Min nutfatin khalaqahu faqaddarah (surah Abasa: 19)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(80:19) Out of a sperm-drop *11 did He create him and then determined a measure for him, *12

Min nutfah; khalaqahu faqad-darah

*11) That is, let him first consider out of what he was created, where he was nourished and developed, by what way he came into the world, and from what helpless state he began his life in the world. Why dces he forget his such beginning and becomes involved in conceit and haughtiness and why does he feel so puffed up as to resist his Creator and stand before Him as an adversary? (The same theme has been expressed in Ya Sin 77-78 above).
*12) That is, he was yet developing and taking shape in his mother's womb when his destiny was set for him. It was determined what would be his sex, his colour, his size; the extent and volume of his body, the extent to which his limbs would be sound or unsound, his appearance and voice, the degree of Physical strength and mental endowments, what would be the land, the family, the conditions and environments in which he would take birth, develop and be moulded into a specific person, what would be the hereditary influences and effects of the surroundings and the role and impact of his own self in the make-up of his personality, the part he would play in his life of the world, and how long he would be allowed to function on the earth. He cannot swerve even a hair-breadth from his destiny, nor can effect the slightest alteration in it. Then, how strange is his daring and stubbornness! He commits disbelief of the Creator before Whose destiny he is so helpless and powerless!