Director, Pakistan Academy of Sciences (1998-99). During 1999-2001, Dr. Iqbal was Program Director (for the Muslim World) for the Science-Religion Course Program of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (CTNS), Berkeley, USA. Dr. Iqbal has written, translated, and edited twenty-one books and published nearly one hundred papers on various aspects of Islam, its spiritual and intellectual traditions and on the relationship between Islam and science, Islam and the West, the contemporary situation of Muslims, and the history of Islamic science. His publications include Islam and Science (Ashgate, 2002), God, Life and the Cosmos: Christian and Islamic Perspectives (co-ed., Ashgate, 2002), Science and Islam (Greenwood Press, 2007), Islam, Science, Muslims, and Technology: Seyyed Hossein Nasr in Conversation with Muzaffar Iqbal (Al-Qalam-IBT, 2007), Dawn in Madinah: A Pilgrim’s Passage (Islamic Book Trust, 2007), Dew on Sunburnt Roses and other Quantum Notes (Dost Publications, 2007), Definitive Encounters: Islam, Muslims, and the West (Islamic Book Trust, 2008), and The Making of Islamic Science (IBT, 2009). He co-translated volume VII of Tafhim al-Qur’an, an influential twentieth century tafsir (Islamic Foundation, 2001). He contributed, as a consultant, to Concentric Circles—Nurturing Awe and Wonder in Early Childhood and is one of the founders of Muslim Education Foundation (Canada), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing resources and services to educators, students and parents for a process of learning built on the Qur’anic worldview. He is also the Series Editor for Ashgate's Islam and Science: Historic and Contemporary Perspectives (2012), a four volume work that brings together the most important and influential articles dealing with various aspects of the relationship between Islam and science. |