Sources of Islamic Theories of Reproduction

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The writers of the Qur’an and hadith were influenced by Galen, the hugely influential 2nd Century Greek physician.

The hadith contain many statements about fluids from both the man and woman that were believed to form the human embryo. The 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. This article will 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.[1][2] Guillaume says of the Nestorians, “Such men were a familiar sight on all the caravan routes of Arabia”.[3] The Nestorians were based in Syria, where they already possessed and studied the works of Galen, the hugely influential 2nd century Greek physician.[4] While this does not necessitate that the creators of the Qur’an and hadith directly copied from these works, it seems likely that they were, at the very least, indirectly influenced by these widespread ideas.


History of Embryology

Before commencing the specific topic of this article, the following timeline summarises existing theories of embryology, which may be compared with the wider content of Islamic embryology. Some argue that the vague statements of Qur'anic embryology have similarities with these theories, most conspicuously the incorrect ideas of Galen.

Date Source Text
1416 BC Garbha Upinandas (Hindu text) "From the conjugation of blood and semen the embryo comes into existence. During the period favorable to conception, after the sexual intercourse, (it) becomes a Kalada (one-day-old embryo). After remaining seven nights it becomes a vesicle. After a fortnight it becomes a sperical mass. After a month it becomes a firm mass".[5]
1000 BC Book of Job (Judeo-Christian text) "Your hands formed me and made me - will you now absorb me? Remember that you formed me as if with clay - will you return me to dust? You poured me out like milk, and pulled me together like cheese. You clothed me with skin and flesh, and [inside me] did you interweave bones and sinews."[6]
500 BC Psalms (Judeo-Christian text) "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."[7]
460-370 BC Hippocrates 1st stage: "Sperm is a product which comes from the whole body of each parent, weak sperm coming from the weak parts, and strong sperm from the strong parts."[8]

2nd stage: "The seed (embryo), then, is contained in a membrane ... Moreover, it grows because of its mother's blood, which descends to the womb. For once a woman conceives, she ceases to menstruate..."[9] 3rd stage: "At this stage, with the descent and coagulation of the mother's blood, flesh begins to be formed, with the umbilicus."[10]
4th stage: "As the flesh grows it is formed into distinct members by breath ... The bones grow hard ... moreover they send out branches like a tree ..."[11]

384-322 BC Aristotle "When the material secreted by the female in the uterus has been fixed by the semen of the male...the more solid part comes together, the liquid is separated off from it, and as the earthy parts solidify membranes form all around it...Some of these are called membranes and others choria..."[12] "So nature has first designed the two blood vessels from the heart, and from these smaller vessels branch off to the uterus, forming what is called the umbilicus...Round these is a skin-like integument, because the weakness of the vessels needs protection and shelter. The vessels join to the uterus like the roots of plants, and through them the embryo receives its nourishment".[13]
240-180 BC Diocles of Carystus "on the ninth day a few points of blood, on the eighteenth beating of the heart, on the twenty-seventh traces of the spinal cord and head"[14]
129-210 AD Claudius Galenus "let us divide the creation of the foetus overall into four periods of time.
The first is that in which. as is seen both in abortions and in dissection, the form of the semen prevails [compare with the Islamic nutfah/semen stage]. At this time, Hippocrates too, the all-marvelous, does not yet call the conformation of the animal a foetus; as we heard just now in the case of semen voided in the sixth day, he still calls it semen. But when it has been filled with blood [compare with the alaqa/bloodclot stage], and heart, brain and liver are still unarticulated and unshaped yet have by now a certain solidarity and considerable size,
this is the second period; the substance of the foetus has the form of flesh and no longer the form of semen. Accordingly you would find that Hippocrates too no longer calls such a form semen but, as was said, foetus.
The third period follows on this, when, as was said, it is possible to see the three ruling parts clearly and a kind of outline, a silhouette, as it were, of all the other parts [compare with the mudghah/morsel, formed and unformed stage]. You will see the conformation of the three ruling parts more clearly, that of the parts of the stomach more dimly, and much more still, that of the limbs. Later on they form "twigs", as Hippocrates expressed it, indicating by the term their similarity to branches.
The fourth and final period is at the stage when all the parts in the limbs have been differentiated; and at this part Hippocrates the marvelous no longer calls the foetus an embryo only, but already a child, too when he says that it jerks and moves as an animal now fully formed."[15]

"... The time has come for nature to articulate the organs precisely and to bring all the parts to completion. Thus it caused flesh to grow on and around all the bones [compare with the kasawna al-'ithama lahman/clothed the bones with flesh stage], and at the same time ... it made at the ends of the bones ligaments that bind them to each other, and along their entire length it placed around them on all sides thin membranes, called periosteal, on which it caused flesh to grow."[16]

ca. 200 AD Talmud (Jewish text) The embryo was called peri habbetten (fruit of the body) and develops as:

1. golem (formless, rolled-up thing);
2. shefir meruqqam (embroidered foetus - shefir means amniotic sac);
3. 'ubbar (something carried); v'alad (child); v'alad shel qayama (noble or viable child) and
4. ben she-kallu chadashav (child whose months have been completed).[17]

571-632 AD Muhammad ibn ‘Abdullāh “Allah's Apostle, the true and truly inspired said, "(The matter of the Creation of) a human being is put together in the womb of the mother in forty days, and then he becomes a clot of thick blood for a similar period, and then a piece of flesh for a similar period.”[18]

