The Quran is not a scientific work, but more than that! It is a Guidance that puts science, thinking, history, politics, economics, our own behavior in the right context. So, from a scientific point of view, the Quran is a revelation above the science. It gives a judgment on science, on its credibility, its acceptability from Allah's point of view. This is indicated by the following aya:

He it is Who has sent down to thee the Book: In it are verses basic or fundamental (of established meaning); they are the foundation of the Book: others are allegorical. But those in whose hearts is perversity follow the part thereof that is allegorical, seeking discord, and searching for its hidden meanings, but no one knows its hidden meanings except Allah. And those who are firmly grounded in knowledge say: "We believe in the Book; the whole of it is from our Lord:" and none will grasp the Message except men of understanding. (Quran 3:7)

So, let’s stay with the man of understanding, who wants to approach to the creation as Allah wants.

"Allah created the heavens and the earth, and all that is between them, in six days" (7:54).

While on the surface this might seem similar to the account related in the Bible, there are some important distinctions. The verses that mention "six days" use the Arabic word yawm (day). This word appears several other times in the Quran, each denoting a different measurement of time. In one case, the measure of a day is equated with 50,000 years (70:4), whereas another verse states that "a day in the sight of your Lord is like 1,000 years of your reckoning" (22:47). The word yawm is thus understood to be a long period of time--an era or eon. Therefore, Muslims interpret the description of a "six-day" creation as six distinct periods or eons. The length of these periods is not precisely defined, nor are the specific developments that took place during each period.

O mankind! if ye have a doubt about the Resurrection, (consider) that We created you out of dust, then out of sperm, then out of a leech-like clot, then out of a morsel of flesh, partly formed and partly unformed, in order that We may manifest (our power) to you; and We cause whom We will to rest in the wombs for an appointed term, then do We bring you out as babes, then (foster you) that ye may reach your age of full strength; and some of you are called to die, and some are sent back to the feeblest old age, so that they know nothing after having known (much), and (further), thou seest the earth barren and lifeless, but when We pour down rain on it, it is stirred (to life), it swells, and it puts forth every kind of beautiful growth (in pairs). (Quran 22:5)

If they really have doubts in their minds about the life after death, they have only to turn their attention either to their own nature, or to the nature around. How wonderful is their own physical growth, from lifeless matter, to seed, fertilised ovum, foetus, child youth, age, and death! How can they doubt that the Author of all these wonderful stages in their life here can also give them another kind of life after the end of this life? Or, if they look at external nature, they see the earth dead and barren and Allah's fertilising showers bring it in to life, growth and beauty in various forms. The Creator of this great pageant of Beauty can surely create yet another and a newer world.

References to Adam or similar creation story are contained in 2:30-39; 3:59; 7:11-25; 15:28-44; 17:61-65; 18:50; 20:115-124 and last but not the least 38:71-85.

Anyone who, after the above verses, takes the creation of Adam and mankind literally with winged angels and other flying creatures, can do it freely from the bottom of his/her heart, but I strongly believe that everything in the Edenic description of creation is symbolic and is confirmed that way by the Quran.

The ayas show that creation is cyclic 71:13-17
Allah is never "done" with His work because the process of creation is ongoing. Each new child who is born, every seed that sprouts into a sapling, every new species that appears on earth, is part of the ongoing process of Allah's creation.

Let's see how our Muslim sages were thinking about 1000 years before Darwin, how did they interpret creation and evolution?

Al-Jahiz (776-868) writes in Kitab al-Hayawan (Book of the Animals) "Lice are black on the head of a young man with black hair, light on that of a hoary old man." This is most clear example of microevolution. Al-Jahiz furthermore describes the struggle for existence and natural selection.

