Creation of the earth and theory of evolution

Q: How was the earth created by Allah Ta'ala?

Did Allah Ta'ala create all the animals and species that are present in the world today or have the species gone through evolution that made them so numerous?

Was the world that is today the same as when it was created? How long ago (in years) was the world created?

Was there a time when there were no humans in this world?

Were there dinosaurs in this world?

Also, I know that evolution through ape-like is not correct, but Darwin also says that birds and other animals have evolved. So for example, how there were birds with a certain type of beak but now those birds are on different places where their food is different so their beaks "evolved" into different shapes depending on whichever suited their environment better. Can we as Muslims believe this or not?

Muslim attending non-Muslim festivals

Q: Is it allowed to accept an invitation from non-Muslims during their festivals which involves shirk (ganeshotsav) and go and eat with them?

We live in a building with all non-Muslims and they gather at night and perform rituals of festivals, sing songs and listen to songs with music on loudspeakers. One non-Muslim has invited all people of building for food.

Meaning of the word rajaa in the Quraan

Q: One interpretation of the meaning of Surah 18, Verse 110 reads:

“Say, ‘I am only a human being, like you, to whom it has been revealed that your God is One. Anyone who fears to meet his Lord should do good deeds and give no one a share in the worship due to his Lord.”

Another interpretation of the meaning reads: “Say, ˹O Prophet,˺ “I am only a man like you, ˹but˺ it has been revealed to me that your God is only One God. So whoever hopes for the meeting with their Lord, let them do good deeds and associate none in the worship of their Lord.”

When I shared the first interpretation, I later read it and saw the word “fears” used, so I told the group to focus on the Arabic as I thought the translation was wrong.

Then at one point I read: ‎قد يكون الرَجْوُ والرَجاءُ بمعنى الخوف

I had a fear of falling into Kufr

Teacher doing academic criticism

Q: If a person followed Arabic classes and the teacher at times would mention criticism about the author of the book in terms of the way he structured the book. If the student used to think that the teacher is doing academic criticism and if he thought this was okay, then later on when he heard the teacher, the way it sounded did not sound correct, if the person listened to the teacher thinking it was academic criticism and okay, would that amount to kufr?

Return journey being safr distance

Q: If a person travelled from place A to B with no intention of going anywhere else and it's not safr distance. However, on the return journey, he goes another route and stops at town C. Does he read qasr or full? The distance to C is NOT qasr distance from town A but qasr distance because of the roundabout way that he went there