The role of zygotic genome activation in genetic−related reproductive medicine: Technological perspective, religious and bioethical concerns, challenges and benefits

•Religious scholars take a generally favorable position toward human genome editing research, and Gulf countries have launched several scientific efforts on the topic, especially gene editing in assisted reproductive technology (ART).•Recent improvements with regard to human genetic and reproduction techniques are among the recent discoveries that are disrupting the balance of life's spiritual and material components.•The Islamic stance on abortion, in vitro fertilization, genetic engineering, cloning, and stem cell research, especially ZGA.•We identified many likely distinct transcriptional activities characterizing the zygotic genome at ZGA onset.•Epigenetic reprogramming promotes major ZGA in various embryos.