Surah Ar-Room (30) — Ayah 54

54-1 From here, Allah Almighty is describing another perfection of His power, and that is the creation of man in different stages. By "weakness (state of feebleness)" is meant the drop of fluid, i.e., the sperm, or the stage of childhood. 54-2 That is, youth, in which the intellectual and physical faculties reach completion. 54-3 By weakness is meant middle age in which the intellectual and physical faculties begin to decline, and by old age is meant that stage of senility in which weakness increases. Resolve diminishes, the movement and grip of hands and feet weaken, hair turns white, and all apparent and hidden attributes change. The Quran has described these four major stages of man. Some scholars have counted other minor stages as well and have described them in some detail, which is an explanation of the Quran's brevity and an exposition of its miraculous eloquence. For example, Imam Ibn Kathir states that man passes through these conditions and stages one after another. His origin is clay, meaning that his father Adam’s creation was from clay, or that whatever man eats, from which sperm is produced, which, after entering the mother's womb, becomes the cause of his existence and creation, all of it is a product of clay. Then it is a sperm-drop, from sperm-drop to a clot, then a lump of flesh, then bones which are clothed with flesh. Then the soul is breathed into it. Then he emerges from his mother's womb in such a state that he is weak, emaciated, and extremely soft and delicate. Then gradually he grows, reaches childhood, puberty, and youth, and then gradually the process of regression begins. Middle age, old age, and then extreme old age until death takes him into its embrace. 54-3 Among these things are also weakness and strength, through which man passes, as has just been explained in detail.