“The Prophet said, "Allah puts an angel in charge of the uterus and the angel says, 'O Lord, (it is) semen! O Lord, (it is now) a clot! O Lord, (it is now) a piece of flesh.' And then, if Allah wishes to complete its creation, the angel asks, 'O Lord, (will it be) a male or a female?”[19]
"Verily We created man from a product of wet earth; Then placed him as a drop (of seed) in a safe lodging; Then fashioned We the drop a clot, then fashioned We the clot a little lump, then fashioned We the little lump bones, then clothed the bones with flesh, and then produced it as another creation. So blessed be Allah, the Best of creators!"[20]


A few definitions

The following 3 words are used in the Qur’an and hadith in connection with semen:

Nutfah نطفة

The word nutfah is used 12 times in the Qur’an in the following verses, in each case saying much the same thing, that man is created from a nutfah: Quran 16:4, Quran 18:37, Quran 22:5, Quran 23:13, Quran 23:14, Quran 35:11, Quran 36:77, Quran 40:67, Quran 53:46, Quran 75:37, Quran 76:2, Quran 80:19.

A nutfah is a small quantity of liquid. It was also used in reference to semen that was believed to form the embryo. Lane’s Lexicon of classical Arabic defines nutfah as:

Sperma of a man (S, Msb, K) and of a woman. (Msb)[21]

(Sperma is a Late Latin word meaning seed, semen).

The Lisan al Arab dictionary of classical Arabic gives these definitions (translated from the Arabic):

A little water; a little water remaining in a waterskin; a little water remaining in a bucket; pure water, a little or a lot; the water of the man; semen is called nutfah for its small amount[22]

A nice example of nutfah usage can be found in a pre-Islamic poem where it is used to mean “the small quantity of wine that remained in a wineskin”.[23]

Maa ماء

Water. Sometimes used for semen. Used in this way in verses Quran 32:8 and Quran 77:20, and Quran 86:6.

Maniyy مني

Semen. It is frequently used in hadith about ritual purity, especially narrations saying that Aisha used to clean semen off Muhammad’s clothes. It is used once in the Qur’an, verse Quran 75:37.

Evidence of influence

This section documents the influence of ideas from other cultures on the Qur’an and hadith regarding reproduction. It will go without saying that these ideas are inaccurate compared with current scientific knowledge of reproduction and embryology. All Qur’an quotes are from Yusuf Ali’s translation.

A mingled drop

Verily We created Man from a drop of mingled sperm [nutfatin amshajin], in order to try him: So We gave him (the gifts), of Hearing and Sight.
Quran 76:2

Ibn Kathir’s commentary on this verse gives a very useful definition of nutfah from Muhammad’s companions.

(Verily, We have created man from Nutfah Amshaj,) meaning, mixed. The words Mashaj and Mashij mean something that is mixed together. Ibn `Abbas said concerning Allah’s statement,

﴿مِن نُّطْفَةٍ أَمْشَاجٍ﴾

(from Nutfah Amshaj,) "This means the fluid of the man and the fluid of the woman when they meet and mix.” Then man changes after this from stage to stage, condition to condition and color to color. `Ikrimah, Mujahid, Al-Hasan and Ar-Rabi` bin Anas all made statements similar to this. They said, "Amshaj is the mixing of the man’s fluid with the woman’s fluid.”[24]
Tafsir Ibn Kathir on 76:2

In each case, the word translated “fluid” is maa[25] (see above for definition), so there is no case for retro-fitting the sperm or ovum into it. Similar comments from Muhammad’s companions appear in al-Tabari’s Tafsir on 76:2. His companions apparently believed that the mingled nutfah was a mixture of male and female semen.

This same idea was taught by Galen, the hugely influential 2nd Century Greek physician. Galen’s main treatise about embryology was called “On Semen”, and his works were studied by Muhammad’s nearby contemporaries in Alexandria, Egypt and in Gundeshapur, southwestern Syria.[26]

Galen said that the embryo is initially formed out of the male semen mixed (μίγνυται) with what he called the female semen, which also forms an additional membrane entwined (ἐπιπλεκονταί) with that of the male semen. He believed that blood from the woman is subsequently drawn in via the uterus and membrane, and this combined material literally goes on to form the fetus.[27] This will be explained a little more later. Unlike Galen (and before him, Hippocrates) with the two-semens theory, Aristotle believed that there was only a male semen, which does not itself provide material for the embryo, but triggers its formation from menstral blood.[28] The quoted comments from Muhammad’s companions are good evidence for Galenic influence in 7th century Arabia.

The Qur’anic verses that are most explicit in stating that the embryo is initially formed out of semen, as per Galen and Hippocrates, are verses 80:18-19.

From what stuff [shay-in, which means “thing”] hath He created him? From a sperm-drop [nutfatin]: He hath created him, and then mouldeth him in due proportions;
Quran 80:18-19

Just as Galen taught about the mixed semens, this nutfah is stored in the womb where it subsequently undergoes various stages of development.

Then We placed him as (a drop of) sperm [nutfatan] in a place of rest, firmly fixed;
Quran 23:13

The Qur’an itself confirms that it is semen that is developed in the womb in an almost identical verse. Here maa (water), the euphemism for semen, is used instead of nutfah. In this instance it probably just means male semen (see the “Extract of despised fluid” section later).

