The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was born amid idolism and polytheism of Makkah. Since, childhood he kept himself away from the environment around him. He was very much perturbed over the idol worship of his kith and kin, and kept wandering in quest of truth. He often went to Cave Hera, which was nestled in the mountains of Makkah, to stay in seclusion. It was there at the age of 40 that he received the first revelation from Allah, “Read in the name of your Lord Who has created. He has created man from a clot ‘Alaq'.” (Qur'an, 96:12) This very first revelation invites our attention to the Lord and His creations. Another scientific fact to ponder upon is the creation of man. Man is created from a clot i.e. that clings in womb. Allah said, “We have created man from Nutfa of mixed semen, (of man and woman).” (Qur'an, 76:2) And indeed We created man out of an extract of clay. Thereafter We made him as a Nutfa in safe lodging. Then We made Nutfa into a clot, then we made the clot into ‘Mudgha'(a little lump of flesh), then We made out of that ‘Mudgha' bones, then We clothed the bones with flesh, and then We brought it forth as another creation. (Qur'an, 23:12-14) Ibn Abbas explained the above verses: it means the semen of the man and woman is intermingled and then it passes through various stages. As Allah said, “He has created you in stages.” (Qur'an, 71:14) The science has proved that the total semen ejaculated contains an average of 200 to 300 million of spermatozoa and only one spermatozoa fertilizes the ovum to form the zygote which grows into a baby. The Arabic word ‘Nutfa' is singular, thus we can clearly say that male spermatozoa mixed with female cell causes fertilization to form zygotes. Van Baden in 1883 proved that both male and female participate equally in the formation of the human zygote. The Qur'an describes the next stage as ‘Mudgha' lump of flesh. In the early seventh century nobody knew the stages of embryo's development, it was only in 20th century that scientists observed, researched and studied it, and called it the somite stage. After that the lump develops bones and the bones are clothed with flesh. How one could know about the embroy's development in the seventh century? All praise to Allah Who through His book, the glorious Qur'an, made it possible for us to know and learn about things which science is discovering now. __
