The post date does not reflect the actual date. Posted on 1/29/22

مَّا جَعَلَ ٱللَّهُ لِرَجُلٖ مِّن قَلۡبَيۡنِ فِي جَوۡفِهِ
(Al Quran 33:4) Allah does not place two hearts in any person’s chest


On January 7, Dr. Muhiuddin’s team at the University of Maryland School of Medicine successfully transplanted the heart of a genetically modified pig into a man suffering from a severe heart ailment. “It was my dream, which came true. It’s something I didn’t imagine doing in my lifetime,” Mohiuddin, who is the director of the Cardiac Xenotransplantation Programme at the university, tells TRT World. The 57-year-old patient David Bennett, who received the pig’s heart, is recovering. He might need to stay at the hospital for at least two months before he’ll be able to return to his normal life, says Mohiuddin.[1] With this incident there is a concern among many in the Muslim world who are approaching Islamic scholars to find out if this is permissible, since Khanzeer (Arabic for pig) is considered najas (impure) in Islam. Al-Azhar International Center for Fatwa And the Egyptian Dar Al-Iftaa announced that “although the basic principle in the use of pig or its parts is sanctity, it is permissible to benefit from it and to treat part of its parts, or a member of its organs, provided that the necessity calls for that, and that there is no substitute for it from the pure ones.”[2] Muftis of Jamiatur Rashid Islamic Institute of Karachi in Pakistan have also declared it permissible on the condition that there is no substitute of pig’s organs such as those of cows, goats, camels which fall under the halal (legal) category. Mufti Tariq Masood of Jamiatur Rashid provides evidence in his lecture in favor of this ruling from 4 ayaats of the Quran in total that allow the use of pig in extreme necessity. In the first ayat (Al Quran 6:145) mentions eating of pig and other forbidden animals in the case of extreme hunger when nothing else being available. As for the remaining 3 ayaats (Al Quran 5:03, 2:173, 16:115) they hint towards the use of pig and other forbidden animals in case of extreme necessity which does not include only eating. He says these 3 ayaats point towards use of pig for other purposes as well, and those other purposes can include medical purposes including using a pig’s heart for transplantation.[3] While this evidence may support human use of pig organs such as kidney, liver or bones but can we suggest the same for a pig’s heart, considering that the Quran has chosen the heart to be a focal point of receiving divine guidance (hidayah), knowledge (marifat), inspiration (ilham), insight (firasah) as opposed to other organs of our body?

Modern science considers the heart nothing more than a muscle that pumps blood throughout the body and that learning involves primarily the nervous system, and secondarily, the immune system (that recognizes diseases it has defeated). But that is being updated especially with the consideration being given by doctors to the emotional wellbeing of their patients and further researches. Dr. Amira Ayyad a family medicine doctor from California explains in her book on holistic medicine that no one can deny the emotional, spiritual aspects attributed to the heart. Stress, depression, worry, anger and many other negative feelings burden the heart and weaken its performance. She recommends practicing love, joy, kindness, compassion, patient, perseverance and courage as best type of sports for the heart because ethical and moral behaviors and righteous acts are great healers.[4]

A very interesting research done on patients that underwent heart transplant surgery revealed that after their surgery they exhibited personality changes of their donors! The research suggests the possibility that memory of a person’s life is stored at the cellular level and may be transferred with the organ. A 17yr old African male donor’s heart was transplanted to an elderly white male. During interviews the recipient’s wife revealed how the he now loves classical music, something he never liked before. The donor’s family revealed that the black teenager did not like rap music, something that the white couple thought. In fact, he loved classical music and died in a shooting holding a violin while heading to his music class. The study also mentions case of recipient named Claire Sylvia, who published a book describing the apparent personality changes she experienced after receiving a donor heart. She reported noticing that various attitudes, habits and tastes. For instance though she was health conscious, upon leaving the hospital she had uncontrollable urge to eat KFC, a food she never ate. Sylvia found herself drawn towards cool colors as opposed to bright red and orange she used to prefer. She began behaving with an aggressiveness that was uncharacteristic of her but turned out to be similar to personality of her donor.[5] This reveals for us a lot about the heart that what the Quran says that our lifestyles can leave their positive or negative imprints on our hearts. 

What's even more convincing about this research is that every heart belongs to its owner and that a persons heart, even after transplantation reflects the personality of its actual owner rather than the recipient, a fact to which the Quran also brings our attention in the following ayah: (Al Quran 33:4) Allah does not place two hearts in any person’s chest. Nor does He regard your wives as ˹unlawful for you like˺ your real mothers, ˹even˺ if you say they are. Nor does He regard your adopted children as your real children. These are only your baseless assertions. But Allah declares the truth, and He ˹alone˺ guides to the ˹Right˺ Way – The Quran teaches that just as husbands practicing zihar i.e. calling their wives “you are like my mother” in pre-Islamic Arabia, does not really make them their mothers, and by declaring your adopted children as your own children doesn’t make them your real children, similarly a persons heart cannot be claimed by another person because naturally it never belongs to them even if it is placed inside their chest. Hence, if a human heart transplant caused the recipient to reflect the donor’s personality then an animal’s heart can most likely cause a recipient to reflect the nature of that animal.  