Have We not created you from a fluid (held) despicable [ma-in maheenin]? The which We placed in a place of rest, firmly fixed, For a period (of gestation), determined (according to need)?
Quran 77:20-22

In both cases, the “place of rest, firmly fixed” (qararin makeenin) obviously refers to the womb, with 77:22 adding that it is for a “period determined” (and certainly does not mean the female ovum, which is only penetrated by a single sperm cell and not the “fluid (held) despicable”).

From dust, then seminal fluid

We are told humans are created from dust, then from a drop of seminal fluid (who's origins are discussed above).

O people! If you are in doubt about the resurrection, [consider that] We created you from dust, then from a drop of [seminal] fluid (nuṭfah), then from a clinging mass, then from a fleshy tissue, partly formed and partly unformed, so that We may manifest [Our power] to you. We lodge in the wombs whatever [fetus] We wish for a specified term, then We bring you forth as infants, then [We rear you] so that you may come of age. [Then] there are some of you who are taken away, and there are some of you who are relegated to the nethermost age, such that he knows nothing after [having possessed] some knowledge. And you see the earth torpid, yet when We send down water upon it, it stirs and swells, and grows every delightful kind [of plant].
Quran 22:5
His companion said to him, as he conversed with him: ‘Do you disbelieve in Him who created you from dust, then from a drop of [seminal] fluid (nuṭfah), then fashioned you as a man?
Quran 18:37

In both cases, the word 'nuṭfah' is used, meaning; little water; a little water remaining in a waterskin; a little water remaining in a bucket; pure water, a little or a lot; the water of the man etc;[29] semen is called nuṭfah[30] for its small amount seminal fluid.

This motif is found in pre-Islamic writings, and in more contemporary works,[31] with parallels recorded using a similar Syriac word (nuṭptā). For example, this image is documented in Ephraim the Syrian (d. 373):

"He is very foolish and blind; for he is also enclosed together with all - in the hollow hand of the Creator. A single grain of dust, - a single drop of water (nuṭptā), which formed together - became the human form through the mercy of the Creator."
Eich & Doroftei, 2023. Adam and Embryo. pp. 95. A contribution to the study of the story of Adam in Jewish, Christian and Islamic texts up to the end of the first millennium.

And Babai the Great (c.551–628CE), an early church father of the Syriac Church of the East, also known as the Assyrian Church.[32]

"And they do not understand the works of their Maker, which are formed like a drop of water (nuṭptā) and a grain of dust in the hollow of His incorporeal hand."
Eich & Doroftei, 2023. Adam and Embryo. pp. 97. A contribution to the study of the story of Adam in Jewish, Christian and Islamic texts up to the end of the first millennium.

The four stages of embryo development

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
Man We did create from a quintessence (of clay); Then We placed him as (a drop of) sperm in a place of rest, firmly fixed; Then We made the sperm into a clot of congealed blood; then of that clot We made a (foetus) lump; then we made out of that lump bones and clothed the bones with flesh; then we developed out of it another creature. So blessed be Allah, the best to create!
Quran 23:12-14

As mentioned in the Corpus Coranicum Project, the stages of embryo development described in the Qur'an reflect the medical knowledge of the late antique world, compatible with seventh-century AD understanding.[33] The development of humans in the womb outlined in the Qur'an seems to correspond in its four stages to the communis opinion summarized by Galen for (late) ancient medicine;[34]

Both passages speak of a development of the embryo that begins with the 1) drop of semen (Arabic: nuṭfa), which is then followed by the stage of the 2) blood structure (Arabic: ʿalaqa), which then develops into a 3) flesh structure (Arabic: mudġa), from which the "physically formed and not yet fully formed" (Q 22:5 min muḍġatin muḫallaqatin wa-ġairi muḫallaqatin ) embryo then develops. And in Sura 23, the flesh structure becomes bones that are covered with flesh (Arabic: fa-ḫalaqnā l-muḍġata ʿiẓāman fa-kasaunā l-ʿiẓāma laḥman). This form of life then finally takes on a new quality: 4) The fully formed infant In Q 23:12 it says: "Then We created him as a new (i.e. different) creature. Thus God is full of blessings. He is the best creator." In Q 22:5 the formed and at the same time not yet complete creature becomes a sign of divine power, since God "makes his power clear" to man.[35]

Basim Musallam notes that the stages were sufficiently similar for medieval Islamic authors to use Qur'anic terminology when describing Galen's (incorrect, see: Embryology in the Quran) four stages of development.

The stages of development which the Quran and hadith established for believers agreed perfectly with Galen's scientific account. In De Semine, for example, Galen spoke of four periods in the formation of the embryo: (1) as seminal matter;

(2) as a bloody form (still without flesh, in which the primitive heart, liver, and brain are ill-defined); (3) the foetus acquires flesh and solidity (the heart, liver, and brain are well-defined, and the limbs begin formation); and finally

(4) all the organs attain their full perfection and the foetus is quickened. There is no doubt that medieval thought appreciated this agreement between the Quran and Galen, for Arabic science employed the same Quranic terms to describe the Galenic stages (as in Ibn Sina's account of Galen): nutfa for the first, 'alaqa for the second, "unformed" mudgha for the third, and "formed" mudgha for the fourth.
Basim Musallam Sex and Society in Islam, Cambridge University Press, 1983, pg. 54

Three layers of Darkness

We see the idea of three layers of darkness.

