Among the four principles of hereditary phenomena discovered and formulated by the founder of modern genetics, the Austrian monk and botanist Gregor Mendel (1822-1884 CE), is the "law of dominance," which states that in every individual there is a pair of determining factors for each unit character, one from
each parent; if these factors are different (heterozygous), one character (the "dominant") appears in the organism, the other (the "recessive") being latent. The "dominant character" designates that one of any pair of two-gene hereditary factors which, when both are present in the germ plasm, dominates over the other and appears in the organism. It is opposed to the "recessive character" which designates that one of any pair of hereditary factors which, when both are present in the germ plasm, remains latent and may or may not reappear down the line.
The Prophet Muhammad - upon him and his House blessings and peace - differentiated between dominant and recessive character 1,400 years ago, when he revealed that a characteristic or "strain" (`irq, lit. "blood- vessel") that lay deeply buried for several generations - "recessive" - may appear again down the line. He also noted the similarity of heredity laws in man with those in animals. Both disclosures are in complete agreement with our present knowledge of the laws of heredity.
In al-Bukhari, Muslim, the four Sunan, and the Musnad, Abu Hurayra narrated:
A desert bedouin came to the Messenger of Allah and said: "My wife has given birth to a black child and I have disowned him!" The Messenger of Allah asked him: "Do you own camels?" The man said yes. "What color are they?" "Red." "Any gray ones among them?" "Indeed, there are gray ones among them!" "And how do you think this [color] came to them?" "Messenger of Allah, some strain must have drawn it out! (`irqun naza`ahu)." "Maybe the same happened here, some strain must have drawn him out." He did not allow him to disown him.
A rare mursal narration from the Tabi`i Ibn Burayda in Asl 148 of al-Hakeem al-Tirmidhi's Nawadir al-Usul specifies ninety-nine potential hereditary strains per parent:
The wife of a man from the Ansar bore him a black child. He took her by the hand and went to see the Messenger of Allah. She said: "I swear by the One that sent you with the truth! He married me a virgin and I never seated anyone in his place since!" The Prophet said: "You speak the truth. You have
ninety-nine strains and so does he. On the time of conception all those strains shudder and there is none but it asks Allah Most High to determine resemblance through it."
Thus, a latent character may find its way to the newborn centuries later without resemblance to either of the immediate parents. Hence the Prophet prayed for strength and excellence in his sensory organs and those of his Companions and very frequently asked that they pass on to and "dominate" in his offspring and theirs, as narrated by al-Tirmidhi and others from Ibn `Umar:
The Prophet seldom rose from a sitting before he first supplicated in these words for his Companions (RA). "O Allah, grant us to enjoy use of our hearings, our sights, and our strengths as long as You give us life, and make that our inheritor [i.e. pass it on to our posterity] ... "
Al-Tirmidhi and others also narrate from `A'isha, the wife of the Prophet :
The Messenger of Allah used to say, "Allah, my Lord! Grant me good health in my body and grant me good health in my sight and make that the inheritor after me. There is no god except Allah, the Gentle, the Generous! Glory to Allah the Lord of the Magnificent Throne! Praise and thanks to Allah Lord of the worlds!"
The Prophet's use of the word "inheritor" can now be understood in the light of Mendel's discoveries on the dominant genes exerting a controlling influence in heredity and causing the recessive genes not to appear in the offspring.
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