Year: 1986
Type: article
Abstract: Statements referring to human reproduction and development are scattered throughout the Qur'an.It is only recently that the scientific meaning of some of these verses has been appreciated fully.The long delay in interpreting these verses correctly resulted mainly from inaccurate translations and commentaries, and from a lack of awareness of scientific knowledge.Interest in explanations of the verses of the Qur'an is not new.People used to ask the prophet Muhammad all sorts of questions about the meaning of verses referring to human reproduction.The Apostle's answers form the basis of the Hadith literature.The translations of the verses from the Qur'an which are interpreted in this paper were provided by Sheik Abdul Majid Zendani, a Professor of Islamic Studies in King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia."He makes you in the wombs of your mothers, in stages, one after another, in three veils of darkness."This statement is from Sura 39.We do not know when it was realized that human beings underwent development in the uterus (womb), but the first known illustration of a fetus in the uterus was drawn by Leonardo da Vinci in the 15th century.In the 2nd century A.D., Galen described the placenta and fetal membranes in his book "On The Formation of the Foetus."Consequently, doctors in the 7th century A.D. likely knew that the human embryo developed in the uterus.It is unlikely that they knew that it developed in stages, even though Aristotle had described the stages of development of the chick embryo in the 4th century B.C.The realization that the human embryo develops in stages was not discussed and illustrated until the 15th century.After the microscope was discovered in the 17th century by Leeuwenhook, descriptions were made of the early stages of the chick embryo.The staging of human embryos was not described until the 20th century.Streeter (194 I) developed the first system of
DOI: 10.5915/18-1-8693
Author: Keith L. Moore
Institution: University of Toronto
Language: English
Subfield: Religious studies
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W2026463445