Nutfah:
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Meaning
1:
Nutfah
[ نطفه]-a
Singular entity, which is a Part of a bigger group of its
kind.
al-Nutaf
[نطف] (Plural) -
Nutaf are the karats (of gold), and a single karat of gold = a
Nutfah.
TheNutfah
is a single
Sperm
from a collection of millions of sperms.
(one teaspoon of semen has millions of sperms in it.)
The Nutfah
can also
refer to One female Egg
(from a group of many other Eggs in the Ovaries).
The
disbelievers over 1000 years ago had alot of different theories on
this issue;
i.e. Some philosophies proposed that ALOT [if not
all] of the male semen is used to coat the female blood she has in
her menses - to form the child):
The
idea of the blood being menstrual blood is interesting as it closely
resembles Aristotelian doctrine. The
clotting of milk into cheese analogy used by Aristotle for the
formation of the embryo occurs also in Indian embryology.
The Susruta-samhita compares the creamy layers (santanika) formed in
milk, to semen and blood, which through chemical changes caused by
heat, produce seven different layers of skin (kala). This concept
occurs again in a Sutra on embryology written in Sanskrit,
"Development, 0 Ananda," Buddha is made to say, "is
comparable to a vessel of milk, like as this ferments and forms a
kind of kefir or cheese."
(A history of
Embryology, J. Needham pp 25-27, Cambridge, 2nd edition 1959).
SeeHERE for more examples.
2nd
meaning:
Nutfah - Dribble/Leak/Drip.
نطفة(nutfah):ماء الرجل والجمع نطف the man's water or semen and the plural of it is nutaf.
النطفه
التي يكون منها الولد the
nutfah is what the fetus forms from it.
ونطف
الماء ينطف اذا قطر قليلا قليلا the
water natufa yantufu, which means the
water was leaking few drops of water.
القربة
تنطف اي تقطر thewaterskin was tantufu, which means
leaking drops of water.
و جاء سيفه ينطِف دماً his sword was yantifu blood, meaning drops of blood were falling from it.
النطافه(al-nattaafah): القطاره(al-qattarah) eye drop dispenser, dropping tube.
Or
when a bucket of water is emptied, and the last drops dribble
out.
So nutfah also has an implication of dripping water (i.e.
dribbling.)
I.e. In this ayah's context, the semen
Dribbles.out.
Two meanings of
Nutfah combined:
Nutfah
= a Single sperm from
millions of other sperms which wereDribbled/dripped out
by the male in his semen (i.e. in Ejaculation.)
And a
single Egg cell from thousands of others
in the Ovaries. (but this
does not dribble out, so that definition does not need to be added.)
"Science
has confirmed in recent times that only one of the 300 million sperms
is required for fertilisation of the ovum; this means that only a
1/300 millionth part or 0.000000003 quantity of sperms that are
emitted is required for fertilisation."
i.e.
see: http://www.ehow.com/way_5506756_much-sperm-needed-pregnant.html
Definitions
(of the word Nutfah) According to:
1. Lisan Al-Arab dictionary [1] , Book 5, Pages 725.
2. Al-Muheet dictionary [2], Page 791.
3. Al-Muajam Al-Waseet dictionary [3], Page 931.
4. Al-Mawrid dictionary Arabic-English section [4], Page 1177.
5. Al-Mawrid dictionary English-Arabic section [4], Page .
6. Arabic-English dictionary the Hans Wehr dictionary [6], Page .
Amshaj:
-
to Mingle. I.e. Male and women
nutfah's mingle. -
The Male
sperm, and the Female Egg merge together = Fertilization of the Egg
cell.
mashaja - (synonymous in
meaning to khalaTa - خلط= mingled)
NOTE:
""Nutfatin Amshajin" could also mean Mingled liquids
which besides Sperm fluid contain other fluids like Prostatic
secretions, etc. which facilitate the movement of the sperm to help
in fertilization."
إِنَّا
خَلَقْنَا الْإِنسَانَ مِن نُّطْفَةٍأَمْشَاجٍ
نَّبْتَلِيهِ فَجَعَلْنَاهُ سَمِيعًا
بَصِيرًا
Surely
We have created Man from a
Sperm of dribbled (semen) and
an Egg Mingled...
-
Surah Dahr/Insaan 76:2
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