هُوَ ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَكُم مِّن تُرَابٍ ثُمَّ مِن نُّطْفَةٍ ثُمَّ مِنْ عَلَقَةٍ ثُمَّ يُخْرِجُكُمْ طِفْلًا ثُمَّ لِتَبْلُغُوٓا۟ أَشُدَّكُمْ ثُمَّ لِتَكُونُوا۟ شُيُوخًا وَمِنكُم مَّن يُتَوَفَّىٰ مِن قَبْلُ
"It is He who created you from earth, then from a drop, then from an ʿalaqa. Then He brings you forth as an infant; then you reach your full strength, then you become old — and some of you are taken before that."
The verse counts six stages and joins them all with thumma — the Arabic particle that states an interval. That is, there is time between the stages.
| Stage | Word |
|---|---|
| 1 | Turāb — earth |
| 2 | Nuṭfa — a drop |
| 3 | ʿAlaqa |
| 4 | Ṭifl — an infant |
| 5 | Ashuddakum — the age of full strength |
| 6 | Shuyūkh — old age |
And the sequence is cut with a note: wa minkum man yutawaffā min qabl — "some of you are taken before that."
This note is worth recording, and I give it as my own reading: the verse sets up an orderly sequence of stages and adds the exception itself. That is, the sequence is not offered as a rule; that not everyone goes to the end of it is said in the same sentence.
A limit, per the method (Method): the dictionary meanings of the words nuṭfa and ʿalaqa (a drop; a thing that hangs and clings, something leech-like) are given by the lexicographers. I do not enter into equating these one-to-one with the terms of modern embryology; the work of the verse is to give a description of stages, and the proof lies in these stages not being in human hands — the same line as that treated at al-Wāqiʿa 56/58-59.
The same stages of life had occurred in the context of parents at al-Aḥqāf 46/15 (ḥattā idhā balagha ashuddahū wa balagha arbaʿīna sana). The two sūras use the same word (ashudd).