6. Was Adam the first human being or Homo sapiens on earth?

This episode discusses the scriptural evidence for whether or not Adam (a) was the first human being. This question is crucial because it helps us to understand the existence of previous hominids. Unlike other traditions, the Twelver-Shi’I hadith corpus includes traditions that explicitly mention the existence of non-Adamic human-like creatures, called the nasnas. However, these traditions also mention their extinction.
References:
Qur’anic references: Q.2:30, Q.2:65, Q.7:166, Q.17:70, Q.36:71 Q.7:27 (This verse comes after God’s address to Adam and Eve for their disobedience. At first glance, one could argue that Banī Adam meant Adam and Eve, but with the third person reference to ‘your parents,’ it becomes clear this is an address to all of mankind.)
“Fossil Hominids, Human Evolution: Thomas Huxley & Eugene Dubois, Understanding Evolution, accessed February 20, 2015, http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/history_17.
Muḥammad b. Mas’ud al-’Ayyāshī,. Tafsīr Al-ʿAyyāshī. Translated by Nazmina Dhanji. Vol. 1. Birmingham: AMI Press, 2020.
ʿAllāmah Ṭabātābaʾī trans. Sayyid Saeed Akhtar Rizvi, Tafsīr al-Mīzān, Volume 1, (Tehran: WOFIS, 1983), 201.
Makārim Shīrāzī, Āyatullah Naṣir. Tafsīr Nemūne. Vol. 3. Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyyah, 1995.
Ibn Bābawayh (Shaykh al Ṣadūq), Muḥammad b. ʿAlī. ʿIlal al Sharāʾi. Vol. 1. Qom: Davari Bookstore, 2006.
ʿAlī b. Ibrāhīm al-Qummī, Tafsir al-Qummi, https://www.noorlib.ir/View/fa/Book/BookView/Image/11288.
Al-Khalīl b. Aḥmad al-Farāhīdī, Kitāb Al-ʿAin (The Arabic Lexicon, 2020), http://arabiclexicon.hawramani.com/%d8%b3%d9%86/#f7f48c.
“The Human Family’s Earliest Ancestors,” Smithsonian, 2010, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-human-familys-earliest-ancestors-7372974/.

What is Becoming Bani Adam: Exploring Twelver-Shii Discussions on Human Ancestry - Mizan Institute?

“Becoming Bani Adam: Exploring Twelver-Shii Discussions on Human Ancestry” is a new podcast series which is an audiobook version of a long paper written by Ustadha Fatemah Meghji on the topic of human evolution in Twelver-Shii tradition with a focus on exegetical literature i.e. from tafsir. How does a person of faith grapple with evolution in today’s world? The audiobook is narrated by Br. Justin Mashouf and each episode includes an introduction by the author herself with a summary of previous episodes and at times, brief helpful explanations. Each episode spans between 10-20 minutes.