Home > Surah 22 - The Pilgrimage
The Quran Verse
Surah 22:5:
O People... We created you from dust, then from a drop [of fluid], then from a clinging clot, then from a lump of flesh, partly formed and partly unformed...
The Relevant Source Text (Greek Medicine)
Galen, On Semen (2nd Century AD);
Galen described four stages of development: (1) The seminal stage, (2) the stage of blood (clot), (3) the stage of unformed flesh (lump), and (4) the stage of formed limbs.
This is often cited as a "scientific miracle," but historical critics point out that these stages are a direct reflection of the Galenic and Aristotelian embryology that was standard medical knowledge in the Near East for 500 years before Muhammad.
The Quran repeats the specific error of the "clotted blood" stage (alaqah), whereas modern science shows that the embryo is never clotted blood.
By canonizing 2nd-century Greek medical errors as divine revelation, the text shows human, not divine, origin.