He created you (all) from a single person: then created, of like nature, his mate; and he sent down for you eight head of cattle in pairs: He makes you, in the wombs of your mothers, in stages, one after another, in three veils of darkness. such is Allah, your Lord and Cherisher: to Him belongs (all) dominion. There is no god but He: then how are ye turned away (from your true Centre)?
Quran 39:6

Ibn Qayyim (d. 1350), a prominent Hanbali jurist, links these to different membranes being mentioned by Hippocrates, quoting previous scholars opinions on the matter.

(A) Hippocrates said in the third chapter of Kitab al-ajinna: . The semen is contained in a membrane, and it grows because of the blood of its mother which descends to the womb, and the semen in these membranes draws in the air and breathes it for the reasons we have mentioned... As the semen becomes a foetus several other membranes are formed, and grow within the original membrane, all being formed the same way as the first. Some membranes are formed at the beginning, others after the second month, and others in the third month. (B) This is why God says, "He creates you in the wombs of your mothers, by one formation after another in three darknesses (Quran 39:6)." (C) Since each of these membranes has its own darkness, when God mentioned the stages of creation and transformation from one state to another, He also mentioned the darknesses of the membranes. (D) Most commentators explain: it is the darkness of the belly, and the darkness of the womb, and the darkness of the placenta...
Musallam, Sex and Society in Islam, Cambridge University Press, 1983, pg. 56

Seminal fluid and the backbone

Main Article: Semen Production in the Quran

The relationship between seminal fluid and the backbone has many ancient pre-modern scientific roots.

He was created of a gushing fluid, emerging from between the backbone and the ribs.
Quran 86:6-7

As Noble et al (2014) note.

The view that semen was derived from the spinal cord was old enough to be denied by Alcmaeon in the sixth century bc, but Plato and Hippocrates subscribed to it. Plato in his Timaeus considers the brain and spinal ‘marrow’ as but a special form of bone marrow (Timaeus, 73) in which ‘God implanted his divine seed’. This spinal marrow passes down the back and communicates its ‘universal seed stuff’ to the genitalia for the purpose of procreation. Plato in the Timaeus, and Leonardo on this page, traces the spinal marrow (RL 19097v):
Noble Denis, DiFrancesco Dario and Zancani Diego. 2014. Leonardo da Vinci and the origin of semen. Notes Rec.68391–402 DOI https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2014.0021

This was an ancient Egyptian belief too, as Schwabe, Calvin W., et al. (1982) notes, 'Egyptians believed that sperm was produced in the thoracic spine , a conviction apparently based on their understanding of the bull.'[36]

Semen stage lasts 40 days

Abu Tufail reported: I visited Abu Sariha Hudhaifa b. Usaid al-Ghifari who said: I listened with these two ears of mine Allahs Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: The semen [nutfata] stays in the womb for forty nights, then the angel, gives it a shape. Zubair said: I think that he said: One who fashions that and decides whether he would be male or female…
Sahih Muslim 33:6395
Narrated ‘Abdullah bin Mas’ud: Allah’s Apostle the true and truly inspired, narrated to us, "The creation of everyone of you starts with the process of collecting the material for his body within forty days and forty nights in the womb of his mother. Then he becomes a clot of thick blood for a similar period (40 days) and then he becomes like a piece of flesh for a similar period…
Sahih Bukhari 9:93:546

See also Quran 23:12-14 to see how the nutfah and subsequent stages fit together. Now let us compare with the Talmud:

For if she is not found pregnant she never was pregnant; and if she is found pregnant, the semen, until the fortieth day, is only a mere fluid.[37]
Babylonian Talmud, Yebamoth 69b

(Part b comes after each mishnah and is the Rabbinic commentary, called Gemara, on the mishnah in part a). Notice also that like in the Qur’an, the embryo is formed from semen.

Gender determined after 40 days

Hudhaifa b. Usaid reported directly from Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) that he said: When the drop of [nutfati] (semen) remains in the womb for forty or fifty (days) or forty nights, the angel comes and says: My Lord, will he be good or evil? And both these things would be written. Then the angel says: My Lord, would he be male or female? And both these things are written…
Sahih Muslim 33:6392

See also Sahih Muslim 33:6395 quoted above, for example. Once again, we see that this is an idea from the Talmud:

Within the first three days a man should pray that the seed should not putrefy; from the third to the fortieth day he should pray that the child should be a male;[38]
Babylonian Talmud, Berakoth 60a

It should, however, be noted that in the next hadith, number 6393, the angel who comes after 40 days creates the child’s flesh and bones and then gender is determined. In number 6397 (also appears in Sahih Bukhari), gender is determined once the fetus has become a “lump of flesh”.

Resemblance of the child to its parents

…As for the resemblance of the child to its parents: If a man has sexual intercourse with his wife and gets discharge first, the child will resemble the father, and if the woman gets discharge first, the child will resemble her…
Sahih Bukhari 4:55:546

A similar idea is found in the Talmud:

R. Isaac citing R. Ammi stated: If the woman emits her semen first she bears a male child; if the man emits his semen first she bears a female child;[39]
Babylonian Talmud, Nidda 31a

The same thing is reported in Berakoth 60a.[38] Notice also a two-semens theory again. In most versions of this hadith the determining factor in resemblance is whose water (maa i.e. semen) preceded (sabaqa) the other person’s water. In other versions it is whose water is on or upon (‘ala) the other’s, which is closer to various Greek theories in which resemblance or gender is caused by semens prevailing upon each other.[40][41] In one case (Sahih Muslim, Book 3, number 614), it is gender rather than resemblance that is determined in this way and maniyy is used rather than maa.

