Assalamu alaikum peace be unto you. That’s another episode of Islam infocus I’m your host Time Machine. Today we’re having our 19th program in our series again with the sources of the Quran. We’ll be discussing the Quran in modern science. I have joining me as usual on the program, Dr. Jamal battery of St. Mary’s University Baba Jamal Assalamu alaikum Polycom sin Allah. But I haven’t very quickly highlight the main points that we touched on last week. Okay, last week, we continue to examine some of the natural phenomena, which was discovered by science only hundreds of years after the Quran was revealed. More specifically, we talked about the role of mountains in stabilizing the
Earth’s crust, that they actually add stakes as the Quran refers to it. You talked about the movements of the shadow, and how the Quran makes a clear reference to the rotation of the earth. And we talked briefly also about the undersea with something that wasn’t known that clearly that being layers upon layers,
some discussion also took place with respect to the vegetation kingdom, more specifically on the ecological balance, the process of fertilization in plants, and the process of germination or the splitting of the seed, when they are placed in the, in the soil. You mentioned also something pertaining to the animal kingdom, and what the Quran frequently refers to, especially in reference to the elements living in communities.
That that is, for example, in sort of sixth in the Quran, and indicated that hundreds of years before the systematic observation and analysis of animal behavior, the Quran was speaking about this amazing phenomena, we tried to give a few examples of what the Quran mentioned. And again, in the light of our modern understanding, particularly with respect to the bees, and the spider, the ants and the organization in their community. And we said basically, that all of these are just additional illustrations, in addition to what was covered in previous programs, which may help answer the question as to what is the true source of the Quran? Where did it actually come from?
Well, they before we move on to some discussion of human reproduction in the Quran, I’d like to examine two more areas on the first has to do with the with the birds.
Is there anything that relates to recent discoveries? That’s mentioned in the Quran with respect to birds? Yes, indeed, action. If you recall, in the last program, we just made a quick reference. And that we said that not only does the Quran speak about, you know, specific
animals in general, but also specific things have been frequently mentioned. Yes, indeed. First, we’ve made it to a citation that we made last time from sort of six in background, that there is no
element that walks on pears, or bird that flies with wings, except that they are
communities like you, we discussed last time with ants and bees. And the same thing also have been observed by scientists with respect to birds, especially when they take a journey and there is almost like a leader in some certain formation, just like the formation of aircraft when they are, you know, going in submission. This is very amazing type of organization. But in addition to this, there’s something that is quite fascinating about birds and the Quranic reference to that too.
For example, in Surah, 16, and in Surah, 76.
In both citations, there are references to the divine orders again that the birds follow, that only Allah holds them that there are certain laws or certain
pattern that keeps them flying and performing the functions
and
In the light of modern science today, we can understand the passages more clearly now, we are taught by scientists that many species of birds have a very high degree, amazing degree, in fact, of programming of their movements.
And this has been noted, particularly in the migratory birds. And the scientists say that in the genetic code
of these birds, which exist in their cells, and which is particularly active in the nervous cells, there is a complete and complex program, if you will, which guide those birds in very lengthy chips.
The thing that really amazed scientists is the fact that many times small birds that never had any experience in traveling long distance or flying that long,
without any guides, to show them the way, they go through very lengthy and very complex steps, and they just wonder how even pilot sometimes with all sophisticated computers sometimes make mistakes, and there’s navigation, how come this small dogs have all this kind of directives to follow a specific, precise path.
Some scientists refer particularly to
the modern bird, which lives in the Pacific. And they say that it makes a trip that sometimes extend to 15 1500 sorry, 15,500 miles, just about over 15,000 miles. And it flies are next all that trip in a specific shape like eight.
As Dr. Bach a comment on this, he say that it is obvious then that there are detailed and complex instructions, if you will,
which are found in the nervous sense of those birds, just like we talked today about computer programming, they have a program that guides them precisely on the proper course. And all of these things
tend to be quite a long time ago.
