It is not an strange- indeed - to find evry solutions to all insolubles in the verses of holy Quran. Matching new discoveries in all apects of human knowldge with the Quranic verses reveals the power of an Omniscient, almighty creator, the one who already knows every thing. As a fine example of these wonderful issues is the quality of human creation, the one that God let us to know centuries ago by descending the holy Quran. Adopted from the book “ Commentary on Du`¡’ Kumayl “ by Ayatollah Ansareyan, the present article interprets the story of human creation and the quality of creation by taking into account the wise Quranic facts and verses.
Human; the Noblest Inhabitant of the World
Having created the world, providing the necessary equipment and sustenance, the Omnipotent willed to create a notable being, composed of body, soul, mind, heart and temper, out of Mercy. He placed man as His vicegerent on earth, to grow and gain strength by the blessings He has supplied; to live in accord with the guidance of prophets and their books, and to worship the Creator and serve His fellow creatures. The man then is transferred to the Hereafter by death, and is granted his recompense in the eternal paradise, remaining in Allah’s Mercy forever. Here we review the signs of Allah’s Mercy embracing human apparent and interior sides.
Different Stages in the Creation of Man
The holy Qur’¡n has considered the creation of human fetus as happening in stages:
وَقَدْ خَلَقَكُمْ أَطْوَارًا.
When He created you by (diverse) stages? (71:14)
The first Stage: Soil
وَلَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الإِنسَانَ مِنْ سُلالَةٍ مِنْ طِينٍ.
We created man of an extraction of clay. (23:12)
The human embryo is the product of various foods, coming from animals and plants. The plants feed the animals and are fed by the soil. As a result, human embryo is made from the earth. The latest scientific findings show that the chemical elements found in earth, such as iron, copper, calcium, iodine, etc. exist in human body. Humans constantly obtain the extracts of chemicals present in the earth by feeding from animals and plants, and reproduce.
The Second Stage: Water
وَهُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ مِنْ الْمَاءِ بَشَرًا.
And He it is Who created man from water… (25:54)
To biologists, human body resembles a sponge soaked in water. The body of a seventy-kilogram person is composed of fifty liters of water, and this ratio is fixed for all people. If a person loses twenty percent of his body water, he will not recover again.
The water inside human cells includes a large amount of potassium, and totally lacks salt. The water outside the cells, on the other hand, has much salt. The composition of water outside the cells is exactly the same as that of the water in which the first living beings resided millions of years ago. Later on, when the water beings came to the land, they practically carried away the water they lived in, since they could not continue life without it. This is the miracle of Qur’¡n which fourteen decades ago, in an illiterate desert society without scientific tools, stated:” It is He who created man from water.”
The Third Stage: Alaq
خَلَقَ الإِنسَانَ مِنْ عَلَقٍ.
He Createth man from a clot. (96:2)
“Alaq” lexically means a worm or leech that sticks to the womb. Spermatozoids are now observable by microscope and are seen as a plethora of floating leeches, which stick to the womb.
The amount of spermatozoid is about four cubic centimeters, in each centimeter of which there are one hundred to two hundred million leech-like beings. They move toward Ovule, the female cell, together.
The ovary of a young woman contains about three million unripe ovums, four hundred of which get ripe. During menstruation, the bag containing the ovums is cracked, and the ovums go through a pipe that connects the ovary to the womb. The movement of the pipe’s trembling lashes facilitates the transfer of the ovums to the womb.
The fourth Stage: Creation from a Despised Fluid
ثُمَّ جَعَلَ نَسْلَهُ مِنْ سُلَالَةٍ مِنْ مَاءٍ مَهِينٍ.
Then He made his progeny from a draught of despised fluid. (32:8)
When the leech-like sperms floating in the male semen reach the womb they suddenly start a strange competition. The two hundred million sperms engaging in this competition rush toward the ovum and they soon surround it. Seen under microscope, the sperms whose tails move resemble a meadow that waves with the breeze. Each sperm tries to be the first to enter the ovum. As soon as one of them succeeds in doing so, its tail is cut and the entrance spot becomes inflamed. The ovum’s protoplasm gets contracted and emits a liquid to keep other sperms away from entering it. Consequently, from among two hundred million male sperms, only one mingles with the female ovum and thus human is created. Sometimes, by Allah’s will, two or more sperms enter the ovum and then a twin fetus is produced in the woman womb.