T 22. Democritus of Abdera says that it [gender] is determined in the womb whether the offspring is to be male or female. He denies, however, the theory [of Empedocles] that heat and cold are what make the difference; it depends, he thinks, upon which of the two parents' generative fluids prevails--i.e., that part of the fluid which has come from the distinctively male or female parts [rather than the part which has come from the body as a whole]. Of the two theories that of Democritus is the better; for he is trying to discover and specify the exact way in which the sexes become differentiated; but whether he is right or not is another matter. (De Generatione Animalium 764a 6)
Aristotle (d. 322 BC) in De Generatione Animalium, 764a 6 as quoted in Philip Wheelwright, ed, (1966), The Presocratics, Macmillan, p. 191, 1966, https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Presocratics/B9QDAQAAIAAJ?hl=en 

“Not from all the sperm a fetus is created…”

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

Not from all the sperm a fetus is created and if God wills to create anything, nothing can debar him.
Sahih Muslim, Book of Marriage, Chapter on al-‘Azl, No. 1483

The first thing to point out is that the word translated “sperm” in the apologists’ translation is actually maa in the Arabic, which as mentioned above, means water/fluid and is a euphemism for semen. This is also apparent in another translation of the exact same hadith:

Abu Sa’id al-Khudri (Allah be pleased with him) reported that Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) was asked about ‘azl, whereupon he said: The child does not come from all the liquid (semen) and when Allah intends to create anything nothing can prevent it (from coming into existence).
Sahih Muslim 8:3381

A somewhat similar idea is found in the Talmud:

It teaches that man is not fashioned from all the drop but only from its purest part.[39]
Babylonian Talmud, Nidda 31a

The possible Talmudic influence is much less clear in this example as the hadith concerns the practice of al-‘azl, or coitus interruptus. In any case, it would have been well known that not all of a semen emission was needed to initiate pregnancy, so that this method of birth control was unreliable.

Al ‘azl and al ghila

While on the subject of ‘azl, and another practice, ghila, which is a man having intercourse with his wife while she is suckling, we see that Muhammad openly admits to his knowledge of and interest in the reproductive practices of the Byzantines (“Romans”) and Sassanids (“Persians”):

Sa’d b. Abu Waqqas (Allah be pleased with him) reported that a person came to Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) and said: I do ‘azi [‘azil] with my wife. Thereupon Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) said: Why do you do that? The person said: I fear harm to her child or her children. Thereupon Allah’s Messenger (way peace be upon him) said: If that were harmful it would harm the Persians and Romans.
Sahih Muslim 8:3394
Judama daughter of Wahb, sister of Ukkasha (Allah be pleased with her). reported: I went to Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) along with some persons and he was saying: I intended to prohibit cohabitation with the suckling women, but I considered the Greeks ["Romans" in the Arabic] and Persians, and saw that they suckle their children and this thing (cohabitation) does not do any harm to them (to the suckling women). Then they asked him about ‘azl, whereupon he said. That is the secret (way of) burying alive, and Ubaidullah has made this addition in the hadith transmitted by al-Muqri and that is:" When the one buried alive is asked."
Sahih Muslim 8:3392

Of the two centers of Galenic study mentioned above, Syria was under the Sassinid empire and Egypt was under both the Sassinids and Byzantines at different times during Muhammad’s career. Muhammad did not live in a bubble. These hadith suggest that Muhammad would have had access to and had interest in the practices and ideas regarding sexual matters and reproduction transmitted by these other cultures.

“From the man’s nutfah and from the woman’s nutfah”

Asked by a Jewish man how man is created, Muhammad reportedly answered:

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

Some Islamic apologists suggest that this hadith in the Musnad Ahmad hadith collection 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. Indeed, the remainder of the very same hadith (which is almost never included upon reference) explicitly affirms the two-semens theory, and proceeds to describe the different purposes of each of the two semens in a manner that is, needless to say, plainly unscientific and inaccurate.

He is created of both, the semen [nutfati] of the man and the semen [nutfati] of the woman. The man’s semen [nutfatu] is thick and forms the bones and the tendons. The woman’s semen [nutfatu] is fine and forms the flesh and blood[42]

See the references section for a link to the Arabic[43]. Not only is it apparent that the male nutfah is none other than semen (“thick”), but the process described is completely wrong from a scientific perspective. The origins of these ideas can be traced as far back as the Talmud:

Our Rabbis taught: There are three partners in man, the Holy One, blessed be He, his father and his mother. His father supplies the semen of the white substance out of which are formed the child’s bones, sinews, nails, the brain in his head and the white in his eye; his mother supplies the semen of the red substance out of which is formed his skin, flesh, hair, blood and the black of his eye;[39]
Babylonian Talmud, Nidda 31a

Also notable is that this hadith and the Talmud have striking similarities with what Galen taught in his work, “On Semen”, Galen says:

But (the fetus) has first of all the vegetative power, which creates not from blood but from the semen itself artery and vein and nerve, bone and membrane[44]
On Semen, p.99

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”, supplemented by that of her blood, to cause any resemblance of the child to the mother.[45] On p.87 Galen says about the female semen "for it is thinner than the male semen",[46] matching the hadith.

