The Universal Flood of the Judeo-Christian faith is not a Muslim doctrine, and with the aid of scientific method, al-Biruni rejected a worldwide flood of the Judeo-Christian description. Muslims do believe it was a localized flood, however. Eight hundred years before Darwin, al Biruni (973-1048)stated:
"Persians, and great mass of the Magians, deny the Deluge altogether; . . . In denying the Deluge, the Indians, Chinese, and various nations of the east, concur with them. Some, however, of the Persians admit the fact of the Deluge, but they describe it in a different way from what is described in the books of Prophets. They say partial Deluge occurred in Syria . . . but did not extend over the whole of the then civilized world, and only few nations were drowned in it . . . the traces of the water of the Deluge, and effects of the waves are still present on these two pyramids halfway up, above which the water did not rise."
If you want to know more about Muslim view of creation, I refer you to recently released book, "Creation AND/OR Evolution: An Islamic Perpective. For more details on the book see at:
http://www2.xlibris.com/bookstore/bookdisplay.asp?bookid=...
With best regards
Tufail