stages2

5 - 6 Weeks 7 Weeks

IV. STAGES OF THE CREATION OF MAN (B)

The book, The Developing Human” written by Professor Keith Moore has been translated in eight languages. This book is considered a scientific reference work, and was chosen by a special committee in the United States as the best book authored by one person. We met with the author of this book and presented to him many Qur’anic verses and Prophetic Ahadeeth which deal with his specialization in embryology.

Professor Moore was convinced by our evidence, so we asked him the following question: You mentioned in your book that in the Middle ages there was no advancement in the science of embryology, and that only very little was known at that time. At the same time the Qur’an was being revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam), and he was guiding people according to what Allah revealed to him. There is found in the Qur’an a very detailed description of the creation of man and of the different stages of human development. You are a world renowned scientist, so why do you not uphold justice and mention these truths in your book?’ He replied: You have the evidence and not I. So why do you not present it to us?

We provided him with the facts and Professor Moore proved to be a great scholar. In the third edition of his book he did make some additions. This book has been translated, as we mentioned previously, into eight languages including Russian, Chinese, Japanese, German, Italian, Portuguese and Yugoslavian. This book enjoys worldwide distribution and is read by many of the world's foremost scientists.

It is cited in the Qur’an, the Holy Book of the Muslims, that human beings are produced from a mixture of secretions from the male and the female. Several references are made to the creation of a human being from a sperm drop, and it is also suggested that the resulting organism settles in the woman like a seed, six days after its beginning. (The human blastocyst begins to implant about six days after fertilization.) The Qur’an also states that the sperm drop develops - into a clot of congealed blood -. (An implanted blastocyst or spontaneously aborted conceptus would resemble a blood clot.) Reference is also made to the leech-like appearance of the embryo. The embryo is not unlike a leech, or bloodsucker, in appearance. The embryo is also said to resemble – a chewed piece of substance - like gum or wood. (Somites somewhat resemble the teeth marks in a chewed substance.)”

The developing embryo was considered to be human at 40 to 42 days and no longer resemble an animal embryo at this stage. (The human embryo begins to acquire human characteristics at this stage, as shown in Figure 2-3C [Exact picture not shown - WWW Ed.]). The Qur’an also states that the embryo develops with - three veils of darkness. This probably refers to (1) the maternal anterior abdominal wall, (2) the uterine wall, and (3) the amniochorionic membrane. Space does not permit discussion of several other interesting references to human prenatal development that appear in the Qur’an.

This is what Dr. Moore has written in his book, praise be to Allah, and which is now being distributed throughout the world. Scientific knowledge has made it incumbent upon Professor Moore to mention this in his book. He has concluded that the modern classification of embryonic development stages, which is adopted throughout the world, is not easy or comprehensive. It does not contribute to the understanding of the embryonic stages of development because those stages are on a numerical basis, that is, stage 1, stage 2, stage 3, etc. The divisions that have been revealed in the Qur’an do not depend on a numerical system. Rather they are based on the distinct and easily identifiable forms or shapes which the embryo passes through.

The Qur’an identifies the stages of pre-natal development as follows: Nutfah, which means a drop” or small amount of water”; ‘alaqah which means a leech-like structure”; mudghah, which means a chewed-like structure”; ‘idhaam, which means bones” or skeletons”; kisaa ul idham bil-laham, which means the clothing of bones with flesh or muscle, and al-nash'a which means the formation of distinct fetus”. Professor Moore has recognized that these Qur’anic divisions are actually based on the different phases of pre-natal development. He has noted that these divisions provide elegant scientific descriptions that are comprehensible and practical.

In one of the conferences he attended, Professor Moore stated the following:

The embryo develops in the mother's womb or uterus protected by three veils, or layers, as shown in this next slide. (A) represents the anterior abdominal wall, (B) the uterine wall, and the (C) the amniochorionic membrane. Because the staging of human embryo 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 Qur’an and Sunnah. The proposed system is simple, comprehensive, and conforms with present embryological knowledge. The intensive studies of the Qur’an and Ahadeeth in the last four years have revealed a system of 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 hens’ 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 staging and classification of human embryos until the twentieth century. For this reason, the descriptions of the human embryo in the Qur’an cannot be based on scientific knowledge in the seventh century. The only reasonable conclusion is that these descriptions were revealed to Muhammad from Allah. He could not have known such details because he was an unlettered man with absolutely no scientific training.

We told Dr. Moore, What you have said is true, but it is far less than the truth and evidence we have presented to you from the Qur’an and the Sunnah and which are related to the science of embryology. So why not do justice and completely bring to light all the Qur’anic verses and Ahadeeth which deal with your field of specialization’. Professor Moore said that he has inserted the appropriate references at the appropriate places in a specialized scientific book. However, he would invite us to make some Islamic additions, citing all the relevant Qur’anic verses and the Prophetic Ahadeeth, and highlighting their various miraculous aspects, to be incorporated at appropriate places in the book. This was done, and consequently, Professor Moore wrote an introduction to these Islamic additions, and the result was this one which you see here before you. On each page that includes facts about the science of embryology, we have cited the Qur’anic verses and Prophetic Ahadeeth which prove the inimitability of the Qur’an and Sunnah. What we are witnessing today is Islam moving to new grounds within fair and unbiased human minds.