Part 8

He mentioned in the above verses four types of women in relation to child-bearing: the woman who will have only girls, the one who will have only boys, the one who will have both boys and girls, and the sterile one, who will have no children at all. One proof that demonstrates that the cause of maleness and femaleness cannot be known by humans, nor can it be inferred by deduction and reflection,! but is rather learned from revelation, is a tradition of the Prophet’s, reported in Sahih Muslim on the authority of Thawban, who said:

In support of this, it may be observed that modern science has

discovered that the cause of maleness and femaleness is found in one of the 23 chromosomes of the man’s semen, which fertilizes the woman's cell (the egg), which also contains 23 chromosomes. When both cells unite, the total number of chromosomes will be 23 + 23 = 46, the components of the first cell of the new human being.

I was once with the Prophet 3 when a Jewish rabbi came and said: Peace be upon you, O Muhammad! I pushed him (says Thawban) with such violence that he nearly fell to the ground. So he asked: Why do you push me? I said: Why don’t you say in your greeting ‘O Messenger of Allah?’ The Jew said: We call him by his name, the one that his family gave to him. The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said:

My name is Muhammad, the one my family gave to me. Then the Jew said: I come to ask you. The Messenger said:

earth, and so will the heavens? The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said:

They will be in the darkness, before the bridge. He said: And who will be the first people to pass? He said:

The poor emigrants. He said: And what will they have for a treat at their entrance? He said:

The appendix of the liver of the whale of Dhul-Noon. He said: And what will their food be next to that? He said: tealbl Sn Ist; OWS gill eb 38 A en

An_ ox that grazes at the outskirts of paradise will be slaughtered for them. He said: And what will they drink with it? He said:

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A drink from a spring that is called Salsabeela. He said: You tell the truth! I’m also going to ask you about something that only a prophet in addition to one or two men would know. He said:

Would it do you any good if I tell you? He said: I hear with my ears. Then he added: I come to ask you about the baby. He said:

A man’s liquid is white, and a woman’s liquid is yellow. If, when they meet, the man’s semen dominates, then they will have a male, by the will of Allah; and if a woman’s liquid dominates, then they will have a female, by the will of Allah. The Jew said: You have told the truth, and you are a true prophet. Then he left. The Messenger of Allah # said:

tay gol Zo a tle Sty ee Sk gi ye Sk ah When this man asked about what he asked, I knew nothing about it until Allah told me of it. *

Both reason and authority prove that a foetus is created from both liquids. A man ejects his liquid into a woman’s womb, and her liquid also flows to where his

> Reported by Muslim and Al-Nasa’ee.

liquid is, so the liquids meet, for Allah’s will to come true. The baby will be the outcome of the two liquids, and it will resemble more the parent whose liquid dominates. In evidence of this, we have a tradition, reported by AlBukharee in his “sahih”, on the authority of Humaid, quoting Anas, who said: Abdullah bin Salam was told of the arrival of the Prophet #% in Al-Madinah. So he came up to him and said: I will ask you about three things that only a prophet would know. Then he added: What is the first sign of the Hour (the Day of Resurrection)? What is the first food that the dwellers of Paradise will eat? And what will determine when the baby will take after its father, or take after its maternal uncles? The Messenger of Allah 3% said:

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Jibreel (Gabriel) has already told me about these things. (Abdullah put in here: that, among the angels, he is the Jews’ enemy.) The Messenger 4% went on:

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As for the first sign of the Hour, it will be a fire that will drive people from the east towards the west. As for the first food of the dwellers of Paradise, it will be the appendix of the whale’s liver. As for the baby’s taking after its father, it is when the man has intercourse with the woman, and his liquid has dominance over hers. When her liquid has dominance over his, the baby will be more like her. He said: | testify that you are the Messenger of Allah, ete.

More evidence can be found in another tradition reported in both “Saheehs” of Al-Bukharee and Muslim, on the authority of Umm Salamah, who said: O Messenger of Allah, Allah is not shy of disclosing the truth, so I ask you, should a woman take ghusl, ‘ritual bath’, if she had seen a sexual dream? He said:

AASV stcht ols 15) cin Yes, if she sees the yellow liquid. She laughed and

said: But does a woman have a wet dream? The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said: Tat ‘- , 3

How is it, then, that her baby resembles her?

