Surah 86:5–8
So let man observe from what he was created. He was created from a fluid, ejected, emerging from between the backbone and the ribs. Indeed, Allah, to return him, is Able."
The most prominent scientific vulnerability in the Surah is its explicit physical description of human reproductive mechanics, stating that man is generated from a fluid "emerging from between the backbone and the ribs (yakhruju min bayni al-ṣulbi wa-al-tarāʾibi)."
The Antiquated Medical Lineage: To a historian of medicine, this passage perfectly mirrors the highly influential, yet flawed semen theories of Late Antiquity. The ancient Greek physician Galen (2nd century CE)—whose medical writings dominated the academies of the pre-Islamic Near East—explicitly taught that male semen is generated from blood vessels descending from the brain down the spinal column, passing through the lumbar region before reaching the generative organs.
The Biological Reality: Modern human anatomy and reproductive physiology fundamentally contradict this 7th-century model.
Spermatogenesis (the production of sperm) occurs exclusively within the testes, which are suspended outside the main body cavity in the scrotum to maintain proper temperature. Female ova (eggs) are produced and stored entirely within the ovaries located in the pelvic cavity. Neither of these fluids is generated, filtered, or emitted from the upper chest or thoracic cavity between the backbone (ṣulb) and the ribs (tarāʾib). The text mistake the primitive, speculative medical hypotheses of Greek philosophy for a flawless cosmic understanding of the human body.