I will command them and they will cut off cattle's ears. I will
command them and they will change Allah's Creation." Anyone who takes
satan as his protector in place of Allah has clearly lost everything."
(Surat an-Nisa', 119)
The above verse contains the expression"yubattikunna,"which derives
from the verb"battaka"meaning "to cut off or break off." The
term"yughayyirunna"in the verse derives from the verb "ghayyara,"
meaning "to change, alter, impair a thing's original form." At the end
of both verbs appears the confirmatory letter "nun." With these
expressions, this verse of Surat an-Nisa' may, in one aspect, be
pointing to the scientific activity of copying or cloning of
organisms. (Allah knows the truth.) This is because cloning
experiments are generally conducted with cells taken from an animal's
ear. To put it another way, a replica of a living thing is produced
along with the extraction of cells from tissue samples "cut from
animals' ears," just as described in the verse.
A report by the German Federal Agricultural Research Center provides
the following information:
The tissue collection phase is short and simple. Once an animal has
been located and restrained,a tissue sample like an ear clippingcan be
collected within seconds. Furthermore, somatic cells can be collected
from all species… For cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, camelids and llamas,
a unified and identical procedure can be usedby obtaining a tissue
sample from the earusing notchers which are also used for setting
earmarks… Clearly, for all species lymphocytes could be used,
butsomatic cells from ear clippings will be much easier to obtain and
are therefore preferable. 60
Snuppy, the cloned dog
Some reports concerning organisms cloned by taking samples from ear
tissue include:- Another BBC report ...
- According to a report by Reuters dated 1 May, 2002, a research
veterinarian at the University of Sao Paolo in Brazil, Jose Visintin,
produced cloned embryos for the first time in the country by using
cells taken from the ear of an adult cow. 61
- According to a BBC report, South Korean scientists cloned a dog
called Snuppy from cells taken from a three year-old Afghan hound.
Researchers at Seoul National University extracted genetic material
from the cells taken from the ear and placed it into an empty egg
cell. An embryo was then obtained by stimulating the cell to divide.
62
- Another BBC report said that a new clone had been produced using ear
cells from an adult cow in research carried out by Dr. Jean-Paul
Renard et al. at the Institute National de la Recherche Agronomique in
France .63
In the cloning process, DNA from a cell of the living thing planned to
be copied is placed under the microscope and placed into an egg cell
from another member of the same species. The DNA of the animal
intended to be copied is used for this. An electric shock is then
applied, which stimulates the egg cell to start dividing. The embryo
continues to divide and is placed into the womb of a member of the
species, and is then left to develop and be born.
- According to information of the official Human Genome Project
website, in February 2002, scientists from Advanced Cell Technologies
(ACT), an American biotechnology company, carried out experiments on
cloning a cow embryo using the skin cell of the donor cow's ear. 64
- A report by Associated Press, dated 24 January, 2000, announced that
Japanese scientists
- had cloned the clone of a bull for the first time. In the
re-cloning, skin tissue samples from
- the first generation cloned bull's ear were taken when it was four
months old. These cells
- were then fused with an unfertilized egg from which the nucleus had
been removed. 65
- The way that changes in the Creation of living things are referred
to in the Qur'an are highly significant. The expression "cutting off
cattle's ears," at a time when no branches of science such as genetics
or embryology existed, shows that the Qur'an has come down from the
Sight of our Lord, Allah, Who is unfettered by time and space. We are
also told at the end of the verse that these people will be
disappointed when they alter what Allah has created. The verse may
therefore be indicating that cloning will give rise to various
problems for human beings. (Allah knows the truth.) Indeed, statements
from the Genetic Science Learning Center of the University of Utah
provide the following information:
When we hear of cloning successes, we learn about only the few
attempts that worked.Whatwe don't see are the many, many cloning
experiments that failed!And even in the successful clones, problems
tend to arise later, during the animal's development to adulthood. 66
Information from the Human Genome Projects website takes this form:
Dolly, the first mammal to be cloned from adult DNA, [died on] Feb.
14, 2003. Prior to her death, Dolly had been suffering from lung
cancer and crippling arthritis…More than 90% of cloning attempts fail
to produce viable offspring… In addition to low success rates,cloned
animals tend to have more compromised immune function and higher rates
of infection, tumor growth, and other disorders.Japanese studies have
shown that cloned micelive in poor health and die early… Appearing
healthy at a young age unfortunately is not a good indicator of long
term survival. Clones have been known to die mysteriously. For
example, Australia's first cloned sheep appeared healthy and energetic
on the day she died, and the results from her autopsy failed to
determine a cause of death. 67
Dolly, the first mammal to be cloned, died on February 14, 2003.
In general terms, the risks arising from cloning experiments are as follows:
1)A high failure rate:The level of success is just 0.1%-3%. That means
a failure rate of 970-999 for every 1000 experiments. 68
2) Problems during development:Cloned animals that do survive
generally have abnormally larger organs compared to the originals.
This may lead to respiratory and circulatory difficulties, unhealthy
kidneys and brains, and an impaired immune system.
3) Abnormal gene expression patterns:Although clones have the same DNA
sequences as the originals, the cell nucleus in the clone does not
have the same program as that in a natural embryo. To put it another
way, the DNA cannot activate the right set of genes essential for the
development of the clone at the right time. For example, cells of all
kinds, nerve, bone, blood or skin for example, all have different
programs but the genetic programs in the cloned embryo do not work as
healthily as those in a natural embryo.
4) Telomeric differences:Chromosomes are shortened as cells divide.
The reason for this is that DNA sequences at both ends of a
chromosome, known as telomeres, are shortened during each DNA
replication. As an animal grows older, the telomeres shorten as part
of the natural aging process . Therefore, the copied life form has
shortened chromosomes from the moment it is born, just as if it were
actually older.
Genetic material taken from living cells is used in cloning
experiments, but fertilization takes place artificially. The
reproduction mechanism created by Allah is thus impaired with these
methods, and unidentified diseases, developmental deficiencies and
early deaths are encountered. Fourteen centuries ago, it was of course
impossible to know that scientists would eventually engage in cloning
and that they would encounter enormous problems despite the millions
of dollars they spend on their projects. Once again, it is
demonstrated in this verse that the Qur'an is a divine scripture.
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