5th January, 2018
By Murtadha Gusau
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious and the Bestower of Mercy
All thanks and praises are due to Allah, we seek His help and forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil within ourselves and the consequences of our evil deeds. Whoever Allah guides will never be led astray, and whoever Allah leads astray will never find guidance. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, He is alone without any partners, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His Servant and His Messenger.
“O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared and do not die except as Muslims in submission to Him.” [Quran, 3:102]
“O mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from one soul and created from it its mate and dispersed from both of them many men and women. And fear Allah, through whom you ask one another, and the wombs. Verily, Allah is ever watching over you.” [Quran, 4:1]
“O you who have believed, fear Allah and speak words of appropriate justice. He will then amend for you your deeds and forgive your sins, and whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly attained a great attainment.” [Quran, 33:70-71]
Verily, the most truthful speech is the Book of Allah, the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad, and the worst affairs are newly invented matters (in the religion of Allah). Every newly invented matter is a religious innovation, and every religious innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Hellfire.
To proceed:
Respected Brothers and Sisters! It is the journey of creation which Allah, the Almighty, ordered us to contemplate at, to realise Allah’s blessing bestowed upon us and what beautiful when the believer lives submissively, even for seconds, when he sees the power of Allah is reflected in the creation of the fetus in his mother’s womb.
All praises to you Allah! Who created us in the most beautiful, most magnificent and best form, and granted us your blessings, the apparent and the hidden. You are more knowing of us than ourselves; you have talked to us in your glorious book saying:
“He knows you well when He created you from the earth, and when you were fetuses in your mother’s wombs. So ascribe not purity to yourselves. He knows best him who fears Allah and keeps his duty to Him.” [An Najm: 32]
Oh Allah, we shall neither ascribe purity to ourselves nor to anyone else, as you are more knowing of our doings and more knowing of what fits our situation, so prepare for us a knowledge that gives us benefit and makes us closer to you.
Your wisdom required to create us from soil!! As if you are telling us not to become arrogant as the material that we were created from is the cheapest material on the Earth!! Then you made us a sperm that can not be seen and has no value and almost weightless! However, you have bestowed in this small cell the most complicated programs on the surface of the Earth so that this complication and proficiency will testify your power, your greatness and your creation… We, our Lord, seek nothing except your mercy and there is nothing we love more than meeting you peacefully, as you have talked to us saying:
“Whoever hopes for the Meeting with Allah, then Allah’s Term is surely coming and He is the All-Hearer, the All-Knower.” [Al Ankabut: 5]
And we pray to you to make these scientific facts a mean to see through it your might reflected in ourselves:
“And also in your ownselves. Will you not then see?” [21: Az-Zariyat]
So, will you be satisfied with us? Oh The Eternal Owner of Sovereignty and The Creator of everything!
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Allah! This is an introduction I loved to start with in my Sermon, to make sure that this science, namely the miracles of the Quran, is a way to know Allah, the Almighty. One brother told me once:
“Murtadha, why do you search in these sciences and waste your time?! I’m a believer in the Quran and in the message of Islam, and a believer in Allah, the Almighty, and I do not need proofs on this!”
I said to him: my brother, what is the number of the verses of the Quran?
He said: this does not increase my belief. Then I said to him: what is the number of the chapters of the Quran?
He said: I do not remember, and it is not important.
I said to him: what is the meaning of (By the heaven full of paths)?
He said: this needs interpretation and I’m not specialised in it!
Then I asked him: what is the meaning of (A lying, sinful forelock!), (And you will see the mountains and think them solid), (Alif-Lam-Mim), and other questions which shows the extent of the believer’s heart attachment to the book of his Lord and the extent of his care to understand this Quran and meditate it, but he was replying and saying that these things are not necessary to increase the faith!
Then I asked him to tell me who is the Prophet who said this supplication:
“O My Lord! Leave me not single (childless), though You are the Best of the inheritors.”
He said: I don’t know, then I said: who is the Prophet who said:
“I put my trust in Allah, my Lord and your Lord! There is not a moving (living) creature but He has the grasp of its forelock.”
And the answer was the same, these questions are not necessary and knowing it is not an obligation!
