1. Wherever 'Abdu'l-Bahá affirms evolution (taraqqí), he means it in the sense of progress or development within a single species, not in the meaning of the followers of Darwin, who believed that one species, by the force of natural selection alone, could gradually evolve into another species. In a letter, he says: "Some of the philosophers of Europe think that one species evolves into another species. For example, that the animal evolved until it became a human being. But the prophets teach that this theory is erroneous, as we have explained already in the book Some Answered Questions. Nay, rather evolution and growth take place within the same species. For instance, the seed of man gradually develops, passing through the stages of embryo, fœtus, infant, child, and adolescent until intellectual maturity is attained. All the while it has progressed within the same species" (Má'idiy-i Asmání 2: 69).
   
   
2. What 'Abdu'l-Bahá is against is the idea that one species could gradually and haphazardly transform into another species on its own, so he says: "Supposing this to be true [this gradual change in appearance], it is still not proof of the change of the species. No...it is merely like the change and alteration of the embryo of man until it reaches the degree of reason and perfection" (SAQ, Chap. 49, 193). This analogy does not imply that "there was a time when man walked on his hands and feet, or had a tail" etc., because 'Abdu'l-Bahá says: "This explanation is assuming assent to the [Darwinistic] evolution of species, but the truth is that man was, from the beginning, in this perfect form and composition, and possessed the capacity and aptitude for acquiring inner and outer perfections, and was the manifestation of these words, 'We will make man in Our image and likeness'" (Mufávadát 138, SAQ, Chap. 49, 194; revised translation). Consequently, wherever 'Abdu'l-Bahá compares the evolution of man on this planet to a human being's embryological development (e.g. SAQ, chaps. 47 and 51), he does not seem to be saying that man once had a form and composition similar to other animal species.
   
   
3. Although man is man only by reason of his intellectual endowment, this capacity requires a particular kind of biological composition: man appears on earth (or elsewhere) only when this kind of composition is present. This is the theme of the second proof offered by 'Abdu'l-Bahá in SAQ, Chapter 46: "The perfection of each individual being...is due to the composition of the elements, to their measure, to their balance, to the manner of their combination, and to the interaction and influence of other beings. In the case of man, when all these factors are gathered together [in a particular way], then man exists." So a form such as a fish or a dog is not and never was man. In SAQ, Chapter 51, when 'Abdu'l-Bahá says: "In the beginning of his formation [in the matrix of the world] mind and spirit also existed," this required an appropriate biological form.
   
   
4. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, therefore, teaches the appearance of species on this planet by the "formation" or "composition" of already-existing elements into particular configurations. When the species appear, they appear physically complete (just as the embryo of a child is physically complete), though their potential perfections become manifested gradually.
   
   
5. The cause of formation is not via God directly, but via species essences (a subject treated in detail in my forthcoming article). 'Abdu'l-Bahá says, for example: "Each time that the isolated elements become combined in accordance with the divine universal system, one being among beings comes into the world. That is to say, that when certain elements are combined, a vegetable existence is produced; when others are combined, it is an animal; again others become combined, and different creatures attain existence. In each case, the existence of things is the consequence of their realities" (Mufávadát 204, SAQ, chap. 82, p. 292; revised translation). Realities (haqá'iq) is a synonym for essences (mahíyát). The realities of living beings are one category of Platonic forms or laws of nature.

'Abdu'l-Bahá does not explicitly explain how creation by formation occurs, though he does say that the species essences become manifested as soon as capacity exists to receive them: "The divine emanations [essences] pervading all created beings have had no beginning and will have no end. That illimitable bounty becomes effective in every station whenever the capacity appears to receive it" (Khitábát 2: 106; The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 160, revised translation). Species essences, therefore, have no beginning or end; they are part of God's timeless creation; and they manifest themselves where the capacity to receive them and the right mutual influence of other beings (environment) exists. The important point is that for 'Abdu'l-Bahá species are timeless realities, or essences, while the compositions dependent upon them are mutable and subject to appearance and extinction, progress and decline.

'Abdu'l-Bahá's teachings on this subject are not original but are based on the Judeo-Christian-Islamic doctrine that the formation of all things is by God's creative power, and they are firmly based in Platonic essentialistic metaphysics, insofar as Platonism was received and understood by Muslim philosophers. In one of his talks on the subject of evolution, given in San Francisco on 10 October 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá associates his views with the "philosophers of the East," among whom he includes "Aristotle and Plato, and the philosophers of Iran" (Khitábát 2: 299; PUP 356, revised translation). Many of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's intellectual contemporaries in the Arab world, such as Jamál al-Din al-Afghani, Hussein al-Jisr, and Abu al-Majd Muhammad Rida al-Isfahaní shared 'Abdu'l-Bahá's response to Darwinism. Isfahaní, for example, states: "What is meant by the philosophy of creation is the theory of the independence of species (istiqlál al-anwá') and their non-evolution from each other. If we have defended this philosophy, it is a purely scientific defence, not religious" (Naqd falsafa Darwin, 1:179). Like 'Abdu'l-Bahá, a definition of evolution that he finds acceptable is "the movement of living bodies toward [their own] perfection" (221), a perfection that is potentially present from the beginning as part of God's timeless creation. The philosophical and historical context of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's response to Darwinism is fully treated in my forthcoming article.

