Evolutionary Theory of Religious Phenomenon from Islamic Perspective

Since the period of Enlightenment in Europe in the 17th-18th Century, the study of religion gained momentum. Many intellectuals departing from the Scriptural account of religion traced the origin of religion on anthropological, socio-economic, and psychological basis. While all such ir-religious or anti-religious scholars came up with varied conclusions about the origin of religion, they however seemed unanimous about the beginning of religion from lower or crude forms of polytheism to the highest form of Monotheism as witnessed in the contemporary societies or the Abrahamic religions- Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The religion was thought as originating from the worship of natural forces to Ghost worship to Godly worship. This way the conception of the worship of One God was the outcome of man‟s thinking to understand the affairs of the world and the universe at large. Just as Darwin‟s advanced human specie is the result of transformation/development of tiny unicellular to multi-cellular beings, so in the opinion of religious evolutionists is the formation of Monotheism from lower forms of religion. In the paper I would be exploring the Islamic Perspective of religion vis-a-vis the evolutionary theories of religion.