| Pain, Pleasure and Prejudice The Complete Layman’s Guide to the Koran Where Babies Come From 32:6 That is the Knower of the Unseen and the Seen, the All-Mighty, the Merciful. 32:7 Who fashioned well everything He created, and originated the creation of man from clay. 32:8 Then He fashioned his progeny from an extract of fluid. 32:9 Then He shaped him well and breathed into him of His Spirit. He gave you hearing, sight and hearts. How little do you give thanks! Water, or fluid, is most often the base material from which Allah creates a human being in the womb with his or her three senses. 25:54 And it is He who created from water a human being, then he made him a kin by blood or marriage. Your Lord is All-Powerful. ---- 77:20 Have we not created them from base water? 77:21 That We laid in a secure place; 77:22 Until an appointed term. 77:23 We determined, and what excellent determiners were We! 77:24 Woe, on that Day (Judgement Day), betide those who denounce. 75:36 Does man think that he shall be left unattended? Yes, science tells us that life originated in the oceans and that without water life as we know it would not exist, but I do not believe that it is the insight offered by Allah. What is more likely is that Allah is referring to the water released from the rupture of the amniotic sac at the onset of labour. Of course, the “flowing water” in verse 86:6 was the medium in which the embryo developed after conception; the baby was actually created from the fusion of sperm and egg. 86:5 So let man consider what he was created from. 86:6 He was created from flowing water; Allah, as He tends to do when explaining internal human anatomy is somewhat vague as to the location of the amniotic sac and the source of the liquid it contains. 86:7 Emanating from what lies between the loins and the breast-bones. An example from the animal kingdom as to the Creator's difficulties in describing the inner workings of what He has created. 16:66 And there is, surely, a lesson for you in the cattle. We give you to drink of what is in their bellies, between the bowels and blood, pure milk which is palatable to the drinkers. In another series of verses Allah provides a bit more information as to conception and what comes after. 75:37 Was he not a drop of sperm released? 75:38 Then, he was a leech; then He created and fashioned (him); 75:39 Making him a couple, male and female. The previous three verses bare a remote resemblance to what actually happens if you ignore the role of a woman’s egg and the fact that the sex of an individual is decided at conception. Allah's understanding of what happens after conception becomes even more suspect in a verse where Allah says he created flesh which became bone which he covered with flesh, revelation 23:14. 23:12 We have created man from an extract of clay; 23:13 Then we placed him as a sperm in a secure place; 23:14 The we created out of the sperm a clot; then made from the clot a lump of flesh, then made the lump of flesh into bones; and then covered the bones with flesh; then fashioned him into another creation. So Blessed be Allah, the Best of Creators. There is no such stage when bones are formed first and coated with flesh. The fetus needs flesh to keep the newly formed heart beating in a closed environment. Bones come later. Remember, Islam is a product of the Dark Ages when much of the scientific discoveries of the Greek and Roman civilizations were temporally lost (including medical knowledge related to conception and gestation) and replaced by superstitions and conjecture. Islamic scholars often point to the word "clot" as proof that Allah knew more about conception then was known at the time of the Prophet (although not unknown to the Greeks of antiquity); that Allah was aware that babies developed from a fertilized egg, a zygote. They interpret “clot” to mean zygote. 96:1 Read, in the Name of your Lord, Who created: 96:2 He created man from a clot. To back up their argument they also point to verse 22:5 quoted in its entirety in How Adam Came to Be. 22:5 O people, if you are in doubt regarding the resurrection, We have indeed created you from dust, then from a sperm, then from a clot, then from a little lump of flesh, partly formed and partly unformed... Allah's "clot" appears to be a mutation of a man's sperm, which He has implanted in a woman's uterus (the "secure place" in verse 23:13), and from which He will fashion a fetus; bones first, sex later. Allah is obviously proud of the fluid He creates, which His revelations would indicate, is all that is required to achieve conception, if you don’t believe that “cloth” actually refers to a fertilized egg. 56:57 We have created you, if only you would believe! 56:58 Have you seen the semen you emit? 56:59 Do you create it, or are We the Creators? ---- 80:18 Of what did He create him? 80:19 Of a sperm, He created him and determined him. Some may have disputed that claim: 16:4 He created man from a sperm-drop and, behold, he is a professed disputant. 18:37 His companion said to him, while conversing with him: “Do you disbelieve in Him Who created you from dust, then from a sperm, then fashioned you into a man?” A Puzzling Revelation about Making Babies (Repeat from Muhammad Arbitrator of Scriptures) 3:27 “You cause the night to pass into the day, and the day to pass into the night. You bring forth the living from the dead and You bring forth the dead from the living, and You provide for whomever You please without measure.” A similar phrase “brings the living out of the dead” is also found in revelation 30:19. Here, Allah appears to be referring to dead vegetation – which of course is not really dead – which He brings back to life. 30:19 He brings the living out of the dead and He brings the dead out of the living. He brings the earth to life after it was dead, and you shall be brought out likewise. In another comparable affirmation, revelation 2:28, it is obvious that Allah is referring to a newborn infant when He reveals that you “you were dead and He brought you back to life”, and Judgement Day when, in the same revelation, He asserts that “He will cause you to die and bring you back to life again, then unto Him you will return.” The translator’s explanation for this confusing explanation for how life begins in the womb is that Allah, in His first claim of bringing the dead back to life, is referring to what he calls a “life-germ” that is “not living yet”, which Allah brings back to life, as if in the womb there is the equivalent of dead vegetation. 2:28 How can you disbelieve in Allah? You were dead (being a life-germ i.e. not living yet) and He brought you back to life (as a child); then He will cause you to die and then bring you back to life again; then unto Him you will return. “Life-germ” is used by M. Shakir in his translation instead of sperm e.g. 35:11 “And Allah created you of dust, then of the life-germ, then He made you pairs; and no female bears, nor does she bring forth, except with His knowledge; and no one whose life is lengthened has his life lengthened, nor is aught diminished of one's life, but it is all in a book; surely this is easy to Allah.” The sperm, or life-germ, is a living thing not a dead thing as implied by Fakhry’s attempted explanation of Allah’s confounding revelation that He brings people back to life twice. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In revelation 32:7 quoted at the beginning of Where Babies Come From, Allah describes His Eminence as He “Who fashioned well everything He created”. For Allah and His Messenger, a menstruating woman is impure; the impurity being the discharge of her unfertilized eggs. If the Prophet had been aware of the role a woman’s eggs and menstruation plays in the reproductive cycle, would Allah have considered her contaminated during her menses thereby admitting that the reproduction cycle of which He is so proud and which He closely controls is flawed. The reproduction cycle not only leads to the creation of a human being but to impurities (the bloody discharge of unfertilized eggs) of which He is responsible. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 51:49 And of everything, We have created a pair, that perchance you might remember. What about single-cell organisms that reproduce asexually i.e. no partners? What about asexual reproduction where there is no transfer of reproductive material from a male donor to a female “receptacle”? What about animals higher up the evolutionary ladder, such as the female whiptail lizard and other species who reproduce through pathogenesis (no males required). Science may have to revisit this entire asexual reproduction thing. And, as for living organisms that don't come in pairs, it has to be a mistake.
|
