In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

Critic:

As every reader who has studied human reproduction will realize, there is no stage as a clot during the formation of a fetus so this is a very major scientific problem….

In conclusion, we can say that this 23 day, 3 millimeter (1/8th inch) embryo with its rostral and caudal neuropores still widely open, with a large ventral yoke sac and an umbilical connecting stalk, does not look like a leech at all. Furthermore, no dictionary gives “leech like appearance” as a meaning for ‘alaqa and no one has suggested that the Qur’an says that man was made from a drop of sperm which became a leech. Dr. Moore does not know Arabic and said straight out to me in a personal conversation that if the true meaning of ‘alaqa is “clot”, then there is no such stage in the development of an embryo.

Response:

If you are really that confused about the meanings of Alaqah, see the reciprocal.

The translation of word clot is Tajlit’ while that of word leech is Alaqah’.

Secondly, if the duration of 9 months is described in the headings of 5 stages, it simply means that these stages would take time.

Thirdly, if you are so confused that the embryo does not look like leech, see the website, islampapers.com

Critic:

Thirdly these Quranic verses say that the “lump of flesh” becomes bones and then the bones are covered with muscles. The same idea is repeated in the Sura of the Heifer from 2 AH which says,

... look at the bones - how We raise them and then We cover them with flesh." (Al-Baqara) 2:259

They give the impression that first the skeleton is formed, and then it is clothed with flesh. Dr. Bucaille knows perfectly well that this is not true.

The muscles and the cartilage precursors of the bones start forming from the somite at the same time. At the end of the eighth week there are only a few centers of ossification started but the fetus is already capable of some muscular movement….

Conclusion: on bone development Dr. Sadler and Dr. Moore agree. There is no time when calcified bones have been formed and then the muscles are placed around them. The muscles are there several weeks before there are calcified bones, rather than being added around previously formed bones as the Qur’an states. The Qur’an is in complete error here.

Response:

No, actually it is not like the formation of whole skeleton first,and then the formation of bones .See the actual verses.

Then We made the sperm-drop into Alaqah, and We made the Alaqah into a lump [of flesh], and We made [from] the lump, bones, and We covered the bones with flesh; then We developed him into another creation. So blessed is Allāh, the best of creators. (23:14)

It is 100% correct that there is actually a lump of flesh before the formation of bones and muscles.

A six day old embryo:

A leech like structure of 22 days:

Embryo at 6 weeks, a lump of flesh without bones:

Now, regarding the formation of bony structures, Encyclopedia Britannica states that it occurs in 3rd month, i.e. 12th weeks. (Bone formation, mirror-link, mirror-link-2) (Bone Development)
 

See the picture of 16th week embryo:

Here is the 22 week old embryo with the bones prominently wrapped with flesh:

Conclusion:

It is never stated that first of all all the bones are formed and then the muscles are formed, rather it is clearly mentioned that first of all there is a lump of flesh from which bones are originated.

It is correct as the bones are formed after so mitogenesis, before which there is actually a lump of flesh.

It is also correct that the bones are covered with flesh. You may see the diagram above.

Bones formation/the process of ossification after 13 weeks. Read from Encyclopedia Britannica (Bone formation, mirror-link, mirror-link-2) (Bone Development)

Skeletal muscles differentiate after the development of skeletal system.

(Read here, Read here).

Myoblasts surround the developing bones, but their differentiation occurs after the beginning of ossification of bones.

(See the video of Keith L Moore, mirror-link ).

Muscle development:

The maturation of muscle cells occurs after the beginning of ossification:

There is no borrowing of Greek Concepts in Islamic Embryology:

Hippocrates about Semen:

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. Section 8, p 321

Totally Wrong concept as there is no sperm of females and there are not many strong and weak organs making up the sperm.

Wrong Concept about the development of Genitals in 30 days:

Hippocrates was totally wrong regarding the development of genitals. It is NOT 30 days but  42 days, [i.e 6 weeks]. If the concepts of Hippocrates were really borrowed, then such types of wrong concepts had to be present in Quran..!!

No sperms of females:

Aristole mentions that the sperms are produced even from females.

Menstrual Blood does not contribute in fertilization, rather the menstruation occurs when the fertilization has not taken place:

Hippocrates and Greeks had also assumed wrongly that the menstrual blood is involved from the female side, while there is no such wrong concept in Quran.

Aristotle believed that humans originated from the action of male semen upon female menstrual blood

Galen says “The substance from which the fetus is formed is not merely menstrual blood, as Aristotle maintained, but menstrual blood plus the two semens.”

Stages of Gallen:

Gallen has mentioned 4 stages, up to the formation of a new creation, but Quran has mentioned 5 stages.

Wrong Sequence by Samuel Yehudi:

• golem (formless, rolled-up thing);

• shefir meruqqam (embroidered foetus – shefir means amniotic sac);

• ‘ubbar (something carried);

• v’alad (child);

• v’alad shel qayama (noble or viable child) and

• ben she-kallu chadashav (child whose months have been completed).

Amniotic sac form before the formation of rolled up thing.

Wrong Idea about the contribution of parents:

Aristotle actually favored the theory of epigenesis, which assumes that the embryo begins as an undifferentiated mass and that new parts are added during development. Aristotle thought that the female parent contributed only unorganized matter to the embryo. He argued that semen from the male parent provided the “form,” or soul, that guided development and that the first part of the new organism to be formed was the heart.

Totally wrong Idea about the sperm formation; it is not formed in females and not from the whole body:

Hippocrates states that sperm comes from whole of the body of parents. Another wrong concept which is not mentioned in Quran.

