Science in the Glorious Quran: Embedding in the Uterus (Tagheid)

“اللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تَحْمِلُ كُلُّ أُنثَىٰ وَمَا تَغِيضُ الْأَرْحَامُ” (الرعد: 8).

“God knows what every female bears, and what the uterus embed (Tagheid).” (Qur’an, 13:8)

Once fertilized, the embryo undergoes a series of cell divisions to form the morula and the blastocyst.

The blastocyst adheres to the endometrium of the woman’s uterus and then starts to penetrate the uterine epithelium until it becomes completely embedded in the stromal tissue and becomes covered by the regrown endometrium (tagheid, in Arabic).

Morula (16 cells, left).  Blastocyst (70-100 cells, middle). Adherence of blastocyst to uterus  endometrium (right).

Penetration of the uterine epithelium by the blastocyst after 7 days of fertilisation (left). The blastocyst becomes completely embedded in the stromal tissue (Tagheid) by the 13th day as shown on the right.