Adam and Eve’s Origin According to Islam: A Response to Daud Abdul-Fattah Batchelor

Jul 7, 2026

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Due to Islamic belief, D.A.-F. Batchelor seeks to confirm and reconcile Qur’anic accounts of Adam and Eve’s origin with paleolithic and embryological claims, often drawing on Muslim sources. Wiegrebe argues that while several points are reasonable, some fail to match commonscientific understandings. The response compares Batchelor’s arguments against these assumptions without engaging his theological framework, and follows Batchelor’s subheadings to align rebuttal points with his results.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryReligion & Spirituality

FormatPDF

Pages15

Reading Time38 min

Abstract

Research Question: Can the Qur’an’s account be harmonized with human evolution?

Batchelor’s Method: One Truth in Two Books

Two Books vs Two Languages Models

Twofold Truth and Allegorical Exegesis

Reconciling Qur’anic Text with Scientific Evidence

Wiegrebe’s Approach to the Comparison

Theology and Science ISSN: 1474-6700 (Print) 1474-6719 (Online) Journal homepage: [https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rtas20](https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rtas20) Adam and Eve’s Origin According to Islam: A Response to Daud Abdul-Fattah Batchelor Wolfgang Wiegrebe To cite this article: Wolfgang Wiegrebe (2019): Adam and Eve’s Origin According to Islam: A Response to Daud Abdul-Fattah Batchelor, Theology and Science, DOI: 10. 1080/14746700 .2019.1670946 To link to this article: [https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2019.1670946](https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2019.1670946) Published online: 22 Oct 2019. | Submit your article to this journal | | --- | | Article views: 4 | | View related articles | | View Crossmark data | Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at [https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rtas20](https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rtas20) THEOLOGY AND SCIENCE [https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2019.1670946](https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2019.1670946) Adam and Eve’s Origin According to Islam: A Response to Daud Abdul-Fattah Batchelor Wolfgang Wiegrebe ABSTRACT Due to his Muslim belief, D.A.-F. Batchelor wants to conﬁrm and harmonize the Qur’anic reports of the origin of Adam and Eve with paleolithic and embryological statements. Batchelor quite often cites Muslim references. Thereby he provides a view of embryology which in part does not correspond to commonscientiﬁc understanding. Some of his points and arguments are well taken, but not all of them. Thus I compare Batchelor’s position with these assumptions without delving into his theological considerations.—I would recommend to read my response parallel to Batchelor’s paper. In order compare my points with Batchelor’s results I follow his sub-headings, although there are some inevitable overlaps in our respective texts. KEYWORDS Qu’ram verbatim / contemporary exegesis; contradiction to today’s science; divine spirit in evolution of mankind; Adam’s origin; Adam and Eve: monozygotic twins; creation in Paradise / earth; Y-chromosome Adam; mitochondrial Eve; Turner and Klinefelter syndromes Can we successfully harmonize the Qu’ran’s testimony to human origins in the Adam and Eve story with what we are learning about human evolution from paleoanthropologistsand embryologists? Daud Abdul-Fattah Batchelor believes we can. I do not. In what follows I would like to show why. 1. Daud Abdul-Fattah Batchelor’s Method: One Truth in Two Books In Theology and Science, Daud Abdul-Fattah Batchelor, a Muslim scientist, publishes his“own personal analysis, which does not necessarily reﬂect the position of any institution … ” concerning Adam and Evès origin.1 The author states that “a Muslim scientist engaged in interaction between theology and science needs to remain completely faithful to the Holy Qur’an.” Therefore, he wants to understand “the historical and spiritual dimensions of Adam and Eve,” using archeological discoveries besides Qur’anic statements and results of Islamic scholars. In his introduction and conclusion Batchelor identiﬁes his method with the classical Two Books, rejecting the Two Languages model for relating science and theology (see note 1) . In the introduction we ﬁnd: Muslim scientists are cognizant of the need to avoid what Ted Peters calls the two languages model, according to which a science and religious belief system remain independent of one another, speaking diﬀerent languages. Further, what Joshua Moritz perceptively says resonates with Islamic thinking: “Assigning the domain of science and the domain of religion to non-overlapping magisteria is a philosophically unworkable, historically uninformed, and theologically unhelpful option.2 © 2019 Graduate Theological Union (CTNS Program) 2 W. WIEGREBE In Batchelor’s conclusion, we ﬁnd: “God’s two open Books–the Qur’anic revelation and the natural world–provide full agreeme

FAQs

What reconciliation does Batchelor attempt regarding Adam and Eve’s origin?

Batchelor aims to confirm and harmonize Qur’anic reports of Adam and Eve’s origin with statements from paleolithic findings and embryology, often using Muslim references.

How does Wiegrebe evaluate Batchelor’s overall argument?

Wiegrebe says some of Batchelor’s points and arguments are well taken, but not all are consistent with contemporary commonsense scientific understanding.

What is Wiegrebe’s approach for responding to Batchelor?

Wiegrebe compares Batchelor’s position using Batchelor’s own sub-headings, aiming to match rebuttal points to Batchelor’s results while not delving into Batchelor’s theological considerations.

Jul 7, 2026

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