Home > Surah 23 - The Believers
The Quran Verse
Surah 23:12–14:
And certainly did We create man from an extract of clay. Then We placed him as a sperm-drop [nutfah] in a firm lodging. Then We made the sperm-drop into a clinging clot [alaqah], and We made the clot into a lump [mudghah], and We made [from] the lump, bones, and We covered the bones with flesh...
The Relevant Source Text (Greek Medicine)
Galen, On the Formation of the Foetus (150 AD)
Galen divides the development into four periods:
The first is that in which... the form of the semen [nutfah] prevails.
The second is that in which it has been filled with blood [clot / alaqah], but the heart, liver and brain are still unshaped [mudghah].
The third period is when you can see the bones [the skeletal structure].
The fourth is when all the parts are visible... and the flesh grows about the bones.
The stages described in Surah 23 are identical to the medical theories of the Greek physician Galen, which were widely taught in the Near East (particularly in Alexandria and Gondishapur) long before the 7th century.
This is not "divine revelation of the unknown," but the canonization of human medical knowledge—and errors—that were contemporary to Muhammad's time.