The concepts of the existence of timeless species essences and of a perfect, harmonious universe were also fundamental for classical (pre-Darwinian) biology. Until the beginning of the 19th century the biosphere was believed in the occident to be created by God relatively recently, e.g. 6000 years, and remained static until today.⁽⁴⁾ The species essences were thought to ensure that cows can beget only calves but cannot give birth to horses, cats or ants. Although 'Abdu'l-Bahá defends the concept of timeless species essences he does not support a static world view. On the contrary, he considers this world to be subjected to substantial evolution: "Know that nothing which exists remains in a state of repose - that is to say, all things are in motion. Everything is either growing or declining; all things are either coming from nonexistence into being, or going from existence into nonexistence... This state of motion is said to be essential - that is, natural; it cannot be separated from beings because it is their essential requirement..."⁽⁵⁾ 'Abdu'l-Bahá proposes that all things in this world are subject either to growth or to decay.

During the 19th century careful analysis of fossil findings made it increasingly clear that the terrestrial biosphere was, firstly, very much older than had been assumed, and, secondly, was not static but that it changed dramatically through the ages. Since the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species, evolution has become a central subject in biology. In this respect modern biology agrees with 'Abdu'l-Bahá's concept of substantial evolution. In classical as well as modern biology, species essences are equated with a static biosphere and are considered to be incompatible with evolution, and consequently modern biology developed species concepts without reference to species essences. Today, concepts of species essences are widely considered to be inappropriate for biology. According to this view, the "modern" species is defined for an existing population of interbreeding organisms, by a common gene pool. For many modern biologists evolution is not the unfolding of a set of time invariant laws of nature or a God-given natural order, but evolution is believed to consist of new self-creations.⁽⁶⁾ According to this view biological characteristics, which are not even potentially pre-existing, are assumed to be created de novo on the path of evolution. From the view point of an essentialist this position implies the evolution of species essences. Such concepts of self-creational evolution clearly contradict 'Abdu'l-Bahá's thesis that humanity mirrors the timeless names and attributes of God.

'Abdu'l-Bahá uses two arguments to rebut concepts of self-creational evolution. In support of the existence of timeless species essences, 'Abdu'l-Bahá presents a modernised version of Plato's argument of the perfect harmonious universe; that is, the argument of the time-invariance of the fundamental laws of nature which is one of the central axioms of modern physics. 'Abdu'l-Bahá states: "As the perfection of man is entirely due to the composition of the atoms of the elements, ... since man was produced ten or a hundred thousand years ago from these earthly elements ... exactly the same man existed then as now. This is evident and not worth debating. A thousand million years hence ... exactly the same man will exist."⁽⁷⁾ This argument implies that the possibility to form oil lamps, computers, myoglobin molecules or human beings was present in our universe from the very beginning. Their development or evolution is understood as the unfolding of the inherent properties of the laws of nature, or, in terms of Bahá'í terminology, as particular reflections of the eternal names and attributes of God. In contrast, according to the self-creational model of evolution, there would have been certain time points during the evolution of our universe before which oil lamps, computers, myoglobin molecules or human beings would have been impossible in principle, because the necessary characteristics of those tools or beings were not yet created. By the argument of the time-invariance of the fundamental laws of nature 'Abdu'l-Bahá rejects this strange consequence of self-creational evolution.

In a second argument 'Abdu'l-Bahá shows that timeless species essences are compatible with evolution using the example of the analogy between human phylogeny and embryonic ontogeny: "In the same way, the embryo of man in the womb of the mother was at first in a strange form; then this body passes from shape to shape, from state to state, from form to form, until it appears in utmost beauty and perfection. But even when in the womb of the mother and in this strange form, entirely different from his present form and figure, he is the embryo of the superior species, and not of the animal; his species and essence undergo no change."⁽⁸⁾ This argument is similar to those put forward by the Meckel-Serrhs law of classical biology, where the embryo was considered to develop through the lower levels of the scala naturae, and to Haeckel's recapitulation law, where the embryo is assumed to repeat the previous evolutionary stages.⁽⁹⁾ 'Abdu'l-Bahá, however, merely uses the resemblance of human phylogeny and embryonic ontogeny as an analogy.

Although, the embryo starts single-celled and during its growth evolves through many different stages and develops its form, size and organisation, throughout this process the embryo maintains its human identity. The information stored in the genes remains time-invariant and guides the evolution of the embryo. Without this constant blueprint the development from a simple single cell towards a highly complex organism would be impossible. During its development, the embryo unfolds the inherent properties stored in its timeless genetic information. Similarly, as time-invariant Newton's laws rule the motion of molecules and planets, so does the genetic information in the cells of the embryo guide ontogeny, species essences providing the necessary background for the evolution from the primeval soup towards complex organisms and ecosystems. These species essences represent the names and attributes of God, the "space" of possible forms of life, the "composition and arrangement" produced "through the wisdom of God and His preexistent might."⁽¹⁰⁾

With the concept of substantial evolution 'Abdu'l-Bahá agrees with evolution biology that life evolves, that the development of life is essentially dynamic. 'Abdu'l-Bahá's concept of the originality of the species, assuming timeless species essences, potential eternal reflections of the names and attributes of God, stands in vivid contrast to philosophies of self-creational evolution,⁽¹¹⁾ and of the formation of a complex universe from a trivial origin.⁽¹²⁾ According to 'Abdu'l-Bahá, our universe is complex from the very beginning, and reflects the eternal, inherently complex names and attributes of God. It is grounded in a complexity which totally surpasses human imagination: "O Children of the Divine and Invisible Essence! Ye shall be hindered from loving Me and souls shall be perturbed as they make mention of Me. For minds cannot grasp Me nor hearts contain Me."⁽¹³⁾

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