Where do we come from? The Qur'an answers this question not once but many times, returning again and again to the hidden journey each of us made inside our mother, describing it as a passage through distinct, ordered stages. For a book revealed in the 7th century, without any of the instruments that would later make the womb visible, Muslims regard these descriptions as among the most remarkable of the Qur'an's "signs."
The Stages of Creation
The central passage appears in Surah Al-Mu'minun, where the Qur'an lays out the development of the human being step by step:
"And certainly did We create man from an extract of clay. Then We placed him as a drop (nutfah) in a firm lodging. Then We made the drop into a clinging form ('alaqah), and We made the clinging form into a lump (mudghah), and We made from the lump bones, and We clothed the bones with flesh; then We developed him into another creation. So blessed is Allah, the best of creators."
(Surah Al-Mu'minun, 23:12–14)
Muslims have long marvelled at the ordered precision of this description. The Arabic terms are rich in meaning:
- Nutfah. A "drop," referring to the fluid from which conception begins.
- 'Alaqah. A word that carries the meanings of something that clings, a leech-like form, and a clot of blood. Muslims note how aptly this describes the early embryo, which clings to the wall of the womb.
- Mudghah. A "chewed lump," evoking a small mass of tissue.
- Then the forming of bones, which are subsequently clothed with flesh. An ordering of skeleton then muscle.
- Finally, being "developed into another creation", brought forth as a new, complete being.
A Description Beyond Its Age
What strikes Muslim readers is not only the ordering of the sequence but its very existence in a 7th-century desert text. The prevailing ideas about human origins in the ancient world were often crude or mistaken. The Qur'an, by contrast, presents a calm, ordered progression that believers find remarkable to encounter in a book of that age: a drop, a clinging form, a lump, bones, then flesh.
It is worth being clear about how Muslims read these verses. They are not presented here as a modern embryology textbook, nor as a scientific "proof" to settle a laboratory debate, the exact correspondence of ancient terms to modern biological stages is discussed and interpreted in different ways. Rather, they are read as signs: descriptions of our own hidden beginnings that many Muslims find striking, and that invite reflection on the One who shaped us. It is in that spirit that this chapter is offered.
The Qur'an makes the same point elsewhere, framing the stages as an argument for the reality of the Creator and the resurrection:
"O mankind, if you are in doubt about the resurrection, then consider that We created you from dust, then from a drop, then from a clinging form, then from a lump, formed and unformed, that We may show you. And We settle in the wombs whom We will for a specified term…"
(Surah Al-Hajj, 22:5)
Created in Stages, in Threefold Darkness
Another verse describes the unborn child developing through successive stages, hidden within "three darknesses", understood by many as the layers that envelop and protect the growing child within the mother:
"He creates you in the wombs of your mothers, creation after creation, within three darknesses. That is Allah, your Lord; to Him belongs dominion. There is no deity except Him, so how are you averted?"
(Surah Az-Zumar, 39:6)
The phrase "creation after creation" captures the Qur'an's consistent picture: not a single instant, but a developing process, stage following stage.
The Purpose of These Verses
As with all the Qur'an's "signs," these passages are not offered as a biology lesson for its own sake. They are an argument for gratitude and humility: that the God who fashioned you, unseen, from a single drop into a hearing, seeing human being is surely able to raise you again, and is worthy of your worship.
"Then blessed is Allah, the best of creators."
(Surah Al-Mu'minun, 23:14)
For Muslims, to read of one's own beginnings in the words of the Qur'an is to feel known by the One who wrote them, the same One who shaped each of us in the dark, stage by stage.
Further Reading
- The Qur'an. Read it for yourself, with translation and recitation.
- Sahih al-Bukhari & Sahih Muslim. The two most rigorously authenticated collections of the Prophet's ﷺ sayings.
- Riyad as-Salihin (Imam an-Nawawi), a beloved anthology of hadith on faith, character, and worship.
- The Sealed Nectar (Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum), an award-winning biography of the Prophet ﷺ.
- Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources. Martin Lings.