Sources of Islamic Theories of Reproduction: Difference between revisions

The [[hadith]] contain many statements about fluids from both the man and woman that were believed to form the human embryo. The [[Qur'an|Qur’an]] too says that the embryo is formed from emitted fluid, and in one verse perhaps indicates a mingling of male and female fluids. In this article we shall present new research to trace the origins of each of these ideas at least as far back as the Jewish Talmud and the ancient Greek physicians.

The Prophet [[Muhammad]], who had been a well-traveled merchant, had extensive interactions with Jews in Arabia, and almost certainly with Nestorian Christians, who had large communities in Najran in the south and Hira to the north of the Arabian Peninsula.<ref>J. Stewart, "Nestorian Missionary Enterprise", p.70-74, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1928</ref><ref>Cyril Glasse, “The New Encyclopedia of Islam”, p.342-343, CA, USA: Altamira, 2001.</ref> Guillaume says of the Nestorians, “Such men were a familiar sight on all the caravan routes of Arabia”.<ref>Alfred Guillaume, “Islam”, p.15, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1990 (Reprinted)</ref> The Nestorians were based in [[Syria]], where they already possessed and studied the works of Galen, the hugely influential 2^nd century Greek physician.<ref>Allen O. Whipple, “[{{Reference archive|1=http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1965836/pdf/bullnyacadmed00860-0027.pdf|2=2012-07-23}} Role of the Nestorians as the connecting link between Greek and Arab medicine]”, Annals of Medical History 8 (1936) 313-323</ref> This is not to say that the creators of the Qur’an and hadith directly copied from these works, but it will become clear that they were at least indirectly influenced by these widespread ideas.

Desperate for some kind of reference to sperm (rather than merely semen), which was not discovered until the 17^th century, some Islamic apologists point to the following hadith:

{{Quote|Musnad Ahmad, volume 1, page 465|O, Jew , it is created from both ; from a man nutfah and from a woman nutfah}}

Some Islamic apologists get excited by this hadith in the Musnad Ahmad hadith collection, deluding themselves that it is a reference to the sperm and ovum. However, as shown by the ibn Kathir quote above, not only were these understood to be male and female fluids, but this is once again the Galenic two-semens theory. And it’s about to get much worse. What the Islamic apologists are unaware of, or hide, are the next sentences in this hadith. From another translation of the same hadith:

Based on pp.91-93 and p.101, he seems to mean here the thicker male semen, which he says provides some of the material for the fetus as well as “power” or “motion” to the material. He says that the female’s semen provides nutriment to the male semen, and also has a weaker “power”, supplimented by that of her blood, to cause any resemblance of the child to the mother.<ref>Philip De Lacy (editor and translator). “Galen: On Semen (Corpus Medicorum Graecorum 5.3.1.)”, pp.165-167, Berlin: Akademie. Verlag, 1992</ref> On p.87 Galen says about the female semen "for it is thinner than the male semen",<ref>Philip De Lacy (editor and translator). “Galen: On Semen (Corpus Medicorum Graecorum 5.3.1.)”, p.87, Berlin: Akademie. Verlag, 1992</ref> matching the hadith.

Some Islamic apologists have resorted to desperate arguments to find a reference to sperm (not just semen) or the female ovum in the Qur’an. They are refuted below. Qur’an translations are Pickthall’s.

The first line is the apologist's own absurd generalization based on the second line, which is his attempted translation of a definition in the Lisan al-Arab dictionary of classical Arabic.<ref>[http://www.baheth.info/all.jsp?term=%D9%86%D8%B7%D9%81 Lisan Al-Arab dictionary, Book 5, Pages 725]</ref>

Not only has he truncated and mistranslated this sentence, but it is of the definition for the wrong word (na<U>t</U>af – pearls or earrings), which has the same n-t-f root as nu<U>t</U>fah.