The Prostration
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[32:7]
who makes most excellent everything that He creates.
Thus, He begins the creation of man out of clay;

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* v.7 : I.e., He fashions every detail of His creation in accordance with the functions intended for it, irrespective of whether those functions can be understood by us or are beyond the reach of our perception. In the text, the passage comprising verses 7-9 is in the past tense; but since it relates to a continuous act of creation, it signifies the present and the future as well as the past, and may, therefore, be suitably rendered in the present tense.
* Cf. note 4 on 23:12. In view of the next verse, this “beginning” of man’s creation seems to allude to the basic composition of the human body as such, as well as to each individual’s pre-natal existence in the separate bodies of his parents.