Manusia Sebelum Adam

by Luqmanul Hakim Abdul Razak

Persoalan bila Nabi Adam A.S turun ke dunia, persoalan tentang di mana letaknya evolusi dalam umat manusia, dan apakah pendirian umat Islam dalam menanggapi spesies manusia selain Homo Sapiens (Manusia Moden), sentiasa membelenggu kita sejak azali lagi.

Acapkali penemuan berkaitan dengan manusia prasejarah, kita akan dibadai rasa keliru untuk menerima berita itu, atau percaya bahawa Adam ialah manusia yang paling pertama dalam sejarah.

Kami terpanggil untuk meleraikan belenggu itu dalam naskhah terbaharu kami, Manusia Sebelum Adam. Buku ini, dengan izin Tuhan merupakan jawapan yang paling tuntas dalam menjawab segala polemik yang belum menemui kesudahannya di Malaysia.

Buku ini ditulis dengan ayat jitu untuk kefahaman awam, kami berharap buku ini akan memainkan peranan besar dalam menjawab segala pertanyaan anda.

Genres: Nonfiction

422 pages, Paperback

Published July 1, 2023

Reviews

[Ain Atila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ambil masa 3 minggu untuk habiskan pembacaan buku ni, alhamdulillah settle. Bukan apa, agak terganggu semasa pembacaan walaupun kita minat topik ni :’)

Cadangan penambahbaikan daripada saya:

• elakkan daripada tulis straightway facts macam karangan panjang untuk semua bab. Selang selikan dengan tajuk kecil, gambar, gambar rajah, point, dsb (tak mintak banyak pun sebenarnya).
👆🏻 Untuk memudahkan pembaca faham sebab ada a few kawan saya tanya sama ada buku ni recommended ke tak, dan mereka bukan ada background sains. Saya yakin pembaca The Patriots Asia terdiri daripada golongan pelbagai.

• Selitkan rumusan untuk setiap bab, dalam bentuk point yang simple pun takpe. Boleh membantu pembaca untuk sort out kefahaman selepas baca segala experimen dan bukti-bukti hehe

TAPI!

Walaupun agak terganggu dengan isu di atas, beberapa bab akhir got me hooked. Tinggi betul ilmu penulis! Dan dalam bab terakhir, penulis menyentuh isu yang berlegar dalam minda saya beberapa tahun lamanya. Dannnn penulis dapat bawakan jawapan yang dah lama saya cari. Masa baca bab ni, kepala dan tangan memang bergerak 100%, berfikir dan catat nota. Mind blowing, sampai saya takleh tido malam.

My rating: 4.5/5 ⭐️

[Syahrul Syahrul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poin-poin paling penting aku dapat dari buku ni:

a) Evolusi memang berlaku jika dilihat dari sudut empirikal/saintifik
b) Evolusi manusia benar-benar berlaku (berdasarkan (a))
c) Sains diam tentang kewujudan Adam. Adam hanya dinyatakan dalam Quran, dan kitab-kitab samawi. Jadi, siapa-siapa yang cuba kira tahun bila Adam muncul, lupakan. Kalau kalian ada cuba, maknanya kalian hanya gunakan bukti dari Quran atau Bible atau kitab Yahudi sahaja (bukti Israiliyyat). Tiada bukti sains (kalau ada kalian kelentong atau sekadar guna kira-kira spekulatif). Sains sesungguhnya diam tentang Adam.
d) Quran tak pernah menentang mahupun menyokong teori evolusi. Juga, penulis mengemukakan ada sahaja kelompangan yang membolehkan teori evolusi menyelit. Jadi agamawan yang senang-senang kata teori evolusi tu bercanggah dengan agama (khususnya Islam) tiada asas kukuh bagi menyokongnya.
e) Penulis menyimpulkan teori evolusi benar menurut sains, dan agama tidak menolak dan tidak pula membenarkan teori evolusi, dan Adam mungkin muncul secara eksklusif dengan hominin (spesies manusia non-Adamic) dan membiak bersama-sama. Namun garis masa yang tepat dan konsisten antara kemunculan Adam dengan hominin tidak dapat disahkan. Kerana apa? Rujuk (c). Nak tentukan garis masa kenalah guna sains, cari fosil/ kubur Adam dulu (kubur yang betul-betul, bukan kubur spekulatif). Kalau tak, tak adalah garis masa yang boleh ikut kaedah saintifik.