Before we move on,
to reproduction, is there any other comments that you’d like to add on the animal kingdom, when there’s something that pertains to animal kingdom, but it relates also to the human so perhaps that’s a good connecting link between the two areas, the question of the production of the milk
and mammals all
together, which applies to both really because the idea is basically the same.
And let me start by referring to what the Quran says about that. In Surah 16 in is 66 in the Quran, Allah says when della concrete and hannula Hydra muskie come in Africa, there is an element of castles, Allah says, there is a lesson for you. He then says we give you to drink. That is a thing to me, of what is inside their bodies, coming from a conjunction between the contents of the understanding and the blood and milk pure and pleasant for those who drink it. Now before we explain it, I think a few comments on the specific translation would be justifiable. This is the translation suggested by Mrs. Barclay.
First of all, the Quran says that the initial production of that milk comes from butanna the word in Arabic means balance, but it could also mean interior of the body doesn’t have to be the belly itself could mean the interior of the body.
And this has been a mistake that some translator fell into and just translated automatically as Venice interior actually is also a proper meaning of button.
Secondly, it says that this blood come from a conjunction of fats in Arabic and first in Arabic means the content of the inter Stein. See, some people have translated that more specifically as experiment which is not a very accurate one as bouquet comments. But actually, search also means the contents of the understanding.
Now, the question here is this. How does modern science help us to understand what is the secret of that expression in the Quran, that demand comes at this conjunction between the content of the understanding and the blood and basically, when the animal or the human eats, the food that we eat goes through a series of chemical transformation which occur along the entire digestive tract.
Now, when the food substance rich dentist signs they pass through, it’s one
Our walls I should say, towards the what is called the systemic circulation, blood circulation.
The passage of this digestive fluid, if you will, it can take place either through through the portal circulation, which takes it first to the livers and then back to circulation, or it could go directly through the so called lymphatic vessels. In other words, to put it simply, everything, every nutrient from the digested food actually passes eventually through the bloodstream or the circulatory system. Now, how does that relate to the formation of milk? Now, the constituents of milk are in fact secreted by certain glands, in the mammals, which is called mammary glands, Romulans, none of these glands that produce that milk are actually nourished by the product of
digestion. And the product of digestion, as you know, comes originally from the contents of dentist time, and is credited to those glands through the blood or the bloodstream. In that sense, then we can see that the blood acts as the collectors and conductors of this nutrition, nutrients and taking it to the ground so that the milk eventually gets secreted.
Now the pain doctor, okay, comments on this discoveries, and he said that these are very recent ones, they are only understood in the light of modern chemistry and the physiology of digestion. And it was, as you say, totally unknown in the seventh century of the Common Era, that’s at the time of the revelation of the Quran. And that’s why I suppose, for example, that the, even the notion of the circulatory system was discovered by Harvey, about 1000 years after the, the revelation of the Quran. And that’s why he concludes in page 197, in his book, and he says, I quote, I consider that the existence in the Quran of the verse referring to these concepts, that the formation of milk can
have no human explanation on account of the time or an account of the period in which they were formulated.
It’s just strike. Striking it unbelievable that such kind of delicate and very scientific and scientific expression
appears in the Quran that only men again, the question, Where did the Quran come from?
Well, let me turn now to another interesting area, and that’s the area of human reproduction. Could you give us an idea of the extent of chronic coverage on this particular subject.
In fact, there are a quite a few passages in the Quran that deal with the human reproduction being Of course, an important topic in itself.
And
the casual observer, who would not just open the Quran and look for a chapter on human reproduction
is not a textbook in medicine or chemistry or anything else. It has its own style.
Like many other topics in the Quran, you find the mention of any particular topic dispersed are interspersed, I should say, it comes in different contexts in different ways of presentation, depending on the context, because the purpose behind it is different from the purpose of
certain textbooks. However, we notice also that in many of the translations of the Quran, and in some cases, even exegesis or in commentaries,
there were some lack of accuracy in conveying the meaning that
is really put in the text. That’s why in presenting this concepts, we’ve tried to stop whenever it is necessary to analyze the origin of the words and to make sure again, that there is no problem with translation or with the commentary which were based commentaries, which were based on the level of understanding of the commentator, but not the text, necessarily,
from the Quran.