Galen says a few pages later:

For all the parts that are fleshy [σαρκώδη] in form were generated from blood [αίματος]; but all that were membranous were drawn out from semen.[47]
On Semen, p.103

Here, blood refers to the mother’s blood, some fine and some thick, which Galen believed is drawn via the uterus and membrane into the combined male and female semens after they have mixed in her womb.[48] That Galen and the Talmud say the fleshy parts are formed from the woman’s blood rather than her semen barely detracts from the other striking similarities with the hadith.

In any case, this hadith is graded as having weak authenticity. Sahih Muslim 3:614 is a similar hadith, which instead of mentioning nutfah and saying what is formed from each semen, gives the resemblance theory mentioned above after saying that the man’s water (maa) is white and the woman’s water (maa) is yellow. Sahih Muslim 3:608 is a version of the hadith we look at next, but adds that the man’s water is thick and white and the woman’s water is thin and yellow.

"Then why does a child resemble (its mother)?"

Narrated Abu Salama: Um Salama said, "Um Salaim said, ‘O Allah’s Apostle! Allah does not refrain from saying the truth! Is it obligatory for a woman to take a bath after she gets nocturnal discharge [ahtalam - have wet-dream]?’ He said, ‘Yes, if she notices the water [maa](i.e. discharge).’ Um Salama smiled and said, ‘Does a woman get discharge? [ahtalam]‘ Allah’s Apostle said. ‘Then why does a child resemble (its mother)?
Sahih Bukhari 4:55:545

This, again, is Galen’s idea about “female semen”. Even Muhammad’s reasoning in the hadith is clearly the same as Galen’s, whose main thesis in the 2nd part of 'On Semen' is that a generative female semen exists and causes resemblance to the mother. Like Muhammad in this hadith, Galen explicitly uses fluid emitted during nocturnal orgasm as evidence for the existence of a female semen that causes resemblance:

Indeed it would have been much better to trust the visible evidence that the semen of females exists and to inquire by reasoning what its power is. The visible evidence was given before and will be given again. Spermatic ducts, full of semen, secrete this semen apart from the union of female with male, females experiencing effusions in sleep as males do[49]
On Semen, p.153

On the same page, Galen goes on to criticize other physicians who say that the female spermatic ducts just “discharge the semen on the outside down below the uterus” (a possible reference to “female ejaculation” from the paraurethral glands), and argues that the female semen is also discharged into the uterus. It is clear also from other pages that he believes this occurs at a particular moment, namely orgasm, and when it occurs during sleep the semen is subsequently voided externally.[50]

As the hadith is talking about a fluid that a woman can see, it has nothing to do with oviductal secretions or the jelly-like coating of the ovum produced by the ovarian folicle during her monthly ovulation (in any case it is the ovum that is the source of the female genetic contribution, not this coating). Furthermore, the hadith is saying that resemblance is caused by a semen released during the female orgasm. Orgasm has nothing to do with the genetic contribution of the woman to the embryo. There are many narrations of this hadith in which the imagined female semen is released during orgasm, as Hippocrates and Galen believed.[51]

Other apologetic claims

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

Single entity that is part of a bigger group of its kind

An Islamic apologist has made the following claim about the word nutfah in an attempt to make it sound like a single sperm:

نطفة (nutfah) is a single entity that is part of a bigger group of its kind: النطف (al-nutaf): هي القرطة والواحدة من كل ذلك نطفة Nutaf are the karats, and a single one is a nutfah.[52]

The first line is the apologist's generalization based on the second line, which is his attempted translation of a definition in the Lisan al-Arab dictionary of classical Arabic.[53]

However the quotation has been truncated, mistranslated, and is of the definition for the wrong word (nataf – pearls or earrings), which has the same n-t-f root as nutfah.

His claim has been copied on other Islamic websites, one even attempting to evolve the claim further by suggesting that this 'mistaken' generalization actually appears in the Lisan al-Arab definition. Lisan al-Arab’s actual definition of nutfah is a little amount (qalil, قليل) of water (see beginning of this article). Note that even if we supposed that nutfah had meant a single drop, a sperm is a discrete object from among many of the same discrete objects, unlike a drop of water, which is an amount of something from a larger amount.

Sperm from semen emitted

Was he not a drop of fluid which gushed forth? [nutfatan min manayyin yumna]?
Quran 75:37

Some apologists claim that this verse shows that nutfah does not refer to the same substance as maniyy, translating the above words not in the usual way as “drop [nutfatan] of [min] semen [maniyyin]”, but instead as “sperm-drop from semen”. They also claim that if nutfah referred to semen, that word would have been used instead of maniyy in the many hadith about cleaning semen for ritual purity.

However, as demonstrated above, nutfah meant a small quantity of liquid, in this context in reference to semen that forms the embryo, whereas maniyy is simply semen. Whenever the Qur’an mentions nutfah, which indicates the small quantity of liquid, it is emphasizing the humble beginnings of man. In the hadiths that use maniyy, it is a different context where the quantity is irrelevant. We also saw in the Lisan al-Arab dictionary above that maniyy is called nutfah because it is a small amount of liquid.

In addition, verse 53:46 has virtually the same phrase with the same verb as 75:37, but this time just mentions nutfah, without maniyy.

From a drop (of seed) [nutfatin] when it is poured forth [tumna];
Quran 53:46

Tumna in 53:46 and yumna in 75:37 is the same verb meaning "to emit", and from the same root as maniyy. The same verb is understandably used if it is talking about the emission of the same thing, semen, but without explicitly stating the type of liquid in 53:46. In any case, the evidence is unanimous that nutfah is always used for a liquid.

