It is the journey of creation which Allah, the Almighty, ordered us to contemplate at, to realize …
it is the journey of creation which Allah, the Almighty, ordered us to contemplate at, to realize Allah’s blessing bestowed upon us and what beautiful when the believer lives submissively, even for seconds, when he sees the power of Allah is reflected in the creation of the fetus in his mother’s womb.
All praises to you Allah! Who created us in the most beautiful, most magnificent and best form, and granted us your blessings, the apparent and the hidden. You are more knowing of us than ourselves; you have talked to us in your glorious book saying: “He knows you well when He created you from the earth, and when you were fetuses in your mothers’ wombs. So ascribe not purity to yourselves. He knows best him who fears Allâh and keeps his duty to Him” (An Najm: 32). Oh Allah, we shall neither ascribe purity to ourselves nor to anyone else, as you are more knowing of our doings and more knowing of what fits our situation, so prepare for us a knowledge that gives us benefit and makes us closer to you.
Your wisdom required to create us from soil!! As if you are telling us not to become arrogant as the material that we were created from is the cheapest material on the Earth!! Then you made us a sperm that can not be seen and has no value and almost weightless! However, you have bestowed in this small cell the most complicated programs on the surface of the Earth so that this complication and proficiency will testify your power, your greatness and your creation…
We, our Lord, seek nothing except your mercy and there is nothing we love more than meeting you, as you have talked to us saying: “Whoever hopes for the Meeting with Allâh, then Allâh’s Term is surely coming and He is the All-Hearer, the All-Knower.” (Al Ankabut: 5). And we pray to you to make these scientific facts a mean to see through it your might reflected in ourselves: ” And also in your ownselves. Will you not then see?” (21: Az Zariyat). So, will you be satisfied with us? Oh The Eternal Owner of Sovereignty and The Creator of everything!
Dear brothers and sisters in Allah, this is an introduction I loved to start with to make sure that this science, namely the miracles of the Quran, is a way to know Allah, the Almighty. One brother told me once:
Why do you search in these sciences and waste your time??? I’m a believer in the Quran and in the message of Islam, and a believer in Allah, the Almighty, and I do not need proofs on this!
I said to him: my brother, what is the number of the verses of the Quran?
He said: this does not increase my belief then I said to him: what is the number of the chapters of the Quran?
He said: I do not remember, and it is not important.
I said to him: what is the meaning of (By the heaven full of paths)?
He said: this needs interpretation and I’m not specialized in it!
Then I asked him: what is the meaning of (A lying, sinful forelock!), (And you will see the mountains and think them solid), (Alif-Lâm-Mîm), and other questions which shows the extent of the believer’s heart attachment to the book of his Lord and the extent of his care to understand this Quran and meditate it, but he was replying and saying that these things are not necessary to increase the faith!
Then I asked him to tell me who is the prophet who said this supplication “O My Lord! Leave me not single (childless), though You are the Best of the inheritors.” he said: I don’t know, then I said: who is the prophet who said: ” I put my trust in Allâh, my Lord and your Lord! There is not a moving (living) creature but He has the grasp of its forelock”… and the answer was the same, these questions are not necessary and knowing it is not an obligation!
I said to him after that: you are completely ignorant of the Quran, and so you are a believer of something that you are unaware of, therefore you are a believer of the unknown! What will you say to Allah, the Almighty, who will ask you in the day of judgment about this Quran: “And verily this (the Qur’an) is indeed a Reminder for you (O Muhammad) and your people (Quraish people, or your followers), and you will be questioned (about it). ” (Az Zughruf: 44).
By Allah that anyone of us would be ashamed from a friend if he gifted him a book and asked him later if he read it, he would be ashamed to say I did not read it! Then, what will you say to Allah, the Almighty, when you stand between His hands without a veil between you and Him and Asks you: what did you do with this Quran, what did you learn from it? What services did you provide to this book which you claim that you love? Therefore, prepare yourself brother for these questions before that day comes, and do not think that you are better than Allah’s apostle Muhammad, peace be upon him, who was watching a whole single night meditating one verse: “If You punish them, they are Your slaves, and if You forgive them, verily You, only You, are the All-Mighty, the All-Wise” (Al Maeda: 118). So, how many times you thought to allot even an hour to meditate one verse of Allah’s verses!!!
I used to hear one Hadith saying: “one hour meditation is better than one year worship”, and I got astonished, but in deed I have realized that Allah, the Almighty Do not give rewards for the quantity of the doing but rather for the quality of it!