The Fifth Stage: Amshaj (the Zygote)
إِنَّا خَلَقْنَا الإِنسَانَ مِنْ نُطْفَةٍ أَمْشَاجٍ.
Verily We created Man from a drop of mingled sperm… (76:2)
To create a human being, an ovum (a white seed) should catch a sperm, which is two hundred and fifty times smaller than the ovum. Then the chromosomes of the sperm, which have been divided by half, mingle with the chromosomes of the ovum and generate a new being; the zygote, which Qur’¡n calls amshaj (mingled).
The ovum and the sperm cannot continue life even in the best conditions and they soon die, except that they mingle together and produce the zygote. After this process, the zygote begins dividing; first it is divided into two, then becomes four, eight, etc. and finally makes a cell mass.
The Sixth Stage: the Shaping of the Fetus
هُوَ اللَّهُ الْخَالِقُ الْبَارِئُ الْمُصَوِّرُ لَهُ الأَسْمَاءُ الْحُسْنَى.
He is Allah the Creator the Evolver the Bestower of Forms. To Him belong the Most Beautiful Names. (59:24)
After the completion of cells, which are the building blocks for the fetus, a large mass of cells is placed in the womb to start growing the fetus.
First, under the light of Allah’s Mercy, these countless cells separate from each other to shape various organs; the cells of brain, eye, ear, etc. chase their fellow-cells to develop the different body parts, this way the fetus body is shaped by the cells.
The small ball on the left of the fetus is its nutrition source. This ball, floating in blood, obtains from blood the extract of food, water, and oxygen provided by the digestion and respiratory systems, and transfers them to the fetus through navel. This is Allah’s Mercy that embraces everything and the signs of it are brighter than sun in every molecule of His creation.
The Seventh Stage: Placing the fetus in Three Veils
يَخْلُقُكُمْ فِي بُطُونِ أُمَّهَاتِكُمْ خَلْقًا مِنْ بَعْدِ خَلْقٍ فِي ظُلُمَاتٍ ثَلاثٍ.
…He makes you in the wombs of your mothers in stages one after another in three veils of darkness… (39:6)
Three veils gradually embrace the fetus; the amnion veil, the chorion veil, and the allantoids veil. The amnion is a veil generated by the growing of fetus outer surface. It expands until it makes a space called the amnion cavity behind the fetus in which there is a pure fluid.
The Chorion veil is out of the amnion veil and helps protect the fetus.
The allantoids veil is before the fetus belly and is responsible for digestion and absorption of food. These three veils save the fetus from the air, light, water, wind, and possible strikes. In the space between the amnion veil and the fetus, there is a fluid. When a strike is made to the womb, it is transferred to this liquid and becomes neutral in it. This is Allah’s Mercy toward the human fetus.
The Eighth Stage: Breathing Spirit
ثُمَّ أَنشَأْنَاهُ خَلْقًا آخَرَ.
… and then produced it another creation. So blessed be Allah, the Best of Creators! (23:14)
Having accomplished the shaping of the fetus, which is the sign of Allah’s Power and many facts about which are still unknown, Allah breathes spirit into the fetus that is a sophisticated process in itself. He wills to miraculously transform the fetus, breathe His spirit into it, and make it alive. This is the time when the fetus learns to put its finger inside the mouth. That’s why the newly born can feed from his/her mother’s breast immediately after birth.
The Ninth Stage: Birth
وَاللَّهُ أَخْرَجَكُمْ مِنْ بُطُونِ أُمَّهَاتِكُمْ.
It is He who brought you forth from the wombs of your mothers… (16:78)
The story of childbirth is one of the most fascinating processes occurring in the creation system. The fetus that have lived in the dark, quiet and pleasantly warm womb for nine months, now, by Allah’s Mercy, enters an atmosphere quite different from the previous one. Allah has granted it all capabilities to cope with the new environment. The child leaves the mother womb with a temperature of 37 degrees centigrade and enters another milieu with a more or less temperature, but it copes with the new setting. This survival is still a mystery in medicine. The child goes from darkness to the light and its delicate eyes tolerate the dazzling light of the outside world. It comes from a wet place to a dry one, but it immediately copes with the new situation. As a fetus, it was fed through the navel, and now it eats through the mouth and breathes the air with no mediator!
source : a commentary on Kumayl Supplication
