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Semen Production in the Quran: Difference between revisions

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Semen Production in the Quran (view source)

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[[Category:Islam and Science]]
[[Category:Islam and Science]]
[[Category:Qur'an]]
[[Category:Qur'an]]
{{QualityScore|Lead=4|Structure=4|Content=4|Language=4|References=3}}[[File:Hippocrates.jpg|thumb|280px|right|Qur'an 86:7 says that sperm originates from the backbones and the ribs, a theory similar to another (now known to be erroneous) theory proposed by Hippocrates in 5th century BC (1000 years before Islam). Hippocrates taught that semen comes from all the fluid in the body, diffusing from the brain into the spinal marrow, before passing through the kidneys and via the testicles into the penis.<ref>Hippocratic Writings (Penguin Classics, 1983) pp. 317-318</ref>]]Towards the end of the 20th century and into the early 21st century, drawing on the work of a broad and largely Saudi-financed movement to demonstrate the concordance of [[Islam and Science|Islamic scriptures and modern science]], attempts have been made to defend the '''[[Quran|Qur'anic]] idea of semen production''' (found in {{Quran-range|86|6|7}}) from between the ''sulb'' (literally "backbone"<ref>sulb - [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume4/00000436.pdf Lane's Lexicon] page 1712</ref>) and the ''tara’ib'' (literally "ribs"<ref name="Lane Lexicon taraib2" />). Several specific interpretations have been proposed, critiqued, and withdrawn by modern Islamic scholars - none, however, have been welcomed by the professional scientific or historian community.
{{QualityScore|Lead=4|Structure=4|Content=4|Language=4|References=3}}[[File:Hippocrates.jpg|thumb|280px|right|Qur'an 86:7 says that sperm originates from the backbones and the ribs, a theory similar to other (now known to be erroneous) theories proposed in the 5th century BC (1000 years before Islam). Plato believed that semen defused from brain and spinal marrow, while his contemporary, Hippocrates, taught that semen comes from all the fluid in the body, diffusing from the brain into the spine, before passing through the kidneys and via the testicles into the penis.]]Towards the end of the 20th century and into the early 21st century, drawing on the work of a broad and largely Saudi-financed movement to demonstrate the concordance of [[Islam and Science|Islamic scriptures and modern science]], attempts have been made to defend the '''[[Quran|Qur'anic]] idea of semen production''' (found in {{Quran-range|86|6|7}}) from between the ''sulb'' (literally "backbone"<ref>sulb - [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume4/00000436.pdf Lane's Lexicon] page 1712</ref>) and the ''tara’ib'' (literally "ribs"<ref name="Lane Lexicon taraib2" />). Several specific interpretations have been proposed, critiqued, and withdrawn by modern Islamic scholars - none, however, have been welcomed by the professional scientific or historian community.


