سورة المؤمنون

Ali ibn Ibrahim: ثُمَّ جَعَلْناهُ نُطْفَةً فی قَرارٍ مَکینٍ [Then We made him a small seed in a firm resting-place] — that is, He placed that nutfa in the testicles of the man and then in the womb of the woman.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): Among the counsels of Luqman to his son was this: "O my son! You must look with an instructive eye upon one whose certainty is weak and whose intention in seeking sustenance is feeble, for Allah the Exalted provided him with sustenance in three states in none of which he had any choice or power of his own, so he must be assured that Allah will also provide him with sustenance in the fourth state. The first state was in his mother's womb, where Allah sustained him in that firm resting-place which neither cold nor heat could reach, and then brought him out of there."

Imam Husayn (peace be upon him): In the supplication of Imam Husayn (peace be upon him) on the Day of Arafah it is said: "Before I was anything worthy of mention, You began my creation by Your favour. You created me from dust and, safe from the vicissitudes of death through the passage of time, You placed me in the womb; and through past ages I continually journeyed from one loin to a womb. Out of Your affection, kindness and beneficence to me, You did not bring me out in the reign of the unbelievers who broke Your covenant and denied Your messengers; and out of Your mercy and attentiveness to me, You brought me into the world in the age of guidance which You prepared, and before that You dealt well with me and bestowed favours upon me and created me from a poured-out drop and placed me in three darknesses between flesh, skin and blood, and did not make me conspicuous in my creation [and did not create me deficient] and did not entrust my affair to myself, and brought me into the world with a complete creation."

Imam Sajjad (peace be upon him): O Allah! You brought me down as a lowly, contemptible fluid from a loin whose bones were compressed together and whose passages were narrow, to a narrow womb which You had covered with veils, while You were turning me from one state to another until You brought me to the completion of the form and firmly established the limbs in [the body of] me, as You described in Your Book: [first] a drop, then a clot of blood, then a lump of flesh, then bones which You then clothed with flesh, then You produced me as another creation as You willed, until I became in need of Your sustenance and could not do without the succour of Your bounty. From the surplus of the food and drink of Your handmaid (my mother) — in whose interior You had lodged me and in the depth of whose womb You had entrusted me — You provided nourishment for me. And O my Lord! Had You in those states left me to my own ability and compelled me to my own strength, surely power would have been removed from me and strength would have been far from me. So You nourished me by Your bounty with the food of a kind, gentle one; You did all that for me out of Your generosity, right up to this stage of mine.

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): Muhammad ibn Isma'il addressed Imam Baqir (peace be upon him) and said: "May I be your ransom! Is it permissible for a man to pray for a pregnant woman so that Allah makes her child a healthy boy?" He said: "He may pray for a period of four months; because the embryo is a nutfah (drop of fluid) for forty nights, and a clot of blood for forty nights, and a piece of flesh for forty nights, which altogether is four months. After that, Allah sends two creator angels and they ask: 'O Lord, what shall we create, male or female, wretched or blessed?' They receive their answer. They ask again: 'O Lord! What is his sustenance? How will he die and how long will he live in this world?' It is said: such-and-such an amount, and they write all of these and place them between his two eyes, and as long as the embryo is in the mother's womb it looks at them. When the time for the child's exit draws near, Allah sends an angel and that angel shouts at the child, and then the embryo comes out of the mother's womb and remembers nothing of that covenant."

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): Muhammad ibn Muslim said: I asked Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): "By what description is the nutfah (drop) recognised?" He said: "It is white, like the thick phlegm of the chest, and it remains in the womb for forty days, then it becomes an 'alaqah (clot)." I said: "How is the 'alaqah recognised?" He said: "It is like clotted blood and the dried blood of cupping, which remains in the womb for forty days, and after that it becomes a mudghah (piece of flesh)." I said: "What is the description and form of the mudghah by which it is recognised?" He said: "The mudghah is red flesh in which are intertwined green veins, then it becomes bone." I said: "How is the bone?" He said: "It has ordered hearing, sight, and limbs, and when it becomes so (if it is miscarried) the full diyah (blood money) is due for it."

