خَلَقَ الإِنسانَ مِن عَلَقٍ
He created man from a clinging form.
EXEGESIS
The word insān has ʾ-n-s as its trilateral root letters. The word insān is used in the Quran with the following meanings: as a collective noun to mean humankind (4:28), mankind – including men and women, and it is used for both singular and plural when used in a collective sense since it does have a plural which is unās. This is commonly contracted to nās.
The perfect and imperfect tense verbs for the trilateral root ʾ-n-s, which are anisa, yaʾnasu respectively, mean: to be sociable, friendly, genial, companionable, and inclined to conversation, where the consequence is a state where the heart is at ease and feels tranquil. It is therefore the opposite of waḥshah, meaning to be forlorn, lonely, desolate, and estranged. Additional meanings are: to sense, to feel, and to recognise. Hence, mankind (ins) is contrasted with the jinn, since mankind is seen and perceived (yuʾnasūn) while the jinn are not, as they are hidden or concealed from human sight (mujtannūn). Therefore, it is suggested that the primary significance of the trilateral root letters that form the word insān is the meaning of ‘nearness coupled with manifestation with the aim of enquiry, or with the purpose of endeavouring to obtain a clear knowledge of a thing’. This, therefore, militates against the notions of fright, alienation, and distance, and, as a result, it is distinct from the animals and the jinn since the former are wild and unsocial, while the latter are hidden and not manifest. The same is true for the meanings of perception, sight, and sensation with respect to the word insān, for what is perceived, sighted, and sensed has drawn near and become manifest materially or immaterially.
The word ʿalaq, whose trilateral root letters are ʿ-l-q, means clinging, to adhere, to be suspended, to hang, to be attached, creeper, and blood clot. The noun ʿalaq occurs only once in the Quran, which is in this verse. Another noun from the same root letters is ʿalaqah, and it is a noun in the singular which occurs five times in the Quran in 22:5, 23:14 (twice), 40:67, and 75:38. The word ʿalaq is the verbal noun for the perfect and imperfect tense verbs ʿaliqa, yaʿlaqu, which mean: to hang, to be suspended, to dangle, to stick, to cleave, to cling, to catch on, to adhere to, to get caught or stuck on to something, and to attach. Hence the word ʿalaq is defined as: something that is hung or suspended. It is also applied as a reference to leeches which are worms, or certain things resembling worms that creep and cling tenaciously. One of these worms is called ʿalaqah, and its plural is ʿalaq. The word ʿalaq is also applied to clay that clings to the hand, and is also applied to blood in general that is intensely red and thick, coagulated blood or blood clot before it becomes dry because it has the quality of clinging together. ʿAlaqah would, therefore, mean a little portion of such blood. The word ʿalaq is also used to refer to seminal fluid, after its appearance, when it becomes thick clotted blood, subsequent to which it passes on to become flesh or what is called muḍghah. A perusal in the dictionaries of the various verbs and nouns formed of these trilateral root letters indicates that the basic, essential meaning obtained is that of the dependence and attachment of something to another, whether by means of hanging and suspension, or sticking, cleaving, clinging, and getting stuck or caught on something such that the former cannot exist or be by itself but that it needs the latter.
EXPOSITION
One interpretation of the terminal part of the previous verse – your Lord who created – is understood to be a reference to God’s creation of the entirety of creation, where the grammatical object of the verb created (khalaqa) is presumed elided and therefore implied, while this verse speaks about a part of that creation which is the creation of the human being, and as Ṭūsī and others write, this verse is in the form of a specification since the first verse intends creation in a general sense which includes humans and non-humans while this verse subsequently specifies the creation of the human being. Ṭabarsī writes that verses 1 and 2 of this surah are similar to 2:3 and 2:4 with respect to the idea of ‘general-specific’ interpretation. In 2:3 God mentions the unseen, while in 2:4 He mentions the hereafter, since the ‘unseen’ refers to all that is hidden while the ‘hereafter’ is a specific instance or example of the ‘unseen’.
Alternatively, this verse could be a substitute for the terminal part of the previous verse, substituting a part (that is, creation of the human being) for the whole of creation, and occurring as an elaboration or a clarification for a previously abridged citation. Hence, in this case, verses 1 and 2 taken together are to be understood as saying: Recite the name of your Lord who created the creation, meaning created man from a clinging form, where verse 2 may also serve as a literal emphasis.
Man is described in this verse as having had been created from ʿalaq. The term ʿalaq in this verse is identified as a collective noun which is a word having a collective meaning in its singular form or a word having the sense of a species of a thing. Its plural is aʿlāq, while ʿalaqah is a portion of it, and the plural of the latter is ʿalaqāt. However, a number of scholars have written that the word ʿalaq is the plural of ʿalaqah. Be that as it may, it does not affect the meaning of the verse. Similarly, the word al-insān although in the singular, occurs in a collective sense meaning mankind as a whole, that is, in the sense of a species of a thing. Ṭabarsī, Zamakhsharī, and Rāzī all give the example of 103:2 where the word al-insān occurs as having the same significance.