That is, indeed, like I said, it’s
amazing to notice that the Quran has dealt with varieties of subjects that only were understood in recent decades, from the late 19th century on
whatever time some are very recent even. And that the description is very server,
even though it puts it in a simpler way so that everybody can understand that very server. It’s free from any of the myths and mistakes that were common at the time of the revelation of the Quran, or even afterwards. And that includes a variety of things includes things like the formation of the of the sex organs, the functions of the uterus, how the uterus is protected.
The process of fertilization and the fact that both male and female contribute to the process,
the inferior logical stages, and many other things that were not known until very late, there are a couple of very useful references to that. One is the volume that we refer to before by Dr. Maurice bouquet in the Bible, the Quran in science. The other is another equally interesting book, which goes into greater depth, specifically on the issue of human reproduction. And related to the Quran, by Dr. Mohammed Albert, unfortunately, still available only in Arabic is a beautiful book also says like the creation of the human between the medicine and the Quran in Arabic, that’s the meaning of the title. So both of these, we will be using and referring to the bottle from throughout the
discussion, this topic of
what was believed about the Abode embryology before recent discoveries,
right. I’m not even going to go back, for example, to Aristotle, who had a very strange idea, that
example that the fetus, or the embryo is actually formed from the ministration blood and that the human sperm only act as a site like the enzyme, for example, act on the cheese, or milk, the nicotine is agenda as a catalyst. I’m not even going to go back that far. But in fact, you can even refer to many of the myths about human reproduction, which existed, and persistent hundreds of years, even after the revolution of the Quran, while the Quran actually did make correction to these things, and we’ll see that but as an example of this, as bouquet mentioned, for example, that
only in 1651, that had we discovered our next statement, which was really a very new thing in the study of embryology, when he said that all life comes initially from an egg.
Dr. Albert gives additional details also on that subject and just trying to abstract and give some basic notions. He says that it was not until 1673 talking in the 17th century, that it was discovered
that there is the ovum and there is the sperm, human sperm. But even then, the scientists were not quite clear as to what role they play in the process of human reproduction. In fact, they did not even understand or realize that the sperm and the egg are both sense just like other cells in the body, even though they are special cells, but they are sense in the body. Because the notion of cells being the biological base of the human body was not known until 1839.
It was only in the towards the end of the 17th century, in 1694, that a theory was very common,
which holds that the embryo exists in a miniature form inside the sperm.
And this is an illustration of that is just like the head of the sperm and here is the the miniature human being inside.
In 1745, another theory which existed before re emerged, which claim that the sperm has no role in the formation of the embryo is not not that important role. And in fact, they believe that inside the egg not inside the sperm inside the female egg, there is the
human being again or fetus
during the 18th century, another equally strange myth, and he will talk about 18th century is that the Quran was built in the seventh century.
It says that the ovaries of Eve were supposed to be our support itself
should have or should have had in her ovaries, the seeds of all human beings, all of them all human is packed together, one inside the other. So just the process of this a feeling if you will.
It was only actually in the towards the end of the 19th century that it was possible to actually observe how the sperm fertilizes the human egg and if we review what the Quran says hundreds of years before that
Some some sometimes 1000 years or more before this discovery is, one could not help but being really astonished and I’m sure those who are a specialist and they appreciate this, they perhaps be more established in them an average viewer audience, or could be turned down into some discussion of what the crown did have to say about human reproduction?
Well, let’s take first the issue that appears in Surah 86. In the Quran, particularly entire six and seven. It says a young girl in Santa Monica Hola, hola, camino de la, Sol de otra, which means that let the human look or examine of what is he created. He was that is the human sessioned from a liquid poured out which issues from between the spawn column and the ribs.
Now before explaining that, I’d like to give a couple of remarks as I promised earlier with respect to the wording, the translation from Arabic to English.
