The Angels
In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
[35:11]
And God did create you from dust; then from a sperm-drop; then He made you in pairs. And no female conceives, or lays down (her load), but with His knowledge. Nor is a man long-lived granted length of days, nor is a part cut off from his life, but is in a Decree (ordained). All this is easy to God.


* v.11 : Cf. xviii. 37 and n. 2379; xxii. 5 and n. 2773; and xxx. 20, and n. 3524. Here the argument is that man’s physical origin is lowly: his physical body is but dust; his life- sperm issues from a part of his body which he hides and considers as a place of shame; and the mystery of sex shows that no one individual among mankind is sufficient in himself. Glory and power and knowledge are not in him, but in Allah, from Whom alone he derives any glory, or power, or knowledge that he possesses.
* "Then" in this and the following clause refers, not to stages of time, but to stages in the argument. It is almost equivalent to "further", "also", and "in addition".
* Things that appear most secret and mysterious to man are all known and ordained by Allah. They are all subject to Allah’s Laws and Decrees. The mystery of human birth (see n. 3625 to xxxi. 34), the mystery of sex, the mystery of Life and Death and many other things, seem to man inexplicable. But they are all ordained by Allah, and their reasons are fully known to Him.
* Man’s knowledge may be acquired laboriously and may be a burden to him. Allah’s knowledge is different; it is not task or burden to Him. Cf. xxxiii. 19 and 30.