I said to him after that: you are completely ignorant of the Quran, and so you are a believer of something that you are unaware of, therefore you are a believer of the unknown! What will you say to Allah, the Almighty, who will ask you in the day of judgment about this Quran:
“And verily this (the Qur’an) is indeed a Reminder for you (O Muhammad) and your people (Quraish people, and all your followers), and you will be questioned (about it).” [Az Zukhruf: 44]
By Allah that anyone of us would be ashamed from a friend if he gifted him a book and asked him later if he read it, he would be ashamed to say I did not read it! Then, what will you say to Allah, the Almighty, when you stand between His hands without a veil between you and Him and Asks you: what did you do with this Quran, what did you learn from it? What services did you provide to this book which you claim that you love? Therefore, prepare yourself brother for these questions before that day comes, and do not think that you are better than Allah’s Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, who was watching a whole single night meditating on one verse:
“If You punish them, they are Your slaves, and if You forgive them, verily You, only You, are the All-Mighty, the All-Wise.” [Al Ma’idah: 118]
So, how many times you thought to allot even an hour to meditate one verse of Allah’s verses!!!
I used to hear one Hadith saying: “One hour of meditation is better than one year worship”, and I got astonished, but indeed I have realized that Allah, the Almighty Do not give rewards for the quantity of the doing but rather for the quality of it!
The Companions of the Prophet, peace be upon him, are many, and those who converted to Islam and were killed for the name of Allah shortly after they become Muslims, if we counted the number of the prayer units they did, we would find the few, but Allah, the Almighty made them with the Prophets, Pious, Martyrs and Righteous people because of a thing that we might see it simple but it is great in Allah’s count, it is the honesty and sincerity with Allah:
“Then if they had been true to Allah, it would have been better for them.” [Muhammad: 21]
Honesty, sincerity and thinking well of Allah, all those do not need the action of the body organs, it is rather the action of the heart that does not need much time and effort, it is the result of meditation in Allah’s, the Almighty, creation and power.
Brothers and Sisters! I’d like to tell you that my faith some years back, for example, was not as straight as today, due to the growing of my knowledge in Allah’s signs, Allah’s miracles and might.
The science of miracles of the Quran, my beloved brothers, is the best way in this time to realize anything from Allah’s greatness and power in his creation, and it is not enough to study the biography of the Prophet, peace be upon him, without following it as example! I wonder from a person who claims that he applies the teachings of Quran and Sunnah, then when you ask him what are your information in Embryology?, he says: it is not obligation on me to learn such a science! And I say: then, when Allah addressed the human being saying:
“So let man see from what he is created!” [Al Tariq: 5]
I do not know who is intended in this appeal: the believer or the disbeliever?
And what does it mean? Should we set and wait without thinking, studying, researching and meditating? Should we leave the non-Muslim western scientists to search, see and apply this verse practically in their labs, then say we are not concerned in this science!!
Therefore, my beloved ones, I will accompany you in a modest journey in the world of the creation of the embryo, so that we may become more faithful in Allah, the Almighty, and become more acquainted of the Ever Great Creator. And I shall use the language of pictures that the scientists had taken for embryos in their mother’s wombs from sperm till he gets out as a child, let us contemplate and praise Allah that He has honoured us with these sciences.
My great people! The scientists confirmed that one of the strangest phenomena in the nature is the creation of the human being! Where a single cell grows and become more than 100 trillion cells, how does this process take place, and who controls this specific program? Is it the nature, Or the Creator of the nature, the Almighty Allah? As when the man realizes his origin, which is clay, then the almost unseen sperm, he becomes more humble and he gets rid of his pride and arrogance, He the Almighty Allah says:
“O man! What has made you careless about your Lord, the Most Generous? Who created you, fashioned you perfectly, and gave you due proportion. In whatever form He willed, He put you together.” [Al infitar: 6-8]
We always see in the picture a large group of sperms surrounding the ovum but only one will penetrate the ovum and form the zygote in which the sperm is mixed with the ovum and will melt in it. Now, if we contemplate the chemical structure of the sperm or ovum, we will find that most of it is water, thus, Allah, the Almighty said:
“So let man see from what he is created! He is created from water gushing forth.” [Al Tariq: 5-6]
The sperms are competing and approaching the ovum trying to penetrate it, and the important question is who taught the sperm to follow this path in this darkness? Who guide it toward the ovum? He, the Almighty Allah says:
“Is then He, Who creates as one who creates not? Will you not then remember?” [Al Nahl: 17]
The sperm, from which the man was created, is so small that it can not be seen by the naked eye, but the medical researches show that the secret of life is even smaller than this and it is present deep in this sperm, in the genetic tape, which is called DNA, as it has all the information needed to create a sane person. He, the Almighty Allah says:
“There after We made him (the offspring of Adam) as a Nutfah (mixed drops of the male and female sexual discharge and lodged it) in a safe lodging.” [Al Mu’minun: 13]
The safe lodge is the mother’s womb; scientists say that the womb becomes one thousand times larger immediately after conception!! The head of the sperm contains all the information and systems needed to produce an embryo, He, the Almighty Allah says:
“And that He (Allah) creates the pairs, male and female, From Nutfah (drops of semen – male and female discharges) when it is emitted.” [An Najm: 45-46]
Think of a three days embryo pictured by the electronic microscope!! And it is a cell that has divided into 8 cells, this group has the ability to divide and form more than 100 trillion cells! Who order this cell to divide, multiply and form a human being? The strangest about this matter is that the mother cell start dividing but does not produce the same cells, it produces diverse cells, some form the skin, and others form the bones, others for the brain, the eye cells, the heart cells…who inform these cells about their function duty at this degree of sophistication? Isn’t He, the Almighty Allah, who says:
“He has created everything, and has measured it exactly according to its due measurements.” [Al Furqan: 2]
After the entrance of the first sperm into the ovum, the ovum excretes immediately a substance that close its membrane in front of the other sperms, and after fertilisation, the fertilised cell (the zygote) excretes HCG hormone, the hormone sensitized by the pregnancy test, this hormone orders the body to stop menstrual cycle and give the mother indications for the start of pregnancy. 30 hours after the entrance of the sperm into the ovum, the first cell division occurs and the cell starts to multiply forming the zygote after approximately four days.
The size of this cell is much less than the head of the pin, it can merely seen or mentioned, thus, He, the Almighty Allah says:
“Has there not been over man a period of time, when he was not a thing worth mentioning? Verily, we have created man from Nutfah (drops) of mixed semen (sexual discharge of man and woman), in order to try him: so we made him hearer and seer.” [Al Insan: 2]
After the fusion of the sperm with the feminine ovum, the divisions start directly, then the zygote move and adhere to the wall of the uterus, therefore, Allah, the Almighty says:
“It is He, Who has created you (Adam) from dust, then from a Nutfah [mixed semen drops of male and female sexual discharge (i.e. Adam’s offspring)] then from a clot (a piece of coagulated blood).” [Gaffir: 67]
The zygote is transformed into completely different form called the clot, which is a group of cells that try to be attached to the lining of the uterus in almost 6-12 days and it chooses the best place in it!
Wallahi scientists are confused: what made this mass of cells attached to the lining of the uterus and nourish from it?!
After that, the embryo is converted into what looks like a piece of chewed meat, therefore, the Quran had talked about this phase as He Almighty Allah says:
“Then from a little lump of flesh – some formed and some unformed (as in the case of miscarriage) – that We may make (it) clear to you (i.e. to show you Our Power and Ability to do what We will). And We cause whom We will to remain in the wombs for an appointed term.” [Al Hajj: 5]
At this stage, the important systems are being created like the nervous system, the heart and the brain, and some of the features start to appear, the heart starts to beat and many of the systems like the respiratory system, the kidneys, the liver start growing rapidly!
At this stage, bone formation begins, from the sixth to the eighth week, bone formation and growth continues even after delivery, He, the Almighty Allah, says:
“Then we made out of that little lump of flesh bones.”
What confuse scientists is: how do these cells know that they have to be transformed into bones specifically at this time?
A fetus at the age of 7-8 weeks, on it is the starts of the flesh stage in which the bones are coated with muscles. At the beginning of the eighth week the muscles start moving, the formation of the skin layers that cover the body also begin.
Look with me at His, the Almighty Allah saying:
“Look at the bones, how we bring them together and clothe them with flesh.” [Al Baqarah: 259]
The height of the fetus now is less than 3 cm, at this stage the muscles start to develop and cover the bones, this stage stay for long time and interfere with the next stage, namely the bone stage. He, the Almighty Allah, says:
“Then we clothed the bones with flesh.”
As for the placenta, it nourishes the fetus with oxygen, food and liquid, does not permit the passage of the harmful compounds, and produces hormones that regulate the fetus temperature, scientists say that the placenta provides care to the fetus better than any intensive care unit, praises to Allah!
