World Blog by humble servant.It is amazing that the Quran, revealed 1400 years ago, is so accurate in its description of the process of creation and development of the human being. The words that the Quran uses are unbelievably simple to understand.

The Abortion Controversy

An abortion is the expulsion of a baby from the womb before it is sufficiently developed to survive. It can be a) elective – meaning that the mother elects   to  end the pregnancy, or b) spontaneous – meaning that the forces of nature have caused her to lose it (miscarriage). We shall, of course, confine ourselves to  “elective” abortion, which shall henceforth be referred to only as “abortion”.

 

Abortion is the most frequently performed surgery in the world. About 1.6 million abortions per year are performed in the United States alone.

The issue of abortion is as old as civilization. Questions, such as when does life  begin, have been asked for centuries. With advancing genetic technology in the past several years, and the advent of transvaginal sonography  (visualization of the uterus and surrounding structures through an ultrasonic probe placed in the vagina), we now have strong scientific proof that life starts at conception.  It is amazing that the Quran, revealed 1400 years ago, is so accurate in its description of the process of creation and development of the human being. The words that the Quran uses are unbelievably simple to understand. “Nutf”, or  “drop,” to explain a fertilized egg; “alaq,” or “hanging,” to describe the embryo hanging from the wall of the uterus – six or seven days after fertilization (conception); “mudga” for a fetus and “garaarin makeen” or “safe place” for the uterus. The explanations are so accurate and so clear that you  might   as well be reading  a textbook of embryology.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

 As submitters who have the pure Quran for the first time, we have an awesome duty to educate ourselves and become knowledgeable on this issue, so we can factually discuss and explain it to our children and our peers. It is important to understand some basic terminology before we proceed.

A human being’s genetic material is composed of 46 chromosomes. Each chromosome contains a specific number of genes. Two of these chromosomes determine the sex of the child. Each parent gives 23 chromosomes to the child, the mother through the egg from her ovaries (called an oocyte) , and the father through his sperm. At conception, the oocyte is penetrated by the sperm and forms a “zygote” which contains 46 chromosomes. The sex of the  child is determined at this  time.  Looking at the two chromosomes that determine the sex, the oocyte  has only  “X” type chromosomes while the sperm can have either “X” or “Y” chromosomes. If the fertilization occurs with an  “X” from the sperm, the zygote will have two “X” chromosomes (one from the mother and one from the father), and the child will be girl. If fertilization occurs with a “Y” chromosome from the sperm, the zygote will have an “X” and a “Y” chromosome and will develop into a boy. So the gender depends on the father’s sperm, just as the  Quran tells us (75:37).  Ovulation (release of the oocyte from the ovary) normally takes place on the 14th or 15th day of a typical 28-30 day menstrual cycle. Fertilization occurs in the tube which connects the mother’s ovary with her uterus, and the fertilized egg now contains the 46 chromosomes and floats freely in the tube. It is called a zygote. Male or female, it looks exactly like a “drop” under the microscope.                                                                                                                                               

Within five to seven days the “drop” moves to the uterine cavity, becomes attached to the wall of the uterus, and starts “hanging” from it. The diagram on the next page represents the sequence of events.

At 18 days after conception (e.g., if the mother’s period started on November 1, and conception took place on November 14 or 15, then the 18th day is December 3), the heart is not only formed, but pumping blood through the body. The pulsating heart and the embryo’s movement can be demonstrated very clearly by transvaginal ultrasound (by December 6 or 7), at a time when the woman is hardly conscious of the fact that she has missed her period. Within two more weeks, still an embryo, the child has arms and legs, a brain, and has multiplied in size 10,000 times, only six weeks (December 29-30) after conception! At just 40 days after conception, the child’s brain waves can be recorded.

By 42 days, the skeleton is formed and the brain is controlling the movements of muscles and organs. The unborn child reflexively responds to stimulus. All of this  before the earliest abortions take place!

What do we call it when a person no longer has a heart beat or brain waves? Death. What should we call it when there is a heart beat and there are brain waves?                                                                                      Life. It is an indisputable scientific fact that each and every abortion stops a beating heart and already measurable brain waves.