What is the purpose of Heart according to Islam?

The Quran teaches that the object of revelation has always been to guide humankind so they can fulfill their purpose of existence. To fulfil that purpose, out of all organs, Allah ﷻ chose their hearts as the agency for communication of that guidance: (Al Quran 3:08) Ya Rabb do not let our Hearts be misguided after having guided them…” – With guidance the heart also becomes the recipient of divine knowledge of Allah ﷻ called marifat which is gained through communion with Him through worship, obedience to His commandments and observing His consciousness (taqwa), that He is watching. If we observe these things we benefit spiritually and physically, and basically that is our purpose of existence. But this purpose gets defeated when our hearts are deprived of guidance. The one factor that obstructs the heart from gaining guidance is our Nafs (lower self, base urges). The Nafs has negative tendencies and inclinations that attract us towards earthly pleasures and distractions. It continuously strives to attach us to the earth and its beauties so we deviate from our purpose and forget all obedience to our Creator. It is because of this why the Sufiyya (Sufi Saints) always emphasize on Greater Jihad (struggle) as the goal of life which is to strive against our own Nafs. This is due to a famous hadith of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ who referred to “The servant’s struggle against his lust (hawah)” as a Greater Jihad as opposed to fighting with arms which he called lesser Jihad (struggle). It is the effects of our Hawa (lust or lower desires) generated from our Nafs which cause distractions to our Hearts and make them heedless as Allah ﷻ says: (Al Quran 18:28) and do not obey one whose heart We have made heedless of Our remembrance and who follows his desire (Hawa) and whose affair is ever [in] neglect." Elsewhere Allah likens a blind follower of his hawah to a dog: (Al Quran 7:176) "… but he clung to the earth and followed his low desire (Hawa) Thus, his parable is that of a dog.” In another instance those who focus only on their lower desires and do not use their reason are likened to cattle (Al Quran 25:43) and such hearts are considered spiritually dead (Al Quran 7:179) even though they may be clinically alive.

​By these examples Allah ﷻ is teaching that a person whose primary objective is only to follow his hawa (lower desires) and immediate benefits, lowers himself to the level of animals. Like animals he does not use his reason losing the ability to make moral choices that help distinguish between right or wrong, truth or false, good or bad, resulting in his failure to spiritually and morally progress and losing his humanity. This punishment was experienced by some Jews who were transformed into apes and pigs because they followed their desires instead of Allah’s commandments: (Al Quran 5:60) It is those who earned Allah’s condemnation and displeasure—some being reduced to apes and pigs and worshippers of false gods. These are far worse in rank and farther astray from the Right Way.” Some scholars understood this in a metaphorical sense and said that only their hearts were transformed, that is, they were not really transformed into pigs. 

The pig heart transplantation is definitely a breakthrough in the world of scientific medicine and something that has never happened in human history. But it is important for Muslims to understand the consequences of this surgery because it involves our hearts the only medium of guidance for our lives without which we will be reduced to animals and lose our purpose of life. With pig hearts we may be able to extend our lifespans but we are most likely going to defeat the purpose of our existence. 


​References:
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[1] Pig-heart transplant pioneer on how breakthrough surgery became possible, TRT World, Saad Hasan, 13 JAN 2022
https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/pig-heart-transplant-pioneer-on-how-breakthrough-surgery-became-possible-53612
[2] "A human with a pig's heart" .. Why is the transfer of organs from animals the hope of contemporary medicine? Teller Report, 1/15/2022, 5:22:48 AM
https://www.tellerreport.com/news/2022-01-15-%22a-human-with-a-pig-s-heart%22----why-is-the-transfer-of-organs-from-animals-the-hope-of-contemporary-medicine-.Hye-qCQlaK.html
[3] Kiya Khanzeer ka Dil Lagana Jaiz hai? pig heart transplant into human Pakistan Mufti Tariq Masood, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbeyMbN6qu0&t=1s 
[4] Ayad, Amira, and Jamila Hakam. Healing Body & Soul: Your Guide to Holistic Wellbeing following Islamic Teachings. International Islamic Publishing House (Saudi Arabia) pgs. 24
​[5] Changes in Heart Transplant Recipients That Parallel the Personalities of Their Donors, Paul Pearsall, Ph.D. University of Hawaii, Gary E. R. Schwartz, Ph.D., Linda G. S. Russek, Ph.D., University of Arizona – UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc799207/m2/1/high_res_d/vol20-no3-191.pdf

