I don’t know if this topic has been discussed here before, but I do know it has been a major issue in christianity throughout centuries. The problem arose when artists and painters -upon request from the church- made paintings of Adam and Eve. and as most of us know they protray them (semi)-naked.
question now was whether or not to paint a belly button on Adam and Eve.
Irrespective of visualisation issues, question is just as valid in islam as in christianity.
That question is never answered in any religious text, be it Torah, Gospel, or Quran; neither it's found in any hadeeth for what I know, hence, quest of such question is a waste of time IMHO.
We can tell for sure that Adam (pbuh) and Eve (ra?) had the genes needed for unbellical cords and thus belly buttons, since their children would have have belly buttons due to having an umbelical cord connected to the placenta in her womb.
Since they carried those genes, it’s likely that they had the same tissue structure in that region as their offspring.
So what you can conclude is that Allah (SWT) made them with genes that cause tissue to take on the form of belly buttons. They would have needed these genes in order to pass them on to their offspring.
Science and Islam : Supporting each other for over 1000 years
but maddy, there is no need for the genotype and phenotype to have been matching in the case of adam and eve. they were created as adults, they could have been created way different from what their genes would have said. very akin to plastic surgery - you could have your navel removed, doesnt mean your kids wont have them.
ps: adam and eve, scientifically speaking, is at best an allegory.
Maddie, I conclude from ur post that u think Adam and Eve did have a belly button, but there are a few errors in ur argument.
Belly button is not due to genes or so, it is actually a (special) kind of scar. And genes don’t code for a scar. after all, if I have a scar because of an operation, it’s not my genes that encoded for it. If I didn’t have a wound there wudn’t be a scar.
However, most likely there are genes that encode for an umbilical cord. So if someone has the genes of an umbilical cord s/he will develop a cord while being a fetus, and the belly button is not the result of his/her genes, but from the fact that the cord is cut there and the scar remains. So the conclusion is that although one can have the genes encoding for an umbilical cord, the belly button only develops if that persons indeed did have such a cord in the fetal stadium. If someone didn’t have a cord, then -irrespective of his/her gene status- that person won’t have a belly button.
Similarly, if Adam and Eve had genes that cause the formation of an umbilical cord it doesn’t mean they necessarily had a belly button (because they never developed an umbilical cord).
So here my guess would be that they didn’t have a belly button.
So which science is supporting islam? urs or mine?
I’m sure -perhaps even for your work/job- there are numerous questions in the field of engineering/medicine/jurispudence etc.etc. that are never answered in any religious text or hadeeth.
Certainly there must have been questions in your university exams that were never (directly) answered in any of the mentioned scriptures. Yet, I’m sure you tried to answer them. So wat’s the big deal now?
[Only argument to be brought against this comparison is that my question is somehow ‘religion related’ while the others aren’t. But as we all agree -I’m sure you too- that Islam is all encompassing. It’s a way of life and in every aspect of life there is Islam. So I’m sure that with respect to your exams and studies (which is also part of Islam) the questions posed in that respect are also religion related.]
u’re right.. questions like “can i offer namaz with nail polish” or “can i cut my nails on friday” or the ever important discussions of how high to wear your shalwar above the ankle do take a backseat to this.
