The Qur’an An Abiding Wonder
The Qur’an: The Book of God
~ 49 ~
“We fashioned the thing which clings into a
chewed lump of flesh and We fashioned the
chewed flesh into bones and We clothed the
bones with intact flesh.”
‘Chewed flesh’ is the translation of the word
mudgha;
‘intact flesh’ is
lahm.
This distinction needs
to be stressed. The embryo is initially a small mass.
At a certain stage in its development, it looks to the
naked eye like chewed flesh. The bone structure
develops inside this mass in what is called the
mesenchyma. The bones that are formed are
covered in muscle; the word
lahm
applies to them.
It is known how certain parts appear to be
completely out of proportion during embryonic
development with what is later to become the
individual, while others remain in proportion.
This is surely the meaning of the word
mukhallaq,
which signifies ‘shaped in proportion’ as used in
verse 5, surah 22 to describe this phenomenon.
“We fashioned ... into something which clings
... into a lump of flesh fashioned and
unfashioned.”