The above three traditions prove that a baby is created from both liquids, that maleness and femaleness are determined by one of the liquids dominating the other and having precedence over it, and that resemblance is determined by one of the liquids having precedence over the other, which means that the liquid which reaches the womb first will determine whom the baby will resemble. Such things are not known to the naturalists, and there is no way to learn about them but from revelation. Nor is there in their scholarship anything that contradicts these notions. There is, however, about the tradition reported on the authority of Thawban some doubt in my mind: it may be that someone in the chain of reporters was not accurate in his memorization, that the real question had originally been about resemblance rather than about maleness and femaleness, as in the tradition in which Abdullah bin Salam is the inquirer. That might be the reason for AlBukharee not reporting Thawban’s tradition.

There is in the two ‘Saheehs’ (of Al-Bukharee and Muslim) a tradition reported on the authority of Abdullah bin Abu Bakr, reporting Anas, who reported the Prophet 3 as saying:

“Allah has appointed an angel to be in charge of the womb. The angel says: O Lord! Now it is a drop of semen, now it isa clot, now it is a little lump. And when He wills to create it, the angel says: O Lord! A male or a female? Happy or unhappy? What about earning? What about span of life? So all that is written down when a baby is still in its mother’s belly.” You see here how the Prophet # attributed maleness and femaleness entirely to the Divine will, and attached it to matters with which nature has nothing to do: happiness and unhappiness, earning and span of life. The angel who wrote it down had not inquired about anything that is connected with nature. Do you not see that Abdullah bin Salam only inquired about resemblance, for which an answer can_ be obtained, not about maleness and femaleness, although it is more impressive than resemblance. Allah, however, knows best. If what has been reported was actually uttered by the Messenger of Allah 3 then it is absolutely true. In any case, both versions discredit the naturalists’ claim of their knowing the cause of maleness and femaleness. But Allah knows best.

’ Reported by Al-Bukharee and Muslim.

The Placenta: it supplies the fetus with O2 and nutrients. They come Maternal blood that supplies the intris spacesthey draw vessels Inlervillus space and then blood from maternal! vessels . diffuse to the Umbilical vein. CO2 and organic

Finger - like Chorionic Ps ction, to be diffused

Thin layer called amnium

Umbllical cord, attact Fetus to Placenta, with ~

early stages, there is a cavity between Ammion and Chorion

The tools of reproduction in humans

Consider how the tools of reproduction of both the male and the female have been created to the best advantage. The man’s is a protruding tool that extends so that it delivers the semen to the gate of the womb, in the same way as one hands something to another, stretching one’s arm for the other to collect it. That is so because the semen must be ejaculated in such a way to reach the womb. The female, in contrast, has a hollow vessel, because she needs to receive a man’s liquid, to hold it and keep it, and the tool she has is perfectly adapted to those functions. Because a man’s liquid emanates from a man’s various organs having low density, weak, not yet fit for the creation of the baby, the testes have been designed to be a pot where the liquid is processed and brought to a mature form, so that it concentrates and thickens, in order to be a suitable basis for the formation of the embryo. The woman, on the other hand, does not experience similar processes, since a man’s liquid, in its thickness and density, meets her low-density liquid, and the latter then gains richness from the man’s liquid. If both liquids were light and diluted, they would not have resulted in the creation of the baby. The man has been privileged with the mechanism of processing and condensing because he is more energetic, in contrast to the cool female. If she were entrusted with that tool, her disposition would not have facilitated the processing and maturation of the liquid. Another reason is that her liquid remains in its place, flowing from between her ribs until it settles in its designated place. A third reason is that because she is the receiver of intercourse, she has been endowed with such a tool as will suit her condition: she would not enjoy the intercourse if her tool were the same as the man’s; the tool would remain idle and useless. And so, by being what they are, maximum advantage is realized for both parties.