The Pilgrimage
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[22:5]
O MEN! If you are in doubt as to the [truth of] resurrection, [remember that,] verily, We have created [every one of] you out of dust, then out of a drop of sperm, then out of a germ-cell, then out of an embryonic lump complete [in itself] and yet incomplete, so that We might make [your origin] clear unto you.
And whatever We will [to be born] We cause to rest in the [mothers’] wombs for a term set [by Us], and then We bring you forth as infants and [allow you to live] so that [some of] you might attain to maturity: for among you are such as are caused to die [in childhood], just as many a one of you is reduced in old age to a most abject state, ceasing to know anything of what he once knew so well.
And [if, O man, thou art still in doubt as to resurrection, consider this:] thou canst see the earth dry and lifeless – and [suddenly,] when We send down waters upon it, it stirs and swells and puts forth every kind of lovely plant!

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* v.5 : This rendering conforms with the interpretation of the phrase mukhallaqah wa-ghayr mukhallaqah by Ibn ‘Abbās and Qatādah (the latter quoted by Tabarī and the former by Baghawī), alluding to the various stages of embryonic development. In addition, Tabarī explains the expression ghayr mukhallaqah as denoting the stage at which the embryonic lump (mudghah) has as yet no individual life – or, in his words, “when no soul has as yet been breathed into it” (lā yunfakh fīhā ar-rūh). – As regards the expression “created out of dust,” it is meant to indicate man’s lowly biological origin and his affinity with other “earthy” substances; see in this connection the second half of note 47 on 3:59, and note 4 on 23:12.
* See note 79 on 16:70.