The post date does not reflect the actual date written. It is just for sequence purposes. It was written a year go in 2021 on Quora.com. 
https://knowislam.quora.com/If-Allah-created-us-from-Adam-and-created-Adam-without-ancestors-how-do-we-explain-the-fossils-found-of-human-like-crea​ 

Just because geologists have discovered fossils of homo sapiens that shared human like features who supposedly existed prior to Adam (alaihi salaam) millions of years ago does not challenge the Quranic fact that Adam (alaihi salaam) did not have ancestors. Allah ﷻ can create what He wills, He creates some creation out of others, yet others He creates them completely new, out of nothing. We may share some features with now extinct pre Adamic homo sapiens but there is no guaranteed fact that we descended from them. As per Quran Adam (alaihi salaam) and entire humankind are special creation and their creation is unlike all other creation of Allah ﷻ.

Can mankind be evolved from other species as per Quran?

As for mankind coming from other species like homo sapiens whose fossils have been discovered, is something that explicitly contradicts the message of the Quran in various ways and this is unacceptable to a believers heart. Allah ﷻ makes it known to us that He (swt) honored Adam (alaihi salaam) and his descendants above all creation: (Al Quran 17:70) We have honoured the children of Adam - Similarly elsewhere Allah ﷻ mentions our creation to be of special kind as opposed to other creation because He ﷻ created us by blowing ‘His spirit’ and with His ‘Two Hands’:

(Al Quran 38:71–78) And [mention] when your Lord said to the angels, ‘Truly, I will create a man from clay. So when I have completed him, and breathed into him of My spirit, then fall down prostrate to him.’ And the angels prostrated, one and all. Save for satan, who was too proud to, and disbelieved. He said to him, ‘O Satan, what prevented you from prostrating to what I have created with My two hands?

Mufassireen and scholars have emphasized that Allah ﷻ using the term ‘My spirit’ and ‘Two Hands’ is to bring out the importance and special care in creation of Adam (alaihi salaam) and that no where else in the Quran does He ﷻ state the same words for other creation. Allah ﷻ mentions how He created plants, animals, earth etc. but no where else in Quran does He employ the same words to express their making. From here we notice some Muslims attempt a reconciliation with the Quran of the theory that modern humans descended from pre-Adamic homo sapiens. They say well Quran also says ‘(Al Quran 21:30) and of water We have made every living thing?’ and since geologists claim that more than 4 billion years ago the origin of life on earth took place from water then modern mankind must have come in to existence from other creation through gradual process of evolution. This conclusion is rejected as soon as we understand the creation of the first modern human (homo sapien sapien) Adam (alaihi salaam) in the following verse:

(Al Quran 3:59) The similitude of Jesus before Allah is as that of Adam; He created him from dust, then said to him: "Be". And he was.
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In this verse Allah ﷻ makes it explicitly clear that, as we all know, Jesus (alaihi salaam) came in to being as a result of miracle, a special act of creation, without the medium of a biological father. Similarly Adam’s creation is also a miracle in that he is a completely new creation, a miraculous & special creation which Allah ﷻ has brought in to being as a word from Him “Be” and not brought in to existence out of another creation as evolution theorists want us accepting: (Al Quran 36:82) His command is only when He intends a thing that He says to it, "Be," and it is. - Allah ﷻ is NOT in need to bring Adam (alaihi salaam) from another creation, He can bring him out of nothing if He wishes to. This is where believers who have no issues in accepting miracles will not have any doubts.

Does Quran mention pre Adamic homo sapiens?

I would like to share my personal point of view here. I believe that the Quran hints towards existence of now extinct homo sapiens in the words of angels who exclaimed after Allah ﷻ  told them that He is going to create Adam (alaihi salaam): (Al Quran 2:30) "Will You place upon it one who causes corruption therein and sheds blood.. - It seems that they knew a kind that existed on earth before Adam and resembled him in characteristics such as potential to create violence and warlike. Thus they made this claim. But Allah ﷻ advised them that it is not only those characteristics this new being carries, it also carries angelic characteristics, spirituality and intellectual powers: (Al Quran 2:30) Allah ﷻ said, "Indeed, I know that which you do not know."

Having said all of this, it could be that Adam (alaihi salaam) did share the same process of evolution, evolved in stages like the now extinct homo sapiens and other creation but his creation was a special act, an independent parallel evolution that happened in the heavens from earthly substances just as Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said “God created Adam from a handful (of soil) which he took from the whole of the earth; so the children of Adam are in accordance with the earth, some red, some white, some black, some a mixture, also smooth and rough, bad and good.” (Mishkat al-Masabih 100 - sunnah.com)

and Allah (swt) obviously knows the best, He is All Knowing.