There Is No Scientific Knowledge in the Quran – Part Two: A Critical Examination of Embryology in Surah 23:12–14
By Dr. Maxwell Shimba, Shimba Theological Institute
Abstract
Claims regarding miraculous scientific foreknowledge in the Quran have long been propagated by Islamic apologists, with embryology often presented as a key example. This paper critically evaluates the embryological claims in Surah 23:12–14, contextualizing them within the framework of ancient Greek embryological knowledge and comparing them with established modern scientific evidence. The study demonstrates that not only are the Quranic descriptions of embryological development derivative of pre-Islamic sources such as Aristotle and Galen, but they also contain scientifically inaccurate statements inconsistent with contemporary embryological understanding.
Introduction
In modern Islamic apologetics, much has been made of the assertion that the Quran contains prescient scientific facts unknown in the 7th century CE, which allegedly confirm its divine origin. Among the most frequently cited examples is its supposed description of human embryological development in Surah 23:12–14. Muslim scholars and popular preachers assert that the Quran’s account mirrors modern embryology in remarkable detail. However, a careful examination of both the historical and scientific context reveals that these claims are unfounded.
This paper seeks to situate the Quranic text within the historical continuum of ancient embryological theories and juxtapose its content against current embryological knowledge, thereby dispelling the notion of its miraculous scientific accuracy.
Textual Analysis of Surah 23:12–14
The passage in question reads:
“And indeed We created man from an essence of clay; then We placed him as a drop in a secure lodging; then We made the drop into a hanging thing (
alaqah), then We made the hanging thing into a chewed lump (mudghah), then We made out of the chewed lump bones, then We clothed the bones with flesh, then We developed it into another creation. So blessed be Allah, the best of creators.” (Quran 23:12–14)
Proponents of Quranic scientific miracles typically focus on two key features:
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The assertion of development in stages.
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The depiction of the embryo attaching to the uterus (a safe lodging).
However, as this analysis will demonstrate, these concepts were neither novel in the 7th century nor scientifically precise by contemporary standards.
Historical Context: Embryological Knowledge Before Islam
Aristotle (384–322 BCE)
In On the Generation of Animals, Aristotle presents a systematic explanation of embryological development. He identified sequential stages of formation and growth, observing that certain organs and structures arise before others. In Book IV, 734a, Aristotle describes how the heart forms first, followed by other vital organs and tissues. He also noted the importance of a safe environment within the mother’s womb for the developing embryo.
Aristotle’s observations, though not fully accurate by modern standards, demonstrate an advanced awareness of staged development and uterine attachment, concepts widely circulated in Greco-Roman medicine centuries before the Quran.
Galen (129–c. 200 CE)
Perhaps more directly influential was the Greek physician Galen, whose treatise On the Natural Faculties and On the Formation of the Fetus detail human development stages. Galen described the embryo as initially a formless substance, subsequently developing into a form resembling a chewed lump and later solidifying into bones. Crucially, Galen maintained that bones form first and are then “clothed” in flesh — an idea echoed verbatim in the Quranic text.
Given the transmission of Greco-Roman medical texts through Syriac and Persian intermediaries, it is historically plausible that Muhammad or his contemporaries encountered Galenic embryology either directly or indirectly through oral tradition.
Scientific Inaccuracies in the Quranic Account
Modern embryology, based on centuries of anatomical and genetic research, has demonstrated that:
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The mesoderm — a primary germ layer — gives rise to both bone and muscle tissues simultaneously, not sequentially as suggested in the Quran.
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Bones do not initially form and then acquire flesh. Instead, cartilaginous models of bones and muscle masses develop in parallel during embryogenesis, with ossification (bone hardening) occurring later.
Moreover, the term mudghah (chewed lump) is anatomically imprecise and does not reflect any scientifically identifiable stage of human embryonic development. While it might subjectively resemble the visual appearance of somite segmentation, this is an imprecise and primitive description, inconsistent with modern embryological classification.
The Quranic account's reliance on visually and texturally based analogies (hanging thing, chewed lump, clothed bones) reflects observational limitations of pre-scientific cultures rather than inspired or miraculous knowledge.
Derivation, Not Revelation: The Greek Medical Legacy in the Quran
The linguistic and conceptual parallels between Galen’s embryological model and the Quranic text have led several historians of medicine to conclude that the Quran’s account was derived from pre-existing medical traditions. Scholars such as Edward Gibbon and W. Montgomery Watt note the extensive cross-cultural interactions between Arabian, Persian, and Byzantine societies, particularly through the translation movements in the pre-Islamic Near East.
It is historically implausible to assert that Muhammad, operating within a milieu already influenced by Hellenistic medicine, could produce a unique or divinely inspired account of embryology when the same concepts — including the sequential formation of bones and flesh — appear in Galenic writings composed centuries earlier.
Conclusion
The claim that the Quran contains miraculous scientific knowledge regarding embryology is not substantiated upon critical examination. The description in Surah 23:12–14 reflects the rudimentary and derivative understanding of human development available in Greco-Roman antiquity. Far from being divinely revealed insights into biological science, the Quranic embryological narrative appears to be a rearticulation of ideas previously established by figures such as Aristotle and Galen.
Additionally, the Quranic sequence of embryonic development is scientifically inaccurate, particularly in its assertion that bones form before flesh. Modern embryology, grounded in detailed anatomical observation and molecular biology, has decisively demonstrated that musculoskeletal structures develop concurrently from the mesoderm.
Consequently, the embryological descriptions in the Quran do not offer evidence of miraculous foreknowledge but rather reveal the limitations of 7th-century Arabian knowledge and its dependence on earlier Hellenistic medical traditions.
References
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Aristotle. On the Generation of Animals, Book IV.
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Galen. On the Natural Faculties, trans. Brock, A. J. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1916).
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Needham, Joseph. A History of Embryology. (Cambridge University Press, 1934).
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Gutas, Dimitri. Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early Abbasid Society (2nd–4th/8th–10th centuries). (Routledge, 1998).
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Sadler, T.W. Langman’s Medical Embryology. (14th ed. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer, 2019).
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Watt, W. Montgomery. Muhammad at Medina. (Oxford University Press, 1956).
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