Kalian nak baca 347 mukasurat? Aku rasa tak perlulah. Kalau sekadar nak cari jawapan untuk soalan berkait tajuk buku ni, baca bab 13 sahaja dah cukup. Bab-bab lain tu semuanya berkenaan evolusi, kuliah evolusi yang panjang lebar. Aku rasa tajuk yang lebih tepat untuk buku ini ialah: Memahami Evolusi, dan sub-tajuk dalam huruf kecil: Dan Sedikit Perdebatan Evolusi Manusia dengan Adam. Daripada nak tahu pasal manusia sebelum Adam, aku tahu macam-macam berkenaan evolusi burung dodo, badak air, paus, kanggaru etc. Mendalam juga pengetahuan penulis. Aku agak kagum penulis Melayu boleh tulis begini perinci dan kajian yang dilakukan bersungguh-sungguh. Cuma ada terlalu banyak perkataan yang di-Melayusasi-kan. Kadangkala, perkataan tu sudah pun diterjemahkan dengan baik, tapi bila selak mukasurat lain, ia di-Melayusasi-kan pula. Naik pening aku baca.

Aku sebenarnya nak bagi lima bintang. Tapi sebab penerbit buku ni dah scam aku dengan 12 bab yang tak menjawab soalan berkait tajuknya, aku bagi empat sahajalah. Empat bintang ni pun kira tinggilah juga, sebagai penghargaan kepada penulis yang telah buat kajian yang bersungguh-sungguh untuk buku ini.

[S.M.Y Kayseri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a very good book in explaining the concept of natural selection, and the author’s good intention to harmonise between religion and science.

The author adopted the stance of Adamic exceptionalism in elaborating the position of humankind in nature. Adamic exceptionalism believes that only Adam and Eve are miraculous beings, the rest of humankind were products of evolution as understood under evolutionary sciences. The author believes that in harmonizing between religion and science, the way is to accept that evolution is one of God’s intelligence and His mark in the world. I think the author adopted a more radical approach in Adamic exceptionalism compared to Shoaib and Jalajel, by emphasizing more on the cross-breeding between the Adamic homo sapiens with other homonids, while Jalajel are more inclined that the eventual progeny of man are exclusively from Adam; cross-breeding were perhaps negligible or chimerical occassions.

The thesis for the book, at the end, emphasises on the non-specialness of human in the hierarchy of animals. The author has indeed rejected that we are originated from primates because “our common ancestors has separated from the primates before primates are primates”. Instead of being the direct descendants of apes, the author said we are the cousins of apes, cats and plants. Despite the author tried to “harmonise” the tension between these two apparent mutually exclusive concepts, his attempt is more of “dropping one bomb, then pacify”, making his narration slowly uncovering at the seams.

His indecisiveness is understandable, writing in a conservative society. The author spaciously vented his exasperations in the prose, frustrated that he cannot unleash the entirety of his hammer thrusts to deliver the decisive blow.

This palpable tension, I believe, stemmed from several things; among others are the polemical narration and secondly, the problematic notion of scientific ideas themselves.

