Wednesday 15 August 2012

Hadith on Genetics Dominance

There is an excellent analysis of genetics hadiths that I found elsewhere and I confirmed with a hadith scholar who agreed with it. The word "dominant" (and similar meanings), is precisely the word used by geneticists.


The main point to notice, is that the correct translation of the hadith is that the Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) said
"...When they get together, if the semen of the man is dominant over the semen of the woman, the child is male, by the permission of Allah, and if the semen of the woman is dominant over the semen of the woman, the child is a female by the permission of Allah."

Hadeeths touched the topic under discussion:
1-- وَإِذَا سَبَقَ مَاءُ الرَّجُلِ مَاءَ الْمَرْأَةِ نَزَعَ الْوَلَدَ، وَإِذَا سَبَقَ مَاءُ الْمَرْأَةِ نَزَعَتْ
http://sunnah.com/urn/41620
This talks about the resemblance due to father/mother.

 2- وَأَمَّا الشَّبَهُ فِي الْوَلَدِ فَإِنَّ الرَّجُلَ إِذَا غَشِيَ الْمَرْأَةَ فَسَبَقَهَا مَاؤُهُ كَانَ الشَّبَهُ لَهُ، وَإِذَا سَبَقَ مَاؤُهَا كَانَ الشَّبَهُ لَهَا ‏"
http://sunnah.com/urn/31100

3-  وَهَلْ يَكُونُ الشَّبَهُ إِلاَّ مِنْ قِبَلِ ذَلِكِ إِذَا عَلاَ مَاؤُهَا مَاءَ الرَّجُلِ أَشْبَهَ الْوَلَدُ أَخْوَالَهُ وَإِذَا عَلاَ مَاءُ الرَّجُلِ مَاءَهَا أَشْبَهَ أَعْمَامَهُ ‏ ‏
http://sunnah.com/muslim/4#37

In the first 2 hadeeths the word is "Sabaqa" سبق which means
1- precede -outrun.
2- win - defeat - overpower (which also means to "dominate").
In the third hadeeth the word is "alaa" علا which means:
overpower/take over/be superior (which also means to "dominate")..
e.g:
http://corpus.quran.com/wordmorphology.jsp?location=%2823:91:17%29
Translation:
the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said: "Let her ask, for i resemblance happens because of it. when her water/discharge is dominant, the born child resembles his maternal family but if water/discharge of the man was dominant, the born child should resemble his paternal family."

The content of this narration is reported in other narrations as well and despite the slight difference of words, all narrations include the highlighted words.
They key words of this hadeeth are:
a- water [i.e. liquid] of women
b-water of men(semen)
c- dominance
d- resemblance
The topic of this hadeeth is about resemblance.

This narration goes along with the genetic science that resemblance of children is explained through the theory of dominance where only superior genes appear on the child. [This can be one of the interpretations and understanding...]
Water/discharge of women !

One major point that may cause all this confusion about this hadeeth and hence some people find it problemtic is because they tend to immeditaly understand the word "water of women" to mean ejaculated fluid that happens due to intimicay or arousing.

If we pay attention to the words used in this hadeeth we will find outstanding findings i.e. He صلى الله عليه وسلم used the word "water" in reference to the liquid of women and he did not specify it any further.
Well, there is no one better to explain one narration except the one who said it.

For this reason, let's know first what the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم meant with "water of women" since he did not specify it. Well, true that he did not specify it but he actually described it when he said in another narration " the water" of women is yellow and thin. So, what is that fluid that has such description?Simple, it is known that ejaculated discharges due to arousing or intimiacy are white.

The only liquid that is yellow is actually called "Follicuar Fluid" that is discharged at ovulation without being related to copulation or being aroused and it is directly related to preganacy. It comes out with a thin layer called follicle of which inside there is a small egg that supposed to combine with the men sperm during fertilization in order for a child to be created.

Finally, I would like you to understand that these narrations came in response to questions about why? and not to answer a question of how? In other words neither the questioner nor answerer [i.e. the Prophet] intended to explain the howness of this process. Rather, he wanted to explain why children sometimes resemble their fathers and some other times resemble their mothers.

This is proven and well explained in the other hadeeth when the Prophet clearly state that resemblence is a pure genetic when a woman delivered a black boy and the man doubted that his wife may have slept with another man as none of the family was black. When he explained it to the man he told him that a genetics of great grandfather may effect grand children. From this you know that it is obvious that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) acknowledged that determining the howness was left for us to discover but the hadeeth only provided us with the key, which is the answer to why this happen.
Allah knows the best !

