Earth & Life
Human Creation
Nuṭfah, ʿalaqah, muḍghah, bones clothed with flesh. The Qur’an’s stages of human creation and the hadith of forty and forty-two days, set carefully beside modern embryology, including where the correspondences are strong and where they are debated.
A note before we begin
Embryology is where some of the most-quoted “scientific miracle” claims are made, and also where some of the most careless ones are. We quote the verses exactly, give the modern timeline in weeks after fertilisation (standard in embryology textbooks), and grade each point on its own merits.
The stages in the Qur’an
وَلَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الْاِنْسَانَ مِنْ سُلٰلَةٍ مِّنْ طِيْنٍۚ ١٢ ثُمَّ جَعَلْنٰهُ نُطْفَةً فِيْ قَرَارٍ مَّكِيْنٍ ١٣ ࣕ ثُمَّ خَلَقْنَا النُّطْفَةَ عَلَقَةً فَخَلَقْنَا الْعَلَقَةَ مُضْغَةً فَخَلَقْنَا الْمُضْغَةَ عِظٰمًا فَكَسَوْنَا الْعِظٰمَ لَحْمًاࣗ ثُمَّ اَنْشَاْنٰهُ خَلْقًا اٰخَرَؕ فَتَبٰرَكَ اللّٰهُ اَحْسَنُ الْخٰلِقِيْنَؕ ١٤
12Indeed, We created man from selected soil. 13Then made him a drop of fluid in a strong resting place. 14We then turned the drop of fluid into a clot of blood, then the clot of blood into a piece of flesh, then the piece of flesh into bones, then clothed the bones with flesh, then developed it into another form. So, Allah is the Most Auspicious, the Best Creator.
وَقَدْ خَلَقَكُمْ اَطْوَارًا ١٤
'Whereas, He has created you in stages (i.e. first sperm, then a blood-clot, and then a foetus, etc.)'.
Qur’an 23:12–14 gives the fullest sequence, and 71:14 sums it up: “He has created you in stages” (aṭwārā). The Arabic terms are descriptive. They name what each stage looks like or does, not technical categories.
“A drop of fluid”, placed “in a strong resting place” (qarār makīn, the womb). The fertilised egg divides and implants in the uterine wall around days 6–10.
“Something that clings”, “a leech”, or “a clot of blood”. The embryo, 2–4 mm long, hangs attached to the womb and resembles a leech in shape. Its heart starts beating around day 22.
“A chewed lump”. Paired blocks of tissue called somites are prominent along the back, looking like tooth marks. The embryo is part-formed and part-unformed (22:5).
“Bones”. The skeleton is laid down, first as cartilage models of the bones, which begin to ossify from about week 7. The clavicle starts even earlier.
“Flesh”. Muscles organise around the skeletal framework and attach to it. By the end of week 8 the embryo has a clearly human form.
“Another form”, literally another creation. The foetal period: growth, maturation of organs, and in the hadith, the soul.
ʿAlaqah: the thing that clings
اِقْرَاْ بِاسْمِ رَبِّكَ الَّذِيْ خَلَقَۚ ١ خَلَقَ الْاِنْسَانَ مِنْ عَلَقٍۚ ٢
1Read with the Name of your Lord Who created (everything). 2He created human beings from a clot of blood.
يٰٓاَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اِنْ كُنْتُمْ فِيْ رَيْبٍ مِّنَ الْبَعْثِ فَاِنَّا خَلَقْنٰكُمْ مِّنْ تُرَابٍ ثُمَّ مِنْ نُّطْفَةٍ ثُمَّ مِنْ عَلَقَةٍ ثُمَّ مِنْ مُّضْغَةٍ مُّخَلَّقَةٍ وَّغَيْرِ مُخَلَّقَةٍ لِّنُبَيِّنَ لَكُمْؕ وَنُقِرُّ فِي الْاَرْحَامِ مَا نَشَا࢜ءُ اِلٰٓي اَجَلٍ مُّسَمًّي ثُمَّ نُخْرِجُكُمْ طِفْلًا ثُمَّ لِتَبْلُغُوْٓا اَشُدَّكُمْۚ وَمِنْكُمْ مَّنْ يُّتَوَفّٰي وَمِنْكُمْ مَّنْ يُّرَدُّ اِلٰٓي اَرْذَلِ الْعُمُرِ لِكَيْلَا يَعْلَمَ مِنْۢ بَعْدِ عِلْمٍ شَيْـٔ͏ًاؕ وَتَرَي الْاَرْضَ هَامِدَةً فَاِذَا͏ٓ اَنْزَلْنَا عَلَيْهَا الْمَا࢜ءَ اهْتَزَّتْ وَرَبَتْ وَاَنۢ͏ْبَتَتْ مِنْ كُلِّ زَوْجٍۢ بَهِيْجٍ ٥
O people! If you doubt revival on the Day of Resurrection, ponder therefore upon this; that, We created you from dust, then from a drop of liquid, then from a clot of blood, then from a piece of flesh; formed and unformed, so that We show Our signs for you. And We keep whomsoever We will in the wombs of mothers up to an appointed time, then extract you as an infant, then (gave you age) for this reason; that you may reach your maturity. And amongst you is the one who dies earlier, and amongst you is the one who is made to face the most hopeless (i.e. old) age; that, after knowing, knows nothing (due to absent-mindedness in old age). And you see the earth deserted; then, when We sent down water upon it, it became fresh, and developed, and produced beautiful pairs of all types.