“O people, if you have any doubt about resurrection, (remember that) we created you from dust, and subsequently from a tiny drop, which turns into a hanging (embryo), then it becomes a fetus that is given life or deemed lifeless. We thus clarify things for you. We settle in the wombs whatever we will for a predetermined period. We then bring you out as infants, then you reach maturity. While some of you die young, others live to the worst age, only to find out that no more knowledge can be attained beyond a certain limit…” (22:5)

God obviously does not discriminate depending on the place of residence of the human. To God, a person is a person whether he/she is in the uterus (the initial place of residence) or outside of it. He is simply describing the first stages of creation of every human being from the point of conception,  and explaining  that   this human can die while still in the uterus, at any point in time, or be born and die outside of the uterus, at any point in time At no point in the uterus  is it any “less” of a human than outside of it. It might not look like a typical human, but in the correct scientific sense he/she is every bit as human as any older child or adult. In the following verses of the Quran, reference is made to a child without differentiating whether the child is inside or outside the womb:

We enjoined the human being to honor his parents. His mother bore him arduously, gave birth to him arduously, and took intimate care of him for thirty months… (46:15)

We enjoined the human being to honor his parents. His mother bore him, and the load got heavier and heavier… (31:14)

“You shall not kill your children due to fear of poverty. We provide for them, as well as for you. Killing them is a gross offense.”

(17:31,6:151)

With the knowledge that we now have, it is imperative that we understand the last verse clearly. God is stating that abortion is murder and therefore a gross offense.

Finally, something from the Bible. The prophet  David had this to say in Psalms 51:5

“Surely I  have been a sinner from birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.”                              And again in Psalm 139:13-16, “You created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your workmanship is marvelous. I know that full well. You were there while I was being formed in utters seclusion. Your eyes saw my unformed body. You scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in Your book.”

Reading these Psalms, which were revealed to David before the revelation of the Quran, reinforces the fact that God’s laws, and therefore His system, are unchangeable. Every facet is covered clearly, leaving no room for doubt.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                ARGUMENTS FOR ABORTION ANSWERED

1. It is uncertain when the soul comes into the body. Therefore, up to a certain time, abortion is all right.

God has assigned a soul for each human. A certain, definite number of humans are going to come to the earth and  be tested, and they already have souls that are assigned to them. God talks about creating the human from “clay” or “dust” and then from a drop. This human already has a soul assigned. The point to understand and emphasize is not when this assigned soul comes to the body (it is already assigned), but what constitutes “life.” Living in this world of matter, we have a “life span” (during which we need to redeem ourselves). We do not have a “soul span.” The assigned soul cannot die and is eternal. So, in discussing abortion, in which you commit the act of murdering the body, you are basically stating that the assigned soul is released and “alive and well”  at God.                                                                                    We can continue the discussion for the sake of debate, and say that we are uncertain as to when the soul gets assigned. Suppose you are driving at night and you think that the dark figure ahead on the road may be a child, or the shadow of a tree. Do you drive into it, or do you put on the brakes? Shouldn’t we give the benefit of the doubt to life? Otherwise, we are saying,  “this may or not have a soul, therefore it is all right to destroy it.”

2. It is uncertain when human life begins.

This is not true. Medical text books and scientific reference works consistently agree that human life begins at conception. (a) Dr. Keith L. Moore’s text on embryology, referring to the single cell zygote, says “The cell results from fertilization of an oocyte by a sperm and is the beginning of a human being.” He also states that each one of us started life as a cell called a zygote. (b) Dr. Louis Fridhanler, in the textbook “Biology of Gestation” refers to fertilization as “that wondrous moment that marks the beginning of a new life.” (c) Professor Hymie Gordon of the Mayo Clinic in an article states  “ By all the criteria of molecular biology, life is present from the moment of conception.” (d) The International Symposium on Abortion, after exhaustive review of data by geneticists, embryologists and pathologists, released the following statement: ”The changes occurring between implantation, a six-week embryo, a six-month fetus, a one-week old child, and a mature adult are merely stages of development and maturation.”

Please read 22:5, 23:12-14, 40:67, 31:14, 46:15, Psalms 139:13-16, and Psalms 51:5.