The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 282
CH. 23 AL-MU'MINÜN for its abode in the inner wall of the womb, and there it becomes attached to it and does not flow out with discharges. After that it makes erosion into this spot, and produces bleeding, thus making its way into the layers of the decidua. Then it becomes increasingly covered up with maternal blood, forming within the ovum a connection with it. At this stage it looks like a mass of congealed blood and therefore the Quran calls it which not only means congealed blood but also signifies an attachment or connection with something else. Thus a brief single word describes this stage of the ovum, i. e. its attractions, connections and the formation of the blood- vessels in it. In the next stage the ovum becomes a blastoderm, which is called in the Quran. This blastoderm has three layers from which all the organs of the foetus are developed. The Quran then describes the transformation of the layers of the blastoderm by the words, Then We fashioned bones out of this shapeless lump, which means that out of the a (lump) God creates bones. After this God covers the bones with flesh and skin and other organs and then He perfects its creation internally. At this stage the body in the womb develops a soul from within itself. The Quran has described this remarkable change in the words, Then We developed it into another creation. These words show that the soul is not imported into the human body from outside, but grows in the body as it develops in the womb. It is an essence which is distilled from the body in the course PT. 18 of a long process, as beer is distilled from barley. It has at first no separate existence from the body but the processes through which the body passes during its development in the womb distils from the body a delicate essence which is called the soul. As soon as the relationship between the soul and the body becomes completely adjusted, the heart begins to function. The soul then has a distinct existence of its own apart from the body which henceforth serves it as a shell. As referred to above there exists a remarkable parallelism between the spiritual development of man as described in the first ten verses of the Surah and the physical development of the embryo mentioned in this and the preceding verse. The initial stage of spiritual advancement of man is described in the words, "who humble themselves in their Prayers" (v. 3 above), i. e. who assume an attitude of humility and submission while offering their prayers and supplications to God. The stage of physical development corresponding to this initial stage of spiritual progress is the stage of aibi, or the impregnated ovum which is a seed that combines in itself, in a miniature form, all the different faculties, properties, external and internal organs, and all other features that become prominent in the later stages of physical development. The 2196 however, remains much more exposed to danger than the embryo in its later advanced stages. It is only like a seed which has just been cast into the ground and which has as yet