The most common of these revisionary perspectives which advocate an interpretation of the Quran via its reconciliation with modern science include that of Drs. Maurice Bucaille and A. K. Giraud (according to which ''sulb'' and ''tara’ib'' refer to the sexual areas of the male and female); Ahmed A. Abd-Allah (according to which all acknowledged translations and tafsirs are in error, as ''sulb'' and ''tara’ib'' refer instead to to the male's “hardening” penis and the female's erogenous zones other than the vagina); Dr. Zakir Naik (according to which ''sulb'' and ''tara’ib'' refer to the backbone and ribs of both sexes and where the blood, nerve and lymphatic supply to the gonads are being described rather than the act of sexual reproduction); Dr. Jamal Badawi (according to which the verses refer not to semen production but to the blood of the aorta as the ‘gushing fluid poured forth’); Hamza Tzortzis (according to whom the Quran refers to childbirth from between a woman's backbone and ribs); Muhammad Asad (according to which ''sulb'' refers to the male's loins and ''tara'ib'' to the female's pelvic arch); Moiz Amjad (who adopts Naik's positions, and further claims that the ''sulb'' and ''tara'ib'' 'region' alluded to are special euphemisms for the sexual organs); and Yusuf Ali (according to which the backbone is only symbolically alluded to as a symbol of male strength where semen flows between the backbone and ribs).
The most common of these revisionary perspectives which advocate an interpretation of the Quran via its reconciliation with modern science include that of Drs. Maurice Bucaille and A. K. Giraud (according to which ''sulb'' and ''tara’ib'' refer to the sexual areas of the male and female); Ahmed A. Abd-Allah (according to which all acknowledged translations and tafsirs are in error, as ''sulb'' and ''tara’ib'' refer instead to to the male's “hardening” penis and the female's erogenous zones other than the vagina); Dr. Zakir Naik (according to which ''sulb'' and ''tara’ib'' refer to the backbone and ribs of both sexes and where the blood, nerve and lymphatic supply to the gonads are being described rather than the act of sexual reproduction); Dr. Jamal Badawi (according to which the verses refer not to semen production but to the blood of the aorta as the ‘gushing fluid poured forth’); Hamza Tzortzis (according to whom the Quran refers to childbirth from between a woman's backbone and ribs); Muhammad Asad (according to which ''sulb'' refers to the male's loins and ''tara'ib'' to the female's pelvic arch); Moiz Amjad (who adopts Naik's positions, and further claims that the ''sulb'' and ''tara'ib'' 'region' alluded to are special euphemisms for the sexual organs); and Yusuf Ali (according to which the backbone is only symbolically alluded to as a symbol of male strength where semen flows between the backbone and ribs).
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This concept did not just apply to Adam. Another hadith confirms that ''sulb'' refers in this way even to the backbone of a specific man's father.
This concept did not just apply to Adam. Another hadith confirms that ''sulb'' refers in this way even to the backbone of a specific man's father.
{{Quote|{{Al Tirmidhi||5|44|3103}}|[...] Az-Zuhri said: "'Ubaidullah bin 'Abdullah bin 'Utbah informed me that 'Abdullah bin Mas'ud disliked Zaid bin Thabit copying the Musahif, and he said: 'O you Muslims people! Avoid copying the Mushaf and the recitation of this man. By Allah! When I accepted Islam he was but '''in the loins of a disbelieving man'''' - meaning Zaid bin Thabit [...]}}
{{Quote|{{Al Tirmidhi||5|44|3103}}|[...] Az-Zuhri said: "'Ubaidullah bin 'Abdullah bin 'Utbah informed me that 'Abdullah bin Mas'ud disliked Zaid bin Thabit copying the Musahif, and he said: 'O you Muslims people! Avoid copying the Mushaf and the recitation of this man. By Allah! When I accepted Islam he was but '''in the loins of a disbelieving man'''' - meaning Zaid bin Thabit [...]}}
===Similar ancient ideas===
Plato (d. 347 BCE) believed that semen came from brain and spinal marrow. An open access paper published by the Royal Society London observes that the idea of semen deriving from the backbone has a long history:
{{Quote|[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4213433/ Leonardo da Vinci and the origin of semen] - Denis Nobel et. al.<ref>Noble D, DiFrancesco D, Zancani D. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4213433/ Leonardo da Vinci and the origin of semen] ''Notes and Records; Royal Society London Publishing''. 2014 Dec 20; 68(4):391-402. doi: 10.1098/rsnr.2014.0021. PMID: 27494016; PMCID: PMC4213433.</ref>|The view that semen was derived from the spinal cord was old enough to be denied by Alcmaeon in the sixth century bc, but Plato and Hippocrates subscribed to it. Plato in his Timaeus considers the brain and spinal ‘marrow’ as but a special form of bone marrow (Timaeus, 73) in which ‘God implanted his divine seed’.<BR />
[...]<BR />
"And the marrow inasmuch as it is animate and has been granted an outlet from the passage of egress for drink [the penis] has endowed that part with a love for generating by implanting therein a lively desire for emission (Timaeus, 91)."}}
Plato's connection of brain and spinal marrow was an ancient one. The Hebrew word מוח and Arabic مخ share the proto-semetic etymological root *muḫḫ- meaning “head; brain; marrow”.<ref>https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%97#Hebrew</ref><ref>https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D9%85%D8%AE#Arabic</ref>
Hippocrates (d. 375 BCE) around the same time taught that semen comes from all the fluid in the body, diffusing from the brain into the spinal marrow, before passing through the kidneys and via the testicles into the penis.<ref>Hippocratic Writings (Penguin Classics, 1983) pp. 317-318</ref>
{{Quote|Joseph Bajada "Sexual Impotence: The Contribution of Paolo Zacchia, 1582-1659", Rome: Editrice Pontifica Universita Gregoriana, 1988, pp. 44-45|According to Hippocrates, this semen is the product of the whole body, though it is the brain which mostly contributes to its formation. At the moment of sexual intercourse, the humidity in the body becomes like effervescent foam, the semen is carried through the veins to the spinal cord and the kidneys, whence it makes its way to the testicles en route to the genital organ.}}


==Classical perspectives==
==Classical perspectives==
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