The Quran on Human Embryonic Development,Amazing Facts!

[ArabGirl]

In the Holy Quran, God speaks about the stages of man’s embryonic development:

We created man from an extract of clay. Then We made him as a drop in a place of settlement, firmly fixed. Then We made the drop into an alaqah (leech, suspended thing, and blood clot), then We made the alaqah into a mudghah (chewed substance)... 1 (Quran, 23:12-14)

Literally, the Arabic word alaqah has three meanings: (1) leech, (2) suspended thing, and (3) blood clot.

In comparing a leech to an embryo in the alaqah stage, we find similarity between the two2 as we can see in figure 1.

http://www.islam-guide.com/ch1-1-a-img1.jpg
Figure 1: Drawings illustrating the similarities in appearance between a leech and a human embryo at the alaqah stage. (Leech drawing from Human Development as Described in the Quran and Sunnah, Moore and others, p. 37, modified from Integrated Principles of Zoology, Hickman and others. Embryo drawing from The Developing Human, Moore and Persaud, 5th ed., p. 73.)

Also, the embryo at this stage obtains nourishment from the blood of the mother, similar to the leech, which feeds on the blood of others.

[ArabGirl]

The second meaning of the word alaqah is “suspended thing.” This is what we can see in figures 2 and 3, the suspension of the embryo, during the alaqah stage, in the womb of the mother.

figure 2
http://www.islam-guide.com/ch1-1-a-img2.jpg
Figure 2: We can see in this diagram the suspension of an embryo during the alaqah stage in the womb (uterus) of the mother. (The Developing Human, Moore and Persaud, 5th ed., p. 66.) (Click on the image to enlarge it.)
figure3
http://www.islam-guide.com/ch1-1-a-img3.jpg
photomicrograph, we can see the suspension of an embryo (marked B) during the alaqah stage (about 15 days old) in the womb of the mother. The actual size of the embryo is about 0.6 mm. (The Developing Human, Moore, 3rd ed., p. 66, from Histology, Leeson and Leeson.)

[ArabGirl]

The third meaning of the word alaqah is “blood clot.” We find that the external appearance of the embryo and its sacs during the alaqah stage is similar to that of a blood clot. This is due to the presence of relatively large amounts of blood present in the embryo during this stage4 (see figure 4). Also during this stage, the blood in the embryo does not circulate until the end of the third week.5 Thus, the embryo at this stage is like a clot of blood.
Figure4:
http://www.islam-guide.com/ch1-1-a-img4.jpg
Figure 4: Diagram of the primitive cardiovascular system in an embryo during the alaqah stage. The external appearance of the embryo and its sacs is similar to that of a blood clot, due to the presence of relatively large amounts of blood present in the embryo. (The Developing Human, Moore, 5th ed., p. 65.) (Click on the image to enlarge it.)

So the three meanings of the word alaqah correspond accurately to the descriptions of the embryo at the alaqah stage.

[ArabGirl]

The next stage mentioned in the verse is the mudghah stage. The Arabic word mudghah means “chewed substance.” If one were to take a piece of gum and chew it in his or her mouth and then compare it with an embryo at the mudghah stage, we would conclude that the embryo at the mudghah stage acquires the appearance of a chewed substance. This is because of the somites at the back of the embryo that “somewhat resemble teethmarks in a chewed substance.”6 (see figures 5 and 6).
Figure 5:
http://www.islam-guide.com/ch1-1-a-img5.jpg
Photograph of an embryo at the mudghah stage (28 days old). The embryo at this stage acquires the appearance of a chewed substance, because the somites at the back of the embryo somewhat resemble teeth marks in a chewed substance. The actual size of the embryo is 4 mm. (The Developing Human, Moore and Persaud, 5th ed., p. 82, from Professor Hideo Nishimura, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.)

Figure6:
http://www.islam-guide.com/ch1-1-a-img6.jpg

A) Drawing of an embryo at the mudghah stage. We can see here the somites at the back of the embryo that look like teeth marks. (The Developing Human, Moore and Persaud, 5th ed., p. 79.)
B) Photograph of a piece of gum that has been chewed.