"The Main Principles:
a- Quran and Sunnah must be understood according to Arabic langauge after gathering all narrations together as one narration may explain another.
b- In case a hadeeth or an Ayah is proven authentic then we find it contradicting a fact or a sensible event that is agreed on, we reconsider our understanding of the text because an authentic text cannot contradict a fact or agreed on truth.
Scientific Facts:
a. The egg is always the carrier of the X chromosome (X).
b. The spermcell of a man is the carrier of X and Y chromosomes. [i.e. It carries man and women chromosome].
c. a. Determining the gender of children depends solely on the chromosome of the spermcell of the man.
d. The combination of the "X" chromosome of the woman with the chromosome "Y" of the man creates a boy(xy). However, if the "X" chromosome of the woman combine with the chromosome "X" of the man creates a girl (xx).
e. "Y" is manly while X is womanly.

The other hadeeth
ماء الرجل أبيض وماء المرأة أصفر . فإذا اجتمعا، فعلا مني الرجل مني المرأة ، أذكرا بإذن الله . وإذا علا مني المرأة مني الرجل ، آنثا بإذن الله
قَالَ الْيَهُودِيُّ لَقَدْ صَدَقْتَ وَإِنَّكَ لَنَبِيٌّ ثُمَّ انْصَرَفَ فَذَهَبَ ‏.‏ فَقَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم ‏"‏ لَقَدْ سَأَلَنِي هَذَا عَنِ الَّذِي سَأَلَنِي عَنْهُ وَمَا لِي عِلْمٌ بِشَىْءٍ مِنْهُ حَتَّى أَتَانِيَ اللَّهُ بِهِ ‏"‏ 
http://sunnah.com/muslim/4#38

The True Translation:
The Prophet said "The water of the man is white and the water of the woman is yellow. When they get together, if the semen of the man is dominant over the semen of the woman, the child is male, by the permission of Allah, and if the semen of the woman is dominant over (the link above translates it as "prevails", which means the same as "dominating", see http://thesaurus.com/browse/dominate?s=t) the semen of the woman, the child is a female by the permission of Allah.
The Jew said: What you have said is true; verily you are an Apostle. He then returned and went away. The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: He asked me about such and such things of which I have had no knowledge till Allah gave me that."

Study of the Hadeeth:
a. As we know that women has no role in deciding the gender of the child when fertilization takes place and the text appears to state something that seem to contradict this fact, we need to resort to laid down principles in order to guideline our understanding. This principle state that in such case, we reconsider our understanding to the texts. How? I will explain it in the following point.

b. It is important to pay attention to the used words in the hadeeth. The key words we would like to highlight (I will translate the words of the text litterally to explain it further).
Notes:
a- The word above here means "dominant"/"dominates" as this is one of the known meaning of the word "above" ('Ala) and has been used in Quran to mean "dominant and controlled".

b. The first half of the hadeeth referred to the man and woman liquids as "water" while in the second half he became more specific as referred to it as "semen".

c. We already know that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم mentioned in other hadeeths that the "water" of women is involved in process of fertilization. Then we realized that this water has a description that does not befit ejaculated fuilds since ejaculated fluids are white in color whereas he described the color as yellow and thin.

d. The sound understanding of this text is that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was referring in this hadeeth to the male and female chromosome of the spermcell of the man (X as the female chromosome and Y as the male chromosome). Based on this, the Prophet meant that when the male factor is dominant then it is a boy but when the female factor is domionant then it is a girl. This is what science states and this is the sound understanding that one should have beacuse the text can be understood in various ways and we know that authentic texts must be in agreement with agreed on facts.

e- He didn't know about that except what Allah told him.
what may be the cause of misunderstanding is that it is because when people "understood" it, they assumed that the word "semen " used in this hadeeth refer to man and woman' water mentioned earlier while as a matter of fact, he صلى الله عليه وسلم was referring to the semen of the man only which is always a carrier of male and female chromosomes. This is supported by the fact that the word "semen" is always exclusively for men while women liquid is always called water only.

In short, it seems according to the words and structure of what was stated, that the issue of "dominance" is purely in targeting the dominance of x chromosome (female) and y chromosomes (male), particularly because women are scientifically not classified as having "sperm"
And Allah knows the best !

1 comment:

  1. As I understood the hadeeth, the question put to Prophet(pbuh) was why some children resemble father and some to mother? Which He(pbuh) answered who so ever is dominant during the course. It is not that child will be boy or girl. It is resemblance of girl or boy with any one of the parent.
    As we see in eastern muslim society mostly we see cildren resemble their father, because of the society women are not so aware of the sex. Where as in western society it is observed that cildren mostly resembles mother, because of sex awareness they may be dominant during course.

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