Heart of the Qur'an: A Commentary to Sura al Yasin

Ayat no. 77

In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
Does not man see that We have created him from the small seed? Then lo! he is an open disputant. (36:77)
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Benefits of remembering ones origin

On many occasions in the Holy Quran, God had reminded man how he was created. He was a puny sperm. It is commanded that man must always remember this. Allah says, “Man must obligatorily ponder over this.” He should think deeply and see from what he is created, from a drop of gushing water which came from between the back of his father and breasts of his mother.
 
So let man consider of what he is created. He is created of water pouring forth, coming from between the back and the ribs. Most surely He is able to return him (to life). (86:5-8)
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Thus man should never forget from what he is created. What is desired from such pondering is to understand the beginning and it also proves the Hereafter. The third benefit is that it makes man give up the animal like habits such is ignorance, ego, pride and selfishness.

Proof of origin through embryo

From the viewpoint of proof of the origin, when an intelligent man thinks over it, he sees that he was a drop of semen, which is detestable. Then the Designer Lord drew a wonderful picture! He formed the heart, liver, brain and all other parts and organs of body.

Then see the arrangement of bones from a fluid and that too in a dark and uneven place. In the words of Quran: In three-fold darkness of the umbilical membrane, the womb and the abdomen.

Is it ever possible that all this should happen automatically and without any higher power? Can there be an effect without a cause, a creation without a creator? Reason and intelligence do not accept this. Such a wonderful creation! The more man ponders over his own creation, more he understands and realizes the Might of God.

The second rising must also occur

Regarding the second rising or the Hereafter, after man pays attention, he sees that first he was an embryo. The semen came out of the passage. It contained or it was made up of liquids spread all over the body. It is only by the Might of God that these liquid particles gather in semen. That is why ejaculation makes the whole body sluggish.

According to a narration, they once asked the Imam (‘a), “Why is it so that after urination, it is enough purification to wash only the organ and parts to be washed during ablution, whereas ejaculation requires washing of the entire body?” Imam replied, “Particles of semen come from all the parts of the body.”

On another occasion too he (man) was diffused and scattered because semen is obtained from food that man eats. A portion of it also is released in the form of semen. What was his food? Rice, wheat and vegetables, which also were scattered in the earth.

These scattered particles got together to form food. They entered the body of the father and then gathered in the form of semen at one place. Thus you have gone through collection and scattering twice during your life. So, after your death also, your body will get scattered and again recollected. Are you astonished at this third occasion?
 
Does not man see that We have created him from the small seed? (36:77)
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In the next verse also He says:
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And he strikes out a likeness for Us and forgets his own creation. (36:77)
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That is, he has forgotten his own creation and therefore, astonishingly asks as to how God will gather or recollect the rotten bones?

Mention of the first and the last condition removes ego

The third benefit of mentioning man’s origin is improvement of man himself. He realizes that he is born of a despicable drop. His beginning was dirty and smelly. So will be his corpse, dirty and stinking. Then what is there to be proud of and to be egoistic?

One of the reforms that such admonition brings is submission to Almighty God and acceptance of every truth. When he thinks that in the beginning I was merely a drop. What did my Lord do to this drop? He gave eyes and ears.
 
There surely came over man a period of time when he was a thing not worth mentioning. (76:1)
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He also provided a tongue, hands and feet. He remembers such great bounties of God and becomes thankful to the One Who granted all this. He should be thankful unless he is blind and deaf and does not understand how great and precious these bounties are.

How much submissive you should be to the Lord Who gave so many precious and invaluable bounties to you? One who denies this truth is, first of all, inimical to his own Lord. In fact he is denying God.
 
Then lo! he is an open disputant.
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That is, he is an open enemy. O the one who is unmindful of your own origin! You say, “I am, but there is no God.” How foolish and silly you are! You enter into altercation and hostility! This is because you do not think. Otherwise you will be thankful, not hostile. You must never forget you original and initial weakness so that you may not become a rebel like this.

Your rebellion is because of ignorance, negligence, and unmindfulness. Tafsir Ruhul Bayan has mentioned an Arabic proverb:

A fellow didn’t know shooting. I gave him daily lessons. When he was able to shoot, he shot, first of all, me. The one who knew nothing of poetry, when I taught poetry, he first of all, sang in my condemnation.

A third example

I saw a puppy and I brought him home to feed. When it grew up, first of all, it has bitten me!
Man’s condition is also like this. He had nothing and God gave him everything. Now he denies God and does not accept the One Who gave him all kinds of bounties and abilities. He believes in his own being but not in God’s existence.

He does not accept his responsibility and forgets his connection with God, that is, the eternal self-existence of God. He believes in self-reliance and independence for himself, which in itself is blasphemy, and finally he does not submit to Truth.