Embryology In The Quran by Hamza Andreas Tzortzis

The next stage of the development of the human embryo is nutfah. This word has various meanings:

1. By looking at the Arabic language, it can mean a dribble, a trickle, a drop or semen33. Nutfah can also mean a singular entity which is a part of a bigger group of its kind. Therefore, a nutfah could be a single sperm from a collection of millions of sperms contained in semen, or a single female egg from a group of many other eggs in the Ovaries.34.

2. According to Prophetic tradition, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ explained the nutfah as a combination of liquids “from a male nutfah and from a female nutfah”.35

3. In the Qur’an the nutfah is described as a combination of mingled (al-amshaj) fluids: “We created man from a drop (nutfah) of mingled fluid.” 36.

This verse, from a grammatical perspective, portrays an image of the nutfah as an entity made up of a combination of fluids coming from the mother and the father. The word al-amshaj (mingled) is a plural adjective and it is used here with the singular noun nutfah. Grammatically, this highlights the verse's concept of nutfah as being a single entity or drop produced by a combination of substances.

The principles put forward by both the Qur'an and the Prophetic tradition coincide with what is known today of modern embryology. The nutfah stage specifically implies the process of fertilisation, which requires the ‘mingling’ of components from the mother and the father. These components form a single cell known as the zygote. In regard to this, embryologists John Allen and Beverley Kramer state:

The human individual arises from the conjugation of two minute structures called cells, one from the mother (oocyte) and one from the father (spermatozoon). These are called gametes. Together, these gametes form a single cell, the zygote, from which the entire embryo, including its surrounding membranes, grows. 37

From a physiological perspective, each one of the two cell structures from both the mother and the father need to be contained in fluids necessary for fertilization. The spermatozoon is contained in fluid called semen38, and the oocyte is coated in oviductal secretions required for its viability and fertilizability. Physiologists Bruce Koeppen and Bruce Stanton explain:

Oviductal secretions coat and infuse the cumulus-oocyte complex and may be required for viability and fertilizability.39

Thus, the analysis of the word nutfah as a mingled entity formed as a result of single cells from the mother and the father (which are contained in fluids necessary for fertilization) corresponds with the physiological description of the zygote's formation.

he nutfah stage: The formation of the zygote, via the mingling of two fluids from the mother and the father, which contains two small cell structures (the oocyte and the spermatozoon).

The stages of the developing human embryo described in the Qur’an have been examined by some commentators. They assert that the qur’anic discourse on human development is plagiarised from the works of the ancient Greek philosopher and polymath Aristotle, and the 2nd century philosopher and physician Galen. In light of the above analysis this allegation is baseless, as Aristotle believed only the male produces fluid responsible for the development of the embryo (the genetic material). He supposes the male semen to be the active form and the female ovum as providing only the passive element for fertilization; an idea contradictory to modern embryology.

In fact, Aristotle was of the opinion that semen mixed with women’s menstrual blood, coagulating to form the embryo. Aristotelian accounts of human development are evidently incongruous with both the Qur’an and modern embryology, as illustrated in his own writings:

...the female, though it does not contribute any semen to generation... contributes something, viz., the substance constituting the menstrual fluid… [I]f the male is the active partner, the one which originates the movement, and the female qua female is the passive one, surely what the female contributes to the semen of the male will be not semen but material. And this is in fact what we find happening; for the natural substance of the menstrual fluid is to be classed as prime matter.40.

Classical exegetes of the Qur’an convey the disagreement between Aristotelian accounts of human development and the qur’anic narrative. Ibn al-Qayyim, the 14th century jurist and commentator of the Qur’an, uses various Prophetic traditions to emphasise the fact that male semen alone is not responsible for generating a child.41 Furthermore, assertions of plagiarism are futile as the words used in the Qur’an are unlike Aristotle’s choice of words; the Qur’an is scientifically accurate and Aristotle is not. Aristotle's discredited supposition (of menstrual blood being involved in the process of fertilisation) is further contrasted with the Qur’an and its use of the word nutfah, which is not the word for menstrual blood in Arabic. The word for menstrual blood in Arabic is haydh.

As for the assertion that the Qur’an plagiarised from Galen, this is once again insubstantial as Galen attributes to the semen what we should to the fertilised ovum. He writes:

so it is with the semen: its faculties it possessed from the beginning.42

Contrary to this, the Qur’an describes the nutfah as a mingled drop or fluid from both the male and the female, not just the male. It also stresses both the male and female as being responsible for the child’s genetic makeup. This reasoning is further supported by Prophetic tradition with the Prophetﷺ affirming a woman's responsibility for the genetic makeup of her child, as he proposes the question: “How else do their children resemble them?”43 Ibn al-Qayyim theorizes that if women do not have a type of semen, then their children would not look like them. The male semen alone does not generate a child because conception only occurs upon the mixture of male sperm with another equivalent (ovum) from the female. 44

This demonstration, of the Qur’an perceiving both the male and female as responsible for the ‘faculties’, renders invalid the assumption that the Qur'an is based on Galen's theory, which exaggerates the male contribution and understates that of the female. These contrasts and explications contribute to a dismantling of the plagiarisation thesis, and it becomes necessary to pose the questions: if the Prophet ﷺ plagiarised Galen’s and Aristotle’s works, why are the words used by the Greek physicians and the Qur’an to describe this stage dissimilar? And why is the Qur’an scientifically accurate when Galen and Aristotle are not?