The work of Ibn Miskawayh (932–1030), Al-Fawz al-Kabir (The Greatest Victory) contains one of the earliest descriptions of the concept of evolution. Muhammad Hamidullah describes Miskawayh's evolutionary ideas as follows:
This book states that God first created matter and invested it with energy for development. Matter, therefore, adopted the form of vapour which assumed the shape of water in due time. The next stage of development was mineral life. Different kinds of stones developed in course of time. Their highest form being mirjan (coral). It is a stone which has in it branches like those of a tree. After mineral life evolves vegetation. The evolution of vegetation culminates with a tree which bears the qualities of an animal. This is the date-palm. It has male and female genders. It does not wither if all its branches are chopped but it dies when the head is cut off. The date-palm is therefore considered the highest among the trees and resembles the lowest among animals. Then is born the lowest of animals. It evolves into an ape. This is not the statement of Darwin. This is what Ibn Miskawayh states and this is precisely what is written in the Epistles of Ikhwan al-Safa. The Muslim thinkers state that ape then evolved into a lower kind of a barbarian man. He then became a human being of today. Man becomes a saint, a prophet. He evolves into a higher stage and becomes an angel. The one higher to angels is indeed none but God. Everything begins from Him and everything returns to Him.

The Brethren of Purity (Ikhwān Al-Ṣafā) were a secret society of Muslim philosophers in Basra, Iraq in the 10th century. The structure of this mysterious organization and the identities of its members have never been clear. Their esoteric teachings and philosophy are expounded in an epistolary style in the Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity (Rasa'il Ikhwan al-safa'), a giant compendium of 52 epistles that would greatly influence later encyclopedias and involved several thoughts concerning evolution.

They are just samples of many who have written their evolutionary thoughts before Darwin. The theory of Darwin on evolution was published in 1859 under the title "Origin of Species".

Hussein al-Jisr, (1845-1909) a Lebanese Shite scholar, saw room for an accommodation between evolution and scripture. “There is no evidence in the Qur’an,” he wrote, “to suggest whether all species, each of which exists by the grace of God, were created all at once or gradually.” The latter view was echoed much more recently by the late Zaki Bedawi – for many years the foremost Muslim scholar in Britain – who said: “I don’t see a contradiction between [the theory of evolution] and Islam.”

A similar conclusion was drawn by Ismail Mazhar (1891-1962), who played an important role in familiarization of Darwin's theory.

In comparison, I put these facts as contrast in the Christian world, where the principles of Darwin were outcast, declared as anti-Biblical, blasphemous. There were misconceptions that Darwin originated mankind from monkeys, though he never claimed that. Of course, those who do not read it may not know that Darwin was talking about a common ancestor, just as an amoeba or one cell can be like that where earth life started.

The Islamic world never rejected any theory; regarded them as a kind of approach until the time of colonization. From that point on, the logic, the scrutiny of another view, ceased to exist. Or, it did not cease, only radically transformed. Its cornerstone became that whatever the colonists bring could not be good by itself, so it must be discarded. So, what had been accepted or argued with before had become a hostile idea. Darwin also fell victim to this attitude. Here in Europe we would say that they fell back to the dark Middle Ages, but this wouldn't be true for Islam because the Middle Ages were the period of Enlightenment regarding Islamic thinking. So, it is better to say that many bullshits started to spread which were never been heard and seen before and this situation exists even today. Therefore, the thinking that surrounds the evaluation of Darwin today arises not from Islam but from a declination of brain. After all, I believe that I have proven that theories which are more or less similar to that of Darwin have developed in the past, even in the 7-8th century by Muslim scientists.

Overall, the Quran does not reject or strengthen Darwin. Simply because this is not the goal of the Quran. However, the Quran puts Darwin in a sort of evaluation that is comparable to the theories of other scholars. There will probably be many new theories in the future, which will overwrite even Darwin. However, one thing is certain: Darwin's theory never questioned the existence of God, and that's the most important point. Neither did Einstein and many other famous scientists. The Quran would reject their theories if they would turn against the creation-related reality of God and His laws. Darwin did not close, but opened a sort of thinking that was not against God and His creation. In contrast, the Church sealed a sort of thinking in the name of God, thus hindering the knowledge of creation, which is contrary to God's will.