How could Muhammad have possibly known all this 1400 years ago, when scientists have only recently discovered this using advanced equipment and powerful microscopes which did not exist at that time? Hamm and Leeuwenhoek were the first scientists to observe human sperm cells (spermatozoa) using an improved microscope in 1677 (more than 1000 years after Muhammad ). They mistakenly thought that the sperm cell contained a miniature preformed human being that grew when it was deposited in the female genital tract.7

Professor Emeritus Keith L. Moore8 is one of the world’s most prominent scientists in the fields of anatomy and embryology and is the author of the book entitled The Developing Human, which has been translated into eight languages. This book is a scientific reference work and was chosen by a special committee in the United States as the best book authored by one person. Dr. Keith Moore is Professor Emeritus of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. There, he was Associate Dean of Basic Sciences at the Faculty of Medicine and for 8 years was the Chairman of the Department of Anatomy. In 1984, he received the most distinguished award presented in the field of anatomy in Canada, the J.C.B. Grant Award from the Canadian Association of Anatomists. He has directed many international associations, such as the Canadian and American Association of Anatomists and the Council of the Union of Biological Sciences.

In 1981, during the Seventh Medical Conference in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, Professor Moore said: “It has been a great pleasure for me to help clarify statements in the Quran about human development. It is clear to me that these statements must have come to Muhammad from God, because almost all of this knowledge was not discovered until many centuries later. This proves to me that Muhammad must have been a messenger of God.”9
The Real Player Video for this is:
http://www.islam-guide.com/video/moore-1.ram
Consequently, Professor Moore was asked the following question: “Does this mean that you believe that the Quran is the word of God?” He replied: “I find no difficulty in accepting this.”10

During one conference, Professor Moore stated: “....Because the staging of human embryos is complex, owing to the continuous process of change during development, it is proposed that a new system of classification could be developed using the terms mentioned in the Quran and Sunnah (what Muhammad said, did, or approved of). The proposed system is simple, comprehensive, and conforms with present embryological knowledge. The intensive studies of the Quran and hadeeth (reliably transmitted reports by the Prophet Muhammad’s companions of what he said, did, or approved of) in the last four years have revealed a system for classifying human embryos that is amazing since it was recorded in the seventh century A.D. Although Aristotle, the founder of the science of embryology, realized that chick embryos developed in stages from his studies of hen’s eggs in the fourth century B.C., he did not give any details about these stages. As far as it is known from the history of embryology, little was known about the staging and classification of human embryos until the twentieth century. For this reason, the descriptions of the human embryo in the Quran cannot be based on scientific knowledge in the seventh century. The only reasonable conclusion is: these descriptions were revealed to Muhammad from God. He could not have known such details because he was an illiterate man with absolutely no scientific training.”11
(View the RealPlayer video of this comment http://www.islam-guide.com/video/moore-2.ram ).

Refrence:
http://www.islam-guide.com/frm-ch1-1-a.htm

[towski]

ArabGirl,

Out of curiousity, what is the position of Islam of embryonic stem cell research?

[ArabGirl]

The point of this wasn't to discuss the Islam poition of anything ..its an evidence on the sientific power of Quran...
i will answer your Q, but i really sont like it when someone dont read my subject and reply with some Q that convert away from my point!
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0622/p15s02-wogi.html
i won't answer anything outside the range of the proposed subject...! u can make a new thread about it and we can disscuss it---> THERE!
Try to read what i posted under this thread

[towski]

The point of this wasn't to discuss the Islam poition of anything ..its an evidence on the sientific power of Quran...
i will answer your Q, but i really sont like it when someone dont read my subject and reply with some Q that convert away from my point!
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0622/p15s02-wogi.html
i won't answer anything outside the range of the proposed subject...! u can make a new thread about it and we can disscuss it---> THERE!
Try to read what i posted under this thread

Man, you sure are touchy about people replying to your posts. I didn't realize you had all these rules. My most humble apologies.

I'm not sure what you are looking for out of your threads, but most of us are asking legitimate, intellectual, curiosity based questions. I'm sorry to distract from your missionary work. It was not meant as an attempt to derail your topic.

[Strel]

I think this is stretching it a bit.


Actually it is stretching it quite a lot.

[ArabGirl]

:D im not touchy but i got sick of that whenever i start a thread about something it ends up talking about anything elses, i remeber one time i spent time making a thread and there were many replies to that one, do u know what that thread ended up talking about..."ArabGirl's spelling mistakes!"
so sorry to give you that impression :)

Man, you sure are touchy about people replying to your posts. I didn't realize you had all these rules. My most humble apologies.

I'm not sure what you are looking for out of your threads, but most of us are asking legitimate, intellectual, curiosity based questions. I'm sorry to distract from your missionary work. It was not meant as an attempt to derail your topic.

[::Major_Baker::]

thanks for all of your work on this thread, but the minute you tried to inject science into your religion, I jumped ship. Good try though.

[lord tammerlain]

I think this is stretching it a bit.


Actually it is stretching it quite a lot.


One needs to understand the times and the need for making such information accessable to the readers in the time period.