Extract of despised fluid

Who made all things good which He created, and He began the creation of man from clay; Then He made his seed from a draught of despised fluid;
Quran 32:7-8

The word translated “seed” in Pickthall’s translation is nasl, which means progeny (i.e. descendants).[54] It is a reasonable assumption that ma-in maheenin (fluid despised) means male semen here (see 86:6-7, which too uses maa). Some apologists like to read sulalatin[55] (“extract”) as a reference to sperm. There are a couple of problems with this. First, it ignores the role of the female ovum (this is a problem with pretty much any interpretation of the verse). Secondly, we can compare 32:8 with 77:20, which has the exact same last 3 words, and without the word extract.

Did We not create you from a base fluid [min ma-in maheenin]
Quran 77:20

This suggests that the extract is or is of the same substance as the disdained water. As we saw above, the next two verses, 77:21-22, indicate that this fluid is gestated in the womb. There are various possible meanings for this verse, but even if it is interpreted as saying that only a special part of semen forms the embryo, that belief would have been common among the Jews with whom Muhammad was acquainted, as we saw from the Talmud quoted earlier:

It teaches that man is not fashioned from all the drop but only from its purest part.[39]
Babylonian Talmud, Nidda 31a

See Also

External Links

References

  1. ↑ J. Stewart, "Nestorian Missionary Enterprise", p.70-74, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1928
  2. ↑ Cyril Glasse, “The New Encyclopedia of Islam”, p.342-343, CA, USA: Altamira, 2001.
  3. ↑ Alfred Guillaume, “Islam”, p.15, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1990 (Reprinted)
  4. ↑ Allen O. Whipple, “Role of the Nestorians as the connecting link between Greek and Arab medicine”, Annals of Medical History 8 (1936) 313-323
  5. ↑ Journal of Mammalian Ova Research - History of the Egg in Embryology - 26(1):2-9. 2009 doi: 10.1274/jmor.26.2
  6. ↑ Job 10:8-11 - BibleGateway
  7. ↑ Psalms 139:13-16 - BibleGateway
  8. ↑ Section 8, p 321
  9. ↑ Section 14, p. 326
  10. ↑ Section 14, p. 326
  11. ↑ Section 17, p. 328
  12. ↑ Aristotle, De Generatione Animalium, Book II, 739b20-739b30, as per Jonathan Barnes (ed.), The Complete Works of Aristotle, (Princeton, 1985), Vol 1, p. 1148.
  13. ↑ Aristotle, De Generatione Animalium, Book II, 740a28-740a35, as per Barnes, opere citato, p. 1149
  14. ↑ Joseph Needham M. A., Ph.D. - Chemical embryology - New York: The Macmillan Company, Cambridge England, at the University Press, 1931
  15. ↑ Corpus Medicorum Graecorum: Galeni de Semine (Galen: On Semen) (Greek text with English trans. Phillip de Lacy, Akademic Verlag, 1992) section I:9:1-10 pp. 92-95, 101
    Available on The Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences website (archive)
  16. ↑ Corpus Medicorum Graecorum: Galeni de Semine (Galen: On Semen) (Greek text with English trans. Phillip de Lacy, Akademic Verlag, 1992) section I:9:1-10 pp. 92-95, 101
    Available on The Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences website (archive)
  17. ↑ Samuel ha-Yehudi
  18. ↑ Sahih Bukhari 4:54:430
  19. ↑ Sahih Bukhari 8:77:594
  20. ↑ Qur'an 23:12-14
  21. ↑ Lane’s Lexicon Vol. 8 p.3034
  22. ↑ http://www.baheth.info/all.jsp?term=%D9%86%D8%B7%D9%81
  23. ↑ Irfan Shahid, “Byzantium and the Arabs in the sixth century. Volume 2, Part 2”, p.145, Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 2009
  24. ↑ Tafsir of Ibn Kathir for 76:2
  25. ↑ For the Arabic: http://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=0&tTafsirNo=7&tSoraNo=76&tAyahNo=2&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=1
  26. ↑ Marshall Clagett, “Greek Science in Antiquity”, pp.180-181, New York: Abelard-Schuman, 1955; Dover, 2001
  27. ↑ Philip De Lacy (editor and translator). “Galen: On Semen (Corpus Medicorum Graecorum 5.3.1.)”, pp.85-89, Berlin: Akademie. Verlag, 1992
  28. ↑ Philip De Lacy (editor and translator). “Galen: On Semen (Corpus Medicorum Graecorum 5.3.1.)”, p.65, Berlin: Akademie. Verlag, 1992
    Available on The Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences website (archive)
  29. ↑ نطفة - The Arabic Lexicon
  30. ↑ نطفة - Lane’s Lexicon Vol. 8 p.3034
  31. ↑ Eich & Doroftei, 2023. Adam and Embryo. A contribution to the study of the story of Adam in Jewish, Christian and Islamic texts up to the end of the first millennium. pp. 94 - 97.
  32. ↑ Amar, J. P. Babai the Great (c.551–628). 2011. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470670606.wbecc0106
  33. ↑ Corpus Coranicum Project - Galen De Semine I, 8 Michael Marx, Galen De Semine I, 8 - TUK_986. In: Texts from the Environment of the Koran, edited by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities by Michael Marx, with contributions by Sebastian Bitsch, Vasiliki Chamourgiotaki, Emmanouela Grypeou, Dirk Hartwig, Nestor Kavvadas, David Kiltz, Yousef Kouriyhe, Mohammed Maraqten, Adrian Pirtea, Veronika Roth, Johanna Schubert and Nicolai Sinai. Beta version: as of July 28, 2024.
