أَفَرَأَيتُم ما تُمنونَ

Have you considered the sperm that you emit?

EXEGESIS

Manī means semen, and tumnūna means emit or ejaculate semen. It is from the same root as munā, meaning wish, desire and longing, perhaps because of the element of desire and lust involved in it.^{‎[1]Bahrayn, under m-n-y; Tahqiq, under m-n-y.} The same verb is used in the same context in 53:46 and 75:37.

EXPOSITION

This verse draws the readers’ attention to their creation: look at your beginning; you were nothing but a worthless sperm cell. Who was it that created you as a complete human being? Why do you now turn your backs to your Lord and deny His splendid favour to you? O man! What has deceived you about your generous [or noble] Lord, who created you and proportioned you, and gave you an upright nature (82:6-7). Does not man see that We created him from a drop of [seminal] fluid, and, behold, he is an open contender!? He draws comparisons for Us, and forgets his own creation. He says: ‘Who shall revive the bones when they have decayed?’ Say: ‘He will revive them who produced them the first time’ (36:77-79).

Indeed the embryonic development is among the magnificent signs of God’s might and beauty, the stages of which are discussed in verses 22:5 and 23:12-14. The role of mankind in this creation is only to prepare the grounds for the fertilisation of the ovum. But it is the nature that takes over after that, whereby the zygote replicates every day at a tremendous rate and grows every organ and faculty in a few months. This natural process and system has been fashioned and put in place by God. Otherwise, even if all mankind gather together to create a single fly, they cannot do so (22:73). The creation of a human being from a mere sperm cell is clearly a sign that God can bring the disintegrated dead bodies back to life. Does man suppose that he would be abandoned to futility? Was he not a drop of emitted semen? Then he became a clinging mass; then He created [him] and proportioned [him], and made of him the two sexes, the male and the female. Is not such a one able to revive the dead? (75:36-40).

It is noteworthy that the verse specifically brings up the creation of life and particularly human life. That is because life, especially in its human form, is a reality that is associated with will, movement, and understanding. In other words, power and knowledge are concomitant with and inseparable from life. Thus, one cannot say that it is nature that grows the sperm into a baby, because nature itself is inanimate, so how could it give life to something else when it lacks life itself?! Logically, the source of something cannot be deficient of it. After presenting this beautiful argument, the late Mughniyyah adds: the opponents may claim that life is created by chance and accident, without any will or intention behind it. In that case, we will answer as follows: if we can assume that something as complicated and fascinating as life can occur without any will or intention behind it, then we can also assume that your question and objection just came out of the blue, accidentally, and without any will or intention! Therefore, we need not waste our precious time debating with you.^{‎[2]Kashif, 7/227, with some elaboration.} This is the only appropriate answer to a sophist.

REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE

Some philosophers have interpreted this and the following few verses as follows: one who emits the sperm is the cause of the movement of the sperm, and one who sows the seeds is the cause of the movement or placement of the seeds, but these movements only prepare the grounds for the diffusion of existence and the final specific form (al-ṣūrah al-nawʿiyyah) which is solely done by God. Thus, the real actor is that who gives existence, not the forces that merely move things around as preparation.^{‎[3]Sadra, 7/72-73.}

It should be noted, however, that movement and preparation are also existential matters and therefore cannot emanate from anything other than the source of existence. It would be a contradiction to claim that God is the cause of existence while the natural means and forces are causes of movement. See the discussion of unicity in actions (al-tawḥīd al-afʿālī) under Exposition for a more plausible settlement of this duality.

[1] Bahrayn, under m-n-y; Tahqiq, under m-n-y.
[2] Kashif, 7/227, with some elaboration.
[3] Sadra, 7/72-73.