What the word says
The root ʿ-l-q means to cling, hang or be attached. ʿAlaqah was used for a leech, which clings and feeds on blood, and for a clot of thick blood. Classical commentators, working without microscopes, usually explained it as a blood clot.
What science says
At about three to four weeks the embryo is implanted in, and hanging from, the wall of the womb. It draws nourishment from the mother’s blood. Its outline, with a curved body and bulging segments, closely resembles a leech. Its heart and blood vessels are forming and already contain blood, so it has a notably blood-rich appearance.
How close is the match?
All three meanings, clinging, leech-like and blood-rich, describe real features of this stage, and a single word captures them. We grade it a possible reading, one of the more impressive ones.
“…then clothed the bones with flesh”
ࣕ ثُمَّ خَلَقْنَا النُّطْفَةَ عَلَقَةً فَخَلَقْنَا الْعَلَقَةَ مُضْغَةً فَخَلَقْنَا الْمُضْغَةَ عِظٰمًا فَكَسَوْنَا الْعِظٰمَ لَحْمًاࣗ ثُمَّ اَنْشَاْنٰهُ خَلْقًا اٰخَرَؕ فَتَبٰرَكَ اللّٰهُ اَحْسَنُ الْخٰلِقِيْنَؕ ١٤
We then turned the drop of fluid into a clot of blood, then the clot of blood into a piece of flesh, then the piece of flesh into bones, then clothed the bones with flesh, then developed it into another form. So, Allah is the Most Auspicious, the Best Creator.
About Keith Moore
Canadian anatomist Keith L. Moore, author of the standard textbook The Developing Human, produced a special 1982/83 edition “with Islamic additions”, prepared with the Yemeni scholar ʿAbd al-Majīd al-Zindānī, which set Qur’an and hadith beside embryology. It is widely cited. In 2002 Moore declined to discuss the subject with the Wall Street Journal, saying it had been “ten or eleven years” since he was involved. We cite the embryology itself, not endorsements.
What the words say
The verse orders the stages with fa- (“and then, promptly”): the muḍghah is made into bones, then the bones are clothed (kasawnā) with flesh.
What science says
Both the skeleton and the muscles come from the same embryonic layer, the mesoderm, and they develop largely in parallel from about week 5. The skeleton is first laid down as cartilage models. Muscle cells then organise around these models and attach to them, so that by weeks 7–8 the muscles “wrap” the skeletal framework. Some embryologists describe this as bone-first-then-muscle. Others stress that the precursor tissues appear at about the same time.
How close is the match?
The image of a skeletal framework being “clothed” by muscle fits how the body takes shape in the late embryonic period. Whether the order is strictly sequential depends on which stage of tissue you count. We mark this debated so that no one overstates it. It is also fair to note that Greek physicians, especially Galen (2nd century), had described development in stages. The idea of stages itself was not unknown, and what is distinctive is the Qur’an’s choice of vivid, accurate descriptive terms.
