Modern Discoveries of the Development of the Human Embryo Miraculously Resembles the Quranic Descriptions.

• Embryology is the branch of science that studies the development of the embryo in the mother's womb.

• Professor Keith L. Moore is the author of the book entitled “The Developing Human”. He is Professor Emeritus of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the University of Toronto, Canada, where he was Associate Dean of Basic Sciences at the Faculty of Medicine and the Chairman of the Department of Anatomy. He is the J.C.B. Grant Award from the Canadian Association of Anatomists. He also has other awards.

• Professor Moore said the following about the history of Embryology “…as far as we know, until the revelations in the Quran man was relatively ignorant about his reproduction and development. It was not until the invention of the microscope in the seventeenth century that any significantly new information were was added to the field of embryology”. Click here to see the video.

• Professor Moore said that “The conclusion of this study are that the terms which have been used in the Quran are very descriptive of developments which occur in the various stages and they describe these events in their chronological order. Morphological changes that occur with development in each stage are also accurately described by the use of these terms. Because the staging of human embryos is complex going through a continuous process of change during development. It is proposed that a new system of classification could be developed using the terms mentioned in the Quran and Sunnah. The proposed system is simple, comprehensive and conforms with present embryological knowledge. The facts about human development that could not have been known by Mohamed peace be upon him in the seventh century because most of them were not discovered until the 20^th century. Muslims and others are justified in concluding that these facts could only have been revealed to Mohamed peace be upon him by God who knows all about us, not only about how we develop, but how we live and function”. Click here to see the video

• Professor Moore said that “The early human embryo is of such a minute Size that detailed studies would have been impossible without the microscope. In the very early stages of human development the first few days it is so small that you could just barely see it. In other words, it is about the size of a period at the end of a sentence and you could realize how without our modern microscopes you would not be able to see any of those details of the early stages. Now as far as we know from the history of embryology, little was known about the staging and classification of human embryos until the las hundred years. Moreover the Quranic terminology fulfills the principles for nomenclature and terminology. For this region, the descriptions of the human embryos in the Quran cannot be based on scientific knowledge in the seventh century. The only reasonable conclusion is that these descriptions were revealed to Mohamed peace be upon him by God. He could not have known such details because he was an illiterate man. He was not a scientist of embryology and he did not have scientific training.” Click here to see the video.

• In Quran [23:12-14], “We did create the human from a clay product; Then we placed a drop of sperm (Nutfah) in a place firmly fixed; Then we made the sperm into a leach structure (‘Alaqah; Then of that leach we made a chewed-like structure; then we made out of that chewed-like structure bones and clothed the bones with flesh; then we developed out of it another form of creation”.

These verses from the Quran identifies the stages of pre-natal development as follows:

1. Nutfah, which means “a drop” or “small amount of water”

2. Alaqah, which means a “leech-like structure”. Professor Moore said “The similarity between the embryo and the leech is amazing. The embryo was attached to the wall of the chorionic sac… The human embryo is attached to the lining of the uterus just like a leech will attach to your skin and suck the blood. So, the analogy is quite amazing” Click here to see the video.

3. Mudghah, which means a “chewed-like structure”. Click here to see the video

4. Izam, which means “bones” or “skeleton”

5. Kasawna ul izam bil-laham, which means the clothing of bones with flesh or muscle

6. Al-nash'a which means “the formation of distinct fetus”.

· In Quran 76:2, “We created man from a drop of mingled fluid (nutfa amshaj)…” Dr. Moore said the following commenting on this verse “An important point with regard to this raised was the fact that nutfa is a singular noun while amshaj is a plural modifying adjective. According the conventional rule of grammar, singular nouns are normally modified by singular adjectives, and thus the term nutfa amshaj was a mystery to early Quranic scholars. However, this particularity in the language can now be explained since we now know that the zygote remains singular as a nutfa while internally the chromosomes and other contributions from the sperm and ovum form a plural mixture described as amshaj. Therefore, from a scientific point of view amshaj is entirely accurate as the plural adjective modifying the singular nufta, which is really a multif-faceted singled entity…” Click here to see the video

Related Materials:

• Click here to see the video “Question to Dr. Keith L. Moore: Are you are a Muslim?"

• Click here for a short video about the Islamic Edition of The Developing Human Book.

• Click here to download the paper “Human Embryology and the Holy Quran Paper”

• Click here to see the video “Quran on Embryology - Professor Keith L. Moore”