Page 80 - The Miracle of Human Creation
P. 80
THE MIRACLE OF HUMAN CREATION
... He creates you stage by
stage in your mothers'
wombs in a threefold
darkness. That is God,
your Lord. Sovereignty is
His. There is no god but
Him. So what has made
you turn away from
Him? (Qur'an, 39: 6)
It will be noticed that
this verse shows that three
distinct stages occur in the deve-
lopment of a human being while it is in the mother's
womb. Indeed, modern biology has established that the baby in the
mother's womb does go through three different stages of development,
just as is stated in this verse. This is a matter of basic information in all the
books on embryology required to be read as textbooks today in medical
faculties. For example, Basic Human Embryology, a standard basic work of
reference on embryology, makes the following statement:
The life in the uterus has three stages: (i) pre-embryonic: first two
and a half weeks; (ii) embryonic: until the end of the eighth week,
and (iii) fetal: from the eighth week to labour. 20
These stages comprise the various developmental phases of the baby.
The salient features of these three stages can be summarized as follows:
- Pre-embryonic stage: In this first stage the zygote (the newly fer-
tilised cell) multiplies. Within the first three weeks, after it has become a
cluster of cells, it embeds itself in the wall of the uterus. As the cells con-
tinue to multiply, they form three layers.
- The embryonic stage: The second stage lasts a total of five and a
half weeks, during which the baby is called the embryo. In this stage the
basic organs and systems of the body take shape from the cell layers.
- The foetal stage: Entering the third stage of pregnancy, the embryo
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