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Frequently Asked Questions

Below are some common questions submitted by readers that have been answered and will hopefully assist others. We thank all our visitors for the overwhelmingly positive letters of encouragement as well as the understandable criticisms and questions.

Other Interesting Visitor Questions (Updated Jumaadaa Al-Aakhirah 1422)

1. In the embryology section of your site you have mentioned this hadeeth: "When forty-two nights have passed over the drop (nutfah), Allah sends an angel to it, who shapes it and makes its ears, eyes, skin, flesh and bones. Then he says, “O Lord, is it male or female?” and your Lord decides what he wishes. (Muslim)."
   
   Non-Muslims argue that the sex of a fetus is determined by the male sperm cell and right after conception. While this hadeeth says that Allah decides whether it is male or female after 42 days. Please provide an appropriate reply. Or if you find that this hadeeth is not authentic then please remove this from your site. The Non-Muslims have absolutely no other objection about your site and it is a beautiful site. But because of this hadeeth we can ‘t introduce non-Muslims to your site.
    

2. You have an inconsistency in the argument you are trying to make. In your effort to show that science proves, or is in excellent agreement with Islamic revelations, you have made an error. In the section "Islam and science," you published the following paragraph: In another Hadeeth, Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu 'alaihi wa sallam) said: When forty-two nights have passed over the drop (nutfah), Allah sends an angel to it, who shapes it and makes its ears, eyes, skin, flesh and bones. Then he says, "O Lord, is it male or female?" and your Lord decides what he wishes. (Muslim). This contradicts scientific knowledge. The gender of a new human (and all mammals for that matter) is determined at the moment of conception, when sperm and ovum come together. It is the sperm's contribution of an X or Y chromosome that decides the gender at time = 0, not at time = 42 days. Now, there are genetic diseases which lead to gender identity ambiguity, but for normal (more than 99%) cases, the gender is determined immediately. Correcting your inconsistency may improve the power of your argument...
    

3. Does the Qur'aan or Prophet Mohamed (sallallaahu 'alihi wa sallam) speak about genetic mutation? If so, where?
    

4. What does Islam say about Darwin's theory of evolution?
    

5. Are you kidding me about iron being an extraterrestrial element? That is a bunch of nonsense!!
    

6. I've a question about the Quran. Allah says: ''yakhruju min baini sulbi wa taraaib'' What do you say about this?
    

7. Is the doctors’ knowledge of the fetus in the uterus complete?

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1. In the embryology section of your site you have mentioned this hadith: "When forty-two nights have passed over the drop (nutfah), Allah sends an angel to it, who shapes it and makes its ears, eyes, skin, flesh and bones. Then he says, “O Lord, is it male or female?” and your Lord decides what he wishes. (Muslim)."
    
   Non-Muslims argue that the sex of a fetus is determined by the male sperm cell and right after conception. While this hadeeth says that Allah decides whether it is male or female after 42 days. Please provide an appropriate reply. Or if you find that this hadeeth is not authentic then please remove this from your site. The Non-Muslims have absolutely no other objection about your site and it is a beautiful site. But because of this hadeeth we can ‘t introduce non-Muslims to your site.
   
   The hadeeth is indeed authentic. The meaning of the hadeeth has been explained by the non-Muslim expert in embryology Dr. Joe Leigh Simpson in the same book in the chapter Islam and Science. If scientists have proven or argue that the sex of the foetus is determined at the moment of conception by the male sperm it does not nullify the validity of the hadeeth but it could mean that what is referred to therein is how the child may live or be raised or even that it will actually develop full term into a male or female for indeed much can occur between the period of conception to the time of birth that could alter that process and Allah knows best.
    
   Finally we should add that the statement "And your Lord decides what He wishes" does not mean that He did not know the sex of the foetus even before it was conceived. It is the angel that asked the question of the One Who had already determined the sex of the child.
    
   Never forget, our deen is not dependent on or determined by science.
   
    

2. You have an inconsistency in the argument you are trying to make. In your effort to show that science proves, or is in excellent agreement with Islamic revelations, you have made an error. In the section "Islam and science," you published the following paragraph: In another Hadeeth, Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu 'alaihi wa sallam) said: When forty-two nights have passed over the drop (nutfah), Allah sends an angel to it, who shapes it and makes its ears, eyes, skin, flesh and bones. Then he says, "O Lord, is it male or female?" and your Lord decides what he wishes. (Muslim). This contradicts scientific knowledge. The gender of a new human (and all mammals for that matter) is determined at the moment of conception, when sperm and ovum come together. It is the sperm's contribution of an X or Y chromosome that decides the gender at time = 0, not at time = 42 days. Now, there are genetic diseases which lead to gender identity ambiguity, but for normal (more than 99%) cases, the gender is determined immediately. Correcting your inconsistency may improve the power of your arguement...
   
   We are not the authors of This Is The Truth however we will forward your question to those with knowledge of the subject who will in shaa Allah reply to you. One matter we must point out is that although you mention that scientists believe the sex of a mammal is determined at the moment of conception, there is however no scientific means to determine whether a person will truly develop into or live as a healthy male or female nor does that contradict the fact that Allah knew what the sex of the person would be not just before the 42 days when the angels ask the question, but prior to the person being conceived all together. Thus it is Allah who determines the sex of any individual even before conception and not the chromosomes of the mother and father for He is the Creator of the chromosomes and the entire process of reproduction, and Allah knows best.
   
    

3. Does the Qur'aan or Prophet Mohamed (sallallaahu 'alihi wa sallam) speak about genetic mutation? If so, where?
   
   Unless of course one was to interpret the miraculous transformation of certain people such as the punishment of the breakers of the Sabbath whom Allah transformed into apes and swine [Al-Qur'aan 5:60] as a possible example or the Ya'jooj wa Ma'jooj (Gog and Magog) who are locked and sealed within the earth [Al-Qur'aan 18:94 - 99, Al-Bukhari (English), Vol. 9 Hadeeth 249) and Allah knows best.
   
   The Islamic position regarding such matters would however be derived upon principles found in the Qur'aan and the authentic hadeeth and any possible analogous situations, the same as any other newly occurring matter of interpretation or fiqh. If you are referring to "cloning" then there have been some opinions brought out by Islamic scholars based on the known information that may be found through the Contemporary Jurisprudence Research Journal that may be obtained from P.O. Box 1918, Riyadh 11441, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or perhaps a Muslim University like the Journal of Science and Technology, King Abdul-'Aziz City For Science and Technology, P.O. Box 6086, Riyadh 11442, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or other resources that we do not have at this time.

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