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Article: Quran and Semen Production

The following text needs to be re-evaluated and additional references may be needed to support claims.

Yusuf Ali

A man's seed is the quintessence of his body. It is therefore said metaphorically to proceed from his loins, i.e., from his back between the hipbones and his ribs. His backbone is the source and symbol of his strength and personality. In his spinal cord and in the brain is the directive energy of the central nervous system, and this directs all action, organic and psychic. The spinal cord is continuous with the Medulla Oblongata in the brain.

Firstly, Yusuf Ali does not explain what he means by seed: Sperm, semen, ovum or zygote.

If this were a metaphor, loins can be assumed as the source of a man's next generation. But he does not say what a rib is, metaphorically.

If the backbone is so crucial for man to exist, it is hard to comprehend why the similarly crucial seed (or drop) would flow near the backbone instead of both being the same thing metaphorically. A man's backbone can often be symbolic but in no way is it related to his offspring.

There is no reason for even mentioning medulla oblongata here.

Muhammad Ali (Ahmadiyya)

Water pouring forth means the sperma genitale. The expression between the back and the ribs is a euphemism.

If this is a euphemism for sex organs, then there should not have been two words like back and ribs. Sperm never flows between two organs; wherever it is, it always flows inside a single organ. For a sex organ, there are better euphemisms than two other organs.

Miscellaneous

The functioning of 2 spinal cord centers located between vertebrae (sulb) and ribs (taraib) connecting spinal cord and sex organs, and of the nerves controlling valves around urethra, causes ejaculation.

This claim is erroneous since it twists the meaning of the verse to say that the force for ejaculation comes from between the backbone and the ribs. The real sense of the verse is a "liquid flowing" and not its cause.

If one was to draw a line from the tip of the coccyx, to the upper portion of either seminal vesicle and extend the line forward it will catch the ribcage. The seminal vesicles from which the semen spurts out, lies between the ribs and the coccyx (lower back, loin, backbone).

The ribs are above the seminal vesicles which are above the tip of the coccyx when a standing person's anatomy is viewed. Since only the top of the seminal vesicles falls between the bottom of the coccyx and the bottom of the rib-cage on the above mentioned line, the vesicle is not really between the loins and ribs.[1] This argument also ignores the prostate glands (source of 25-30% of semen), testes (2-5%) and bulbourethral glands (up to 1%).

The word tara’ib could be referring to the woman’s uterus, since the rib cage surrounds it during pregnancy.

Though the ribcage is roughly cylindrical, the uterus is never inside it. Further, the embryo is already "created" much before pregnancy since the verse refers to fertilisation. The liquid being discussed here never flows anywhere close to a woman's ribs.








  1. For a visual reference, see this medical diagram. Taken from: "Reproductive Health Module (SECTION I: Reproductive Anatomy and Physiology)", Columbia University: Mailman School of Public Health, accessed March 22, 2014 (archived), http://www.columbia.edu/itc/hs/pubhealth/modules/reproductiveHealth/anatomy.html.