Literally a set of very confidant misconceptions ; totally wrong stories about the contribution for physical appearance of the baby:

Talmud scholars believed that the bones and tendons, the nails, the marrow in the head, and the white of the eye, were derived from the father, “who sows the white,” but the skin, flesh, blood, hair from the mother, “who sows the red.” These views were according to the teachings of both Aristotle and Galen (Needham, 1959)..

Actually, The pair of chromosomes has the contribution of both mother and fathers chromosomes. So its absolutely wrong to say that these organs are derived from father and these are derived from mother.

If really the Greek concepts were borrowed, then

1. Females were supposed to be contributing for unorganized matter of the fetus but no such concept of Aristole in Quran or Hadiths.

2. Father was supposed to be contributing for the soul. Nothing like that in Quran.

3. Menstrual blood was considered to be contributed for fertilization, but no such misconception in Quran.

4. There would be some concept of 2 sperms of a man.

5. There could be missing step or the sequence would be wrong as that of Gallen.

6. The popular concept of some parts derived from mother and some organs derived from father would be present in Quran or any authentic Hadiths.

The fact is simply that the theories of the popular Greek embryologists had many flaws while the information revealed by Allah is 100% correct, without any single error, with no chance of borrowing.

Critic:

We must now look at one hadith and two well-known physicians from the period after Muhammad. Obviously they had no effect on the Qur’an, but they demonstrate that faith in the embryological ideas of Aristotle, Hippocrates and Galen continued among the Arabs right up to the 1600’s.

The Hadith is found in the Forty Hadiths of An-Nawawi and reads as follows,

This Hadith is reported according to Abi ‘Abd-ar-rahman ‘Abdallah ben Mas‘ud, may God be pleased with him, who said: The Apostle of God, may God bless him and grant him salvation, spoke to us and he is truthful and worthy of belief:

 

“The creation of any one of you is accomplished in various stages in the abdomen of your mother; 40 days a drop of sperm; then he will be (‘alaqa) a clot for the same period, then chewed meat (mudagha) for the same period; then the angel will be sent to him and he will blow into him the spirit (soul) and he will order four words (about the future) by writing: his monetary fortune, and his length of life, and his actions, and whether he is to be damned or happy in the hereafter.

 

“And I swear by God Whom there is no other God except Him: it could be that one of you will do acts as the people of heaven until there remains only one arms length between him and it (heaven), and the writing ( of his future) will overtake him and he will do the acts of the people of the fire and he will enter it. And it could be that one of you will do acts of the people of the fire until there remains only one arms length between him and it, and the writing (of his future) will overtake him and he will do the acts of the people of heaven and he will enter it.” 

 

(translation mine) Transmitted by Bukhari and Muslim[35]

We have here a Hadith which is reported to be from the mouth of Muhammad; attested to by the best authorities–Bukhari and Muslim; included in a special collection of Hadiths by a specialist in Hadiths; which has gross scientific errors. It follows the stages of the Qur’an exactly, but here Muhammad has added other information. The drop of sperm remains a drop of sperm 40 days, then an “‘alaqa” 40 days for a total of 80 days, then “chewed meat” for 40 days for a total of 120 days as shown in the following summary. Modern gynecological studies have shown that sperm remain alive less than a week inside the female genital tract, and that at 70 days organ differentiation and maturation are well advanced, except for the brain.

Response:

First of all, there is nothing in this Hadith that each of you has remained as sperm in your mothers womb for forty days. Rather there is no word of sperm here in the Hadith.

Secondly, the word mithla dhalik means such that or similarly and the translation of similarly or such that could not be confined to the duration of forty days only, it could be the growth, the division of cells and the differentiation also.

Alaqah is simply leech like structure in appearance, Check it for 40 days from any of your calculation criteria, the morphology is similar.

Mithla Dhalik could be for:

*Remaining “inside” the womb similarly

*Remaining “attached” similarly

*Continuing “division/organizing/differentiating/ development” similarly 

*Continuing “getting nourishment/ excreting processes” via umblical cord similarly

See the translation of word mithla dhalik

See the hadith:

Now read it again,

Narrated `Abdullah:

 

Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ), the truthful and truly-inspired, said, “Each one of you collected in the womb of his mother for forty days,  and then turns into alaqah similarly (Mithla dhalik) and turns into mudghah similarly (Mithla dhalik) and then Allah sends an angel and orders him to write four things, i.e., his provision, his age, and whether he will be of the wretched or the blessed (in the Hereafter). Then the soul is breathed into him. And by Allah, a person among you (or a man) may do deeds of the people of the Fire till there is only a cubit or an arm-breadth distance between him and the Fire, but then that writing (which Allah has ordered the angel to write) precedes, and he does the deeds of the people of Paradise and enters it; and a man may do the deeds of the people of Paradise till there is only a cubit or two between him and Paradise, and then that writing precedes and he does the deeds of the people of the Fire and enters it.”

(Bukhari 6954)

Thirdly, each one of you is collected for forty days, it simply means the early stages after the fertilization, i.e the zygote and embryo.

It does not mean sperm at all.

Critic:

Hippocrates is in error,

Aristotle is in error,

Galen is in error,

The Qur’an is in error.

They are all in serious error.

Response:

Hippocrates is in error.

Sure.

Aristotle is in error.

Sure.

Galen is in error.

No doubt.

The Qur’an is in error.

Not at all.

Everything mentioned is miraculously true according to modern embryology and no wrong concept of the ancient Greeks or embryologists is present in Quran.

Extra:

This mentions the development of axial and appendicular SKELETON at 5 weeks and Skeletal MUSCLES at 8 weeks: