101 Reasons Why We Left Islam – Chapter 3: Islam and Science – Reason 33
This is from the collection of Hadiths, so for the Quranist only among you this may not be of interest. But we should emphasise here that this Hadith is authentic and accepted as true by over 90% of Muslims.
Sahih al-Bukhari 3326 – https://sunnah.com/bukhari:3326
Narrated Abu Huraira:
- The Prophet (ﷺ) said, “Allah created Adam, making him 60 cubits tall. When He created him, He said to him, “Go and greet that group of angels, and listen to their reply, for it will be your greeting (salutation) and the greeting (salutations of your offspring.” So, Adam said (to the angels), “As-Salamu Alaikum” (i.e. Peace be upon you). The angels said, “As-salamu Alaika wa Rahmatu-l-lahi” (i.e. Peace and Allah’s Mercy be upon you). Thus, the angels added to Adam’s salutation the expression, ‘Wa Rahmatu-l-lahi,’ Any person who will enter Paradise will resemble Adam (in appearance and figure). People have been decreasing in stature since Adam’s creation.
The same narration is repeated in: https://sunnah.com/adab:978 & https://sunnah.com/bukhari:6227
Cubits are the same as ‘arms’, and in fact, in some of the Hadiths above, they are reported as ‘arms’. The measurement works out that 1 cubit is 0.45 meters, and 60 cubits is 27 meters or 99 feet long! To put it in context, that is the size of a 9-floor building!
Here are three fundamental problems with this claim:
1. Given the Earth’s gravity, this human would have collapsed under his own weight. Unless this human is as wide as a building. To explain why this matters, the tallest dinosaur (Sauroposeidon proteles) is 18 meters (60 foot) and to distribute that height and not collapse, it was 7 meters (23 foot) wide. A human of 27 meters (99 feet) in height would have needed a foot size of 1.8 meters (6 feet). It is simply not possible for humans of this size to have survived the atmosphere with the limited resources we have on Earth. Also, they would have left a trail of bones and footprints all over the planet that are impossible to hide!
2. All archaeological evidence collected turned out large dinosaur bones – never giant humans. Even when we found humanoids from the human evolution period some 200,000 years ago, shows if anything, we used to be shorter than we are now standing at 1 meter (3.2 foot) height only!
https://www.sciencealert.com/smallest-known-species-of-human-may-have-had-an-even-smaller-ancestor
3. And this third fact will shock you! Multiple places around the Islamic world claim to host Adam or a number of Prophets graves all massive in sizes and all (as you would expect) attract millions of visitors every year. It is a big business that every country wants to claim to have one of those graves. You can see the video below from Pakistan as an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tokjqAwkuN0
Notice the naivety of people who invited these graves of the ‘prophets’ is that they assumed they would have the same width as us and same foot size – which would have been physically impossible for them to walk!
People who insist on defending this have to admit that the only way we, the descendants of Adam, have become shorter is by evolution. Yet, classical creationist Islam rejects outright the idea of evolution.
Of course, none of this is true. All photos shared by my brothers and sisters suggesting photos of giants’ human bones are fake photoshopped photos. It all started in 1999 when a Canadian man entered a photoshop competition and won using this photo.
https://relay.nationalgeographic.com/proxy/distribution/public/amp/news/2007/12/skeleton-giant-photo-hoax
Issue 33.1. If Adam was 30 meters (99 feet) tall, it is safe to assume that there was a historical evolution process before humans reached the average height of 1.7 meters (6 feet). This would have taken thousands of years, leaving behind graves of many people and otherwise who would be at least over 2 meters (7 feet) tall. Despite millions of bones collected, including cities that go back half a million years in human evolution when we were still primates, all we find is evidence of humanoids showing that they were shorter than us. Yet again, we find superstitious made-up claims coming from the Prophet that make no sense at all.
Islamic Excuse:
Issue 33.1: The fact we cannot find the evidence does not mean it is not there. It might still be there. We always discover new things in science and therefore, this might be something that we will discover in the future. To reject Islam over these excuses is silly. At best, you could question the Hadith, but to say Islam is false over this Hadith is naive. Finally, there is a branch of Muslims who believe evolution could have happened as part of Allah’s creation. It did not happen from monkeys, as atheist scientists claim, but humans and animals adapted to their environments, and there is nothing wrong with that. Allah would have started humans taller to allow them to manage the challenges of life and gradually shorten them to adapt better to their environment.
>>> Our response: Beyond the archaeological evidence, we have genetic evidence. A 30-meter human would have needed proportionally bigger bones and organs – everything from the heart to the brain – there is absolutely no possibility humans evolved downwards without leaving ‘background’ genetic residues that could be detected now. Scientists are able to see background genetic residues from our evolutionary ancestors and there is absolutely no evidence we were ever taller. Also, we explained there is a physical impossibility to exist on Earth with such height and gravity pulling down. The biggest fruit we have now would be a tiny raisin to this human, and the biggest animal would be a small popcorn! There is as much evidence that humans were at some time 30 meters tall as there is evidence of fairies- which is why we rightly call this a fairytale!
Final Thought:
The mental gymnastics that Islamists try to do to save the Quran and Hadith is shocking but also understandable. The idea that the ends justify the means comes to mind. They dream of a world different to this world, an explanation of everything, even if it is not perfect (or full of lies); they do so because they fear without Islam, there will be chaos. So, to rationalise why the Prophet would make such an outrageously ridiculous claim becomes part and parcel of the process of maintaining the faith.