embryology 
	
		 
	
		a few years ago, a group of men in riyadh, saudi arabia 
	
		collected all of the verses in the quran which discuss 
	
		embryology - the growth of the human being in the womb. 
	
		they said, "here is what the quran says. is it the truth?" 
	
		in essence, they took the advice of the quran: "ask the 
	
		men who know." they chose, as it happened, a non- 
	
		muslim who is a professor of embryology at the universityof toronto. his name is keith moore, and he is the author of textbooks on embryology - a world expert on the subject. they invited him to riyadh and said, "this is what the quran says about your subject. is it true? what
	
		can you tell us?" 
	
		 
	
		while he was in riyadh, they gave him all the help that he 
	
		needed in translation and all of the cooperation for which 
	
		he asked. and he was so surprised at what he found that 
	
		he changed his textbooks. in fact, in the second edition of 
	
		one of his books, called before we are born... in the section 
	
		about the history of embryology, he included some 
	
		material that was not in the first edition because of what he found in the quran was ahead of its time and that those
	
		who believe in the quran know what other people do not 
	
		know. 
	
		 
	
		i had the pleasure of interviewing dr. keith moore for a 
	
		television presentation, and we talked a great deal about 
 
	
	 
	 
	 
	this - it was illustrated by slides and so on. he mentioned 
	that some of the things that the quran states about the growth of the human being were not known until thirty
	years ago. in fact, he said that one item in particular - the 
	quran's description of the human being as a"leech-like 
	clot"('alaqah) [ghafir : ] - was new to him; but when
	he checked on it, he found that it was true, and so he 
	added it to his book. he said, "i never thought of that 
	before," and he went to the zoology department and asked 
	for a picture of a leech. when he found that it looked just like the human embryo, he decided to include both
	pictures in one of his textbooks. 
	 
	although the aforementioned example of man researching 
	information contained in the quran deals with a non- 
	muslim, it is still valid because he is one of those who are knowledgeable in the subject being researched. had some layman claimed that what the quran says about embryology is true, then one would not necessarily have to accept his word. however, because of the high position, respect, and esteem man gives scholars, one naturally assumes that if they research a subject and arrive at a conclusion based on that research, then the conclusion is valid.