Ahmadi Muslims profess a position of guided evolution. However, their Qur’anic commentaries DO allow for Creationism pic.twitter.com/Pzevz87TzS
— Reason on Faith (@ReasonOnFaith)
A better explanation of this verse put forth by Ahmadi Muslims is that God is simply making an argument against Christian claims of a divine Jesus, by saying that if Christians think Jesus is divine because he had no human father, than what of the Adam of the Bible who had no human mother nor a human father?
The Ahmadi Muslim TV program, Faith Matters explores this in Program 77, at time index 4:40 (for about a minute in length).
Indeed, it would be a good explanation except that the verse in the Qur’an does not itself present this qualifier attributed to it by the Ahmadi speaker, that the Christian concept of Adam is being referred to only.
Verse 3:60 of the Qur’an (or 3:59 if you use mainstream Islamic numbering systems) is making a confident statement of fact with no capitulation present that this view of Adam’s creation is somehow exclusive to Christians. The verse reads as a statement of fact for Muslims to also embrace.
Surely, the case of Jesus with Allah is like the case of Adam. He created him out of dust, then said to him, ‘Be,’ and he was.
The only room to maneuver for Ahmadis is to say that this isn’t God’s statement of fact of Islam’s position, but just rhetoric using the Christian understanding of an ex nihilo creation of Adam.
This Ahmadi interpretation is also problematic from a ‘timeless’ Qur’an perspective espoused by most Muslims. As just as there are now Muslims present who embrace evolution, so are there now Christians who embrace evolution.
This is why it is plausible to read at times, that the Qur’an supports a literal creationist view of life, as espoused by early Muslims and which is still held by many mainstream Muslims in the present day. Don’t get me wrong, I want Muslims of all stripes to embrace progressive values and progressive ideas. At the same time, I don’t believe such can be honestly reconciled with the texts.
Verse 3:60 makes no sense in an argument with all Christians today and it doesn’t read as if in quotes to exclusively refer to just one particular conversation with a small delegation of Christians in the 7th century. You have to go to historical documents of the time to suggest that context – such as the life of Muhammad and recorded hadith. These are documents that Ahmadis cherry pick from based on the narrative they wish to create about Islam and Muhammad (a topic for another article).
The rejection of a straightforward reading of a particular verse may be defensible from time to time. But in order to sustain the theology and progress beyond mainstream Islam, I consistently have seen Ahmadiyyat making interpretations that are simply not borne out by the text of the Qur’anic verses themselves.
When you encounter such gymnastics over and over again, throughout your life, you have to ask yourself:
- What’s most likely going on here?
- Why does the God of the Qur’an seem to consistently speak plainly to a 7th century understanding?
- What evidence from the earliest tafsirs of the Qur’an in Islamic history do Ahmadis cite for the vast majority of such acrobatics? If they can’t, isn’t it clear that these are post-hoc rationalizations in modern times to patch up obvious weaknesses in the scripture?