DEVELOPMENT OF ‘EMBRYO’ IN THE WOMB BY TRIPLE FETAL TERMINOLOGY: MEDICAL SCIENCE CONFIRMED THIS HADITH

Hamza Sheth

DEVELOPMENT OF ‘EMBRYO’ IN THE WOMB BY TRIPLE FETAL TERMINOLOGY:

Al-Bukhari and Muslim narrated from Anas (R.A.) that the Prophet (PBUH) said –

“Allah Most High has appointed an angel over the uterus who says,

"Lord! It is now a sperm-and-ovum drop (nut’fa).

"Lord! It is now a thing that clings (`alaqa).

"Lord! It is now a thing like chewed flesh (mud’gha).

Then, when he wants to complete its fashioning, he asks, "Male or female? Happy or wretched? What is his share of sustenance? What is his term of life?" All this is inscribed [as it is] in his mother's belly…” [Muslim:: Book 33 : Hadith 6392]

Since it is established from the hadith of Hudhayfa that gendering occurs "after forty or forty-five nights" in conformity with embryological observation, the above hadith shows that the first forty-day period includes all three stages of nut.fa - mud.gha- `alaqa. Contrary to what Maurice Bucaille, the renowned Embryologist from France, misunderstood, these stages do not correspond to three 40-day periods.

Embryogenesis recognizes the very same stages as in the following description adapted from the University of Maryland online medical encyclopedia:

http://www.umm.edu/ency/article/002398.htm

NUTFA – (Sperm-and-ovum drop) A single sperm penetrates the mother's egg cell (ovum) and the developing child gets half of its genetic information (in the form of DNA) from the mother (this is contained in the egg), and half from the father (from the sperm). The resulting single cell is called a zygote. The zygote spends the next few days traveling down the Fallopian tube and divides to form many attached cells. A ball of cells is produced, each cell including a copy of the genes that will guide the development of the baby. Once there are about 32 cells, the developing baby is called a morula. With additional cell division, the morula becomes an outer shell of cells with an attached inner group of cells. Now the developing baby is in the "blastocyst" stage. The outer group of cells will become the membranes that nourish and protect the inner group of cells which will become the embryo (the next stage for the future baby).

ALAQA – (A thing that clings) The blastocyst reaches the uterus at roughly the fifth day, and implants into the uterine wall on about day six. At this point in the mother's menstrual cycle, the endometrium (lining of the uterus) has grown and is ready to support a fetus. The blastocyst adheres tightly to the endometrium where it receives nourishment via the mother's bloodstream. During the time between implantation and the eighth week, the cells of what is now called the embryo not only multiply, but begin to take on specific functions. This process is called differentiation and is necessary to produce the varied cell types that make up a human being (such as blood cells, kidney cells, nerve cells, etc.).

MUDGHA – (A thing like chewed flesh) This is the "teeth-mark" or "masticated border" appearance of the human-formed fetus in the apt Qur'anic phrasing for the post-embryonic stage. The end of the eighth week marks the beginning of the "fetal period" and the end of the "embryonic period."

We might say that the terminology “nutfa-'alaqa-mudgha” roughly corresponds to the following sequence:

NUTFA = zygote/morula

ALAQA = blastocyst/embryo

MUDGHA = fetus.