“In darkness threefold”
خَلَقَكُمْ مِّنْ نَّفْسٍ وَّاحِدَةٍ ثُمَّ جَعَلَ مِنْهَا زَوْجَهَا وَاَنْزَلَ لَكُمْ مِّنَ الْاَنْعَامِ ثَمٰنِيَةَ اَزْوَاجٍؕ يَخْلُقُكُمْ فِيْ بُطُوْنِ اُمَّهٰتِكُمْ خَلْقًا مِّنْۢ بَعْدِ خَلْقٍ فِيْ ظُلُمٰتٍ ثَلٰثٍؕ ذٰلِكُمُ اللّٰهُ رَبُّكُمْ لَهُ الْمُلْكُؕ لَا͏ٓ اِلٰهَ اِلَّا هُوَۚ فَاَنّٰي تُصْرَفُوْنَ ٦
He created you from a single soul, and then from it, created its spouse, and sent down for you eight pairs of animals. He creates you in your mother's wombs, then from one sort (of creation) to another; in darkness threefold (i.e. the stomach, womb and uterus). This is Allah; your Lord, only for Him is the kingdom; no one is to be worshiped except Him. So, where are you being turned to?
Early commentators, including Ibn ʿAbbās, Mujāhid and Qatādah, explained the three darknesses as the belly, the womb, and the membrane surrounding the child (al-mashīmah). The translation shown glosses them as “the stomach, womb and uterus”.
Anatomy agrees. The developing child lies within the abdominal wall, the wall of the uterus, and the amniotic and chorionic membranes, three layers that shut out light. The classical explanation and the modern description are the same, so we grade it consistent with established science.
A “mixed” drop, and male and female from the man’s drop
اِنَّا خَلَقْنَا الْاِنْسَانَ مِنْ نُّطْفَةٍ اَمْشَاجٍࣗۖ نَّبْتَلِيْهِ فَجَعَلْنٰهُ سَمِيْعًاۢ بَصِيْرًا ٢
Indeed, We have created man from a drop of mixed-sperm (of man and woman) in order to test him, We henceforth made him hearing, seeing.
وَاَنَّهٗ خَلَقَ الزَّوْجَيْنِ الذَّكَرَ وَالْاُنْثٰيۙ ٤٥ مِنْ نُّطْفَةٍ اِذَا تُمْنٰي ٤٦
45And this; that it is He Who has created the two kinds; male and female. 46From a semen-drop when it is emitted (into the womb).
A mixture
Nuṭfatin amshāj means a drop of mingled elements. A new human begins when the father’s sperm and the mother’s egg combine, each contributing 23 chromosomes. Fertilisation was first observed directly by Oscar Hertwig in 1876, in sea urchins. Earlier theories often held that only one parent really contributed the offspring’s form.
Sex from the emitted drop
53:45–46 says God created the two kinds, male and female, “from a semen-drop when it is emitted (into the womb)” (idhā tumnā, see also 75:37–39). Biology agrees that the sex of the child is set by the father’s contribution. Every egg carries an X chromosome, while each sperm carries either an X or a Y. Nettie Stevens discovered chromosomal sex determination in 1905, and the SRY gene on the Y chromosome that triggers male development was identified in 1990.
These are the plain meanings of the verses, and they are correct. The hadith of Ḥudhayfah also has the angel ask “male or female?” after the 42nd night. At that point the sex has already been set genetically at fertilisation, but the testes or ovaries have only just begun to develop.
“Which comes out from between the backs and the chests”
فَلْيَنْظُرِ الْاِنْسَانُ مِمَّ خُلِقَؕ ٥ خُلِقَ مِنْ مَّا࢜ءٍ دَافِقٍۙ ٦ يَّخْرُجُ مِنْۢ بَيْنِ الصُّلْبِ وَالتَّرَا࢜ىِٕبِؕ ٧
5So, man should ponder what thing he has been created from. 6Created from a spurting (drop of) fluid. 7Which comes out from between the backs and the chests.
What the words say
The human is created “from a spurting (drop of) fluid”, which “comes out from between the backs and the chests”: the ṣulb (backbone, loins) and the tarāʾib (ribs, chest bones). Classical commentators offered several readings: the man’s loins and the woman’s chest, or the loins and chest of the man alone.
Proposed modern readings
The testes and ovaries originate in the embryo high in the abdomen, near the developing kidneys between the spine and the lower ribs, and descend later. Their blood supply and nerves still come from that region in the adult. Some writers see the verse as pointing to this origin.
How close is the match?
This is genuinely debated. The verse’s subject is the fluid, and the embryological reading requires linking it to the origin of the organs that produce it. Critics find that strained. We present it without claiming it as a miracle.
