17:31(ref.46:15-Abortion is Murder)
The Age of Intellectual and Emotional Maturity
46:15 We instructed the human being to honor his parents. His mother bore him with hardship, gave birth to him in hardship, and his weaning lasts thirty months. Until he has attained his maturity, and reaches forty years, he says: "My Lord, direct me to appreciate the blessings You have bestowed upon me and upon my parents, and to do righteousness that pleases You. Let my progeny be righteous. I have repented to You; I am of those who have peacefully surrendered."
Note.
This verse informs us that the sum of pregnancy and breastfeeding is 30 months. When evaluated together with verse 31:14 suggesting the time of breastfeeding as 24 months, it takes simple arithmetic to learn that the pregnancy of the person (nafs) to be 6 months. It is common knowledge that pregnancy is longer than that. We know from modern embryology that the exact time for a normal pregnancy is 266 days (see 77:23). There is extra information to be extracted from these natural and scriptural signs. If we subtract the 6 months, that is 180 days, from 266 days, we get 86 days. We can easily infer that the Quran does not accept the creature inside the womb to be a person (nafs) from the time of conception until the 86th day of pregnancy. Other verses support our inference. For instance, verse 22:5 and 23:14, which explain the evolution of the human being in four stages, does not use the word person (nafs) or human (insan) to describe the early stages of pregnancy. The four stages of pregnancy are (1) sperm; (2) embryo; (3) about four inch fetus (4) a new creature. It is clear that a new creation comes into existence after the 86th day. In other words, the emergence of consciousness/personhood (nafs) starts taking place in the brain of the fetus approximately three months after conception. Do we need to further add that reflecting on the ayat (signs) of the scripture together with the ayat (signs) of nature sheds light on the controversial issue of abortion? Also, see 16:58; 17:31(edip).
Comments
Post a Comment