Short answer
The Qur'an says a child grows in stages. It begins as a drop mixed from both parents, which settles in a safe place. It becomes an alaqah, a thing that clings. That becomes a mudghah, a small lump that looks chewed, partly formed and partly unformed. Then come bones, clothed with flesh, all within three veils of darkness. The first stages fit what embryologists see. In its first weeks the embryo clings to the wall of the womb. Soon after, it is a curved lump a few millimetres long, ridged along its back. The Qur'an is not teaching medicine here; it gives signs. Just as telling is what it leaves out. The Greek medicine of the time taught a two-horned womb and a child fed on menstrual blood. The Qur'an repeats none of it. Islam teaches that this is a sign of where the Qur'an comes from.
Full explanation
The stages in the Qur'an
The Qur'an uses three ordinary Arabic words. A nutfah is a drop. An alaqah is something that clings or hangs. The same word is used for a leech and for a clot. Yusuf Ali, whose translation this site uses, renders it "clot" and "leech-like clot". This page goes by the root meaning of the word, to cling or hang. A mudghah is a lump the size of a mouthful, as if chewed. Elsewhere the Qur'an calls the drop mingled, from both parents. It also says the child is made in stages within three veils of darkness. The embryo does cling to the wall of the womb in its first weeks. Soon after, the ridges along its back look like the marks of teeth in something chewed. That is the picture mudghah gives.
“Man We did create from a quintessence (of clay); Then We placed him as (a drop of) sperm in a place of rest, firmly fixed; Then We made the sperm into a clot of congealed blood; then of that clot We made a (foetus) lump; then we made out of that lump bones and clothed the bones with flesh; then we developed out of it another creature. So blessed be Allah, the best to create!”
“O mankind! if ye have a doubt about the Resurrection, (consider) that We created you out of dust, then out of sperm, then out of a leech-like clot, then out of a morsel of flesh, partly formed and partly unformed, in order that We may manifest (our power) to you; and We cause whom We will to rest in the wombs for an appointed term, then do We bring you out as babes, then (foster you) that ye may reach your age of full strength; and some of you are called to die, and some are sent back to the feeblest old age, so that they know nothing after having known (much), and (further), thou seest the earth barren and lifeless, but when We pour down rain on it, it is stirred (to life), it swells, and it puts forth every kind of beautiful growth (in pairs).”
“Verily We created Man from a drop of mingled sperm, in order to try him: So We gave him (the gifts), of Hearing and Sight.”
“He created you (all) from a single person: then created, of like nature, his mate; and he sent down for you eight head of cattle in pairs: He makes you, in the wombs of your mothers, in stages, one after another, in three veils of darkness. such is Allah, your Lord and Cherisher: to Him belongs (all) dominion. There is no god but He: then how are ye turned away (from your true Centre)?”
A standard medical textbook of human embryology. It describes the embryo in the third week implanted in the wall of the womb and attached within its fluid-filled sac by a connecting stalk, and the embryo in the fourth week as a curved form a few millimetres long with paired somites showing along its back.
Nutfah: a drop
A drop mingled from both parents, settled in a safe place.
Alaqah: what clings
The word means something that clings or hangs.
Mudghah: a lump
A lump the size of a mouthful, as if chewed, partly formed and partly unformed.
Bones, then flesh
The bones are made, then clothed with flesh.
In three veils of darkness
All of it happens in stages, in darkness.
What embryologists see
In the third week the embryo is implanted in the wall of the womb. It hangs within its fluid-filled sac by a connecting stalk, and it is only a millimetre or two long. By about 28 days it is a curved lump roughly 4 mm long. Along its back runs a row of ridges, the somites, which are the blocks of tissue that become the spine and muscles. Some structures are already shaped and others are not.
A standard medical textbook of human embryology. It describes the embryo in the third week implanted in the wall of the womb and attached within its fluid-filled sac by a connecting stalk, and the embryo in the fourth week as a curved form a few millimetres long with paired somites showing along its back.
A university embryology resource with photographs of human embryos from the Carnegie Collection, arranged by developmental stage. Stage 13 (about four weeks, roughly 4-6 mm) shows the curved embryo with its row of somites along the back.
What the physicians of the age taught
The idea that an embryo forms in stages was already in the world. Aristotle, a Greek philosopher of the fourth century BCE, and Galen, a Greek physician of the second century CE, both wrote about it. But the learned teaching came with errors. Galen's word ruled medicine from the second century to the seventeenth. He described a womb with two horns. Greek medicine placed boys on the right of the womb and girls on the left. It taught that the child is made from the mother's menstrual blood, and fed on it. Greek medical works that go under the name of Hippocrates held that a child born in the eighth month dies.
Galen's short anatomy of the womb, drawn largely from the dissection of animals, which describes the human uterus as having two horns.
A history of embryology from antiquity to the eighteenth century. It sets out the Greek and Galenic teaching that the embryo is formed from and nourished by the mother's menstrual blood, and the ancient view that males develop on the right side of the womb and females on the left.
A treatise in the Hippocratic collection holding that a child born in the seventh month can live but a child born in the eighth month cannot. The belief passed into later Greek medicine.
