Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge & Truth — Page 504
THE FUTURE OF LIFE ON EARTH. OES MAN represent the final stage of development or will there be another creation after man? Is there any possibility of a new species evolving from Homo sapiens with improved or added senses, that is able to perceive new dimensions with the capacity to develop a higher intelligence? Again, could it be possible for that new species to appear in a completely different form and shape with an entirely new life pattern?. To the best of our knowledge, these questions have not been examined as such by any religion other than Islam. . For the philosophers or scholars of previous ages, this was entirely beyond the scope of their intellect. Even modern science can only discuss this issue in a vague way. . No serious methodology within a scholastic framework has been developed to examine these possibilities. . It is an amazing distinction of the Holy Quran that it raises and resolves such questions and predicts such possibilities. The issue of life after death is different, discussed traditionally by almost all major religions. None, however, has even hypothetically examined the possibility of other forms of life here on earth evolving before or after. Doomsday. . Having said that, we beg to remind the reader that although other scriptures also share the description of. Doomsday, the Quranic terminology is much wider and varied in its application. There are many prophecies in the. Quran regarding some epoch-making future events like great revolutions and upheavals. All these are referred to by the same term Al-Qiyamah ( ), or its synonym. Al-sa'ah (c). All the same, these terms also cover that 479