The Human Embryo's Stages Al-Mu'minun

The Arabic word alaqah (عَلَقَة) carries two meanings simultaneously: a leech, and a clinging clot. At around day 23, the embryo is both: it clings to the uterine wall drawing nutrients, and its external shape is visually indistinguishable from a leech. The word mudghah (مُضْغَة) means a morsel that has been chewed. At week four to five, the developing vertebral somites produce a surface pattern that looks exactly like bite marks on a piece of gum. These are not vague metaphors. They are specific, verifiable anatomical observations, made at a time when the interior of the womb was entirely inaccessible. This sequence, named in a 7th-century text, was not matched to clinical observation until the Carnegie embryological staging system of the 20th century.