The companions of the prophet, peace be upon him, are many, and those who converted to Islam and were killed for the name of Allah shortly after they become Muslims, if we counted the number of the prayer units they did, we would find the few, but Allah, the Almighty made them with the prophets, pious, martyrs and righteous people because of a thing that we might see it simple but it is great in Allah’s count, it is the honesty with Allah: ” then if they had been true to Allah, it would have been better for them” (Muhammad: 21).
Honesty, sincerity and thinking well of Allah, all those do not need the action of the body organs, it is rather the action of the heart that does not need much time and effort, it is the result of meditation in Allah’s, the Almighty, creation and power.
I’d like to tell you that my faith a year ago, for example, was not as straight as today, due to the growing of my knowledge in Allah’s signs, Allah’s miracles and might.
The science of miracles of the Quran, my beloved brothers, is the best way in this time to realize anything from Allah’s greatness and power in his creation, and it is not enough to study the biography of the prophet, peace be upon him, without following it as example! I wonder from a person who claims that he applies the teachings of Quran and Sunnah, then when you ask him what are your information in Embryology?, he says: it is not obligation on me to learn such a science! And I say: then, when Allah addressed the human being saying: “So let man see from what he is created!” (Al Tariq: 5). I do not know who is intended in this appeal: the believer or the disbeliever?
And what does it mean? Should we set and wait without thinking, studying and meditating? Should we leave the non-Muslim western scientists to search, see and apply this verse practically in their labs, then say we are not concerned in this science!!
Therefore, my beloved ones, I will accompany you in a modest journey in the world of the creation of the embryo, so that we may become more faithful in Allah, the Almighty, and become more acquainted of the Ever Great Creator. And we shall use the language of pictures that the scientists had taken for embryos in their mother’s wombs from sperm till he gets out as a child, let us contemplate and praise Allah that He has honored us with these sciences.
-The scientists confirmed that one of the strangest phenomena in the nature is the creation of the human being! Where a single cell grows and become more than 100 trillion cells, how does this process take place, and who controls this specific program? Is it the nature, Or the Creator of the nature, the Almighty? As when the man realizes his origin, which is clay, then the almost unseen sperm, he becomes more humble and he gets rid of his pride and arrogance, He the Almighty says: “O man! What has made you careless about your Lord, the Most Generous?* who created you, fashioned you perfectly, and gave you due proportion* In whatever form He willed, He put you together” (Al infitar: 6-8). We see in the picture a large group of sperms surrounding the ovum but only one will penetrate the ovum and form the zygote in which the sperm is mixed with the ovum and will melt in it. Now, if we contemplate the chemical structure of the sperm or ovum, we will find that most of it is water, thus, Allah, the Almighty said: “So let man see from what he is created!* He is created from water gushing forth” (Al Tariq: 5-6). The sperms are competing and approaching the ovum trying to penetrate it, and the important question is who taught the sperm to follow this path in this darkness? Who guide it toward the ovum? He, the Almighty says: “Is then He, Who creates as one who creates not? Will you not then remember?” (Al Nahl: 17).
-The sperm, from which the man was created, is so small that it can not be seen by the naked eye, but the medical researches show that the secret of life is even smaller than this and it is present deep in this sperm, in the genetic tape, which is called DNA, as it has all the information needed to create a sane person.
He, the Almighty says: ” There after We made him (the offspring of Adam) as a Nutfah (mixed drops of the male and female sexual discharge and lodged it) in a safe lodging.” (Al Mu’minun: 13). The safe lodge is the mother’s womb; scientists say that the womb becomes one thousand times larger immediately after conception!! The head of the sperm contains all the information and systems needed to produce an embryo, He, the Almighty says: “And that He (Allah) creates the pairs, male and female* From Nutfah (drops of semen – male and female discharges) when it is emitted. (An Najm: 45-46).
-A three days embryo pictured by the electronic microscope!! And it is a cell that has divided into 8 cells, this group has the ability to divide and form more than 100 trillion cells! Who order this cell to divide, multiply and form a human being? The strangest about this matter is that the mother cell start dividing but does not produce the same cells, it produces diverse cells, some form the skin, and others form the bones, others for the brain, the eye cells, the heart cells…who inform these cells about their function duty at this degree of sophistication? Isn’t He, the Almighty, who says:
“He has created everything, and has measured it exactly according to its due measurements” (Al Furqan: 2).
After the entrance of the first sperm into the ovum, the ovum excretes immediately a substance that close its membrane in front of the other sperms, and after fertilization, the fertilized cell (the zygote) excretes HCG hormone, the hormone sensitized by the pregnancy test, this hormone orders the body to stop menstrual cycle and give the mother indications for the start of pregnancy.
30 hours after the entrance of the sperm into the ovum, the first cell division occurs and the cell starts to multiply forming the zygote after approximately four days.
