خُلِقَ مِن ماءٍ دافِقٍ

He was created from an effusing fluid.

EXEGESIS

Effusing fluid refers to seminal fluid. Dāfiq^{‎[1]Although the word dāfiq is a verbal pronoun, it is used as an object of the verb here (i.e. madfūq); see Tibyan, 10/324.} comes from d-f-q, meaning liquid that is ejected or poured out with force.^{‎[2]Tabrisi, 1/715.} Exegetes have had lengthy grammatical discussions about why the verbal noun dāfiq (meaning that which moves itself forward with force) has been used, instead of the seemingly more correct adjective madfūq (meaning that which has been ejected), since the fluid is being ejected out of the man, not doing the movement itself.^{‎[3]See for example Alusi, 15/308.} However, it could be that the verbal noun is being used here because, as we know today, the spermatozoa are living cells that move themselves up through the female reproductive system to reach the ovum, and hence it is absolutely correct to use the term dāfiq.

EXPOSITION

This verse answers the question raised in the previous, which asked man to consider from what he was created. The doubters are called here to look carefully at the effusing fluid from which humans were created. Pausing in introspection, we cannot help but be amazed that the complex, thinking, and emotional being that we are right now was once nothing more than a droplet, completely helpless and debased. Have We not created you from a base fluid? (77:20).

INSIGHTS FROM HADITH

1. From Imam al-ʿAskarī (a): ‘ʿAbd-Allāh ibn Ṣūriyā asked the Messenger of God: “Tell me, O Muhammad, is a child from the man or the woman?” The Prophet (s) said: “As for the bones and the nerves and the veins, they are from the man; as for the meat and the blood and the hair, they are from the woman.” He said: “You have spoken the truth, O Muhammad.” Then he said: “Why does the child sometimes resemble the paternal uncles and does not resemble the maternal uncles, or sometimes resembles the maternal uncles but does not resemble the paternal uncles?” The Messenger of God (s) said: “[When] the water of any of the couple overcomes the water of the other, that is whom it resembles.” He said: “You have spoken the truth, O Muhammad.”’^{‎[4]Ihtijaj, 1/48.}

Notes: 1. This hadith is very lengthy, and only a portion of it has been related here. 2. The narrations that speak of how resemblances to parents are determined – by one partner’s fluid overcoming that of the other partner’s – are somehow referring to how the dominant and recessive genes of parents combine. Yet this may be an oversimplification of the complex process through which genetic material combines and determines physical traits. However, a valid question that could arise in the mind of the reader is why does the verse only speak about a person being created from semen (and not the combination of the sperm cell and ovum)? The brief answer would be that semen plays a central role in the process of the creation of the foetus and thus it can be said that a person is created from semen. It is similar to saying ‘this house is built from stone’, even though other materials such as wood, glass, and so on may have been used in great quantities.

[1] Although the word dāfiq is a verbal pronoun, it is used as an object of the verb here (i.e. madfūq); see Tibyan, 10/324.
[2] Tabrisi, 1/715.
[3] See for example Alusi, 15/308.
[4] Ihtijaj, 1/48.