Now, the last part of that verse, it says that the poor or the poor liquid,
which contribute to the fashioning of the humans, comes from between the spinal column and the ribs.
There are two key words in Arabic which appear in that citation. One is some.
And so base properly translated spinal cord because it’s not a slather region, that’s the spinal cord. So our spine is no different than that. The word torah in Arabic
as Dr. Barr for example, refers and uses some of the old Arabic poetry does not refer only to women, as some people understood, but it’s a very simply to read lips.
Because some people misunderstood that in the past, and they translate mistranslated or misunderstood the idea of the citation to mean that the the human is special from something that issues from the backs of men and the chests of women.
And that is erroneous also on the basis of the structure of the sentence. Because the the text of the passage in the Quran does not say that it comes from the spine and the ribs. It says invade from between. And that is why Dr. Abadi fails, for example to some of the old
commentators on the Quran. Like the hustle and bustle, one of the older commentators in the Quran A long time ago, did not understand it, like some people misunderstood it. But he said diversity is maintained from inbetween, which means that it is something that comes from in between the spinal cord and the rest of the men and the spinal cord, and the rest of the woman which is the more appropriate to giving the structure etymological structure of the sentence, etc. Now, the question that might arise here
is that
according to modern science, this area between the spinal cord or spinal column, and that is actually the area which is very crucial in the formation and nourishment of the crucial sex organs, both male and female.
to perhaps elaborate a little bit more on this last point, that is the what happens in this area, this region between the spine and the ribs? Okay. Well, there are two explanation two related explanations to that.
For example, in the doctor and birds book, we find a number of interesting illustrations.
In one
photograph, we see a comparison between the formation initial formation of the human or the male testicle and the female ovaries.
And it can be easily seen that
in the left hand side
picture, photograph, it shows the initial stages of the testicles of a male, the other one, on the other side is in the ovaries of a female, both of them are six weeks old.
It might be noted here that both of them look almost identical. They’re very similar, almost identical, I should say. And it’s very difficult to really make any distinction between them except for a specialist who can really examine
and the second
set of photographs we have to again and this shows the development
Have the human testicle, have an embryo, which is about four months old. And then
in the other pictures on the other side, you see the testicle after it has already developed
at the age of seven months, that’s what he said about the fetal or the illogical stage. And
in that pictures, it’s, it shows clearly how the testicle at that period
gets or moves to the lower abdomen.
And then in this third set of fractures, we see the ovaries
a female, the first one is an ovary of a female in the second month, that is in the embryo logical stage. The other one is on the seventh months. Again, the basic outline or the basic features of the reproductive function seem to be crystallizing in that photograph. For example, we notice here the ovaries and the fallopian tubes and the letters.
What this means altogether, really is that the crucial reproductive organs of both the male and female begin initially or begin their development in the kidney region, which is the middle between the middle of the spinal cord in the face of the lower lips, see the accuracy of description here that in between the spinal cord and the ribs, the lower part of the lips and the middle of the the spinal cord. That’s what exactly the Quran mentions. That’s one explanation insofar as the initial formation of the of the testicles and the ovaries.
That another equally important explanation also that explained why the passage in the Quran ties between this area and the reproductive function is the fact that even after the baby’s born, when the baby stopped growing,
the nourishment that is received by the ovaries, as well as the testicles, actually comes also from the same regions from the so called our staff, or iosa. That comes again from that area. In addition to this, the nerves also that supply both the testicles and the ovaries, again come from the same area, as you know, physician safe comes between the 11th and 12th. Rep.
And this is again the same kind of area that the Quran refers to between the spinal cord of the spinal column. And
now, the fact that we can easily understand today, given our modern information on sciences and the embryology that what is really meant by between the spinal cord and the leg is not much of a big deal. But definitely it is most astonishing that this reference would be made more than 1000 years before this was even discovered. pretty striking. I think we have to close off at this point because we’re getting signals that our time for today has, has gone very interesting program report next week’s program. We want to thank you for watching, but you’re back next week. Assalamu alaikum. Peace be unto you
