John William Draper was a scientist and a contemporary of Charles Darwin. In his influential book History of the Conflict between Religion and Science, he wrote: "Theological authorities were therefore constrained to look with disfavor on any attempt to carry back the origin of the earth, to an epoch indefinitely remote, and on the Mohammedan theory of the evolution of man from lower forms, or his gradual development to his present condition in the long lapse of time." Why did Draper associate evolution with Islam? Alternatively, in their attempt to malign evolution, on what basis did those "theological authorities" associate evolution with Islam?
The Quran hints at the fact that an early version of man already existed here on Earth when Adam was created. Beings evolved from a single cell to form the lower man then given the injection of Adams progeny, it resulted in what we see today as Humankind. If Adam wasn't injected, we wouldn't have evolved into what we have evolved into today. As for All Sir Draper, he merely elaborated on what Muslim scholars wrote a thousand years ago and did so academically and in an honest way.