The size of this cell is much less than the head of the pin, it can merely seen or mentioned, thus, He, the Almighty says: “Has there not been over man a period of time, when he was not a thing worth mentioning? Verily, we have created man from Nutfah (drops) of mixed semen (sexual discharge of man and woman), in order to try him: so we made him hearer and seer”. (Al Insan: 2).
-After the fusion of the sperm with the feminine ovum, the divisions start directly, then the zygote move and adhere to the wall of the uterus, therefore, Allah, the Almighty says:
“It is He, Who has created you (Adam) from dust, then from a Nutfah [mixed semen drops of male and female sexual discharge (i.e. Adam’s offspring)] then from a clot (a piece of coagulated blood)” (Gaffir: 67). The zygote is transformed into completely different form called the clot, which is a group of cells that try to be attached to the lining of the uterus in almost 6-12 days and it chooses the best place in it! Scientists are confused: what made this mass of cells attached to the lining of the uterus and nourish from it?!
-After that, the embryo is converted into what looks like a piece of chewed meat, therefore, the Quran had talked about this phase as He Almighty says:
“then from a little lump of flesh – some formed an d some unformed (as in the case of miscarriage) – that We may make (it) clear to you (i.e. to show you Our Power and Ability to do what We will). And We cause whom We will to remain in the wombs for an appointed term” (Al Hajj:5).
At this stage, the important systems are being created like the nervous system, the heart and the brain, and some of the features start to appear, the heart starts to beat and many of the systems like the respiratory system, the kidneys, the liver start growing rapidly!
-At this stage, bone formation begins, from the sixth to the eighth week, bone formation and growth continues even after delivery, He, the Almighty, says: “then we made out of that little lump of flesh bones”. What confuse scientists is: how do these cells know that they have to be transformed into bones specifically at this time?
- A fetus at the age of 7-8 weeks, on it is the starts of the flesh stage in which the bones are coated with muscles. At the beginning of the eighth week the muscles start moving, the formation of the skin layers that cover the body also begin.
Look with me at His, the Almighty saying: “Look at the bones, how we bring them together and clothe them with flesh”. (Al Baqara: 259).
The height of the fetus now is less than 3 cm, at this stage the muscles start to develop and cover the bones, this stage stay for long time and interfere with the next stage, namely the bone stage. He, the Almighty, says: “then we clothed the bones with flesh”.
As for the placenta, it nourishes the fetus with oxygen, food and liquid, does not permit the passage of the harmful compounds, and produces hormones that regulate the fetus temperature, scientists say that the placenta provides care to the fetus better than any intensive care unit, praises to Allah!
-At this stage, the fetus is getting his final features, the limbs, the eyes, the ears and the rest of the body organs, motion and electrical activity of the heart begin, the brain is very complicated and equals half the body’s weight. After that, the functions are sum of growing and completion of the organs creation which goes until the end of the pregnancy, thus, He, the Almighty says: “and then we brought it forth as another creation”. (Al Mu’minum).
Finally, there are many queries that we have to ask and meditate, and even to answer it:
-how can a single cell develop in such an amazing way to produce a highly sophisticated creature like the human being?
Who inform these cells to do what they have to do?
Who coordinate their functions without any error?
Who guide this fetus in his journey to the life?
No doubt, that He is Allah, the Almighty, who says: “Our Lord is He Who gave to each thing its form and nature, then guided it aright.” (Taha: 50). We ask you Allah to gain us more knowledge and action with that knowledge, and to make us from those whom you said about: “and when His Verses (this Qur’an) are recited unto them, they (i.e. the Verses) increase their Faith; and they put their trust in their Lord (Alone)”. (Al Anfal: 2).
References:
1- Carlson, Bruce M. Human Embryology and Developmental Biology, 2nd ed. New York: Mosby, 1999.
2- Gilbert, Scott F. Developmental Biology, 3rd ed. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, Inc., 1991.
3- Moore, Keith L., and T. V. N. Persaud. Before We Are Born: Essentials of Embryology and Birth Defects, 5th ed. Philadelphia, PA: W. B. Saunders, Co., 1998.
4- Embryo, Wikipedia.
5- The Biology of Prenatal Development, www.ehd.org.
6- Vaughn, C. How Life Begins: the science of life in the womb. New York: Times Books, 1996.
7- The Visible Embryo, www.visembryo.com
8- Larsen, W. Human Embryology. New York: Churchill Livingston Co. 1993.
9- Horder, T.J. and others. A History of Embryology, Cambridge University, Press, 1986.
10- Balinsky, B.I. An Introduction to Embryology, SCP, 1981.
11- Moore, P.D. Embryology, Mosby, 1986.
12- Gilbert, Stephen. Pictorial Anatomy of the Human Embryo, University, of Wash. Press, 1988.
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