Brothers and Sisters! At this stage, the fetus is getting his final features, the limbs, the eyes, the ears and the rest of the body organs, motion and electrical activity of the heart begin, the brain is very complicated and equals half the body’s weight. After that, the functions are sum of growing and completion of the organs creation which goes until the end of the pregnancy, thus, He, the Almighty Allah says:
“And then we brought it forth as another creation.” [Al Mu’minun]
Finally, there are many queries that we have to ask and meditate, and even to answer it:
How can a single cell develop in such an amazing way to produce a highly sophisticated creature like the human being? Who inform these cells to do what they have to do? Who coordinate their functions without any error? Who guide this fetus in his journey to the life? No doubt, that He is Allah, the Almighty, who says:
“Our Lord is He Who gave to each thing its form and nature, then guided it aright.” [Taha: 50]
We ask you Allah to gain us more knowledge and action with that knowledge, and to make us from those whom you said about:
“And when His Verses (this Qur’an) are recited unto them, they (i.e. the Verses) increase their Faith; and they put their trust in their Lord (Alone).” [Al Anfal: 2]
Servants of Allah! Abu Abdul-Rahman Abdullah bin Mas’ud (RA) reported that:
“The Messenger of Allah (Muhammad), peace be upon him, the most truthful, the most trusted, told us: “Verily the creation of any one of you takes place when he is assembled in his mother’s womb; for forty days he is as a drop of fluid, then it becomes a clot for a similar period. Thereafter, it is a lump looking like it has been chewed for a similar period. Then an angel is sent to him, who breathes the Ruh (spirit) into him. This Angel is commanded to write Four decrees: that he writes down his provision (rizq), his life span, his deeds, and whether he will be among the wretched or the blessed. I swear by Allah – there is no god but He – one of you may perform the deeds of the people of Paradise till there is naught but an arm’s length between him and it, when that which has been written will outstrip him so that he performs the deeds of the people of the Hell Fire; one of you may perform the deeds of the people of the Hell Fire, till there is naught but an arm’s length between him and it, when that which has been written will overtake him so that he performs the deeds of the people of Paradise and enters therein.” [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]
Brothers and Sisters! For more information you can check/read the following references:
1. Human Embryology and Developmental Biology, By Carlson Bruce M.
2. Developmental Biology, By Gilbert Scott F.
3. Before We Are Born: Essentials of Embryology and Birth Defects, By Moore Keith L. and T.V.N. Persaud.
4. “Embryo”, Wikipedia.
5. “The Biology of Prenatal Development”, in www.ehd.org.
6. How Life Begins: the Science of Life In the Womb, By Vaughn C.
7. The Visible Embryo, in www.visembryo.com
8. Human Embryology, By Larsen W.
9. A History of Embryology, By Horder T.J. and others.
10. An Introduction to Embryology, By Balinsky B. I.
11. Embryology, By Moore P.D.
12. Pictorial Anatomy of the Human Embryo, By Gilbert Stephen.
Lastly, I ask Allah the Almighty to assist us in living by the Quran and Sunnah. I pray He lets us recognise the truth for what it is and helps us to follow it, and that He lets us see falsehood for what it is and helps us to avoid it.
O Allah! Guide us and protect us from the causes of ignorance and destruction! Save us from the defects of ourselves! Cause the last of our deeds to be the best and most righteous! And forgive all of us.
My respected people! Anything good I have said in my today’s Khutbah (Sermon) is from Allah the Almighty, and any mistakes are my own and we seek refuge in Allah from giving wrong advice and from all forms of calamities and fitnah. And I ask Allah’s forgiveness if I stepped beyond bounds in anything I said or I do.
May Allah be praised; and may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon His Messenger Muhammad and upon his family and Companions.
With this I conclude my Khutbah (Sermon) and ask Allah, the Almighty and the Sublime, to forgive all of our sins. So seek his forgiveness, He is all forgiving and Most Merciful.
This Jumu’ah Khutbah (Friday Sermon) was prepared for delivery today, Friday, Rabi’ul Thani 17, 1439 AH (January 5, 2018), by Imam Murtadha Muhammad Gusau, the Chief Imam of Nagazi-Uvete Jumu’ah and late Alhaji Abdurrahman Okene’s Mosques, Okene Kogi State, Nigeria. He can be reached through: +2348038289761 or [email protected]