Syed Hussein al-Atas should be credited for his idea of the captive mind. The captive intellectual, exasperated either with the backwardness of his society or secondly the paucity of materials from his homeland, resulted to produce works from an alien/foreign perspective. The author wrote with the intention of harmonization, but his prose are ubiquitously littered with unfair observations directed to the religious community that affected his pacification missions. He is writing from the vantage of Western evolutionary scientists who are in the midst of a war with staunch delusional New Age creationists. The opponent the evolutionary scientists directed their polemic against was born from the Western failure to solve the issue of Cartesian skepticism, and the Western tendency for schism instead of synthesis. But the Eastern part of the world, including many I believe great and eminent scientists did not have this crusading voice in science. The Eastern wabi-sabi and Islamic acceptance of systemic ambiguity between different systems did not have such ambivalence towards the idea of science. In fact, the staunch resistance against science was from factually illiterate communities (which is present throughout the world not exclusive to religious communities), who in their ignorance are persuaded by the neo-fundamentalists movements, which believe it or not, born from a rebellion against the preaching Western sentiments.

Thus, I believe such an ambivalent narration in this book is unwarranted, because the idea of hierarchy of beings are one of the quintessential themes in the Islamic worldview, heck even in the entire Eastern culture. Osman Bakar in his book, Classification of Knowledge in Islam has sufficiently demonstrated this idea with three great giants in Islam, which all had conflicting ideas, but nevertheless shared the same idea of hierarchy of beings.

Secondly, the author used a colorful example on how the word “theory” is underplayed in its significance. The word “butuh”, the author wrote, can be understood as “needing” in one way, and “kemaluan” in another way. Saying that the word theory is merely used to yet-to-proved ideas, thus not ready to be accepted, is like we think the word “butuh” is only used in describing someone’s private parts. The author relegates the idea of theory to be misunderstood in terms of linguistics and sociology, while the problematic notion of theory is actually metaphysical.

Our perception of experience, at the end of the day, are equipped for us, to guarantee the representations we received in the head as a priori truth. This has been shown by Kant, and the extension of use of reason, instead of being constitutive of experience based from the form of sensibility and understandings, is now being advanced for taking mere relation between concepts as the truth. Whenever we try to utilize free-floating concepts that cannot be represented in mind, then we are using a problematic usage of reason; it has turned metaphysical.

And thus the antinomies between random successive creations hundreds of millions ago and the concept of creation ex nihilo, without apodeictic truths (for all a posteriori observations cannot escape the problem of induction) shared the same faulty conception in which the tools that we used to procure representations, now are being used for connection of concepts, of which objects cannot be represented, thus cannot be proven, but only inferred. Thus the Idea of complete sequences in a chain of events gave birth to not merely the idea of theological Prima Causa, but also the idea of the evolutionary primordial soup. They are both equal in that they are both metaphysical and thus a problematic notion, instead of apodeictic.

The idea of natural selection as proved through the experiments of domestications and genetic drift can be shown as a priori truth, as it is able to be presented in experience. But to accept that something must change in the past because of ongoing change is as problematic as the notion of occassionalism. The anticipation of experience in an experience/data/feelings is merely of regulative function, rather than constitutive, as Kant has sufficiently showed in his Critique.

This brings us to the next notion; the apparent reluctance to accept divine interventions. Eastern scientists, especially the Muslims one, have no quarrel whatsoever with the notion of science. And also, most of them don’t have any problem with religion at all. Perhaps inherent in their worldview that make easy the synthesis between the two is of the Kantian axiom that “it is not how the laws of nature conforms to nature, but in actuality how the nature to the laws (of understanding).

The author mentioned that the cases of Adam, Eve and Jesus are of “metaphorical values”, as their cases are starkly against scientific views. Firstly, the Companions of the Prophets found no issues between the more overt verses with the elusive ones (the mutasyabbihat) due to their proximity with the Prophet and the excellency of their gnosis. But when Islam has spread to the non-Arabs, naturally confusion arises and the need for interpretation (ta’wil) arises. But observe, that there’s no need to interpret the overt ones as metaphorical or possessing hidden meaning, for then we would lapse to the confusion of the Ta’limites. Nor do we need to interpret the verses if the verses did not come in conflict with other tenets of Islam. Thus, the verse “hand of God” has to be interpreted due to the apparent similarity between God and His Creation, but there is no need to interpret other verses just because they cannot be understood by the reason. Because the entire point of Islamic epistemology as per the Ash’arites/Maturidites and the Rightful Sufis is that revelation takes precedence over reason. If we are to reduce everything that did not suite our a posteriori palates, then we have grossly lapsed into subjectivism. For an example, if the fatherless situation of Jesus is to be taken as metaphorical, then it must be an allusion to something else. A metaphor of what? The fatherless situation of Jesus alaihissalam thus a metaphor for what? Are we doubting the chastity of Maryam alaihissalam, if we have to accept that her son’s “fatherless” birth is a metaphor?