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Indeed Allah the Mighty and Majestic created four vessels for the womb; what is in the first belongs to the father (his testicles), what is in the second belongs to the mother, what is in the third belongs to the paternal aunts, and what is in the fourth belongs to the maternal aunts.

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): Whenever Allah the Mighty and Majestic wills to create a drop of fluid — one from which He had taken the covenant in the loins of Adam, or one concerning which bada (a change in the divine decree) occurs for Him — and to place it in the womb of a woman, He rouses the man for intercourse and reveals to the womb: "Open your door, that My creation and My binding decree and destiny may enter you." So the womb opens its door and the drop reaches the womb. It remains there for forty days, then becomes a clot of blood for forty days, then becomes a mudgha (a chewed lump of flesh) for forty days, and then becomes flesh through which interwoven veins run. Then Allah sends two creating angels, and those two create in the wombs whatever Allah wills. They enter the woman's belly through her mouth and from there reach the womb. The foetus already has within it the ancient spirit that has been transferred through the loins of men and the wombs of women. The two angels then breathe into the body of the foetus the spirit of life and continuance, and by the permission of Allah the Exalted they form for it hearing, sight, and all limbs and inner organs. Then Allah reveals to these two angels: "Write upon him My decree and destiny and My binding command, and stipulate for Me bada (the power to alter) in whatever you write." The two say: "O Lord, what shall we write?" Allah reveals to them to lift up their heads towards the head of the mother. They lift up their heads, and when the Tablet touches the mother's forehead, the two angels see in that Tablet the child's form, its adornment, the length of its life, its covenant, its wretchedness or felicity, and everything that pertains to it. Then one of the two dictates these things to the other and he writes them, and they also write this condition: in all these matters bada belongs to Allah. Then they seal the writing and place it upon the forehead of the foetus and stand the child upright in the mother's belly. The Imam said: "And it may happen that the foetus rebels and turns over, and this only occurs in the case of the insolent and the rebellious." When the time of the child's birth arrives — whether nine full months or less — Allah the Mighty and Majestic reveals to the womb: "Open your door, so that My creation may pass out to My earth and My command concerning him may be carried out; the time of his coming forth has arrived." The womb opens the way for the foetus, and Allah sends an angel called Zajir (the Driver) who drives the child in such a way that the child takes fright and is turned upside down, so that its feet come above its head and its head comes at the lower part of the belly, in order that the delivery may be made easy both for the mother and for the child. If the birth and the child's coming forth prove difficult, the angel Zajir startles the child once again, and the child takes fright and falls to the ground crying and terrified.

Imam Rida (peace be upon him): Hasan ibn Jahm said: I heard Imam Rida (peace be upon him) narrate from Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): The nutfa (drop of semen) remains in the womb for forty days, then it becomes a clot of blood, and after another forty days it becomes a mudgha (a piece of chewed flesh), and forty days later, when four complete months have passed, Allah sends two creating angels. They say: "O Lord! What are You creating? Male or female?" They are commanded in this regard. Then they ask: "Are You creating him wretched or blessed?" They are commanded in this as well. Then they say: "O Allah! How will his death be? What will his sustenance be like?" And they ask Allah about everything concerning him — the Imam mentioned a number of these matters — then they write a covenant between his eyes. When Allah completes the period of his stay in the mother's womb, He sends an angel who drives him out of the mother's womb such that the child emerges from the mother's womb remembering nothing of the covenant. Hasan ibn Jahm says: I asked Imam Rida (peace be upon him): "Even so, is it permissible for us to supplicate to Allah that He change a male foetus into a female or a female into a male?" The Imam said: "إِنَّ اللَّهَ یَفْعَلُ ما یَشاءُ [Indeed Allah does whatever He wills]."

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): After the nutfa (drop of semen) settles in the woman's womb, it turns into an alaqa (clot), then into something resembling chewed flesh, then it grows and is created in whatever form Allah wills. But if the nutfa falls outside the womb, nothing is created from it.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): When the nutfa (drop of semen) falls into the womb, Allah the Mighty and Majestic sends an angel who takes from the earth in which he will be buried and mixes it with the nutfa, and his heart continually yearns toward that place [until he dies].

