THE UNIQUENESS OF THE INDIVIDUAL

As already explained. we do get our chromosomes from our parents. each of them getting theirs from their parents and so on until we trace our chromosomes. and those of all people. back to our earliest ancestry and our very first common grandparents: Adam and Eve. Each new pregnancy therefore represents an extension of a long chain stemming off from Adam and Eve in the form of chromosomes. In the light of these facts it will be of great interest to read what prophet Mohammad said in one of his traditions:

"When the nutfa (earliest phase of pregnancy) is established in the womb. God has brought into it all geneaology between her and Adam. " (Ibn-Gareer).

Going back to the phenomenon of meiosis-the cell division giving haploid (twenty three chromosome) daughter gametes along the course of their maturation. we note that every pair of chromosomes (pair number 1 to pair number 23) align together before the two members of each pair part and each of them goes to one of the two daughter cells. That a daughter will receive the chromosome derived from the father or that derived from the mother is a matter of chance. This chance operates separately tor every chromosomal pair. trom chromosome pair 1 to chromosome pair 23. The dit'ferent possible patterns of the chromosome complement of the daughter cell based on paterna / maternal derivation of chromosomes only will theretore be 223 ie eight million possibilities (2 possibilities per chromosome pair, over 23 pairs).

But two other phenomena further compound the issue. As each chromosome pair align in preparation to parting. its two members do touch each other at certain locations (chiasmata) where they exchange genetic material so that neither of them is the same is it was, and then each goes to the new cell. This phenomenon is called crossing-over, and through it the genetic possibilities of the new cell defy any counting. If on top of that we know that spontaneous ch,lnges (mutations) might occur anew (de novo) in the genetic structure (some of these might be harmful but others  are normal and even benetici,!l). then we can realize that although people have so much in common, yet it is practically impossible that two persons would exactly coincide in the details of their genetic structure. Such   possibility is one in infinit ie zero.

Our chromosomes are th carriers of our genes, and our genes are the blue print ofour life. Genes re made ofa protein called desoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), whose molecu e is endowed with that foundation featurc of Life: self-replication. Gcne arc also composcd of units of amino acids, the particular sequence or w ich subscrves the function of Ietters' in written language. The cipher of or biological language rcsides in our genes, translated into features common to all mankind. as well as those to a special race, a special family and Itimately a particular unique individual who is never and will never be t e cxact copy of anothcr pcrson prceeding or succeeding him.

Amongst thc manifestati ns of uniqucness of an individual is the patern of his finger prints, hence their medico-legal value in personal identification. At some stage wen Man rejcctcd the idca of rcsurrection and denied that God can reclaill him long after death, God reaffirms-in the Quran that He is indecd C' pable of reclaiming Man and rcconstructing him to the finest detail that we knew fourtecn ccnturies after the Quran was revealed-resides in t e morphology of his fingers:

"Does man think that we cannot assemble his bones? Nay! We are very able to put togethc in perject order the tips of his fingers. " (75:4)