Aristotle's work on reproduction. He teaches that the mother contributes only the matter of the child, which is her menstrual blood, while the father's semen contributes the form and does not become part of the embryo's body.
| Greek medicine | The Qur'an |
|---|---|
| A womb with two horns | Says nothing of it |
| Boys on the right of the womb, girls on the left | Says nothing of it |
| The child made from the mother's menstrual blood | A mingled drop, from both parents |
| A child born in the eighth month dies | Says nothing of it |
What the Qur'an leaves out
The Qur'an repeats none of those errors. It has no two-horned womb, no right and left, no menstrual blood as food, and no doomed eighth-month child. It never says the child is made from the mother's menstrual blood, as Greek medicine taught. It says the child comes from a mingled drop, from both parents. The drop settles and clings, and becomes a lump. Bones and flesh follow, and all of it happens in darkness. What it says of the drop, the clinging, the lump and the darkness fits what embryologists see. This was revealed to the Prophet (ﷺ), a man who could not read, far from any school of medicine. Galen and Aristotle were not put into Arabic until the Abbasid translations in Baghdad, well over a century after the Prophet (ﷺ) died. Greek medicine reached the region in Greek and Syriac books, not in Arabic.
“Verily We created Man from a drop of mingled sperm, in order to try him: So We gave him (the gifts), of Hearing and Sight.”
“Man We did create from a quintessence (of clay); Then We placed him as (a drop of) sperm in a place of rest, firmly fixed; Then We made the sperm into a clot of congealed blood; then of that clot We made a (foetus) lump; then we made out of that lump bones and clothed the bones with flesh; then we developed out of it another creature. So blessed be Allah, the best to create!”
A history of embryology from antiquity to the eighteenth century. It sets out the Greek and Galenic teaching that the embryo is formed from and nourished by the mother's menstrual blood, and the ancient view that males develop on the right side of the womb and females on the left.
The standard history of the Graeco-Arabic translation movement. It shows that the translation of Greek science and philosophy into Arabic was an Abbasid project centred on Baghdad, running from the second half of the eighth century to the tenth, with Greek works earlier available in the region mainly in Syriac.
Aristotle's work on reproduction. He teaches that the mother contributes only the matter of the child, which is her menstrual blood, while the father's semen contributes the form and does not become part of the embryo's body.
The objections answered
Qur'an 23:12-14 — Surat al-Mu'minun (The Believers), verses 12-14
“Man We did create from a quintessence (of clay); Then We placed him as (a drop of) sperm in a place of rest, firmly fixed; Then We made the sperm into a clot of congealed blood; then of that clot We made a (foetus) lump; then we made out of that lump bones and clothed the bones with flesh; then we developed out of it another creature. So blessed be Allah, the best to create!”
Cited for
Critics say the idea of stages was already in Greek medicine, so the Qur'an could simply have repeated what Galen taught.
The response
The stages were known; that is granted. But everyone who learned Galen's embryology learned his errors with it: the two-horned womb, the right and left, the menstrual blood. Anyone who copied him would have copied the mistakes along with the truth. The Qur'an has the stages and none of the mistakes.
Where it lands — Copying Galen would have brought Galen's errors, and they are not there.
Qur'an 23:12-14 — Surat al-Mu'minun (The Believers), verses 12-14
“Man We did create from a quintessence (of clay); Then We placed him as (a drop of) sperm in a place of rest, firmly fixed; Then We made the sperm into a clot of congealed blood; then of that clot We made a (foetus) lump; then we made out of that lump bones and clothed the bones with flesh; then we developed out of it another creature. So blessed be Allah, the best to create!”
Cited for
Critics say alaqah means a blood clot, and an embryo does not look like a clot.
The response
The word can mean a leech or a clot, and Yusuf Ali translates it so. Its root meaning is to cling or hang. This page goes by that root meaning, and the embryo does cling to the wall of the womb in its first weeks.
Where it lands — The page rests on the root meaning of alaqah, to cling, and not on the word "clot".
Qur'an 86:6-7 — Surat al-Tariq (The Morning Star), verses 6-7
“He is created from a drop emitted- Proceeding from between the backbone and the ribs:”
Cited for
Critics say the Qur'an repeats an ancient error by saying semen is made between the backbone and the ribs.
The response
The verse says where the fluid comes out from, in plain words a man would use of his own body. It does not say which organ makes it. The full answer is on the page about Qur'an 86:6-7.
Where it lands — A plain description of where the fluid issues, not a claim about which organ produces it.
Perspectives
The Islamic perspective
The Qur'an's account of the embryo is a sign, not a medical lesson. Revealed to the Prophet (ﷺ), it describes the early stages truly in plain words. It repeats none of the errors the physicians of his age taught about the womb and the child.
The Qur'an describes the stages of the child. It passes from a drop, to a clinging thing (alaqah), to a chewed-looking lump (mudghah), to bones clothed with flesh.
At about three weeks the embryo clings to the wall of the womb. At about four weeks it is a curved lump a few millimetres long, with somites along its back.
Qur'an 76:2 calls the drop amshaj, mingled.
The mingled drop fits a child formed from both parents.
Greek medicine taught a two-horned womb, boys on the right, nourishment by menstrual blood and the death of eighth-month children. The Qur'an repeats none of it.
This account keeps the true stages and drops the learned errors named here. That points to a source beyond the learning of that age.