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): When the nutfa (drop of semen) settles in the womb, it remains there for forty days, and for the next forty days it becomes a clot of blood, and for the next forty days it becomes a piece of chewed flesh. Then Allah sends two creating angels and tells them: "Just as Allah has willed, create him as a man or a woman and form him, and record his lifespan, sustenance, death, blessedness and wretchedness, and inscribe between his eyes the covenant which Allah took from him in the realm of dharr (the world of atoms), and place it upon his forehead." When the time for his emergence from the mother's womb draws near, Allah sends an angel named Zajir who cries out at the child, and the child becomes greatly frightened and forgets the covenant, and falls to the earth weeping from the cry of the angel.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Sulayman ibn Khalid said: I said to Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): 'O son of the Messenger of Allah! If in the miscarried nutfah (drop of semen) there is a single drop of blood, [what is the amount of the diyah due upon it]?' He said: 'The diyah of one drop is one tenth of the diyah of the nutfah; so the diyah of that drop is twenty-two dinars.' I said: 'If it is two drops?' He said: 'Twenty-four dinars.' I said: 'If it is three drops?' He said: 'Twenty-six dinars.' I said: 'If it is four drops?' He said: 'Twenty-eight dinars.' I said: 'If it is five drops?' He said: 'Thirty dinars, and whatever exceeds half, its reckoning is upon the same pattern, until it becomes an ʿalaqah (clot), the diyah of which is forty dinars.' I asked: 'If the nutfah comes out mingled with blood, what is its ruling?' He said: 'If there is pure blood in it, it is an ʿalaqah and its diyah is forty dinars; but if it is black blood, which is from the blood inside the womb, there is no diyah upon him, only taʿzir (discretionary punishment), because its blood is not the pure blood which is for the foetus, but rather black blood that comes from within the mother's belly.' Abu Shibl asked: 'If in the ʿalaqah there is something resembling veins or flesh, what is the ruling?' He said: 'Its diyah is forty-two dinars and a tenth.' Abu Shibl said: 'A tenth of forty dinars, which comes to four dinars?' He said: 'No; what I mean is a tenth of the diyah of the mudghah (lump of flesh); for a tenth of it has gone (been miscarried), and to whatever extent the foetus passes through further stages of growth, its diyah likewise increases, until it reaches sixty dinars.' I said: 'If in the mudghah something like a knot of bone is seen, what then?' He said: 'That is bone, and at its very beginning its diyah is four dinars, and as it increases, its diyah likewise increases by four dinars, four dinars, until it reaches one hundred dinars.' I asked: 'If flesh has covered the bone, what is the ruling?' He said: 'In the same way its diyah increases until it reaches one hundred dinars.' I asked: 'If someone strikes a blow and the child is miscarried and it is not known whether it was alive or not (whether the soul had been breathed into it or not), what is the ruling?' He said: 'Far from it, O Abu Shibl! When the foetus reaches four months, the spirit of life is breathed into it and the full diyah is due.'

Imam Rida (peace be upon him): Husayn ibn Khalid said: I said to Imam Rida (peace be upon him): 'It has been narrated to us that the Noble Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) said: "Whoever drinks wine, his prayer is not accepted for forty days" — is this narration correct?' The Imam said: 'The narrators of this hadith have spoken truthfully and have transmitted the hadith correctly.' I said: 'Why is his prayer not accepted for forty days — no less and no more?' The Imam said: 'Because Allah the Exalted has ordained and fixed the creation of the human being: He made the nutfah (drop of semen) [remain as such] for forty days, then transferred it to the next stage, and after forty days made it an ʿalaqah (clot), then transferred it to the next stage, and after forty days made it a mudghah (lump of flesh). It is in the same way that when a person drinks wine, the traces of that wine remain in his bladder, in accordance with his creation, for forty days — just as the particles and traces of food and other things eaten and drunk also remain in the bladder for forty days [and hence, so long as these traces are in his bladder, his prayer must not be accepted at the divine court].'