437. The factor that determines the sex a baby yet to be born.

The Quran in many places mentions the need for a female egg and a male sperm to result in a baby. In verse (75:39) of the Quran while mentioning the factor that determines the sex of the baby, it says the sex is determined not by both the mother and father, but by the male alone.

The fact that a female does not play any part in determining the sex of an unborn baby declared by the scientific world recently has found mention in the Quran some hundreds of centuries back proving the Quran to be the word of God. We are all aware of the fact that an egg from a female and sperm from a male are needed for the formation of a baby. The egg contains 23 chromosomes and the sperm that fertilizes the egg also has 23 chromosomes

Out of these 23 chromosmes from each sex, 22 determine the varous genetic characteristics of the yet to be born baby, such as the color, shape, size, etc., but it is the remaining one pair, that determines the sex of the unborn baby. The chromosomes that determine the sex of the baby are known as ‘X’ chromosomes in females, and ‘Y’ chromosomes in males. Thereby a combination of ‘xy’ on fusion from male and female results in male offspring and a combination of ‘xx’ turns out to be a female one.

The chromosomes of males may sometimes be ‘x’ or ‘y’. 

A pairing of ‘x’ from the male an ‘y’ chromosome would result in the baby being ‘xy’ a male. And a pairing of ‘x’ chromosomes from male with that of an ‘x’ from female would result in the baby being born as a female. Since all the chromosomes of the female are the ‘x’ type, the female does not play any part in the determination of the sex of the unborn baby, because only the presence of ‘y’ chromosomes in the male plays deciding factor in the determination of th sex of the baby. The discovery of this fact now by scientists of today confirms the Quran’s message centuries ago by its usage of the word ‘From him’.