Beware of a error in embryology articles!!!!

Assalamualikum,

There is a error in the embryology articles written by some Muslims. The first mistake was probably made in a famous article of website quranicstudies entitled Does the Qur'an Plagiarise Ancient Greek Embryology?

Here the author makes an error at clothing with flesh stage. Here is the quotation from the text

////vi) Al-Kisa'a Bil-Lahm (clothing with flesh stage of, muscles)



فَكَسَوْنَا الْعِظَامَ لَحْمًا

"Then We clothed the bones with flesh" (Surah Al-Mu 'minun, Ayah 14)



The above Ayah explicitly states that the bones are formed first and that this is followed by the formation of flesh or muscles which take their position around the bones (clothing the bones). In fact the primordia or precursors of both the bone and muscle (in the form of myotomes and selertomes( are present together with those of bones and other tissues and organs in a collective primitive structure are formed during the first 40 days and is found in the Mudghah. However, in this stage the primordia of muscle have not yet differentiated into definitive bones and muscles. As they do not have the shapes or forms of bones or muscles, the whole embryo at this stage does not have a human appearance.////


The clear error in this article can be seen by reading this part ''The above Ayah explicitly states that the bones are formed first and that this is followed by the formation of flesh or muscles which take their position around the bones (clothing the bones)''

Many people including Muslim apologists are carrying this erroneous statement. This statement was carried by Nadeem Arif Najmi in his 'A Muslim Answer To Criticism Of "Embryology in the Qur'an" article. Then, this error was probably carried by Hamza Andreas Tzortzis and Rashid Latif as well when they were having a debate with PZ Meyers.

Actually Both of these articles are fantastic except that statement

Answer to this was given by the Scientific Research Committee of IslamTodaydotnet. Here is the excerpt(Emphasis Mine).

/////Question: Allah says: "Then We made the Nutfah into a clot (a piece of thick coagulated blood), then We made the clot into a little lump of flesh, then We made out of that little lump of flesh bones, then We clothed the bones with flesh, and then We brought it forth as another creation. So blessed be Allah, the Best of creators." [23:14]

There seems to be a scientific error in this verse. According to modern embryologists including Professor Moore, the tissue from which bone originates - known as mesoderm - is the same tissue as that from which muscle (flesh) develops. Thus bone and muscle begin to develop simultaneously, rather than sequentially (as the Qur'an seems to be telling us).

The idea that bones are clothed with flesh is not only scientifically completely wrong, but seems to be directly copied from the ancient Greek doctor Galen's hypothesis.

Please clarify this matter for me.

Answered by the Scientific Research Committee - IslamToday.net

It is inconceivable that the true word of Allah could ever contradict scientific fact, since the universe is Allah's creation, and Allah fully knows what He created. A Muslim, when faced with what appears to be a contradiction between the Qur'ân and a scientific fact knows there can only be two possibilities:
1. That which is being construed as a scientific "fact" is not in actuality a fact.

2. The verse that is being construed as being in conflict with science is being misinterpreted, misapplied, or misunderstood.
Any claim being made that there is a contradiction between science and the Qur'ân has to be evaluated individually. The factuality of the scientific claim needs to be assessed as well as the true meaning of the verse that is supposedly at variance with it.

With respect to the issue of the concurrent development of bone and muscle tissue, this is a directly observable fact. Therefore, we must look carefully at the verse to ascertain exactly what the Qur'ân is saying and - more importantly - what it is not saying.

You provide this translation for the following verse:
"Then We made the Nutfah into a clot (a piece of thick coagulated blood), then We made the clot into a little lump of flesh, then We made out of that little lump of flesh bones, then We clothed the bones with flesh, and then We brought it forth as another creation. So blessed be God, the Best of creators." [Sûrah al-Mu'minûn: 14]

You further contend that this verse contradicts what we know in embryology that the bone and muscle develop simultaneously from the mesoderm.

When we read the verse, it says that the bones are created from the "little lump of flesh" (mudghah). This in no way implies that bones are created before flesh and then this little naked skeleton is given flesh. It actually more clearly implies a concurrent development, since some sort of flesh is always there from the start. Nowhere in the verse does it say that the bones have finished forming. Nowhere does it even imply that muscle tissue is not developing concurrently. The wording of the verse is quite vague on this point and what it says is quite compatible with what we know of embryology. All that the verse is stating is that flesh - we might venture to assume differentiated muscle tissue, since the Arabic word lahm (meat, flesh) is generally used exclusively for muscle tissue - is attached to bones as the bones begin to form. Allah says: ".then We clothed the bones with flesh." Allah does not say: "Then we created flesh and clothed the bones with it."

Therefore, the problem that you cite stems from assumptions being made about the verse's meaning and not from what the verse is actually saying.////

So, we must be careful to avoid the error.