On Wednesday 1st March 2023, we were delighted to host Dr Shoaib Ahmed Malik from Zayed University in the UAE to deliver a lecture on Islam and evolution in our research seminar series. Dr Malik, a scientist by training, has been researching this topic for many years and recently published a work on the topic through the lens of Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī. His lecture laid out a systematic framework by which Muslim scholars can approach the topic of evolution. Dr Malik outlined the major theories on evolution including creationism, human exceptionalism, Adamic exceptionalism, and the no exceptions theory and examined whether such theories are scripturally compatible from an Islamic perspective.
Watch the lecture
Speaker bio
Dr Shoaib Ahmed Malik is Assistant Professor at Zayed University in Dubai. He obtained his BEng in Chemical Engineering as the top graduate in the cohort from the University of Bath. He then went on to do a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Nottingham. He recently obtained a PGCE from the University of Nottingham and an MSc in Philosophy of Science and Religion from the University of Edinburgh. He is currently doing a religious seminary program at Al Balagh Academy. His research has shifted entirely to the realms of atheism, science and religion, and Islamic theology. He has published articles in international journals such as Zygon and Philosophy. He has book chapters with academic publishers such as Cambridge University Press and Palgrave. He published a short monograph on Atheism and Islam with Kalam Research and Media and has a full monograph out with Routledge’s Science and Religion series on the topic of Islam and Evolution. He is currently working on a monograph called Islam and Science: A Sunni Kalamic Framework and an edited volume called Eight Classical Perspectives for Islam and Science, both of which will be coming out with Routledge, among other books related to Islam and Science.