“We are (even) able to make all his finger joints (again)”
اَيَحْسَبُ الْاِنْسَانُ اَلَّنْ نَّجْمَعَ عِظَامَهٗؕ ٣ بَلٰى قٰدِرِيْنَ عَلٰٓي اَنْ نُّسَوِّيَ بَنَانَهٗ ٤
3Does man assume that We will never gather his bones? 4Why not? We are (even) able to make all his finger joints (again), in a perfect order.
Answering doubt about the Resurrection, God says He is able to reconstruct not just bones but even the banān, the fingers down to their tips, “in a perfect order”. The translation shown renders it “all his finger joints”. Other translators render it “fingertips”.
Fingertips carry ridge patterns, fingerprints, that are unique to each person, and even identical twins differ. The ridges form in the womb between roughly the 10th and 16th weeks and stay the same for life. Their uniqueness was established scientifically by Francis Galton (Finger Prints, 1892), and Scotland Yard adopted fingerprint identification in 1901. Choosing the fingers as the example of precise re-creation is striking, and the fingerprint connection depends on the rendering “fingertips”. The verse does not mention prints, so we grade it a possible reading.
Hearing, then sight
ثُمَّ سَوّٰىهُ وَنَفَخَ فِيْهِ مِنْ رُّوْحِهٖ وَجَعَلَ لَكُمُ السَّمْعَ وَالْاَبْصَارَ وَالْاَفْـِٕدَةَؕ قَلِيْلًا مَّا تَشْكُرُوْنَ ٩
Then made him proper, and breathed into him a Spirit from Himself and bestowed ears and eyes and hearts to you. Very little thanks do you offer.
وَاللّٰهُ اَخْرَجَكُمْ مِّنْۢ بُطُوْنِ اُمَّهٰتِكُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُوْنَ شَيْـٔ͏ًاۙ وَّجَعَلَ لَكُمُ السَّمْعَ وَالْاَبْصَارَ وَالْاَفْـِٕدَةَۙ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُوْنَ ٧٨
And Allah brought you forth from your mother's wombs; that you did not know anything, and gave you ears and eyes and hearts; that you may give thanks.
When the Qur’an lists human faculties it very often names hearing (al-samʿ) before sight (al-abṣār), and the hadith of Ḥudhayfah lists them in the same order. In development, the ear’s structures mature earlier, and a foetus responds to sound from around the 24th week of pregnancy. The eyelids stay fused until about the 26th week, and useful vision develops mostly after birth.
The order may simply be rhetorical, since hearing is also the faculty by which revelation is received, so we grade this a possible reading.
The hadith of forty days, and of forty-two nights
Allah’s Messenger ﷺ, the true and truly inspired said, “(The matter of the Creation of) a human being is put together in the womb of the mother in forty days, and then he becomes a clot of thick blood for a similar period, and then a piece of flesh for a similar period. Then Allah sends an angel…”
The same hadith is in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2643. “Clot of thick blood” and “piece of flesh” translate ʿalaqah and muḍghah.
I have heard Allah’s Messenger ﷺ as saying: “When forty-two nights pass after the semen gets into the womb, Allah sends the angel and gives him shape. Then he creates his sense of hearing, sense of sight, his skin, his flesh, his bones, and then says: My Lord, would he be male or female? And your Lord decides as He desires…”
Two authentic hadith
Both are in the most authoritative collections. The first, from Ibn Masʿūd, speaks of being put together “in forty days”, then an ʿalaqah (“a clot of thick blood”) “for a similar period”, then a muḍghah (“a piece of flesh”) “for a similar period”, then the angel. Many classical scholars read this as three successive forty-day periods, with the soul breathed in after 120 days. The second, from Ḥudhayfah ibn Asīd, says that after forty-two nights the angel is sent to shape the embryo and create its hearing, sight, skin, flesh and bones.
How scholars reconcile them
Classical scholars, including al-Nawawī in his commentary on Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, discussed how the two relate. They noted that different angelic tasks may occur at different times. Some contemporary scholars read the Arabic phrase behind “for a similar period”, mithla dhālika (literally “like that”), as describing the stages happening within the same forty-day span, which fits the modern timeline well. This is a matter of legitimate scholarly discussion.
What embryology shows at six weeks
Forty-two days after fertilisation the embryo is only about a centimetre long. Yet it has limb buds with the first outlines of fingers, eyes, the beginnings of the outer ears, a beating heart, and a skeleton starting to form in cartilage. This is the window in which it takes on a recognisably human form, which is striking beside the hadith of Ḥudhayfah.
The angel, the writing of destiny and the breathing of the soul belong to the unseen, and embryology has nothing to say about them.