Todays science, would not be understandable to nearly any reader in the 5-7 cent, let alone the dark ages in Europe. A dumbing down would be required, and in any dumbing down the simplification would lose detail and specifics that would be required for todays readers.

Even today, have an advanced particle physist(sp) explain some of the newer theories on sub atomic particles to a high school student and a serious dumbing down would be required, so much so that for physists the meanings would be so simple to be nearly meaningless.

That a person from that time frame could have even a very basic model of embryoes (sp) is amazing.

[ArabGirl]

thanks for passing by my thread and reply, but the minute you tried to think that i wrote it for you, i jumped ship! good try though.
in Other words, this is something i find reasonable and i wrote about it, so if u dont feel like reading it, or understanding my perspective i really dont care if you jumped a ship! so no need to let me know :sorry:


thanks for all of your work on this thread, but the minute you tried to inject science into your religion, I jumped ship. Good try though.

[ArabGirl]

If you started reading it u'll find it Quite intersting, i promise !

I think this is stretching it a bit.


Actually it is stretching it quite a lot.

[::Major_Baker::]

thanks for passing by my thread and reply, but the minute you tried to think that i wrote it for you, i jumped ship! good try though.
in Other words, this is something i find reasonable and i wrote about it, so if u dont feel like reading it, or understanding my perspective i really dont care if you jumped a ship! so no need to let me know :sorry:

I did read most of it, until I saw a picture of a chewed piece of gum being used as a reference.
These aren't facts arabgirl as your title implies, they are suppositions.
I didn't mean to be rude, but organized religion, and those trying propagate it, bother me alot. :sorry:

[ArabGirl]

if u thought about it as an abstract piece of gum, and nelgected what was written about it, i wont blame you :cool: ...
what is suposition to you is a fact to me, and what is a fact to you is a supposition to me... what make us as human beings more close is to understand each others' perspectives...
and guess what! :eek: if it bothers you alot...ignore it ... this a friendly advise, always ignore whatever bothers you, so you won't bother others too!



I did read most of it, until I saw a picture of a chewed piece of gum being used as a reference.
These aren't facts arabgirl as your title implies, they are suppositions.
I didn't mean to be rude, but organized religion, and those trying propagate it, bother me alot. :sorry:

[Russikan]

All I want to say Arab Girl and though this has nothing to do with your originoal topic, I'm going to say it anyway, You seem to assume that people don't read what you have put up. However it's a very good chance that people have already read everything you posted before they respond.

[ArabGirl]

u said it ...it has nothing to do with the topic, so i will ignore it... but believe me i build my assumption based on ur replies

All I want to say Arab Girl and though this has nothing to do with your originoal topic, I'm going to say it anyway, You seem to assume that people don't read what you have put up. However it's a very good chance that people have already read everything you posted before they respond.

[Strel]

I did read most of it, until I saw a picture of a chewed piece of gum being used as a reference.
These aren't facts arabgirl as your title implies, they are suppositions.
I didn't mean to be rude, but organized religion, and those trying propagate it, bother me alot. :sorry:

Precisely.

[Nuke the Oil]

Allah mustn't have been much of a chemist then. Last time I checked clay primarily consists of silicon based substances while life consists of carbon based substances (and practically devoid of silicon to boot). Of course I'm sure it was magical holy silicon that turned into carbon on command, no doubt assisted by the djinn.

And I could think of some rather unsavory and messy ways that ancient culture could come by such primitive "medical" knowledge.

Can someone point out to me the section of the Quran or the Bible where the uncertainty principle and destiny are concilliated? Where are the mentions of quantum mechanics? DNA? The :lol: round earth :lol:?

[lord tammerlain]

Allah mustn't have been much of a chemist then. Last time I checked clay primarily consists of silicon based substances while life consists of carbon based substances (and practically devoid of silicon to boot). Of course I'm sure it was magical holy silicon that turned into carbon on command, no doubt assisted by the djinn.

And I could think of some rather unsavory and messy ways that ancient culture could come by such primitive "medical" knowledge.

Can someone point out to me the section of the Quran or the Bible where the uncertainty principle and destiny are concilliated? Where are the mentions of quantum mechanics? DNA? The :lol: round earth :lol:?


Muslim scholars I do believe were the first to calculate the diameter of the earth, quite accurately too. Although I believe the intent was so people could determine which direction Mecca was.

[Nuke the Oil]

Muslim scholars I do believe were the first to calculate the diameter of the earth, quite accurately too. Although I believe the intent was so people could determine which direction Mecca was.

No, the Greeks did it first. Eratosthenes calculated a diameter of the Earth about 200 BC. So Allah and Jehovah can't even keep abreast of current scientific developments!