Alien Life in the Qur'an
Recently I stumbled upon a video in which it was argued that there is proof from the Qur’an that alien life exists. He based his claim on a particular aayah. The aayah is
وَمِنْ آيَاتِهِ خَلْقُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَمَا بَثَّ فِيهِمَا مِن دَابَّةٍ وَهُوَ عَلَى جَمْعِهِمْ إِذَا يَشَاءُ قَدِيرٌ
“And among His Signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the living creatures that He has scattered through them: and He has power to gather them together when He wills.” [42:29]
This aayah, I will argue, is proof of alien life in the Qur’an.
In Imaam Ash-Shawkaanee’s tafseer of this aayah, we find a statement of Mujaahid in which he says:
قال مجاهد: يدخل في هذا الملائكة، والناس، وقد قال تعالى: {وَيَخْلُقُ مَا لاَ تَعْلَمُونَ} (النمل: 
“entering in this aayah are the angels and mankind. and Allah, the Most Hight says : “And He has created what you do not know”. [See also Imam Ibn 'Atiyyah's (d. 546 A.H.) tafsir تفسير المحرر الوجيز في تفسير الكتاب العزيز . He also mentions the possibility of creatures within the clouds (sahaab).] Ibn Juzayy, the Granadian jurist and exegete states in his tafsir,
“…And as for the meaning of beasts in the ‘heavens’ then it is said it means the angels, and it is also said that there are animals that we do not know of…” ((See his tafsir تفسير التسهيل لعلوم التنزيل )) This opinion is one of the three opinions mentioned by Imam Fakhr Ar-Razi in his tafsir as well.
This statement by Mujahid in my opinion is a clear indication that this aayah is proof of alien life being indicated in the Qur’an. The aayah mentions that Allah has scattered through both the heavens and the earth (batha fi himaa) . “He has placed through them both” creatures. (daa’bba). Now, one could argue that the birds are in the heavens, or the angels. However, whats significant about the aayah is its usage of the word “daa’ba” . In Tafsir Jalalayn it mentions about the word in this aayah:
هي ما يدب على الأرض من الناس وغيرهم
“it is what ‘yuddabu’ treads on the earth of mankind and others of them.”
The treading on the earth, is done by men, but what about in the heavens?
On what would such creatures be treading on in as-samawaat (the heavens)? It, I argue, is an indication that there is alien life that tread on other planets, which are in the heavens. Some may argue that if alien life exists, then Allah surely would have informed us about it (concluding,therefore, alien life can’t exist). My response to this is with the aayah that Mujaahid mentions in his tafseer
وَيَخْلُقُ مَا لاَ تَعْلَمُونَ
“And He has created what you do not know”. [Surah An-Naml aayah 8]
This is a clear indication that alien life is a without a doubt a possibility, if not a certainty.
Wallaahu Alaam
Salam,
Honestly i highly doubt alien life in space and believe SETI to be absolutely futile and a waste of taxpayers money when people are starving to death here.
The reason being that after all the planets that have so far been found, none have given scientific findings(e.g. via finding out the atmosphere through many different astronomical methods) that support the existence of life therein but in fact give proof of the opposite.
The conditions needed for life are just too many that its very very difficult(if not impossible) to find a planet other than Earth that supports it.
But then again i remember(apparently) Ibn Abbas(AS) believing that Allah created SEVEN Earths according to his tafsir of an Ayah of the Qur’an.
Those people amongst the scientific community who are found of believing in aliens are normally doing it because it will ‘prove’-according to their frail understanding- that humans are not special and not created by God. Thats why you find atheists and others promote such things.
I certainly agree that searching for aliens is a ridiculous endeavor, especially when those billions could be used to benefit the poor. SPACE WASTE: http://concernedmuslim.com/?p=13
However, this post was simply to show the possibility of the existence of such “aliens” via interpretation of the Qur’an.
A very interesting read, this is useful if certain people ask me questions.
Hmm…
Ibn Arabi al-Andalusi is said to have been visited by aliens, I have heard this but don’t know if it can be verified.
But from a modern (non-conspiracy theory) point of view, it is almost undeniable now that SOMETHING landed in Roswell. They are more recently releasing documents nowadays that were formerly top secret. And although, people say that it wasn’t an alien craft that landed- there is a sizable amount that say it was actually an alien. This is one of the explanations of where we have derived microchips and fiber optics among other things by reverse-engineering from this alien technology.
Now, that’s not the only story. There was a Canadian man who encountered an alien craft too, and due to contacting it contracted a sickness no doctors could explain. He wasn’t crazy or psycho like the people who use one shred of E.T. evidence as a cause to make crazy theories, and he made no theories and shied away from publicity.
So I think there is the possibility. Could be jinns?
But also recall that the Awliya can walk on anything, so they can tread the skies and the water. That could be one meaning of the tafsir.
There are still a few old fatwas floating around about marriage between jinns and humans or humans and “water-people”–suggest you look into it Abul Layth.
“There are still a few old fatwas floating around about marriage between jinns and humans or humans and “water-people”.”
Brother Dawud Israel, I would like to know about the fatwa, can you tell us who gave the fatwa? I find it interesting!
also read about the mountain “Qaf”.
Mentioned by Ibn ‘Ataa’illah in his Lataa’if al Minan.
Ya Islam-qa.com an interesting mermaid read: http://islam-qa.com/en/ref/103991/mermaid
as salamu ‘alaykum
Interesting read. Jazaka Allahu khairan sidi Abu Usaama.
Dawud, I recall reading in a book about family life and the examples of the Prophet (sallAllahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) (forget the name) by a Sheikh named Muhammad Musa nasr that this indeed took place. I forget the name of the book, though. We may still have it so I’ll try looking for it insha’Allah.
As salam ‘alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
Perhaps this verse was referring to flying horses — or flying water people. Wasalam.
To the first commenter… SETI is not tax-payer funded. NASA stopped funding SETI in the early 90′s, it’s now privately funded. Also, yes it is a waste as if any civilization does as us when it comes to the steps in communications technology… we will only be receiving signals for 50-100 years or so based on our own broadcasting powerful enough to journey out.
To Abu Usaama… brilliant!
Salaam
Regarding the roswell conspiracy i heard some where that the a illuminati, free mason , cia , usa whatever you want to call them were gona or are gona use so called Jinns to come as Aliens. another plan to establish the 1 world 1 goverment new world order. Recently le on news they were talking about alien files in the cia
Wallahu alam
Regarding the Ayah well am sure they are stuff out there we dont no about.
That reminds me any one have anything on dinosaurs from islamic perspective
I feel like an alien surrounded by Wahhabis
jinns are aliens .we have an entire chapter in quran about alien with the name of surah jinn .every planet and star are in their reach .