The author also mentioned that is it Adam’s properties, or his physical bodies that dropped from heaven to Earth? Or it is only his spirit that is extracted out from Heaven and re-created again in Earth through evolution while retaining “Adamic spirit”. Both of this science and al-Quran did not mention about this, thus it is understood only in God’s knowledge, but never in a science book.

The Shoaibian-Jalajel synthesis, the crux of the book, insisted that there’s no clear verses in the Quran that humankind are created separately. And they correctly mentions that in this jettison, an approach of tawaqquf has to be employed. But in the same breath of mentioning the idea of tawaqquf, an entire idea of reducing these difficult verses to metaphorical allusions, went way beyond Shoaib and Jalajel.

The act of harmonization is a noble one, such deeds in history are endeared greatly, some even won Nobel Prizes for it. But it must be done according to the right places. A Noble Prize-winner, President Harry Truman was known for his idea of self-determination post World War II. Perhaps he genuinely cared for the European people under the yoke of empires from his genteel, Puritan view. But his idea of self-determination caused neighbours who had lived together since the time of Ottomans against each other. Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia-Herzegovina.

Secondly, the act of harmonization cannot be as thus if done from a dominant perspective. There’s no equality, they say, between 2 people, when one of them is standing at the end of a gun’s barrel. So, there’s no harmony if one party’s voice is understood and interpreted from the other’s vantage. The essay “we can only make light of nature through evolution” is used while at the same time emphasizing on the equality between science and religion sounds very Trojan horse-like to me.

Thirdly, is any act of harmonization is necessary after all? If the intention to elucidate on the misunderstandings, then it has to be applauded. But I don’t think there’s no need and it is implausible to harmonize between the two metaphysical systems. Natural selection and the achievements in medical, biological and other views are indeed scientific, but science as it wishes to take a metaphysical mantle by claiming lordship over epistemology and ontology are two separate things. There’s no conflicts in the day of yore because the eminent scientists can differ between scientific facts and ideology. The former employs rigorous acts of reasoning, while the latter is a metaphysical practice.

I have no problem at all with scientific theories, I am a doctor, after all. And that is the reason why my rebuttals are not against the facts, but the dialectics. But how can the great scientists of yore can be such exemplary stars in both science and religion without the need to adopt such a problematic stance?

[Luna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cubaan yang sangat bagus untuk mempromosikan evolusi terhadap manusia yang beragama.

But I do wish the author could tone down that patronizing way of arguing. Sebagai contoh, semasa memetik kisah Imam Hanafi dalam bab Kemustahilan Evolusi. Kinda sound like nitpicking to me. Yeah I know the story is unfair to evolutionists but I do hope a less argumentative tone can be used there. Sorry ter offended pula, haha.

Walau bagaimanapun, saya tahu penulis sudah cuba menggunakan kaedah yang paling berdiplomasi dalam membincangkan topik yang se kontroversi ini. Topik ini taboo. Tahniah atas usaha anda.

Satu lagi, editor patut buat lebih sedikit lagi kot, untuk mencantikkan lagi buku ini. Kesalahan tatabahasa sedikit mencacatkan buku ini dan menjengkelkan saya. Kesalahan asas seperti penggunaan ialah dan adalah, pun ada. Mungkin dengan penglibatan editor dan proofreader yang mahir, buku ini boleh pergi lebih jauh.

Mungkin lebih jauh dari buku² Harun Yahya tu.

Sekali lagi, tahniah dan terima kasih atas kerja keras penulis.