  34. ↑ Corpus Coranicum Project - Letter to Archdeacon Mar Julian David Kiltz (with the collaboration of Yousef Kouriyhe) (revised by Vasiliki Chamourgiotaki), Letter to Archdeacon Mar Julian - TUK_955. In: Texts from the Environment of the Koran, edited by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities by Michael Marx, with contributions by Sebastian Bitsch, Vasiliki Chamourgiotaki, Emmanouela Grypeou, Dirk Hartwig, Nestor Kavvadas, David Kiltz, Yousef Kouriyhe, Mohammed Maraqten, Adrian Pirtea, Veronika Roth, Johanna Schubert and Nicolai Sinai. Beta version: as of July 28, 2024.
  35. ↑ Corpus Coranicum Project - Galen De Semine I, 8 Michael Marx, Galen De Semine I, 8 - TUK_986. In: Texts from the Environment of the Koran, edited by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities by Michael Marx, with contributions by Sebastian Bitsch, Vasiliki Chamourgiotaki, Emmanouela Grypeou, Dirk Hartwig, Nestor Kavvadas, David Kiltz, Yousef Kouriyhe, Mohammed Maraqten, Adrian Pirtea, Veronika Roth, Johanna Schubert and Nicolai Sinai. Beta version: as of July 28, 2024.
  36. ↑ Schwabe, Calvin W., et al. “Egyptian Beliefs about the Bull’s Spine: An Anatomical Origin for Ankh.” Anthropological Linguistics, vol. 24, no. 4, 1982, pp. 445–79. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/30027646. Accessed 18 Oct. 2024.
  37. ↑ Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Yebamoth (Yebamoth 69b) - Halakhah.com, accessed July 23, 2012
  38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Berakoth (Berakoth 60a) - Halakhah.com, accessed July 23, 2012
  39. ↑ 39.0 39.1 39.2 39.3 Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Niddah (Nidda 31a) - Halakhah.com, accessed July 23, 2012
  40. ↑ Iain M. Lonie, “The Hippocratic Treatises ‘On generation’, ‘On the nature of the child’, ‘Diseases IV’”, pp.125-126, Berlin; New York: de Gruyter, 1981
  41. ↑ See Galen’s description of Strato’s theory of sex determination in “On Semen”, p.183, and De Lacy’s notes on p.242. Galen postulates a semen prevailance theory of resemblance on p.179-181.
    Available on The Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences website (archive)
  42. ↑ Translation by Basim Musallam, “Sex and Society in Islam”, p.52, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983, cited in Timothy Winter, "’Pulchra ut luna: some Reflections on the Marian Theme in Muslim-Catholic Dialogue." Journal of Ecumenical Studies 36/3 (1999): 439-469
  43. ↑ For the Arabic see #4424: http://hadith.al-islam.com/Page.aspx?pageid=192&TOCID=35&BookID=30&PID=4206
  44. ↑ Philip De Lacy (editor and translator). “Galen: On Semen (Corpus Medicorum Graecorum 5.3.1.)”, p.99, Berlin: Akademie. Verlag, 1992
    Available on The Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences website (archive)
  45. ↑ Philip De Lacy (editor and translator). “Galen: On Semen (Corpus Medicorum Graecorum 5.3.1.)”, pp.165-167, Berlin: Akademie. Verlag, 1992
    Available on The Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences website (archive)
  46. ↑ Philip De Lacy (editor and translator). “Galen: On Semen (Corpus Medicorum Graecorum 5.3.1.)”, p.87, Berlin: Akademie. Verlag, 1992
  47. ↑ Philip De Lacy (editor and translator). “Galen: On Semen (Corpus Medicorum Graecorum 5.3.1.)”, p.103, Berlin: Akademie. Verlag, 1992
  48. ↑ Philip De Lacy (editor and translator). “Galen: On Semen (Corpus Medicorum Graecorum 5.3.1.)”, pp.87-91, Berlin: Akademie. Verlag, 1992
  49. ↑ Philip De Lacy (editor and translator). “Galen: On Semen (Corpus Medicorum Graecorum 5.3.1.)”, p.153, Berlin: Akademie. Verlag, 1992
  50. ↑ On p.151 he says that the female semen “in effusions in sleep first descends into the uterus, and after that is voided to the outside” and describes the case of a widow who “convulsed, and at these tensions the semen was discharged, and she said the pleasure it gave her was like that of sexual intercourse”. On p.87 he says, “When, therefore, the female produces semen at the same time as the male, the semen dicharged through each of the two horns and carried to the middle of the hollow of the uterus coats the passages and at the same time reaches the male semen.”
  51. ↑ Jean Claude Guillebaud, “The Tyranny of Pleasure”, p.171, New York: Algora Publishing, 1999
  52. ↑ Osama Abdallah - Detailed meanings of the Scientific Words in the Scientific Verses in the Holy Quran using Lisan Al-Arab (The Arabs' (of old) Tongue) Dictionary and other similar dictionaries: - Answering Christianity, accessed July 23, 2012
  53. ↑ Lisan Al-Arab dictionary, Book 5, Pages 725
  54. ↑ Lane’s Lexicon Vol. 8 p.3032
  55. ↑ Lane’s Lexicon Vol. 4 p.1397
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