googled and got some interssting information
4. Qur'an reveals Embryological facts !
[AL-MUMENOON 23: 12-14] 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!
Some Islamic scholars find the embryological facts in above verse. But if we check the verse from a rational point of view, it appears to us with a different meaning. Let's check the above verse critically. First line is totally wrong. Man is not a product of any wet earth. Moreover, Qurfan ambiguously asserts many common sensually meaningless statements about such an elementary matter in other verses. For examples sometimes it tells that we are created from earth (11:61), sometimes it claims from dry clay (15:26,28,33, 17:61, 32:7), sometimes "from nothing" (19:67), sometimes "NOT from nothing" (52:35), sometimes from wet earth (23:12), or from mire (38:71), sometimes from water (25:54, 21:30, 24:45), sometimes from dust ( 3:59, 30:20, 35:11) or even sometimes from dead (30:19, 39:6). So which one is true? Those contradictory ambiguous statements actually do not reveal any scientific facts regarding either how we created or what exactly we are made of.
Before analyzing rest of the portion of the above verse, I would like to cite an useful information to the readers. In 1982 Keith Moore, an anatomy professor at the University of Toronto, produced a textbook titled "The Developing Human, 3rd edition". Relating embryological facts with Qurfanic verse wishfully in Muslim community mainly started thereafter. In his book Moore states astonishment at the way embryonic development is depicted in the Qur'an. Moore took Yusuf Ali's translation of the verse under discussion which directly uses the word gspermh [8]:
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YUSUFALI: Then We placed him as (a drop of) sperm in a place of rest, firmly fixed;
PICKTHAL: Then placed him as a drop (of seed) in a safe lodging;
SHAKIR: Then We made him a small seed in a firm resting-place,
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YUSUFALI: 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!
PICKTHAL: 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!
SHAKIR: Then We made the seed a clot, then We made the clot a lump of flesh, then We made (in) the lump of flesh bones, then We clothed the bones with flesh, then We caused it to grow into another creation, so blessed be Allah, the best of the creators.
Many people may amaze by the mention of sperm in this verse. But close observation reveals that there is nothing supernatural in it. Since the beginning of time man has been quite aware of the "seed" that is released from the penis during sexual intercourse. The old Hindu scriptures or Bible, which are much older than the Qur'an, also have such indication. Aristotle clearly described about formation of a child inside the womb early 1,000 years before the Qur'an was written. No body claimed any miracles for it. In fact Aristotle correctly described the function of the umbilical cord, something not mentioned in the Qur'an, showing that earlier philosophers were aware of such things mentioned by Muhammad and more [8].
Actually the Qur'an contains erroneous ancient theories developed by Roman and Greek philosophers about human development . Let us consider the following verse referring to sperm:
He is created from a drop emitted- Proceeding from between the backbone and the ribs: (sura At-Tariq 86:6-7)
Clearly this verse is incorrect, and clearly it has origins in earlier theories. First of all, for sperm to originate between the back and the ribs would mean that it comes from the kidneys! Greek physician Hippocrates theorized this wrong idea long before Muhammad that sperm passed through the kidneys into the penis. For centuries this was an accepted (and incorrect) belief of the origins of sperm. Aristotle though correctly described the function of the umbilical cord, also amusingly believed that sperm testicles functioned as weights to keep the seminal passages open during sexual intercourse [20]. One can easily find similar erroneous concepts in the Qur'an too.
Let us focus on another scenario by considering the following sura from Qurfan:
O mankind! if ye are in doubt concerning the Resurrection, then lo! We have created you from dust, then from a drop of seed, then from a clot, then from a little lump of flesh shapely and shapeless, that We may make (it) clear for you. And We cause what We will to remain in the wombs for an appointed time, and afterward We bring you forth as infants, then (give you growth) that ye attain your full strength. And among you there is he who dieth (young), and among you there is he who is brought back to the most abject time of life, so that, after knowledge, he knoweth naught. And thou (Muhammad) seest the earth barren, but when We send down water thereon, it doth thrill and swell and put forth every lovely kind (of growth) (Sura Al-Hajj 022.005).
The verse mentions three primary stages of embryonic development: (1) a gseed,h gdroph or gsemenh phase (in Arabic, gnutfahh), (2) followed by a gcloth or gleach-like cloth phase (in Arabic, gAlaqahh), (3) followed finally by a gmorsel of fleshh or gchewed lumph phase (in Arabic, gMudghahh). Some other additional suras can also be cited that deal with this subject, and none seems to disagree with this basic scenario. Again the hadiths, particularly that of Bukhari and Muslim give some relevant information. For e.g, following hadith tells us about developmental timing of an embryo.
Sahih Bukhari Volume 4, Book 54, Number 430:
Narrated 'Abdullah bin Mus'ud:
gAllah'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.h
Also, Sahih Muslim, Book 033, Number 6395:
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 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. Then he (the angel) says: Would his limbs be full or imperfect? And then the Lord makes them full and perfect or otherwise as He desires. Then he says: My Lord, what about his livelihood, and his death and what about his disposition? And then the Lord decides about his misfortune and fortune.
These same details are also given in Sahih Bukhari Volume 4, Book 55, Number 549. Sahih Bukhari Volume 8, Book 77, Number 593, Sahih Bukhari Volume 9, Book 93, Number 546 etc. The key information gained from all these above mentioned hadiths are that the three phases (nutfah, alaqah and madghah) takes 40 days each, for a total period of 40 + 40 + 40 = 120 days from conception to the point at which the embryo becomes a fetus. After that the blood clot was turned to bone and then God "clothed the bones with flesh" (Qurfan 23:13-14). And finally the gender of the child is assigned by an angel.
The whole idea is completely erroneous in many ways. First of all, the human embryo becomes a fetus around week 9, i.e, roughly half the time gIslamic embryologyh suggests. Again, there are no developmental milestones which can be mapped to the thrice forty day period, even though they are suggested in several authoritative hadiths with full support from Qurfan. Also, from medical science we know in human development process living tissue forms first, and then bones grow at a later time, and it continues to gain strength for many years after birth. But by expressing "blood clot was turned to bone" Qurfan in fact reveals its one of many scientific inaccuracies.
Finally, if we check the above cited verses of Qurfan carefully, we will find nowhere in Qurfan it mentions about human egg; instead Qurfan refers to the gdrop of seedh solely. This is because most primitive peoples including Arabs thought that the whole child was in the "seed" of the man. The woman was considered simply as the oven or incubator that fully contained in the fatherfs seed. They could not figure out its existence as no one could find the eggs of the woman at that time. It is a historical fact that prior to the medical community comprehending that women actually have eggs and men have sperm that must be combined to produce a child, it was widely believed that the whole child was contained in the man's seed. This was also Catholic Church doctrine for hundreds of years. Not "spilling one's seed on the ground" is an admonition against masturbation because it was believed that one's children would be eliminated. The majority of Islamic scholars consider it haram (prohibited) too for having direct support from hadith [21]. It can be pointed out from Islamic culture that the Shah of Iran divorced her wife Soraya (Soraya Esfandiari Bakhtiari) because of no children. In rural areas of Bangladesh, in similar fashion, many women gets divorced each year because they are wrongly blamed for not being capable of producing male child.
10 Top-most Scientific Myths about the Qur'an
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Articles/a...an_miracle.htm
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