Surah Ar-Room (30) — Ayah 20

(Ayah 20) ➊ {وَ مِنْ اٰيٰتِهٖۤ …:} From here for six verses, there is mention of such signs, that is, strange and wondrous things, which, firstly, according to the previous context, are evidence that Allah is capable of resurrecting people after death, taking their account, and giving them reward and punishment. Secondly, they are evidence that this universe was neither self-created, nor is it running by itself, nor was it made by more than one being; rather, Allah alone created it, He alone is running it, and in this workshop of existence, He has no partner. All six of these verses begin with the words {’’ وَ مِنْ اٰيٰتِهٖۤ ‘‘}. This means that these are some of Allah’s signs and wonders of His power; all the signs cannot be counted, but for understanding and believing, these signs are sufficient.

➋ The tanween on { اَنْ خَلَقَكُمْ مِّنْ تُرَابٍ …: ’’ تُرَابٍ ‘‘} is for reduction and belittlement, so it has been translated as “insignificant clay.” Among His signs, the first mentioned is the creation of man, because man knows himself more than anything else, and reflecting on his own existence is easier than reflecting on anything else. {’’ اَنْ خَلَقَكُمْ مِّنْ تُرَابٍ ‘‘} can have two meanings: one is that creating you from insignificant clay means that He created your father Adam from insignificant clay. The word {’’ ثُمَّ ‘‘} (“then”) means that He did not leave him alone after creating him, but initiated such a magnificent process of procreation through the union of sperm and egg that you, in the form of mankind, are spreading all over the earth, and this process has been ongoing for hundreds of thousands of years. The word {’’ اِذَاۤ ‘‘} (“suddenly”) usually comes after “fa,” but here it comes after {’’ ثُمَّ ‘‘}, which contains the meaning of delay. This also hints at the delay and the stages that occur during the creation of Adam from clay and the subsequent coming into existence of humans, such as sperm, clot, and lump of flesh, etc.

The second meaning is that “He created you from insignificant clay” means that He created all of you from insignificant clay, that is, it is a sign of Allah’s power that He created all humans from clay, which is dead, in which there is no sign of life. The temperament of “clay” is cold and dry, it is devoid of heat and also of moisture, from which life comes into being. Your existence and the existence of all those things on which your life depends are established from this lifeless clay. Because the creation of man is from sperm, which is obviously formed from food, and food is made from plants or from the meat, milk, and ghee of animals, and the life of those animals also depends on plants or such things that grow from the earth. In short, your existence is from that dead clay, after passing through the stages of creation, you suddenly spread on the earth in the form of mankind. “Suddenly” is mentioned because all the stages of creation are hidden from people’s eyes; after all the stages are completed, the appearance of a child from the mother’s womb or a chick from the egg happens suddenly. For these stages, see Surah Hajj (5) and Surah Mu’minun (12, 13).

➌ { تَنْتَشِرُوْنَ :} That is, after creating you from lifeless clay, He granted you such a full life that you spread throughout the earth. You built palaces, forts, settlements, and cities; through travel by land, sea, and air, you explored every corner of the earth. Whether you look in cities or deserts, in forests or on mountain peaks, or in the vastness of the seas, everywhere the existence of man will be seen. All this is the marvel of the power of the One without partner.

20-1. اِذَا is for suddenness; its purpose is to point towards those stages through which a child becomes a complete human being, the details of which are mentioned in other places in the Quran. تَنْتَشِرُوْنَ refers to people moving about for earning a livelihood and fulfilling other human needs and necessities.

20. And among His signs is that He created you from dust [17]; then, behold, you are human beings spreading throughout the earth.

[17]
The Beautiful Combination of Difference and Uniformity in the Creation of Man: The Self-Operating Machinery of Man: What is Man?

A collection of a few elements that are found everywhere on the surface of the earth. For example, sodium, calcium, carbon, and a few other salts, and man has even discovered in what quantities these are present in the human body. But to take these very elements in the same quantities and create a living human being is beyond his capacity and understanding. What is the soul, where does it come from, and when does it come? Understanding this is also among the impossibilities. Then, within this clay figure, Allah Almighty creates emotions, feelings, intellect, consciousness, will, choice, and countless powers that are operating on their own, and in this, man’s will has not the slightest involvement. If there is a danger of something dangerous falling in front of the eyes, before a person can even think, his eyelids close to protect his eyes. When food is digested and the stomach becomes empty, hunger arises on its own, and man is compelled to eat something. When the body needs water, man is compelled to drink water. Similarly, to expel the waste of digested food, nature compels him to get up and do this task first. Then, from this clay figure of Adam, his mate was created, and from both of them, billions of human beings were produced, each of whom has a different appearance, voice, accent, even the sound of coughing is different from the other. It is not the case that Allah has set up a machine from which humans of the same model are coming out. The clear meaning of this is that in the creation of every human being, there is the individual attention of Allah Almighty. Can this great feat of creation be called the result of coincidences, as materialists think? And if it is the result of coincidences, then why does it not happen that one person has one long leg and one short leg, or one eye’s pupil is black and the other’s is blue? Does not this beautiful combination of difference and uniformity indicate that the Being who created man is both All-Powerful and All-Wise, and that He can only be One?