Embryology in the Quran: Difference between revisions

Water (maa') is used here as a euphemism for semen, just as we sometimes find in the Quran and hadiths (see above).</ref>

 

It would be most unwise for the author of the Quran to use a word that has a specific, widely understood biological meaning to describe a biological process (embryology) if that meaning was not the intention. For the same reason it would be foolish even to use clotted blood merely as a visual metaphor. A perfect author would avoid arousing any such suspicion of inaccurate biology with his choice of words.

Verse 22:5<ref name="22-5">O People, if you should be in doubt about the Resurrection, then [consider that] indeed, We created you from dust, then from a sperm-drop, then from a clinging clot, and then from a lump of flesh, formed and unformed - that We may show you. And We settle in the wombs whom We will for a specified term, then We bring you out as a child, and then [We develop you] that you may reach your [time of] maturity. And among you is he who is taken in [early] death, and among you is he who is returned to the most decrepit [old] age so that he knows, after [once having] knowledge, nothing. And you see the earth barren, but when We send down upon it rain, it quivers and swells and grows [something] of every beautiful kind<br>{{Quran|22|5}}</ref> mentions that the mudghah is formed and without form. Given that this stage appears before the 'itham (bones) stage, such a 'clarification' gives no additional information whatsoever. Such vagueness of description is typical of an author who is merely pretending to have true knowledge.

Here is the scientific evidence for the contemporaneous development of cartilage/bone and muscles.  

A very detailed account of musculo-skeletal development in the human limb by clinical-geneticist Robert Jan Galjaard can be read online.<ref>Galjaard, R.J.H. [http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/10474/030924_Galjaard,%20Robert-Jan%20Harmen.pdf Mapping Studies of Congenital Limb Anomalies]. Ablasserdam: Haveka, B.V., 2003, page 16 [http://www.webcitation.org/6lFwBQq9z webcitation archive link]</ref> It details that muscle precursor cells migrate from the somites into the limb buds (ca. day 26), well before the condensing core of mesenchyme has started to chondrify into cartilage bone models in the upper part of the upper limb (ca. day 37), followed by the lower part (ca. day 41). The myoblasts have grouped into distinct masses by this stage and are differentiating into muscle fibres. The upper limbs later start to ossify (ca. day 54). Chondrification of mesenchyme, the grouping of myogenic masses, and ossification all occur in a proximal-distal order (upper to lower part of each limb). The digits of the hands only start to chondrify ca. day 51.

Next, if proponents of Quranic embryology suppose that the Quran was only referring to precursor cartilage models of the bones and not bone itself, they have to explain why the author of the Quran mentioned not cartilage (ghudhroof)<ref name="LLghudtroof">غضروف ghudhroof, alternatively spelt غرضوف ghurdoof - [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume6/00000032.pdf Lane's Lexicon] Volume 6, page 2248</ref>) but only bone ('itham)<ref name="LLitham"></ref>, which starts to form well after muscles.

We have more evidence that 23:14 refers to things already recognisable as bones being clothed with muscles or flesh elsewhere in the Quran. Verse 2:259 uses the same Arabic words as does 23:14 for 'bones', 'clothed' and 'flesh' to describe the resurrection of a donkey which had been dead for 100 years.<ref>[...]and look at your ass; and that We may make you a sign to men, and look at the bones, how We set them together, then clothed them with flesh[...]

However, verses 75:37-39 use the same language about gender, but after the 'alaqah stage. 75:39 uses the exact same phrase as in 53:45, "alzzawjayni alththakara waalontha" ("of the two spouses, the male and the female"}, which is also similar to the word used in 35:11, azwajan (male / female pair).  

Apologists interpret 75:39 to mean that the external genitalia and gonads are formed after the 'alaqah stage, knowing that the gender of the child has already been determined genetically at the moment of conception as stated above. To be consistent, they would have to accept that 35:11 and 53:45-46 are merely saying that babies, male and female, start off as a nutfah (drop of semen).  

According to Leonard Sax, when the term intersex is "restricted to those conditions in which chromosomal sex is inconsistent with phenotypic sex, or in which the phenotype is not classifiable as either male or female", around 0.018% of the population are intersex. This definition excludes Klinefelter syndrome and many other variations.<ref>Sax, L., ''How common is intersex? a response to Anne Fausto-Sterling'' Journal of Sex Research, volume 39, issue 3, pp.174–178 (2002) doi 10.1080/00224490209552139 pmid 12476264</ref>

1) By the time a sperm cell reaches a woman's fallopian tube where fertilisation occurs, it is no longer swimming in male semen, but has instead swam through cervical mucus, then binded to epithelium of the uterine tube where it undegoes capacitation and detaches again, then through a combination of muscular movements of the tube and some swimming movements makes its way up the tube.<ref>[https://clinicalgate.com/transport-of-gametes-and-fertilization/ Clinicalgate.com - Transport of gametes and fertilization]</ref>; and  

For these reasons, fertilisation can not reasonably be described as a mingling of semen and follicular fluid. Rather, the Qur'anic statement corresponds with the Galenic theory of two semens, which was widespread in the region and time. [[Sources_of_Islamic_Theories_of_Reproduction|Galen's influence]] is also apparent in numerous hadiths relating to this notion and other issues relating to human reproduction.

Another claim is that the Quran correctly states that the minimum period for gestation of a viable baby is 6 months. This claim is based on two Quranic verses, the first of which states that a child is weaned for two years (24 lunar months), and the other that the bearing and weaning of a child lasts for 30 lunar months.<ref>And We have enjoined upon man concerning his parents. His mother beareth him in weakness upon weakness, and his weaning is in two years. Give thanks unto Me and unto thy parents. Unto Me is the journeying.<br>{{Quran|31|14}}</ref><ref>And We have commended unto man kindness toward parents. His mother beareth him with reluctance, and bringeth him forth with reluctance, and the bearing of him and the weaning of him is thirty months, till, when he attaineth full strength and reacheth forty years, he saith: My Lord! Arouse me that I may give thanks for the favour wherewith Thou hast favoured me and my parents, and that I may do right acceptable unto Thee. And be gracious unto me In the matter of my seed. Lo! I have turned unto Thee repentant, and lo! I am of those who surrender (unto Thee).<br>{{Quran|46|15}}</ref> Yusuf Ali makes this claim in the notes of his translation for verse 46:15, presumably having noticed that the two verses in combination do not equate to a 9 month pregnancy.

21 and 22 week premature babies are now supported routinely, and have a good chance of survival. By 24 weeks after conception, premature babies have a 40% chance of reaching adulthood without any major complications. By 28 weeks, the chance is 90%. By 29 weeks, survival is almost definite. (Note: These percentages are from reports written during the late 1980s. Current survival rates are most likely much higher.)"<br>[http://web.archive.org/web/20050205142039/http://www.abortioninfo.net/facts/development4.shtml Fetal Development/Viability] - Abortioninfo</ref> The minimum period of fetal viability in many third-world countries would still be around 30 weeks.