[Umar Amri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bab terakhir paling menarik yang mana penulis cuba mencari jalan harmoni antara sains dan agama Islam tentang kedudukan 'Adam'. Penulis membentangkan beberapa kerangka penyelesaian dari beberapa cendekiawan Islam kontemporari sebelum memberikan pendapat beliau sendiri tentang kedudukan 'Adam' dalam Islam dan dalam proses evolusi.

Saya boleh katakan 90% isi kandungan buku ini adalah tentang biologi. Penting untuk kita memahami terutama saya yang bukan ahli sains tentang proses evolusi Darwin sebelum kita memilih untuk menolaknya secara buta-tuli.

Akhir kata, kita masih boleh jadi seorang Muslim dan Manusia yang sebaik2 kejadian tanpa penolak teori evolusi Darwin.

[Baihaqi Mohamad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Penulis merupakan seorang ahli farmasi. Kalau di hospital, saya dan beliau akan bekerja sekali.

Tapi penulisan tetnang topik ini sangat panjang lebar dan sangat detail,=.

Jawapan dan kesimpulan semua yagn penulis terangkan ada dalam bab terakhir. just short and sweet kesimpulan beliau dan menjawab persoalan saya sebelum ini tentang bagaimana kita hendak berdamai dengan nas agama dan bukti saintifik dalam bab Nabi Adam ini.

Apapun, kalau saya tulis sedikit improvement, tentu akan menambah baik buku ini:
1. Pecahkan bab -bab besar dan isi perenggan yang panjang kepada sub topik yang kecil. Buku Zamer Mohyedin keluaran Patriots boleh menjadi contoh yang bagus.
2. Tambahkan ilustrasi dan trivia dalam setiap bab supaya menjadi pengimbang kepada tulisan yagn sudah berat dalam topik ini. Adanya gambar rajah akan bantu lebih kefahaman pembaca.
Buku The Humans Complex terbitan Patriots juga boleh jadi contoh yang baik.

Apapun, tahniah kepada penulis dan penerbit!

[Abim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kudos kepada penulis kerana berjaya membuatkan aku faham tentang evolusi dengan memberi analogi yang mudah. Bahasa yang digunakan pun tidak terlalu tinggi maka mudah untuk orang awam yang tiada asas biologi mendalam untuk membaca. Pendapat aku, penulis ingin memberitahu bahawa Tuhan bersifat agnostik dalam proses evolusi tapi itu tidak bermakna Tuhan tidak mempunyai kuasa. Setiap apa yang berlaku atas muka bumi ini menurut aku bukan perlakuan Tuhan semata. Proses evolusi berlaku dan Tuhan membenarkan. Fahamnya begini sahaja. Bayangkan kita sedang memandu kereta atas jalan raya yang lurus dan kiri kanan kita ada pokok. Anggap bahawa tindakan memandu kereta ke hadapan sebagai penyebab berlakunya proses evolusi manakala pokok-pokok di kiri dan kanan sebagai ketentuan Tuhan. Selagi mana kita tidak memandu kereta ke hadapan (punca) selagi itulah pokok-pokok tidak melewati kita (akibat). Itulah fahaman aku terhadap proses evolusi ini.

[Megat Aiman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book offers a worldview changing perspective, challenging the assumption that the theory of evolution inherently contradicts Islamic belief, particularly the idea that Adam was the first human. It carefully navigates this complex topic, showing how evolutionary theory and core tenets of faith can be reconciled.

The middle section, which delves into the scientific foundations of evolution, can come across as quite scholarly and dense, which may slow the pace for some readers. However, it lays essential groundwork for the compelling final part of the book.

The third act if you could call it that stands out. It explores how opposition to evolution among followers of the Abrahamic faiths historically developed. This portion is especially persuasive and insightful, offering much-needed context and nuance to the conversation. The book also offers its own argument on where Adam PBUH came in, in the long chain of homo sapiens evolution.

[Zahidah Zarkasi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sangat bagus. Banyak ilmu dapat. Dari tak tau jadi tau tentang evolusi.