A study of the Quran shows that it has a number of verses that explicate the prenatal development of the human being. These are, for example: 15:28, 71:17, 40:67, 75:37-38, 86:5-7, 80:18-19, 35:11, 22:5, and 23:12-14. These verses delineate the genesis of a human being as taking place in various phases and stages which 71:14 states explicitly. These phases or stages describe the human being as originating from arḍ/turāb (earth), ṣalṣāl (mud), ṭīn (clay), and manī (semen) and māʾ dāfiq (spermatic fluid), which becomes nuṭfah (a zygote) which is formed by the union of a mixture of the sperm and the ovum and which develops into the blastocyte which is implanted in the uterus (a place of rest). Depending on the context, the term nuṭfah also tends to be translated as a drop of fluid. This, in turn, turns into ʿalaqah (subject to a discussion below), which in turn becomes muḍghah (chewed lump of flesh), which turns into ʿiẓām (bones), and then laḥmah (flesh), and finally a child is born. When verse 2 is compared with the prenatal phases outlined above, it suggests that it relates to the stage of ʿalaqah. This is variously defined as something that is hanging, a blood clot, and a leech. Each of these meanings or identifications for the term is valid for it. When the zygote is formed by the union of a mixture of the sperm and the ovum it travels down the fallopian tube towards the uterus and as it travels there it divides repeatedly to form a hollow ball of cells called the blastocyte. The latter attaches to the lining of the uterus by the sixth day and continues to implant itself in the uterus wall with cells which will eventually form the placenta. This process takes about a week as the embryo and placenta develop from the blastocyte, and at this stage the embryo is attached to the primitive placenta and hangs to the uterine wall via the connecting stalk that would eventually become the umbilical cord. So that is how it appears by day 14-15: a hanging thing. ʿAlaqah can also mean a blood clot or something similar to a blood clot. By about twenty-one days the embryo has developed a primitive heart and cardiovascular system and the external appearance of the embryo and its sacs resemble a blood clot. This is because although its blood is fluid it does not yet circulate until the end of the third week. It is also suggested that an implanted blastocyte would also resemble a blood clot. ʿAlaqah could also be a reference to the leech-like structure into which the embryo develops. This is said to be an appropriate description of the embryo from day 7-24. This is when it clings to the endometrium of the uterus in the same way that a leech clings to the skin, and just as the leech derives blood from the host so does the human embryo derive blood from the endometrium. It has been observed that there is an especially remarkable resemblance between a 23-24 day old embryo and a leech, since during the third week the embryo loses its round shape and begins to elongate until it takes the form of a leech.
This insignificant mass of clinging form is considered to be the beginning of a human being and thus the verse emphasises it to drive home the point of God’s ability to create and bring into existence a complicated creature such as a human being from an insignificant, trivial mass of clinging form.
It is suggested that the human being has been singled out and specified here because God wanted to indicate the greatness, honour, and prestige that the human being has been endowed with over all creation as stated in 17:70, however, at the same time verse 2 points out that despite the human being’s elite position in respect of other creatures he is created from a blood clot. Further, this verse indicates the blessings bestowed upon the human being by God in that his creation was from an origin that was of the most contemptible and base kind, subsequent to which he reached the stage of perfection where he became a sound person capable of speech and capable of distinguishing. Similar to this is the blessing of God where He led the human being from being one not knowing anything to one knowing, and to the stage of prophethood and messengership. The aim is also to prove the existence of a powerful God, in addition to which this verse intends to point out that if the origin of the human being is from congealed blood then it means that from there till the human being becomes a fully developed creature there is a process and a number of phases (as is amply evidenced in 71:17, 15:28, 40:67, 75:37-38, 86:5-7, 80:18-19, 35:11, 22:5, 23:12-14), which suggests both creation and management since the sequence of phases and the process require management, while each phase and stage is itself an act of creation. Thus this verse also contains evidence of unity in lordship (al-tawḥīd al-rubūbī) which means that it is God who manages, administers, and nourishes creation as He created it in the first instance, and there is no division of responsibilities such that creation and management of creation are done by different beings.
Irrespective of what exactly the word ʿalaq may mean in this verse, whether it means something hanging, a blood clot, or a leech, the basic idea of clinging or sticking is essential to it. The same basic idea comes across from the additional meanings suggested for it in the Review of Commentaries section. Clinging indicates a state of total dependence which is in contrast to the attitude described in verse 7.
REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE
Additional meanings have been suggested for the word ʿalaq. Thus it is suggested that the word ʿalaq refers to the sticky clay from which God created Adam (a), although restricting the creation from clay to Adam (a) is unnecessary since many Quranic verses explicitly describe mankind as a whole as having been created from clay. This term has also been suggested to allude to the human need for social relations and interaction since the Arabic term for ‘connectedness’ is ʿalāqah, a word that shares the same root letters with the word ʿalaq. Finally, it has also been suggested to refer to the spermatozoa, those millions of microscopic tadpole-like reproductive cells that swim in the male seminal fluid called semen, which swim towards the female ovum for fertilisation.
But despite these several identifications for the term ʿalaq, the first identification mentioned in Exposition is more suitable, although all these several explanations for the term may be relevant and applicable.
[1] Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’anic Usage, pp. 57-58.
[2] Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’anic Usage, pp. 57-58.
[3] Tahqiq, 1/158.
[4] Tahqiq, 1/161.
[5] Hans Wehr, p. 38.
[6] Lane, p. 113.
[7] Hans Wehr, p. 38; Lane, p. 113.
[8] Lane, p. 114.
[9] Tahqiq, 1/160.
[10] Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’anic Usage, p. 634.
[11] Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’anic Usage, pp. 634-635.
[12] Lane, p. 2132.
[13] Tahqiq, 8/202.
[14] Lane, p. 2134.
[15] Lane, p. 2134.
[16] Lane, p. 2134; Tahqiq, 8/202.
[17] Hans Wehr, pp. 741-743; Tahqiq, 8/202.
[18] Kashif, 7/585.
[19] Tibyan, 10/379; Tabrisi, 10/779; Tabrisi.J, 4/513; Daqaiq, 14/346; Iʿrāb al-Qurʾān al-Karīm, 3/457.
[20] Tabrisi, 10/779.
[21] Iʿrāb al-Qurʾān al-Karīm, 3/457; Iʿrāb al-Qurʾān wa Bayānuh, 10/529.
[22] Iʿrāb al-Qurʾān al-Karīm, 3/457; Karbāsī, Iʿrāb al-Qurʾān, 8/666.
[23] Ibn Ashur, 30, p. 386.
[24] Iʿrāb al-Qurʾān wa Bayānuh, 10/529.
[25] Tibyan, 10/379; Tabari, 30/161; Tabrisi.J, 4/513; Daqaiq, 14/346.
[26] A New Arabic Grammar of the Written Language, p. 29.
[27] Lane, 2/2134.
[28] Lane, 2/2134.
[29] Hans Wehr, p. 742. Other examples of collective nouns are shajar (trees), ḥajar (rocks), and baqar (cows). These, as can be seen, have a collective meaning in their singular forms and their plural is ashjār, aḥjār, and abqār, respectively. One tree would be shajarah, while one rock would be ḥajarah, and one cow would be baqarah. Their plural would be shajarāt, ḥajarāt, and baqarāt, respectively.
[30] Tabrisi, 10/779; Zamakhshari, 4/775-776; Razi, 32/217; Mubin, 1/864.
[31] Tibyan, 10/379; Tabari, 30/161; Tabrisi.J, 4/513; Daqaiq, 14/346; Irshād al-Adhhān, 1/603; Mizan, 20/323-324; Razi, 32/217; Thalabi, 10/242.
[32] Tabrisi.J, 4/513; Zamakhshari, 4/775-776; Razi, 32/217.
[33] A Scientist’s Interpretation of References to Embryology in the Qur’an, p. 15.
[34] Embryology in the Qur’an: The Alaqah Stage, pp. 2-3; Deuraseh, Nurdeng and Yaakub, Noor Inayah, ‘The development of human embryo in the Quran, Surah al- Mu’minun (23): 12-14’, in European Journal of Scientific Research, 48, no. 1 (2010), 155-159.
[35] Embryology in the Qur’an: The Alaqah Stage, p. 10.
[36] Embryology in the Qur’an: The Alaqah Stage, p. 4.
[37] Deuraseh, Nurdeng and Yaakub, Noor Inayah, ‘The development of human embryo in the Quran, Surah al- Mu’minun (23): 12-14’, in European Journal of Scientific Research, 48, no. 1 (2010), 155-159.
[38] A Scientist’s Interpretation of References to Embryology in the Qur’an, p. 16.
[39] Embryology in the Qur’an: The Alaqah Stage, p. 8.
[40] Amthal, 20/320.
[41] Tibyan, 10/379; Tabrisi.J, 4/513; Daqaiq, 14/346; Zamakhshari, 4/775; Razi, 32/217; Anwār al-Tanzīl wa Asrār al-Taʾwīl, 5/325.
[42] Tabrisi, 10/781.
[43] Mizan, 20/324.
[44] Tabrisi, 10/781; Gunabadi, 4/266.
[45] Amthal, 20/320; al-Balāgh fī Tafsīr al-Qurʾān bil-Qurʾān, 1/597; Furqan, 30/363.
[46] Amthal, 20/321.